PATNA, India: At least 25 Indian children died and dozens needed hospital treatment after apparently being poisoned by a school meal, sparking violent protests and angry allegations of blame.
The children aged four to 12 fell ill on Tuesday after consuming a lunch of rice, soybean and lentils in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar.
The school, at Mashrakh village in the district of Chapra, provided free meals under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the world’s largest school feeding program involving 120 million children.
Medical teams treating the children said they suspected the food had been contaminated with insecticide.
“It appears to be a case of poisoning but we will have to wait for forensic reports ... Had it been a case of (natural) food poisoning, so many children would not have died,” Poonam Kumari, local government administrator at the village, told Reuters by phone from Mashrakh.
“The administration has helped cremate 21 children and, unfortunately, four more children have to be cremated,” she said, adding that the remainder of a total of 48 children who consumed the contaminated food were being treated in Patna.
“We feel that some kind of insecticide was either accidentally or intentionally mixed in the food, but that will be clear through investigations,” said R.K. Singh, medical superintendent at the children’s hospital in the state capital Patna.
“We prepared antidotes and treated the children for organophosphorous poisoning,” he said.
Organophosphorus compounds are used as pesticides.
The state government said it was investigating the cause of the disaster.
The school headmistress fled after the deaths became known and was dismissed, P.K. Shahi, Bihar’s education minister, told a news conference.
“In spite of the cook’s complaint (over the smell of cooking oil used for the food), the headmistress insisted on its use and the cook made the food. The children had also complained about the food to the cook,” Shahi said.
The cook, who also fell ill after eating the food and was hospitalized, told Reuters television it had looked as if there was a layer of residue at the bottom of the oil jar.
“I thought that this is locally-made oil as often there is an accumulation of residual waste at the bottom ... generally we get just about enough oil to prepare one meal, as there is no space for storage,” Manju Devi said in Hindi.
Opposition parties accused the Janata Dal party-led government of acting too slowly to hospitalize the children and dozens of people took to the streets to protest, television channels showed.
Demonstrators pelted a police station with stones, set ablaze buses and other vehicles, chanted slogans denouncing the state government and burned effigies of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“I feel that the government completely failed vis-a-vis the evacuation of the affected children,” said Rajiv Pratap Rudy, a spokesman for the main federal opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said.
“As soon as my boy returned from school, we rushed to the hospital with him,” said Raja Yadav, the father of one schoolboy. “He was vomiting and he said his stomach was aching.”
Three of the children being treated in the hospital were in critical condition, doctors and Shahi said.
Kumar has ordered an inquiry into the incident and has offered 200,000 rupees ($3,400) to the families of those who have died, state food minister Shyam Rajak said.
Bihar, bordering Nepal, is one of the most impoverished states in India, according to government data.
Kumar came to power in 2005, ousting a government which had been blamed for rampant corruption and sluggish growth in the poor eastern state.
Contaminated school meal kills 25 children in India
Contaminated school meal kills 25 children in India
Norway, World Wide Fund for Nature square off in court over deep sea mining
- Norway could become one of the first countries to authorize seabed mining, arguing the importance of not relying on China for minerals essential for renewable technology
- WWF-Norway is also calling on the Norwegian government to stop giving public support to mining companies for the exploration phase and to allocate these funds to independent research institutions
OSLO: The World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Norwegian chapter will have its day in court Thursday, after it sued Norway for opening up its seabed to mining before performing sufficient impact studies.
Already Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer, Norway could become one of the first countries to authorize seabed mining, arguing the importance of not relying on China for minerals essential for renewable technology.
While deep-sea mining is contentious due to its potential impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems, Norway’s parliament in January formally gave its green light to open up parts of its seabed to exploration.
“We believe the government is violating Norwegian law by now opening up for a new and potentially destructive industry without adequately assessing the consequences,” Karoline Andaur, CEO of WWF-Norway, said in a statement.
Norway “must halt the rushed process, must actively support a national and global moratorium — a temporary ban on seabed mining until there is sufficient knowledge,” Andaur said in an online meeting earlier in November.
With their lawsuit, WWF-Norway is also calling on the Norwegian government to stop giving public support to mining companies for the exploration phase and to allocate these funds to independent research institutions.
That would help “to close the many knowledge gaps about marine life,” Andaur said.
The trial will run until December 5.
