World

Beijing, Sep 15 (IANS) Muifa, the 12th typhoon of this year, made the first landfall on the coast of Zhoushan in China's Zhejiang province, and the second on Thursday in Shanghai's Fengxian district, authorities have said.

The first landfall was recorded at about 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday night and the second at 12.30 a.m on Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The typhoon packed winds of up to 151.2 km per hour at its centre when it landed on the coast of Putuo in Zhoushan, according to the provincial flood control, typhoon and drought relief headquarters.

The headquarters upgraded the typhoon emergency response level to Level I -- the highest level -- at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Local authorities also issued a red alert for flash floods on Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday evening, over 1.3 million Zhejiang residents were relocated to avoid potential casualties, while a total of 11,680 fishing boats returned to port.

Meanwhile in Shanghai, the typhoon packed winds of up to 126 km per hour and had an atmospheric pressure of 975 hectopascals at its centre when it landed.

A total of 10 typhoons have made landfall in Shanghai since 1949, with Muifa being the strongest.

Muifa is expected to weaken while moving across the provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong, and will gradually become an extratropical cyclone on Friday after entering the Bohai Sea.

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Islamabad, Sep 15 (IANS) Dengue cases are on the rise in Pakistan in the wake of the catastrophic flooding across the country triggered by record monsoon rain since mid-June, the media reported on Thursday.

As relief and rescue operations continue, officials have warned of a looming health crisis with a surge in dengue, malaria and severe gastric infections, reports the BBC.

About 3,830 cases of dengue fever have been reported by health officials in Sindh province, one of the worst-hit regions, with at least nine deaths.

"The overall situation in Sindh is very bad, we are organising medical camps all over the province. Most of the cases we are seeing now are of dengue patients followed closely by malaria," Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, told the BBC.

"The dengue burden is the same all over the province and it's increasing daily. When we checked with the laboratories, the suspected cases are around 80 per cent of tests being done."

Shoro, who has been treating scores of dengue patients at Agha Khan hospital in Karachi, told the BBC that the situation is only going to worsen in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the overall death toll in Pakistan from this season's monsoon rains and floods has increased to 1,486, along with 12,749 injured, according to the latest update by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The NDMA further added that 179,281 people have been rescued and 546,288 others are currently living in camps.

Some 33 million people across the country have been affected so far.

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Islamabad, Sep 15 (IANS) At least five people were killed and one was injured in heavy monsoon rain-triggered flash floods in the last 24 hours in Pakistan, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

Two children and a woman were among those who lost their lives in separate flood-related incidents, according to an NDMA report released on Wednesday evening.

The country's southwestern Balochistan province was the worst-hit region with three killed, followed by the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which reported two deaths, the report said.

Moreover, 5,091 houses were destroyed, 10,336 livestock animals perished and 300 km-long roads were damaged in different parts of Pakistan, it added.

The total death toll in Pakistan from this season's monsoon rains and floods since mid-June has risen to around 1,486, along with 12,749 injured, the NDMA said.

The NDMA further added that 179,281 people have been rescued and 546,288 others are currently living in camps, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescue and relief operations by the NDMA, other government organisations, volunteers and non-governmental organisations were underway in the flood-hit areas.

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Moscow, Sep 15 (IANS) Russian President Vladimir Putin and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed issues of grain exports over a telephone conversation, the Kremlin said in a statement.

"The main attention is given to the implementation of the Istanbul package agreements on the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports, as well as the export of Russian food and fertilisers," the statement said on Wednesday, confirming both sides' mutual position on ensuring the needs of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America as a priority.

During the phone call, the UN chief informed in detail about the measures taken by the Secretariat and the specialised UN agencies on removing all obstacles for pushing the supplies of Russian agricultural products and fertilisers to world markets, expressing his full commitment to solving this issue, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the statement, both sides also discussed the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the context of the visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency on September 1.

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United Nations, Sep 15 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that next week's General Debate of the General Assembly must be about hope.

"This year's General Debate must be about providing hope and overcoming the divisions that are dramatically impacting the world," he told a press conference on Wednesday ahead of the high-level week of this year's General Assembly session.

"That hope can only come through the dialogue and debate that are the beating heart of the UN and that must prevail next week against all divisions," he added.

People need to see results in their everyday lives, or they will lose faith in their governments and institutions, and they will lose hope in the future, he warned.

Guterres said his opening speech on Tuesday to the General Debate will address the urgent issues with concrete recommendations and a call to action, Xinhua news agency reported.

"As fractures deepen and trust evaporates, we need to come together around solutions," he added.

