JINDAYRIS, Syria: In a dusty Syrian camp for earthquake survivors, school pupils line up and wait for a colorful bus to pull up. Since the disaster hit, they go to a classroom on wheels.
School bags on their backs and notebooks in hand, the children took off their shoes before entering the bus, then sat down along rows of desks fitted inside.
A teacher greeted them in the mobile classroom, decorated with curtains bearing children’s designs, before they broke into a song for their English class.
The February 6 quake killed nearly 6,000 people in Syria, many of them in the war-torn country’s rebel-held northwest, and also left tens of thousands dead in Turkiye.
The Syrian town of Jindayris, in Aleppo province near the Turkish border, was among the worst hit, with homes destroyed and school buildings either levelled or turned into shelters.
“We were living in Jindayris and the earthquake happened... and then we didn’t have homes anymore,” said 10-year-old Jawaher Hilal, a light pink headscarf covering her hair.
“We came to live here and the school was very far away,” said the fifth-grader now staying with her family at the displacement camp on the outskirts of town.
As relief services were set up, she told AFP, “the buses came here and we started to study and learn. The buses are really nice, they teach us a lot.”
The traveling classrooms are a project of the non-profit Orange Organization and service more than 3,000 children at some 27 camps, said education officer Raad Al-Abd.
“The mobile classrooms offer educational services as well as psychological support to children who were affected by the quake,” he said.
More than three months after the quake, 3.7 million children in Syria “continue to face desperate conditions and need humanitarian assistance,” says the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.
“Almost 1.9 million children have had their education disrupted, with many schools still being used as shelters,” it added in a statement this month.
In northwest Syria alone, “a minimum of 452 primary and secondary schools” were reportedly damaged to varying degrees, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said weeks ago.
“More than 1 million school-aged children need education support and are at risk of being out of school,” it said, adding that at least 25,000 teachers are also in need of help, including “mental health and psychosocial support.”
On another bus, boys and girls enthusiastically interacted with the teacher, balloons hanging from the ceiling, for lessons that included Arabic, math and science.
Outside in the bare dirt, children sang in a circle and clapped along with the educators.
As the buses left, pulling out through the road running between the camps’ tents, adjacent structures and trees, the children yelled out and waved goodbye.
Jawaher’s father Ramadan Hilal expressed relief and gratitude for the initiative.
“After the earthquake there were no more schools or anything else,” he said. “Even though they wanted to establish schools, they are far away.”
Children in quake-hit Syria learn in buses turned classrooms
https://arab.news/zrg3c
Children in quake-hit Syria learn in buses turned classrooms
- Traveling classrooms service more than 3,000 children at some 27 camps
Arab cities rank among top 10 friendliest in the world for expats
- Emirati city of Ras Al-Khaimah in 5th place, Oman’s capital Muscat ranks 10th
- Saudi capital among ‘the biggest winners in 2024,’ jumping 10 places to rank 12th: Index
LONDON: The Emirati city of Ras Al-Khaimah and Oman’s capital Muscat have been ranked among the top 10 friendliest destinations in the world for expats.
The Ease of Settling In Index 2024 by InterNations, which describes itself as “the largest global expat network” with 5.6 million members, includes 53 cities and comprises three subcategories: culture and welcome, local friendliness and finding friends.
Ras Al-Khaimah ranked fifth overall while Muscat ranked 10th, closely followed by the Emirati city of Dubai (11th), the Saudi capital Riyadh (12th), the UAE capital Abu Dhabi (14th) and Qatar’s capital Doha (15th).
Ras Al-Khaimah and Muscat “perform well across the index but stand out especially for how easy expats find it to get used to the local culture … as well as for the general friendliness of the population,” according to the index.
InterNations described Riyadh as one of “the biggest winners in 2024,” jumping 10 places from the 2023 rankings and improving “across all factors of the index.”
Riyadh’s biggest gains were in the culture and welcome subcategory, rising from 30th in 2023 to 14th last year.