On April 12, Norway’s Ministry of Energy announced that it was opening up an area of the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea to exploration, with the aim of awarding the first licenses in the first half of 2025.
Within the area, which is the size of the United Kingdom, it has designated locations covering 38 percent of the area suitable for exploration for a first licensing round.
“Before any exploitation can begin, it has to be shown that the proposed exploitation can take place in a sustainable and responsible manner,” Astrid Bergmal, state secretary at the energy ministry, told AFP in an email.
The first projects will also have to be approved by parliament, Bergmal added.
“The first phase will consist of mapping and exploration, which has little environmental impact,” she said.
But critics see this stage as a first step toward exploitation.
According to several NGOs, opening up the seabed poses an additional threat to an ecosystem that is little-known and has already been weakened by global warming.
Possible dangers include the destruction of marine habitats and organisms, noise and light pollution, as well as the risk of chemical leaks from machines and species being displaced.
Norwegian authorities meanwhile stress that by allowing the prospecting they want to fill in the gaps in knowledge.
In early 2023, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate published a report concluding that “substantial resources are in place on the seabed” including minerals such as copper, zinc and cobalt.
Thousands left queuing to vote in Namibia after scheduled polls close
- The vote could usher in the desert nation’s first woman leader even as her party, the ruling SWAPO, faces the strongest challenge yet to its 34-year grip on power
- SWAPO’s candidate and current vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, is being challenged by IPC leader Panduleni Itula, a former dentist and lawyer
WHINDHOEK: Logistical issues on Wednesday left thousands of Namibians waiting in queues to vote in pivotal presidential and legislative elections, some for up to 12 hours, with polling stations staying open hours later than planned.
The vote could usher in the desert nation’s first woman leader even as her party, the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) faces the strongest challenge yet to its 34-year grip on power.
Some voters told AFP they queued all day, blaming technical problems that included issues with voter identification tablets and insufficient ballot papers.
“It’s absolutely disappointing,” said Reagan Cooper, a 43-year-old farmer among the hundred or so voters outside the town hall polling station in the capital Windhoek.
“The voters have turned out, but the electoral commission has failed us,” Cooper told AFP.
In the face of criticism from all the political parties, including SWAPO, the Electoral Commission of Namibia extended voting hours for “no specified time,” according to Windhoek region ECN head Rakondjerua Kavari.
Voting was halted for an hour at the Windhoek town hall site due to a lack of ballots, with applause welcoming the delivery of more waking sleepy, seated voters around 11:30 pm.
The last voter there cast his ballot more than four hours after the scheduled closing time — 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) — and vote counting then began almost immediately.
According to Namibia’s electoral law, those in queues before polls are scheduled to close should be allowed to vote.
Petrus Shaama, chief officer of the ECN, said it was obligated to ensure voters could cast a ballot.
But the main opposition party, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), blamed the ECN for the long lines and cried foul play.
“We have reason to believe that the ECN is deliberately suppressing voters and deliberately trying to frustrate voters from casting their vote,” said Christine Aochamus of the IPC.
Armed with folding chairs and umbrellas to cope with the slow-moving lines and blazing sun, many Namibians spent half the day waiting to vote.
At one polling station inside the University of Science and Technology in Windhoek, hundreds of people were still in line at 9:00 p.m. despite some having arrived at 6:00 am, an hour before polls opened.
Polling site managers told AFP that problems with tablets used to check voters’ identities using fingerprints included untimely updates, overheating and dead batteries.
SWAPO’s candidate and current vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, was one of the first to vote and called on Namibians “to come out in their numbers.”
An estimated 1.5 million people in the sparsely populated nation were registered to vote.
SWAPO has governed since leading mineral-rich Namibia to independence from South Africa in 1990 but complaints about unemployment and enduring inequalities could force Nandi-Ndaitwah into an unprecedented second round.
IPC leader Panduleni Itula, a former dentist and lawyer, said Wednesday he was optimistic he could “unseat the revolutionary movement.”
Itula, 67, took 29 percent of votes in the 2019 elections, losing to SWAPO leader Hage Geingob with 56 percent. It was a remarkable performance considering Geingob, who died in February, had won almost 87 percent five years before that.
Namibia is a major uranium and diamond exporter but not many of its nearly three million people have benefitted from that wealth.
