The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Philippine typhoon survivors begin to rebuild
- 'Quite possible' Iran, powers can reach nuclear deal next week - U.S. official
- Guinea Supreme Court rejects all challenges to parliamentary vote
| Philippine typhoon survivors begin to rebuild Posted: TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Survivors began rebuilding homes destroyed by one of the world's most powerful typhoons and emergency supplies flowed into ravaged Philippine islands, as the United Nations more than doubled its estimate of people made homeless to nearly two million. But the aid effort was still so patchy that bodies lay uncollected as rescuers tried to evacuate stricken communities on Saturday, more than a week after Typhoon Haiyan killed thousands with tree-snapping winds and tsunami-like waves. After long delays, hundreds of international aid workers set up makeshift hospitals and trucked in supplies, while helicopters from a U.S. aircraft carrier ferried medicine and water to remote, battered areas where some families have gone without food and clean water for days. "We are very, very worried about millions of children," U.N. Children's Fund spokesman Marixie Mercado told reporters in Geneva. A U.N. official said in a guarded compliment many countries had come forward to help. "The response from the international community has not been overwhelming compared to the magnitude of the disaster, but it has been very generous so far," Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told the Geneva news briefing. Captain Victoriano Sambale, a military doctor who for the past week has treated patients in a room strewn with dirt and debris in Tacloban, which bore the brunt of the storm, said there had been a change in the pace in the response. "I can see the international support coming here," he said. But he is still overwhelmed. "Day one we treated 600-plus patients. Day two we had 700-plus patients. Day three we lost our count." President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster, is scheduled to visit typhoon-affected areas on Saturday. He has been criticised for the slow pace of aid distribution and unclear estimates of casualties, especially in Tacloban, capital of hardest-hit Leyte province. A notice board in Tacloban City Hall estimated the deaths at 4,000 on Friday, up from 2,000 a day before, in that town alone. Hours later, Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez apologised and said the toll was for the whole central Philippines. The toll, written on a whiteboard, is compiled by officials who started burying bodies in a mass grave on Thursday. Romualdez said some people may have been swept out to sea and their bodies lost after a tsunami-like wall of seawater slammed into coastal areas. One neighbourhood with a population of between 10,000 and 12,000 was now deserted, he said. The City Hall toll was the first public acknowledgement that the number of fatalities would likely far exceed an estimate given this week by Aquino, who said lives lost would be closer to 2,000 or 2,500. Official confirmed deaths nationwide rose by more than 1,200 to 3,621 on Friday. "I hope it will not rise anymore. I hope that is the final number," said Eduardo del Rosario, director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. "If it rises, it will probably be very slight." U.S. HELICOPTERS AID RELIEF EFFORT But massive logistical problems remain. Injured survivors waited in long lines under searing sun for treatment. Local authorities reported shortages of body bags, gasoline and staff to collect the dead. "Bodies are still lying on the roads. But now at least they're in sections with Department of Health body-bags," Ian Norton, chief of a team of Australian aid workers, told Reuters. The number of people made homeless by the storm rose to 1.9 million, up from 900,000, the U.N.'s humanitarian agency said. In Tacloban alone, at least 56,000 people face unsanitary conditions, according to the U.N.'s migration agency. Stunned survivors in Tacloban said the toll could be many thousands. "There are a lot of dead people on the street in our neighbourhood, by the trash," said Aiza Umpacan, a 27-year-old resident of San Jose, one of the worst-hit neighbourhoods. "There are still a lot of streets that were not visited by the disaster-relief operations. They are just going through the highways, not the inner streets," he said. "The smell is getting worse, and we actually have neighbours who have been brought to hospital because they are getting sick." Across the city, survivors have begun to rebuild. The sounds of hammers ring out. Men gather in groups to fix motorbikes or drag debris off splintered homes and wrecked streets. Most have given up searching for lost loved ones. The preliminary number of missing as of Friday, according to the Red Cross, rose to 25,000 from 22,000 a day earlier. That could include people who have since been located, it said. The nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier and accompanying ships arrived off eastern Samar province on Thursday evening, carrying 5,000 crew and more than 80 aircraft. U.S. sailors have brought food and water ashore in Tacloban and the town of Guiuan, whose airport was a U.S. naval air base in World War Two. The carrier is moored near where U.S. General Douglas MacArthur's force landed on October 20, 1944, in one of the biggest Allied victories. Acting U.S. Ambassador Brian Goldbeck, the chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, said the United States had moved 174,000 kg (383,000 lb) of emergency supplies into affected areas and evacuated nearly 3,000 people. (Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco and Eric dela Cruz and Manuel Mogato in Manila, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva. Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by John Mair) (The story was refiled to remove extra word in the headline) |
