KAMPALA: Four more bodies have been recovered from the site of a massive garbage landslide in the Ugandan capital Kampala, bringing the death toll to 34, police said Friday.
The collapse at the landfill in the northern district of Kiteezi at the weekend buried people, homes and livestock in mountains of fetid waste.
An MP for the area has warned that the number of those missing could still rise.
“With the recovery of four bodies on Thursday, the death toll has reached 34,” Kampala Metropolitan police spokesman Patrick Onyango said.
The recovery of victims was continuing, he said, despite part of the landfill site flooding, preventing the use of excavators.
He added that one of the bodies discovered on Thursday was a man who had been missing since 2022 called Abdul Nasir.
With the discovery of the bodies, the total number of those missing has decreased to 35, from an earlier official toll of 39.
However, shadow foreign affairs minister Muwada Nkunyingi, who is also the area’s representative in parliament, said: “There are more people missing compared to what police are reporting.”
“From what the community members are saying, the dead could reach even 100 because since the tragedy we see people turning up looking for their loved ones, family members,” he said.
Excavators have been churning through the huge rubbish mounds, often during torrential downpours.
Kampala city mayor Erias Lukwago described the incident as a “national disaster.”
He had previously warned about the risks of overflowing waste from the site, which was established in 1996 and takes in almost all garbage collected across Kampala.
Several areas in Uganda and other parts of East Africa have been battered by heavy rains recently.
Uganda garbage landslide death toll rises to 34
https://arab.news/n3qd6
Uganda garbage landslide death toll rises to 34
- Collapse at the landfill in the northern district of Kiteezi at the weekend buried people, homes and livestock
- Kampala city mayor Erias Lukwago described the incident as a ‘national disaster’
Defiant French far right insists ‘we will win’ despite Le Pen ban
“If they use such a powerful weapon against us, it’s obviously because we’re about to win an election“
PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen insisted Tuesday that her movement could still win 2027 presidential elections after she was banned from standing for office as part of an embezzlement conviction.
She was given a prison term and fine on Monday after being convicted of a fake jobs scheme at the EU parliament, a verdict that sparked an international echo including from US President Donald Trump.
But the most serious part of the conviction was a five-year ban — effective immediately — on standing for office, which eliminates her from the race.
Addressing her lawmakers on Tuesday, Le Pen, who considered herself the favorite in the 2027 election where President Emmanuel Macron cannot stand again, accused “the system” of rolling out “the nuclear bomb” in a bid to end her presidential hopes.
“If they use such a powerful weapon against us, it’s obviously because we’re about to win an election,” said Le Pen, 56. “We won’t let this happen.”
Le Pen has said she will appeal the “political decision,” though a new trial is not expected to take place for at least a year.
Should that fail, there is also a “plan B,” a candidacy by her protege and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, a 29-year-old with a slick television and social media presence.
Le Pen’s conviction sparked angry reactions from far-right figures across Europe but also from the Kremlin, X owner Elon Musk and Trump, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed concern.
“She was banned from running for five years and she is the leading candidate. That sounds like this country,” said Trump, comparing her conviction to the “lawfare” he says was waged against him before becoming president.
But the French government and prosecutors hit out against attacks on the judiciary and in particular against Benedicte de Perthuis, 63, the judge specialized in financial crimes who issued the verdict.
Analysts said the court decision could deepen France’s political crisis. Her National Rally (RN), which is the largest single party in parliament, can complicate life for Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who does not have a majority in the lower-house National Assembly.
“Guilty,” French daily Liberation said on its front page, calling the ruling a “political earthquake.”
“No one is untouchable: she made a mistake, she must pay for it,” Nathanael Fichou, a waiter, said in the southern port of Marseille.
Nicole Prolhac, 78, said she was “annoyed” because Le Pen represented millions of French voters.
“But can we let someone who has committed embezzlement lead the country?“
Bardella said the party would seek to organize “peaceful” rallies this weekend.
Speaking to Europe 1 radio, Bardella said that Le Pen had been judged with “brutality and violence” and that her only mistake was to “have the capacity to take the national camp to victory.”
“Everything will be done to prevent us from coming to power,” he said.
He added that the situation could boost the fortunes of the RN.
“I tell the French do not lose hope. I think that what is happening will make millions of people who do not vote for the RN, vote for the RN,” he said.
“We are wounded. But we are far from being dead.”
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin denounced “unacceptable” threats made against the judges while France’s prosecutor general Remy Heitz said the verdict was “not a political decision but a legal one.”