“There’s a lot of mining activity that goes on in the country, but it doesn’t really translate into improved infrastructure, job opportunities,” said independent political analyst Marisa Lourenco, based in Johannesburg.
“That’s where a lot of the frustration is coming from, (especially) the youth,” she said.
Unemployment among 15- to 34-year-olds is estimated at 46 percent, according to the latest figures from 2018, almost triple the national average.
First-time voter and environmental health student Sophia Varela, 24, told AFP she was “hoping for change” and “jobs for the youth.”
For the first time in Namibia’s recent history, analysts say a second voting round is a somewhat realistic option.
That would take place within 60 days of the announcement of the first round of results due by Saturday.
“The outcome will be tight,” said self-employed Hendry Amupanda, 32, who queued since 9:00 p.m. the night before to cast his ballot.
“I want the country to get better and people to get jobs,” said Amupanda, wearing slippers and equipped with a chair, blanket and snacks.
Marvyn Pescha, a self-employed consultant, said his father was part of SWAPO’s liberation struggle and he was not going to abandon the party.
“But I want SWAPO to be challenged for better policies. Some opportunistic leaders have tarnished the reputation of the party, they misuse it for self-enrichment,” the 50-year-old said.
While lauded for leading Namibia to independence, SWAPO is nervous about its standing after other liberation-era movements in the region have lost favor with young voters.
In the past six months, South Africa’s African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority and the Botswana Democratic Party was ousted after almost six decades in power.
Taiwan holds air, sea drills as China keeps up pressure
China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since 1949, but Beijing considers it part of its territory and has refused to renounce the use of force to bring the island under its control.
Beijing regularly deploys fighter jets, drones and warships around Taiwan, and occasionally balloons, as it keeps up military pressure.
The early morning exercise was aimed at testing “the response and engagement procedures of air defense units,” Taiwan’s Air Force Command said in a statement.
“Various types of aircraft, ships, and air defense missile systems were deployed from 5:00 am to 7:00 am,” the statement said, without providing details.
The last time the Air Force Command held such drills was in June, a month after Taiwan President Lai Ching-te took office.
Taiwan’s defense ministry reported Thursday it had detected two Chinese balloons over waters north of the island.
The balloons were spotted on Wednesday afternoon in two locations about 111 kilometers (69 miles) northwest and 163 kilometers north of Keelung City.
That follows the sighting of a Chinese balloon on Sunday over the same waters.
Along with the two balloons, 13 Chinese military aircraft and seven navy vessels were spotted around Taiwan in the 24 hours to 6:00 am on Thursday, the ministry said.
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of a Chinese invasion and has ramped up defense spending in recent years to strengthen its military capabilities.
The island has a home-grown defense industry but also relies heavily on arms sales from Washington, which is Taiwan’s most important partner and biggest provider of weapons and ammunition.
Taiwan has described the balloons as a form of “grey zone” harassment — a tactic that falls short of an act of war.
LVMH chief Bernard Arnault to testify in France spy trial
- Arnault is not accused of any wrongdoing in the trial after paying a 10 million euro settlement in 2021 to close a criminal probe into LVMH’s role in the case
PARIS: LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault is set to testify at a Paris court on Thursday in the trial of France’s former spy chief Bernard Squarcini, a case that has cast light on the lengths to which the world’s biggest luxury group has allegedly gone to protect its image.
Squarcini, who headed France’s counter-intelligence services from 2008 to 2012, was later hired by LVMH as a security consultant, during which time he allegedly illegally collected information on private individuals and violated privacy laws while helping the company fight counterfeits and monitor left-wing activists planning to target the company with protests.
He is also charged with leaking classified information, interfering with justice and peddling influence.
Squarcini’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arnault is not accused of any wrongdoing in the trial after paying a 10 million euro settlement in 2021 to close a criminal probe into LVMH’s role in the case.
He has said that the recruitment of Squarcini was conducted by Pierre Gode, his longtime right-hand man at LVMH who died in 2018, and that he was unaware of information allegedly collected by Squarcini, according to court documents.
However the two-week trial has thrust the billionaire into the spotlight at a time when his sprawling luxury empire is already navigating a downturn in the industry and a reshuffling of top management.
LVMH paid Squarcini’s consulting firm Kyrnos 2.2 million euros for services including allegedly searching the background of individuals suspected of counterfeiting luxury goods.