| 'Quite possible' Iran, powers can reach nuclear deal next week - U.S. official Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major powers and Iran are getting closer to an initial agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program, a senior U.S. official said on Friday, adding it is "quite possible" a deal could be reached when negotiators meet November 20-22 in Geneva. "For the first time in nearly a decade we are getting close to a first-step ... that would stop the Iranian nuclear program from advancing and roll it back in key areas," the official told reporters. "I don't know if we will reach an agreement. I think it is quite possible that we can, but there are still tough issues to negotiate," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif were to meet on November 20 in Geneva. They will be joined later the same day by a wider group known as the P5+1 comprising Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. The talks are likely to last through November 22, the official added. The talks will seek to finalize an interim deal to allow time to negotiate a comprehensive, permanent agreement with Iran that would end a 10-year deadlock and provide assurances to the six powers that its atomic program would not produce bombs. Iran has denied that it is seeking the capability to produce atomic weapons and insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity and other civilian uses. Negotiations last week in Geneva ended without an agreement, although the sides appeared to be close to a deal that would defuse their standoff over the nuclear program. U.S. President Barack Obama has urged sceptical U.S. lawmakers not to impose new sanctions on Iran while negotiations are ongoing and called for a pause in U.S. sanctions to see if diplomacy can work. ALIGNED WITH WHITE HOUSE APPROACH In addition to lobbying lawmakers, the White House this week also reached out to progressive groups supportive of diplomacy with Iran to make sure they stay aligned with the Obama administration's approach, according to a source close to the matter. Senior administration officials told supporters that they are guardedly optimistic about reaching an interim deal with Iran in Geneva and that the P5+1, including the French, are ready to present a unified position there, the source said. The senior U.S. official who met with reporters Friday said that published estimates of direct sanctions relief being offered under a preliminary deal - which have ranged from $15 billion to $50 billion - were "wildly exaggerated." "It is way south of all of that and quite frankly it will be dwarfed by the restrictions that are still in place," the official said, saying to impose further sanctions threatened the negotiations not only with Iran but also among the six major powers. "The P5+1 believes these are serious negotiations. They have a chance to be successful," the official said. "For us to slap on sanctions in the middle of it, they see as bad faith." A senior administration official estimated that Iran has about $100 billion in reserves, the vast majority of which is held up in overseas bank accounts, which Tehran has limited or no access to. U.S.-imposed sanctions have hit Iran's economy hard. U.S. officials estimate that the economy contracted by more than 5 percent last year and its currency lost about 60 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since 2011. Global oil prices slipped lower on Friday on the reports that Western powers may reach a deal but then rose slightly as markets weighed Libyan supply outages. Commenting on a U.N. inspection report released on November 14 that said Iran had stopped expanding its uranium enrichment capacity, the official said the development was "a good thing" but did not resolve fundamental questions and concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. "We appreciate the step but the reason for our negotiation is to get at certainty that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon and we are a long way from that," the official added. Western diplomats said one of the sticking points during talks was Iran's argument that it retains the "right" to enrich uranium. The United States argues Iran does not intrinsically have that right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The official dismissed suggestions that the issue could be a deal breaker. "I think there is a way to navigate that," the official said. "We each understand where each other is and what is possible, and what is not." (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Philip Barbara and Jim Loney) |
| Guinea Supreme Court rejects all challenges to parliamentary vote Posted: CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's Supreme Court on Friday rejected all of the complaints lodged against the results of a September 28 parliamentary election. "None of the complaints were supported with the necessary proof," said Mamadou Sylla, president of the court. Guinea's main opposition parties had sought to annul the vote while the RPG had challenged a handful of results. The ruling means that President Alpha Conde's RPG party won 53 seats in the vote, defeating all its rivals but falling short of an absolute majority in the 114-seat parliament. A period of coalition-building is now expected. (Reporting by Saliou Samb; writing by David Lewis; editing by Jackie Frank) |
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