Injured seals get care and sanctuary at a new center in the Netherlands
- A 4-month-old gray seal named Witje swims gracefully through one of nine new tanks at the World Heritage Center, a recently opened rescue facility in the north of the Netherlands
- The new center can treat around 70 seals at a time and has 12 intensive care units for animals with serious injuries
LAUWERSOOG: Gliding gracefully through the waters at his new home, Witje pauses briefly to peer through a large window at the curious and admiring visitors.
The 4-month-old gray seal is a lucky survivor able to swim in one of nine new tanks at the World Heritage Center, or WEC, a recently opened seal rescue facility in Lauwersoog, in the north of the Netherlands.
He was brought in after being orphaned and was suffering from a swollen flipper and a damaged eye.
“On a yearly basis, we roughly treat about 200 seals,” Sander van Dijk, the curator of the center, told The Associated Press. In 2024, researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands counted around 24,000 seals across the Wadden Sea.
Most are pups who get separated from their mother, known as howlers for their plaintive wailing. Others are injured by floating debris or are struck by passing vessels.
“If we look at our own data over the past 15 years, we just see every year more seals that somehow get entangled in waste in the sea, mostly fishing nets,” Van Dijk said.
The WEC, which officially opened to the public Saturday, replaces the Pieterburen Seal Center, a rescue facility set up in 1971 to treat injured seals found in and around the nearby Wadden Sea, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Witje’s tank is an upgrade from his previous quarters. He gets to swim in water directly from the sea, rather than tap water, in order to maintain a habitat as close as possible to the seals’ natural environment.
“They are adapted to living in seawater. It’s good for their fur. But also seawater, through its salt, has some properties that makes wounds heal faster,” Van Dijk said.
The WEC can treat around 70 seals at a time and has 12 intensive-care units for animals with serious injuries who are able to recover in special enclosures which offer a calm environment. They are prevented from swimming in order to rest and the space is cleaned frequently to prevent infections from waste.
The new building, which cost over 40 million euros ($45 million), with financing provided by local and regional governments as well as charitable organizations, tells more than just the story of the seas. It’s an educational space which teaches visitors about the Wadden Sea, the largest continuous system of intertidal flats in the world, extending along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
The new facility is significantly closer to the sea than the previous location. The tanks for the 10 seals currently residing at WEC look out over the water. Caregivers at the center are optimistic that Witje will soon recover enough to be released back into the waves.
Man rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week: reports
- Chinese university student, who lives in Japan, was found Saturday by another off-season hiker on a trail more than 3,000 meters above sea level
- People are dissuaded from hiking outside of the summer season because conditions can be treacherous
TOKYO: A man in his 20s was airlifted from Japan’s Mount Fuji then rescued again from its steep slopes just days later because he returned to find his phone, according to media reports.
Police said the Chinese university student, who lives in Japan, was found Saturday by another off-season hiker on a trail more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) above sea level.
“He was suspected of having altitude sickness and was taken to hospital,” a police spokesman in Shizuoka region said on Monday.
Later, officers discovered that the man was the same one who had been rescued on Mount Fuji four days previously, private broadcaster TBS and other media outlets reported.
Police could not immediately confirm the reports, which said the man – having been rescued by helicopter on Tuesday – returned on Friday to retrieve his mobile phone, which he forgot to bring with him during the first rescue.
It was not known whether he was able to find his phone in the end, said the reports, citing unnamed sources.
Mount Fuji, an active volcano and Japan’s highest peak, is covered in snow for most of the year.
Its hiking trails are open from early July to early September, a period when crowds trudge up the steep, rocky slopes through the night to see the sunrise.
People are dissuaded from hiking outside of the summer season because conditions can be treacherous.
The symmetrical 3,776-meter mountain has been immortalized in countless artworks, including Hokusai’s “Great Wave.” It last erupted around 300 years ago.
In a bid to prevent overcrowding on Mount Fuji, authorities last year brought in an entry fee and cap on numbers for the most popular Yoshida Trail.
Starting this summer, hikers on any of Mount Fuji’s four main trails will be charged an entry fee of 4,000 yen ($27).