Le Pen took over the former National Front (FN) from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011 and has since sought to clean up its image. Her father, who died in January, was often accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments.
After three unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2012, 2017 and 2022, polls had shown Le Pen to be on course to easily top the first round with a chance of winning the presidency in the second round run-off.
She was given a four-year prison term by the Paris court. Two years were suspended and the other two would be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet.
Le Pen was convicted for a scheme where the party was found to have eased the pressure on its own finances by using European Parliament monthly allowances to pay “fictitious” parliamentary assistants, who actually worked for the party.
Twenty-four people — including Le Pen — were convicted, all of them RN party officials or assistants.
18 dead in India firework factory blast: officials
- The fiery blast sent chunks of rock and metal flying far from the factory complex in the town of Deesa
- Authorities have launched a probe into the incident
AHMEDABAD, India: Eighteen people were killed and five others injured in an explosion at an illegal firecracker factory in western India on Tuesday, officials said.
The fiery blast sent chunks of rock and metal flying far from the factory complex in the town of Deesa in Gujarat state.
“There was a huge blast in the factory causing the concrete roof to collapse, killing 18 people and injuring five others,” government spokesman Rishikesh Patel told reporters.
The factory was operating without a license, he added.
Authorities have launched a probe into the incident.
Fireworks are hugely popular in India, particularly during the Hindu festival of Diwali, as well as for use during wedding celebrations.
Explosions are common in firecracker workshops, with owners often disregarding basic safety requirements.
Last year, 11 people died in a firework factory explosion in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
In 2019, at least 18 people were killed in a similar explosion in Punjab state, and another 10 were killed the same year in Uttar Pradesh.
Irregular immigration curbed, Germany’s outgoing government says
- “Migration policy isn’t something for jokers, but a management assignment you have to work on seriously,” Faeser said
- While the number of asylum claims halved over the past two years, she said, the number of people illegally present in Germany who were then repatriated had risen 55 percent
BERLIN: Germany’s interior minister claimed victory for her outgoing government in its battle against irregular immigration, saying deportations were up and asylum claims down in an apparent center-left pitch to be part of the next ruling coalition.
Nancy Faeser, a Social Democrat, remains as acting minister until her party and the election-winning conservatives agree on a new coalition deal, with how to handle immigration the sharpest dividing line between the would-be partners.
Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, seeking to win back voters his Christian Democrats (CDU) lost to the far right, pledged during the campaign to turn away at the borders people with the wrong documents. The SPD opposes this hard-line approach, saying it violates European Union law.
“Migration policy isn’t something for jokers, but a management assignment you have to work on seriously,” Faeser said in a statement asserting that outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government had run a successful migration policy.
While the number of asylum claims halved over the past two years, she said, the number of people illegally present in Germany who were then repatriated had risen 55 percent and the number of skilled workers who had immigrated legally had risen by 77 percent.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” she said. “Today we are a country that invests more in integration and is more attractive to talented and qualified workers from the world over.”
Talks between the two parties last week went into a second round after leaders acknowledged the drafts prepared so far fell far short of what was needed for a government program. Merz has said he wants to form a government by Easter.
FAR RIGHT RISES IN POLLS
Merz, the likely next chancellor, won the February 23 election but with a poorer-than-expected 28.5 percent of the vote. That left the SPD as Merz’s only possible partner if he sticks to his pledge not to cooperate with the runner-up far-right AfD party, or form an unstable three-way coalition as Scholz did.
Leaked drafts of coalition negotiating positions show the parties far apart on immigration policy. The conservatives demand more powers to expel and turn away migrants, while the SPD is focusing on integration of migrants and steps to recruit foreign skilled workers for labor-short German industries.
Concerns that commitments on migration and fiscal rigour could be watered down under the next government have preoccupied right-wing voters in particular — the AfD has gained three points in the polls since the election while the conservatives have lost three.
A series of deadly street attacks during the election campaign, blamed in some cases on foreigners illegally present in Germany, ensured the contest was dominated by a raw and angry debate over migration.
“We must carry out the migration debate without rancour, always in the awareness that we’re talking about people here,” said Faeser, who could stay on as interior minister or in another senior cabinet role if a conservative-SPD “grand coalition” comes to fruition.
