1,400 tourists caught in cyclonic weather in Andamans

December 8, 2016

Port Blair, Dec 8: Around 1,400 tourists are stranded at Havelock and Neil islands in the Andamans after heavy rain and "cyclonic weather conditions", which are a challenge to evacuation efforts. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday that everyone is safe and appealed to families of the tourists not to panic.

cyclonic

"The government will launch the rescue operations immediately after the intensity of the cyclone reduces. The teams are ready in Port Blair," Mr Singh tweeted.

The navy has sent four ships, Bitra, Bangaram, Kumbhir and LCU 38, for evacuation but they couldn't dock yesterday because of the weather. Officials said waves up to 5 m high have made the transfer of tourists onto the ships a very difficult and dangerous prospect.

"The ships are waiting outside the harbour. Adequate food, fresh water, medicines and doctors besides divers and local administration personnel are being ferried on board to provide relief," a Defence official said.

The two islands, around 40 km from Port Blair, have been hit the most by the cyclonic conditions caused by a severe depression over the Bay of Bengal, which led to heavy rain, strong winds and a rough sea.

The administration has declared an 'L1 Disaster'.

Neil and Havelock are two of the most popular tourist attractions in the Andamans and the only mode of travel are commercial ferries and choppers, but these have stopped operating since Monday.

Ten villages of Havelock and Neil islands are also badly affected as essential supplies have been hit.

Andaman administration officials said trees have been uprooted, power supply has been disrupted and low-lying areas in Port Blair have been flooded.

Mobile and internet connectivity have also snapped in many areas.

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News Network
February 21,2020

New Delhi, Feb 21: Global terror financing watchdog FATF on Friday decided continuation of Pakistan in the "Grey List" and warned the country that stern action will be taken if it fails to check flow of money to terror groups like the LeT and the JeM, sources said.

The decision has been taken at the Financial Action Task Force's plenary in Paris.

The FATF decided to continue Pakistani in the "Grey List". The FATF also warned Pakistan that if it doesn't complete a full action plan by June, it could lead to consequences on its businesses, a source said.

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Agencies
April 17,2020

Washington, Apr 17: A record number of 4,591 Americans have died in the last 24 hours due to the deadly novel coronavirus in the US, which has the highest number of COVID-19 casualties in the world.

According to the Johns Hopkins University data, by 8 pm on Thursday, as many as 4,591 Americans have died in the last 24 hours, The Wall Street Journal said.

The previous highest was 2,569 on Wednesday.

By Thursday, more than 662,000 Americans tested positive with the coronavirus.

The dreaded disease, which originated in Wuhan city in China in December last year, has so far claimed more than 144,000 lives and infected over 2.1 million people.

The virus has infected over 671,000 people and claimed more than 33,000 lives, the highest for any country in the world.

New York City and its adjoining areas, including New Jersey and Connecticut have emerged as the epicenter of the virus in the US.

New York alone accounts for 226,000 cases of infections and 16,106 deaths.

In New Jersey, as many as 3,518 people have died of the disease and 75,317 have tested positive.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, till April 14, four per cent of the Americans infected with COVID-19 were of Asian origin and nearly one-third (30 per cent) were African Americans.

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that experts and scientists report that his strategy to slow the spread of the virus has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Models predicted between 1.5 million and 2.2 million US deaths. If there was no mitigation, it could have even been higher than that and between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths with mitigation. It is looking like we will come far under even these lowest numbers, he said.

Noting that experts say the curve of the virus has flattened, and the peak in the new cases has passed, Trump said that nationwide, more than 850 counties or nearly 30 per cent of the country have reported no new cases in the last seven days.

Because of our early and aggressive action, we have avoided the tragedy of health care rationing and deadly shortfalls that have befallen in many other nations, nations which wherever possible we are helping, he said.

According to Trump, at least 35 clinical trials are already underway, including antiviral therapies, immune therapies, and blood therapies in the form of convalescent plasma. So far, more than 3.5 million tests have been carried out.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Aboard Air Force One, Jan 6: US President Donald Trump threatened sanctions against Baghdad on Sunday after Iraq's parliament called on US troops to leave the country, and the president said if troops did leave, Baghdad would have to pay Washington for the cost of the air base there.

"We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that's there. It cost billions of dollars to build, long before my time. We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it," Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Trump said that if Iraq asked US forces to leave and it was not done on a friendly basis, "we will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame."

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