MH370: Malaysia Airlines to provide financial aid to families

April 20, 2014

MH370Kuala Lumpur, Apr 20: The grieving families of the 239 passengers and crew of Flight MH370 will receive financial assistance from Malaysia Airlines to ease their burdens, a top official said today, 44 days after the plane vanished mysteriously from radar screens.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin, who heads the sub-committee focusing on the next-of-kin of people on board the ill-fated plane, said that the process to identify those who would receive the assistance started two weeks ago.

The assistance would come solely from Malaysia Airlines (MAS), with the Government only stepping in to bear some of the costs if there is a need for it, he said.

Malaysia has been criticised for its handling of the tragedy, particularly by the relatives of the 154 Chinese passengers on board the ill-fated plane, besides being accused of hiding information.

During a briefing with the families, Hamzah said the families have been requested to submit their own amounts for financial assistance.

"Some of the families have lost their breadwinners and may be facing financial difficulties."Those affected will all receive some form of financial assistance from MAS. However, when the assistance will be given will be determined at a later date as we have recipients from 15 different countries," he was quoted as saying by the Star.com.

He added that two Malaysian representatives were in talks with the families in China regarding financial assistance, with MCA vice-president Paduka Chew Mei Fun expected to fly to Beijing to speak to the next-of-kin of Chinese passengers as well.

Beijing-bound Flight MH370, with 239 people aboard, including five Indians, left the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea.

A multinational search was mounted for the Boeing 777-200 aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learnt that the plane had veered off course, in the southern Indian Ocean.

After an analysis of satellite data indicated that the plane's last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced on March 24 that Flight MH370 had "ended in the southern Indian Ocean".

A multi-nation search operation led by Australia during the last 44 days have been scouring the Indian Ocean but has failed to find the crucial black boxes or the debris of the plane.

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News Network
April 16,2020

Islamabad, Apr 16: The number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan topped 6000 while the death toll due to the virus has reached 117, Dawn reported citing official data on Wednesday.

Over 1,446 people have recovered in the country from the deadly virus that has killed over 1.3 lakh people worldwide.

The total number of cases in the country has reached 6297 with Punjab being the worst affected province with 3,016 cases. Meanwhile, Sindh has 1,688 cases of the deadly virus.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported 47 new cases of the coronavirus, taking the provincial total to 912. Most of the new cases are of Tableeghi Jamaat members who have travel history.

Balochistan has reported four new cases of COVID-19, taking the provincial total to 281 according to provincial government spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced the extension of the nationwide lockdown with relaxation to some sectors.

Addressing the media in Islamabad on Tuesday, Khan said, "We made the hard decision of imposing lockdown in the country which was very well implemented due to cooperation of the people."

The countrywide lockdown was imposed last month in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus. Later, a two-week extension was announced in the restrictions until April 14.

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News Network
June 13,2020

Paris, Jun 13: The coronavirus pandemic has killed 425,000 people since it emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP tally of official sources at 0130 GMT on Saturday.

A total of 425,282 deaths have now been recorded from 7,632,517 cases.

Europe has registered 186,843 deaths from 2,363,538 cases, but the epidemic is progressing most rapidly in Latin America, where there have been a total of 76,343 deaths recorded from 1,569,938 cases.

The United States remains the country with the most recorded deaths at 114,643, ahead of Brazil which on Friday became the second worst-hit nation with 41,828 deaths. Britain is next with 41,481 deaths, followed by Italy (34,223) and France (29,374).

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News Network
March 12,2020

Geneva, Mar 12: For the global economy, virus repercussions were profound, with increasing concerns of wealth- and job-wrecking recessions. U.S. stocks wiped out more than all the gains from a huge rally a day earlier as Wall Street continued to reel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,464 points, bringing it 20% below its record set last month and putting it in what Wall Street calls a “bear market.” The broader S&P 500 is just 1 percentage point away from falling into bear territory and bringing to an end one of the greatest runs in Wall Street’s history.

WHO officials said they thought long and hard about labeling the crisis a pandemic — defined as sustained outbreaks in multiple regions of the world.

The risk of employing the term, Ryan said, is “if people use it as an excuse to give up.” But the benefit is “potentially of galvanizing the world to fight.”

Underscoring the mounting challenge: soaring numbers in the U.S. and Europe’s status as the new epicenter of the pandemic. While Italy exceeds 12,000 cases and the United States has topped 1,300, China reported a record low of just 15 new cases Thursday and three-fourths of its infected patients have recovered.

China’s totals of 80,793 cases and 3,169 deaths are a shrinking portion of the world’s more than 126,000 infections and 4,600 deaths.

“If you want to be blunt, Europe is the new China,” said Robert Redfield, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With 12,462 cases and 827 deaths, Italy said all shops and businesses except pharmacies and grocery stores would be closed beginning Thursday and designated billions in financial relief to cushion economic shocks in its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving crisis that silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St. Peter’s Square.

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