AI and satellites help aid workers respond to Myanmar earthquake damage
- “The biggest challenge in this particular case was the clouds,” said Microsoft’s chief data scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres
- “There’s no way to see through clouds with this technology”
MANDALAY, Myanmar: Just after sunrise on Saturday, a satellite set its long-range camera on the city of Mandalay in Myanmar, not far from the epicenter of Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Southeast Asian country’s second-largest city.
The mission was to capture images that, combined with artificial intelligence technology, could help relief organizations quickly assess how many buildings had collapsed or were heavily damaged and where helpers most needed to go.
At first, the high-tech computer vision approach wasn’t working.
“The biggest challenge in this particular case was the clouds,” said Microsoft’s chief data scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres. “There’s no way to see through clouds with this technology.”
The clouds eventually moved and it took a few more hours for another satellite from San Francisco-based Planet Labs to capture the aerial pictures and send them to Microsoft’s philanthropic AI for Good Lab. By then it was already about 11 p.m. Friday at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. A group of Microsoft workers was ready and waiting for the data.
The AI for Good lab has done this kind of AI-assisted damage assessment before, tracking Libya’s catastrophic flooding in 2023 or this year’s wildfires in Los Angeles. But rather than rely on a standard AI computer vision model that could run any visual data, they had to build a customized version specific to Mandalay.
“The Earth is too different, the natural disasters are too different and the imagery we get from satellites is just too different to work in every situation,” Lavista Ferres said. For instance, he said, while fires spread in fairly predictable ways, “an earthquake touches the whole city” and it can be harder to know in the immediate aftermath where help is needed.
Once the AI analysis was complete, it showed 515 buildings in Mandalay with 80 percent to 100 percent damage and another 1,524 with between 20 percent and 80 percent damage. That showed the widespread gravity of the disaster, but, just as important, it helps pinpoint specific locations of damage.
“This is critical information for teams on the ground,” Lavista Ferres said.
Microsoft cautioned that it “should serve as a preliminary guide and will require on-the-ground verification for a complete understanding.” But in the meantime, the tech company has shared the analysis with aid groups such as the Red Cross.
Planet Labs says its satellites — it has 15 of them orbiting the Earth — have now photographed roughly a dozen locations in Myanmar and Thailand since Friday’s quake.
Southeast Asian countries send rescue teams as Myanmar quake death toll tops 2,700
- Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore have also sent teams to assist Myanmar
- Rescuers struggle due to lack of heavy machinery, damage to critical infrastructure
JAKARTA/MANILA: Indonesia and the Philippines on Tuesday sent rescue teams to assist Myanmar, where the death toll from a huge earthquake has passed 2,700.
Rescuers and aid workers have been struggling to reach victims and find survivors after the 7.7-magnitude quake struck at midday on Friday near Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, destroying scores of buildings and ancient cultural sites.
In the wake of the disaster, neighboring Southeast Asian countries have rallied to send humanitarian assistance to Myanmar.
Indonesia dispatched a 53-member search and rescue team on Tuesday, after on Monday sending a smaller group and 12 tonnes of humanitarian aid comprising tents, food and logistical supplies.
“The earthquake has caused massive suffering. As of today the death toll stands at around (2,700), but there are still plenty of people who must be saved,” Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said during a send-off ceremony in Jakarta.
The strongest earthquake to hit Myanmar in more than a century damaged critical infrastructure and communication, further hampering relief efforts in a country that was already facing a humanitarian crisis from an ongoing civil war.
Death toll from the quake has reached 2,719 and is expected to rise, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing said in a televised address on Tuesday, adding that about 4,500 people were injured and more than 400 were missing.
Friday’s earthquake was also felt in Thailand, where the death toll stands at 21.
The Philippines has dispatched the first batch of a 91-member emergency team, which includes members of the Philippine Air Force, the Department of Health, and the Bureau of Fire Protection, to help with search and rescue efforts.
The remainder of the group will depart on Wednesday for a two-week deployment to Myanmar, the Philippine Air Force said in a statement.
“Bringing with them essential search and rescue equipment and medical supplies, these personnel are ready to perform life-saving operations, provide medical assistance, and deliver critical aid throughout the mission,” the PAF said.
Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos and Singapore have sent their own teams to Myanmar to assist with the ongoing search and rescue operations, which have reportedly been slowed because of a lack of heavy machinery, forcing many to search for survivors by hand in daily temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.
Malaysia, which chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, said that countries from the region are working closely to support Myanmar.
“These deployments reflect ASEAN’s united response and commitment to standing together in times of hardship,” Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
