Tag: Emergency

President Marcos urges swift relief as Typhoon Carina and monsoon batter the Philippines

Manila, July 24, 2024 – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has urged government agencies to prioritize assistance to isolated areas affected by Typhoon Carina (international name: Gaemi) and the intensified southwest monsoon, known locally as “habagat,” which continue to bring heavy rains to parts of the country. In a briefing held at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, Marcos commended the government’s response efforts thus far. He instructed the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) […]

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Lufthansa plane makes emergency landing in Greece after smoke in cabin

ATHENS, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – A Lufthansa flight with 190 passengers on board made an emergency landing Monday in Rhodes after reporting smoke in the cabin, according to the operator of Greek regional airports, Fraport. The pilot of the aircraft travelling from Frankfurt to Dubai requested permission to land on the southern Aegean island due to “the presence of smoke inside the plane”, said Fraport. The passengers were safely evacuated from the aircraft, which […]

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Deadly California storm brings unrelenting rain, flooding

LOS ANGELES, Feb 6, 2024 (AFP) – A powerful storm lashing California on Monday has left at least three people dead and caused devastating mudslides and flooding, after dumping months’ worth of rain in a single day. More than ten inches (25 centimeters) of rain was recorded in one part of Los Angeles County in 24 hours of downpour, with no letup forecast in the coming days. Mountainsides collapsed in the tony Hollywood Hills area, […]

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Ecuador president says ‘in state of war’ against cartels

By Santiago PIEDRA SILVA QUITO, Jan 10, 2024 (AFP) – Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa said Wednesday the country was in “a state of war” against drug cartels who have carried out a wave of kidnappings and deadly attacks in response to government crackdown. Hundreds of soldiers patrolled near-deserted streets in Ecuador’s capital, where residents were gripped by fear over a surge of violence that has prompted alarm abroad. The small South American country has been […]

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Violence erupts in Dublin after school knife attack

By Peter MURPHY DUBLIN, Nov 23, 2023 (AFP) – Protesters on Thursday fought running battles with police, torched vehicles and looted shops in Dublin, after three young children were injured in a knife attack outside a school. Police in riot gear stood guard on the streets in the Irish capital as crowds taunted them with chants and set off fireworks. Near O’Connell Bridge, over the River Liffey, flames rose from a torched car and bus, […]

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Icelandic volcano could destroy town of Grindavik: experts

By Jeremie RICHARD REYKJAVIK, Nov 12, 2023 (AFP) – An Icelandic town home to some 4,000 people near the capital Reykjavik could be heavily damaged by a volcano expected to erupt within hours or days, experts said on Saturday. The town of Grindavik on the southwestern coast was evacuated in the early hours of Saturday after magma shifting under the Earth’s crust caused hundreds of earthquakes in what was believed to be a precursor to […]

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Australian towns endure night of ‘shocking’ bushfires

SYDNEY, Nov 1, 2023 (AFP) – Helicopters buzzed over bushfire-scarred swathes of eastern Australia on Wednesday, assessing the damage left by “shocking” blazes that raged overnight. Water bombing aircraft swooped on fires smouldering in Queensland and New South Wales (NSW), while fire crews raced to dig containment lines as conditions eased on Wednesday morning. Firefighters toiled through the night to repel bushfires on the border between the two states, while more than 50 houses have […]

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Hurricane Idalia poses grave threat to Florida with 15-foot storm surge and potential catastrophic devastation

STEINHATCHEE, United States, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – Hurricane Idalia intensified Tuesday as it churned toward the west coast of Florida, triggering mass evacuation orders and flood alerts as authorities warned of life-threatening ocean surge and catastrophic destruction when the storm rages ashore early Wednesday. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Idalia, which earlier raked western Cuba, had strengthened to a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour, and […]

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Around 100,000 people evacuated due to floods in Pakistan

KASUR, Pakistan, Aug 23, 2023 (AFP) – Families waded through water and cattle were loaded onto boats in a mass evacuation of around 100,000 people in Pakistan’s Punjab province, officials said Wednesday. Several hundred villages and thousands of acres of cropland in the central province were inundated when the Sutlej river burst its banks on Sunday. “The flood waters came a couple of days ago and all our houses were submerged. We walked all the […]

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Evacuations as US state of Vermont hit by catastrophic floods

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in the northeastern US state of Vermont Tuesday as heavy rains triggered flooding from which dozens of residents were rescued by boat. The move, which frees up funds to help relief efforts, came after officials warned that a dam close to the state capital Montpelier was nearing capacity and close to spilling into a river. “This has never happened since the […]

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At least six killed in New Zealand hostel fire

  By Ryland JAMES Agence France-Presse WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — At least six people have been killed in a fire that tore through a four-storey hostel in the early hours of Tuesday in New Zealand’s capital. Towering flames and thick smoke could be seen pouring from the roof of the Loafers Lodge hostel in central Wellington during the night, as 80 firefighters and 20 trucks battled the blaze. Police and emergency services said multiple […]

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Covid no longer a global health emergency: WHO

GENEVA, May 5, 2023 (AFP) – The Covid-19 pandemic, which for over three years has killed millions of people, wreaked economic havoc and deepened inequalities, no longer constitutes a global health emergency, the WHO said Friday. It is “with great hope that I declare Covid-19 over as a global health emergency”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, estimating that the pandemic had killed “at least 20 million” people — nearly three times the under […]

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