World

Jakarta, Sep 24 (IANS) A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's western province of Aceh on Saturday morning, the country's meteorology and geophysics agency said.

--IANS
int/khz/

Damascus/Beirut, Sep 24 (IANS) At least 73 people died from a boat that sank off the Syrian coast, the Syrian Health Ministry said.

Twenty others have been rescued and sent for medical treatment at the al-Basel hospital in the Syrian coastal city of Tartous after the boat sank in the Syrian waters, Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabbash said in a statement on Friday.

The boat set off from Lebanon on Tuesday carrying illegal migrants of various nationalities to "unknown destinations," Syrian General Director of Sea Ports Samer Kobrosly earlier said on Friday, citing testimonies from the survivors.

The latest casualties included 31 bodies found on Friday during an ongoing search and rescue mission launched by Syrian authorities, Kobrosly added.

Head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman cited sources as saying on Friday that the boat carried between 100 to 150 people, noting that the original capacity of the boat was only enough for 30 people.

Lebanese, Syrians and other unidentified nationalities were on the boat, the Britain-based war monitor revealed on Thursday, adding that the migrants' initial destination was Cyprus, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh, the 20 rescued migrants are five Lebanese, 12 Syrians and three Palestinians.

Hamieh said in a statement that the Lebanese Red Cross is coordinating with the Syrian Red Crescent on bringing some of the victims' bodies home.

--IANS
int/khz/

Los Angeles, Sep 23 (IANS) Animated series 'The Simpsons' did not in fact predict the date of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, according to fact-checkers.

The false claim that the show, legendary for its eerily prescient prognostications, foretold the Queen's death has been the subject of dozens of doctored videos and memes by hoaxsters that have gone viral on TikTok and other platforms, reports 'Variety'.

In one altered TikTok video, which currently has more than 26 million views, a cartoon version of Queen Elizabeth II is shown lying in a casket below a plaque that reads 'Elizabeth II: 1926-2022'.

The clip also shows a sticker, superimposed in the background of actual footage from 'The Simpsons', that displays the date September 8, 2022, the day of the Queen's death.

Since the Queen's death, videos with the fake image of her lying in a coffin have circulated on TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and elsewhere, typically with captions falsely stating that 'The Simpsons' predicted the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

"The Simpsons have done it again," says one TikTok video with more than 16 million views.

But no episode of 'The Simpsons' ever included the dates of the Queen's death, according to fact-checking organisations including PolitiFact and Lead Stories.

A previous hoax used a similar image of Donald Trump lying in a coffin to falsely claim the series had predicted his death due to COVID.

The Queen appeared as a character on 'The Simpsons' six times, according to the fan-curated Wikisimpsons site, including in a 2003 episode titled 'The Regina Monologues' from Season 15 in which the monarch's carriage was rear-ended by Homer.

'The Simpsons' famously has predicted other major events.

In a 2000 episode, the series included a joke that Donald Trump would become president of the United States.

And in 1998, 'The Simpsons' foreshadowed Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, almost two decades before the Mouse House snapped up 21st Century Fox.

Meanwhile, other debunked claims about 'The Simpsons' predicting the future include that the show foretold the COVID pandemic and the deadly tragedy at Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival last year in Houston, according to fact-checking site Snopes.

--IANS
dc/svn/

London, Sep 23 (IANS) The UK government has formally lifted a ban on fracking for shale gas in England and confirmed support for new oil and gas licensing round.

According to a statement published on Thursday, to "bolster the country's energy security", the government has lifted the moratorium on shale gas production in England, reports Xinhua news agency.

The government has also confirmed plans for a new oil and gas licensing round, launching by the North Sea Transition Authority in early October, paving the way for more than 100 new licences for exploration, which could involve fracking.

These licences will enable developers to search for commercially viable oil and gas sources.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said strengthening Britain's energy security is "an absolute priority".

In 2019, the government had said that fracking would resume only if "the science shows categorically that it can be done safely".

However, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy argued on Thursday that lifting the ban would enable further data to be collected.

The moratorium on shale-gas production has been in place in England since 2019 following concerns over earth tremors.

According to an Oil and Gas Authority report, it is not possible with current technology to accurately predict the probability of tremors associated with fracking.

--IANS
ksk/

Islamabad, Sep 23 (IANS) The overall death toll in Pakistan from the devastating floods has increased to 1,596, with 12,863 others injured, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

In the last 24 hours, 20 new fatalities were reported, reports Xinhua news agency citing the NDMA as saying.

The victims included 17 children and most of the deaths were reported in the worst-hit Sindh province.

The heavy monsoon rain-triggered flash floods since mid-June have also destroyed a total of 2,016,008 houses, while an estimated 1,040,735 livestock has perished in the rains across the country, according to the latest NDMA figures.

It further added that 12,716 km of roads and 374 bridges were damaged.

Rescue and relief operations by the NDMA, other government organisations, volunteers and NGOs were underway in the affected areas.