He also allegedly monitored Francois Ruffin, a French activist who is currently a politician, and members of his left-wing publication Fakir as they planned to disrupt an LVMH shareholder meeting and prepared their satirical, documentary film “Merci Patron.”
The film, which won the French Cesar award for best documentary in 2017, follows a family that lost their jobs at a supplier to LVMH.
Bernard Arnault’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Adani allegations shine spotlight on India’s clean energy conundrum
- The problem is that India’s states are unprepared for the rapid rise in renewable generating capacity, lack adequate transmission infrastructure and storage
NEW DELHI: Bribery allegations against Adani Group founder Gautam Adani have highlighted the growing problem India’s renewable energy developers face in finding buyers for the power they generate.
While India’s central government wants to shift away from polluting coal-fired generation toward solar and wind, officials say state government-owned power distribution companies responsible for keeping the lights on have dragged their heels over striking renewable purchase deals. US authorities allege that Indian billionaire Adani conspired to devise a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian state government officials to secure solar power supply deals, after one of his companies was unable to secure buyers for a $6 billion project for several years.
The Adani Group has denied the charges.
The conglomerate is not alone in facing increasingly long delays in signing up buyers for the renewable electricity capacity which is now being developed in coal-dependent India — the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
Coal accounted for 75 percent of India’s power generation during the year to the end of March, with renewables such as solar and wind, but not including hydro-electricity, making up about 12 percent.
India is still more than 10 percent short of its much-publicized pledge to add 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power by 2022.
That has led the federal government to ramp up bidding for renewable projects to meet an ambitious 2030 target of increasing its non-fossil fuel capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW). In the five years to March 2028 it plans to tender for more than four-times the capacity of renewable energy projects it commissioned in the preceding five.
To push states to help meet India’s overall goal, New Delhi in 2022 introduced so-called renewable purchase obligations (RPOs), which mandate that states increase clean energy adoption so that the national share doubles to 43.3 percent in March 2030.
Honouring these RPOs would require 20 of the 30 provinces monitored to more than double the share of green power in their electricity mix, a February report by government think-tank NITI Aayog showed.
The problem is that India’s states are unprepared for the rapid rise in renewable generating capacity, lack adequate transmission infrastructure and storage and would rather rely on fossil fuel for supply than risk “intermittent” renewables.
The challenges were stark in the case of Adani Green, India’s largest renewable energy company, which took nearly 3-1/2 years to strike supply deals with buyers for the entire 8 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity it won in a tender widely publicized as the country’s biggest.
DEMAND POOL
Yet setting targets for tenders and issuing contracts is “meaningless” so long as interest from power distribution companies is so low, said R. Srikanth, energy industry adviser and dean at India’s National Institute of Advanced Studies.
And the allegations against Adani are likely to result in a further renewables slowdown, as low-cost finance from foreign investors may become more difficult to secure, Srikanth said.
A change in the way some tenders are run has exacerbated delays in the time it takes to complete renewables projects. The tender won by Adani Green was the first major contract issued by state-run Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) without a state-guaranteed Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
When announced in June 2019, SECI said buyers were guaranteed, but it withdrew the provision from the deal signed a year later.
SECI’s chairman told Reuters last month that a three-fold increase in tendering of renewable projects has left 30 GW of projects for which bidding is complete, but without buyers.
“You can’t expect the states to respond and start signing three times the power supply agreements,” R P Gupta told Reuters in an interview, adding that a “demand pool has to be created” and states had to be “sensitised” to renewables.
Brokerage JM Financial said that it now takes 8 to 10 months to sign power supply deals after a contract is awarded.
By comparison, companies that were awarded contracts between July 2018 and December 2020 needed around three months to strike supply deals, SECI data showed.
“The sudden surge in bids, large pipeline of projects under construction, mismatch in power demand and bid-pipeline ... and constraints in timely execution of projects are leading to delays in signing,” JM Financial said.
Renewable energy projects have also seen cancelations, with about 4 percent-5 percent of all tendered projects annulled, and backlogs in transmission infrastructure development, Gupta said.
One solution, said Rakesh Nath, former chairman of India’s Central Electricity Authority, would be knowing how much power buyers want before projects are bid for.
“Taking buyers into confidence before inviting bids may minimize delays in signing power supply agreements,” he said.