The General Assembly is meeting at a time of great peril. Geostrategic divides are the widest they have been since at least the Cold War. They are paralysing the global response to the dramatic challenges the world faces, he said.

"Our world is blighted by war, battered by climate chaos, scarred by hate, and shamed by poverty, hunger, and inequality."

Conflicts and unrest continue to rage. The conflict in Ukraine is devastating a country and dragging down the global economy. Global hunger began to rise before the Covid-19 pandemic and has never recovered. The cost-of-living crisis is hitting the poorest people and communities hardest, with dramatic effects. The rights of women and girls are going into reverse. Most developing countries have no fiscal space, and no access to the financial resources needed to recover from the pandemic and protect their people from the devastating impact of climate change, he noted.

"The solidarity envisioned in the UN Charter is being devoured by the acids of nationalism and self-interest -- by a shocking disregard for the poorest and most vulnerable in our world; by politicians who play to people's worst instincts for partisan gain; by prejudice, discrimination, misinformation and hate speech that pit people against one another; by a global financial system that penalises those with the least; by fossil fuel corporations killing the planet to rake in the most," said the UN chief.

Guterres said he was shocked by the destruction caused by floods in Pakistan during his recent trip, and called for climate action.

What is happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis, and the betrayal and injustice at the heart of it, he said.

"Whether it is Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, small islands or least developed countries, the world's most vulnerable, who did nothing to cause this crisis, are paying a horrific price for decades of intransigence by big emitters."

The Group of 20 (G20) countries are responsible for 80 per cent of emissions. They are also suffering the impact of record droughts, fires and floods. But climate action seems to be flatlining. If one-third of G20 countries were under water today -- as it could be tomorrow -- perhaps they would find it easier to agree on drastic cuts to emissions, the UN chief added.

All countries -- with the G20 leading the way -- must boost their national emissions reduction and must limit the world's temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. Pakistan and other climate hot spots need flood-resilient infrastructure now. And those most responsible for emissions must step up with the funds for adaptation, he said.

At least half of all climate finance and climate resilience should go to adaptation so as to protect people and economies. Unless action is taken now, unless funds are disbursed now, these tragedies will simply multiply, with devastating consequences for years to come, including instability and mass migration around the world, he warned.

"So my message to world leaders gathering here (for the General Debate) is clear: Lower the temperature -- now. Don't flood the world today; don't drown it tomorrow," said Guterres.

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Cairo, Sep 15 (IANS) Egypt and Qatar signed three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in Doha, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and visiting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi witnessed the signing of the MoU between the Sovereign Fund of Egypt for investment and development and the Qatar Investment Authority, the statement added on Wednesday.

Another deal was signed in the field of social affairs between the Egyptian Ministry of Social Solidarity and the Qatari Ministry of Social Development, Xinhua news agency reported.

The third MoU was signed for cooperation in the field of ports between the two countries, it said.

"The visit culminates the recent trajectory of excellence in Egyptian-Qatari relations," said Egypt's Presidency Spokesperson Bassam Rady.

The two leaders discussed ways to foster closer cooperation between Egypt and Qatar and to increase their joint trade, economic, and investment relations, the statement added.

Their meeting also tackled developments in Arab regional and international issues of mutual interest, it said.

Sisi's two-day visit to Qatar is the first-of-its-kind in four years.

The Qatari emir visited Cairo in June. In late March, Cairo and Doha agreed to invest $5 billion in Egypt.

In January 2021, the Arab quartet of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain signed the Al-Ula Declaration with Qatar, ending their all-around boycott of Doha since mid-2017.

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Stockholm, Sep 15 (IANS) Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced her resignation on Wednesday after losing the election.

Andersson, also leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party, conceded defeat at a press conference following the election on Sunday.

She said she would hand in her resignation notice on Thursday after it emerged that the opposition blue bloc consisting of the Moderate Party, the Christian Democrats, the Liberal Party and the Sweden Democrats, had won 176 of the 349 seats in parliament.

Meanwhile Andersson's red bloc, consisting of her Social Democratic Party, the Left Party, the Green Party, and the Centre Party, won 173 seats, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Tomorrow I will, therefore, request my dismissal as Prime Minister, and the responsibility for the continued process will pass to the Speaker and the Parliament," she said.

She will now lead a transitional government until the new one has been installed, and thereafter she will lead the Social Democrats in opposition.

"We have made the largest increase in voter support in 20 years and we are not only Sweden's largest party -- we are also the largest party in northern Europe. I am proud and grateful that almost two million Swedes chose to vote for us," Andersson added.