Napoleon letter denying he ordered pope kidnapping sold at auction
- The letter, signed 'Napole,' went on sale the day after the funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday
- The sale price was way above the estimate of 12,000-15,000 euros, according to the Osenat auction house
PARIS: A hand-written letter from Napoleon denying his role in the kidnapping of Pope Pius VII in 1809 was sold at auction on Sunday outside Paris for 26,360 euros ($30,000), the auctioneer said.
The letter, signed “Napole,” went on sale the day after the funeral of Pope Francis, who died on Monday.
The sale price was way above the estimate of 12,000-15,000 euros, according to the Osenat auction house.
The auction’s location in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, was highly symbolic as the town was where the head of the Catholic Church was imprisoned after being initially held in Savona in Italy.
“This arrest is one of the events that will define Napoleon’s reign, at a political and religious level,” Jean-Christophe Chataignier, an expert in the Napoleonic era at Osenat, told AFP.
“Napoleon knows this letter will be made public and that it’s intended for authorities everywhere,” he added.
French forces kidnapped Pope Pius VII in his private apartments in the Quirinal Palace in Rome.
He remained a prisoner of Napoleon for five years.
The pontiff had sought to maintain the Vatican’s sway over the French Catholic Church and resisted Napoleon’s desire to exert control over the clergy.
'Without my orders'
In the letter addressed to French nobleman and ally Jean-Jacques-Regis de Cambaceres, Napoleon feigns ignorance of Pius VII’s detention.
“It was without my orders and against my will that the pope was taken out of Rome; it is again without my orders and against my will that he is being brought into France,” he wrote.
“But I was only informed of this 10 or 12 days after it had already been carried out. From the moment I learn that the pope is staying in a fixed location, and that my intentions can be made known in time and carried out, I will consider what measures I must take...,” he added.
Napoleon memorabilia regularly comes up for sale at auction in a flourishing trade marked by intense interest from collectors.
Two pistols that he once intended to use to kill himself were sold in France last July for 1.7 million euros, while one of his trademark “bicorne” hats set a record price for his possessions when it was acquired for 1.9 million euros in November 2023.
A sword that belonged to Napoleon and was specially ordered for the personal use of the French emperor is to be auctioned in Paris next month, with an estimated price of 700,000 to one million euros.
Sri Lanka Buddhists overwhelm city in bid to see Buddha's sacred tooth
- Four people died and hundreds fell sick while waiting in lengthy queues to see a sacred tooth in the city of Kandy
- Police said 32 buses were turned away because the city had run out of parking space
COLOMBO: Buddhists flocking to see a sacred tooth in Sri Lanka were urged by authorities to stay away on Thursday after four people died and hundreds fell sick while in lengthy queues.
Regional police chief Lalith Pathinayake said queues in the city of Kandy were already 10 kilometers (six miles) long as Buddhists waited to worship what they believe to be a tooth of the Buddha — a special showing of the relic that will end on Sunday.
Officials estimated there were around 450,000 people in queues on Thursday morning, more than double the expected daily number of 200,000.
“At the rate the queue is moving, even those already in line this morning may not be able to enter the temple,” Deputy Inspector General Pathinayake said. “We appeal to the people not to come to Kandy.”
The city’s main state-run hospital reported more than 300 people had been admitted after falling ill while spending days in cramped conditions. Four people, including an older woman, were pronounced dead on admission.
At the rate the queue is moving, even those already in line this morning may not be able to enter the temple
Lalith Pathinayake, regional police chief
More than 2,000 people who fainted while standing in line were treated at 11 mobile health units, local officials said.
“We are trying to avoid a stampede,” said Sarath Abeykoon, the governor of the province. “Health authorities have raised concerns about sanitation.”
The railway department said it was suspending all additional trains to the city because authorities were already overwhelmed by the number of pilgrims.
Police commandos were deployed to move thousands of pilgrims away from an old bridge that officials warned could collapse due to the excessive weight on it.
Police said 32 buses were turned away because the city had run out of parking space.
The relic was last displayed publicly in March 2009, when an estimated one million people paid homage.
Authorities had expected around two million visitors over the 10-day exhibition this time, but that figure was surpassed within five days.