Despite the blue bloc ending up with three seats more than the red bloc, some analysts consider the blue bloc as fragile, since the Liberal Party has vowed not to tolerate a government that includes the Sweden Democrats.

There are also fundamental differences between the Sweden Democrats and the other parties in the bloc when it comes to issues such as the unemployment insurance and other economic issues.

Also, during the election campaign Ulf Kristersson, leader of the Moderate Party -- which after decades lost its position as Sweden's second largest party to the far-right Sweden Democrats -- repeatedly said that the Sweden Democrats would not be included in his government should his bloc be victorious.

"It is now clear that the Sweden Democrats is now Sweden's second largest party and I know that this worries many Swedes." the Prime Minister said.

In a video posted on Facebook, Kristersson said that political polarisation had "become far too great also in Sweden".

Meanwhile, Andersson added that she was prepared to explore another solution should Kristersson's efforts to form a government fail.

"If it turns out that Ulf Kristersson's intended basis does not hold together, then of course my door is open," the Prime Minister said.

"We Social Democrats are ready to cooperate with anyone who wants to be part of the solution to the problems that Sweden is facing."

Andersson took over from Stefan Lofven as both leader of the Social Democrats and the country's Prime Minister in November 2021, following a period of political turbulence. She therefore became Sweden's first female Prime Minister.

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Paris, Sep 15 (IANS) Wildfires continue in France's southwestern department of Gironde, with more than 3,700 hectare of land burnt since Monday, the Prefecture of Gironde announced in a statement.

The Prefecture on Wednesday added that the gendarmes evacuated on Wednesday 1,000 more people as a preventive measure, bringing the total number of evacuees to 1,840 since Monday.

"More than 1,000 firefighters from Gironde and other departments are being mobilised. Six Canadairs, three Dash (plane) and two water bomber helicopters were deployed today for troublesome zones," the Prefecture said.

The Prefecture added that emergency accommodations are being offered to evacuees in Le Porge and other municipalities, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Prefecture noted that the wildfires are "controlled" but remain "active" due to the strong winds.

It also reminded residents near wildfire zones to wear FFP2 or FFP3 masks to prevent them from inhaling wildfire smoke.

More than 30,000 hectare of land had been burned in the department of Gironde this summer due to dry weather and heatwaves, local media reported.

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Geneva, Sep 15 (IANS) The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that future coronavirus waves are expected and that governments across the world need to remain vigilant and ready to respond to any threat that may emerge.

"We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.

According to the WHO, during the week of September 5-11, the number of new weekly cases worldwide decreased by 28 per cent over the previous week to more than 3.1 million. The number of new weekly deaths was down 22 per cent to just under 11,000.

Tedros likened the pandemic response to a marathon race.

"Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap the rewards of all our hard work."

Nevertheless, the WHO's experts continue to urge caution, Xinhua news agency reported.

The virus is "circulating at a very intense level around the world at the present time. And, in fact, the number of cases that are being reported to the WHO we know are an underestimate," Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, said.

"We feel there are far more cases that are actually circulating than are being reported to us," she added.

"We expect there to be future waves of infection, potentially at different time points throughout the world, caused by different subvariants of Omicron or even different variants of concern," she noted.

Those future waves of infection "do not need to translate into future waves of death, because we have tools that can prevent infections," she said.

Even as the pandemic wanes, people should maintain high levels of vigilance, said Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme.

The world is fighting "a highly mutable evolving virus that has shown us, time and time again in two-and-a-half years, how it can adapt and how it can change," Ryan added.

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Geneva, Sep 15 (IANS) Syrians are facing increasing suffering and hardship due to the deadly consequences of over a decade of war, the latest United Nations (UN) report warned.

The 50-page report, issued by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said on Wednesday that millions of people in Syria are suffering and dying in displacement camps, while resources are becoming scarcer and donor fatigue is rising.

"Syria cannot afford a return to larger-scale fighting, but that is where it may be heading," said Commission chair Paulo Pinheiro.

According to the report, which covers the period January 1 to June 30 of this year, there was continued fighting in the north of Syria.

The latest UN estimates show that between March 1, 2011, and March 31, 2021, the conflict in Syria claimed the lives of 306,887 civilians. This means that on average, 83 civilians have died in the conflict every single day for the last decade, Xinhua news agency reported.

The armed conflict in Syria broke out in 2011, and rapidly escalated into a full-scale war. In recent years, delegations from the Syrian government and its opposition have held several rounds of peace talks in Geneva, but solutions have yet to be found.

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