--IANS
ksk/

New York/Islamabad, Sep 22 (IANS) In his address to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, US President Joe Biden made a fervent pitch for extending help to Pakistan in the wake of the catastrophic floods, as he announced over $2.9 billion in new assistance to address global food insecurity.

Biden on Wednesday was confronting no shortage of difficult issues as leaders gathered this year at the UNGA, The Express Tribune reported.

"Pakistan is still under water, needs help," the President said in his address to the 193-member assembly during its high-level debate with a host of world leaders in attendance, including Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif.

"Families are facing impossible choices, choosing which child to feed and wondering whether they'll survive," he said.

"This is the human cost of climate change. And it's growing, not lessening."

Biden's appeal came a day after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had urged world leaders to help Pakistan deal with its debts.

--IANS
san

Washington, Sep 22 (IANS) Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has declared a public health emergency for Puerto Rico due to the severe flooding caused by hurricane Fiona which made landfall in the American territory earlier this week.

Under the declaration issued on Wednesday, the HHS haas deployed a 15-person health and medical task force from its National Disaster Medical System and a 10-person incident management team to Puerto Rico.

"The declaration follows President Biden Biden's disaster declaration and gives the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) beneficiaries and their health care providers and suppliers greater flexibility in meeting emergency health needs," the Department said in a statement.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Becerra said: "We will do all we can to assist officials with responding to the impacts of Hurricane Fiona and stand ready to provide additional public health and medical support."

"We are working closely with territory health authorities and our federal partners and stand ready to provide additional public health and medical support."

Hurricane Fiona made landfall on Puerto Rico on Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane, bringing heavy rain, catastrophic damage, and an island-wide blackout.

Localised flash and urban flooding due to swells continue to affect the island, which has over 3 million residents.

More than 1 million customers in Puerto Rico were still without power as of Wednesday evening, according to poweroutage.us.

Fiona, which has strengthened into a Category 4 storm, is approaching Bermuda, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

--IANS
ksk/

By Arul Louis
United Nations, Sep 22 (IANS) Newly-elected British Prime Minister Liz Truss said that to build economic strength and resilience, her country is deepening relations and growing security ties with fellow democracies like India.


Making her debut on the world stage on Wednesday at the high-level meeting of the General Assembly, she said: "The free world needs this economic strength and resilience to push back against authoritarian aggression and win this new era of strategic competition."

For this, Truss said: "We are deepening our links with fellow democracies like India, Israel, Indonesia and South Africa... We are building new security ties with our friends in the Indo-Pacific and the Gulf."

The Prime Minister brought the stark message of a confrontation between democracy and autocracy over the future of the world.

"There is a real struggle going on between different forms of society - between democracies and autocracies. But we cannot simply assume there will be a democratic future.

"Unless democratic societies deliver on the economy and security our citizens expect, we will fall behind," she added.

For this, Truss said, democracies like Britain have to build their economies and not "be strategically dependent on those who seek to weaponise the global economy", a reference to Russia, whose ongoing invasion of Ukraine and its fallout have hit many countries hard.

To be economically and strategically resilient, democracies must band together, she said.

And alluding to the predatory nature of China's economic programmes abroad, the Prime Minister said: "Rather than exerting influence through debt, aggression, and taking control of critical infrastructure and minerals, we are building strategic ties based on mutual benefit and trust."

(Arul Louis can be contacted at aru.l@ians.in and followed at @arulouis)

--IANS
al/ksk/

Washington, Sep 22 (IANS) The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol announced that it will hold a new hearing on September 28 as the panel is entering its final stages of its more than year-long probe into the insurrection.

The committee's Chair, Bennie Thompson told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday that the panel has "substantial footage of what occurred ... (and) significant witness testimony that we haven't used in other hearings".

Without providing too many details, Thompson added that he will chair next week's hearing but, unlike the earlier ones, "every member of the committee will have a role".

He added that this hearing will be the panel's last.

Investigators held eight public hearings in June and July as part of the inquiry, which former President Donald Trump, a Republican, has denounced as a political "witch hunt" launched by Democrats, reports Xinhua news agency.

On January 6 last year, thousands of individuals -- mostly Trump's supporters -- stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and disrupted a joint session of Congress to affirm the 2020 presidential election results.

Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted.

Authorities have linked at least five deaths to the mayhem.

It was the worst attack on the US Congress in more than 200 years and led to Trump's second impeachment by the House of Representatives shortly before his term officially ended.

--IANS
ksk/

Ottawa, Sep 22 (IANS) Canada has confirmed 1,379 cases of monkeypox, including 38 hospitalisations, the Public Health Agency of Canada said.

Of the confirmed cases, 667 are from Ontario, 515 from Quebec, 150 from British Columbia, 39 from Alberta, three from Saskatchewan, two from the Yukon and one each from Nova Scotia, Manitoba and New Brunswick, the health agency was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

The provinces are waiting for the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to provide guidance on if and how to start a second-dose strategy which is expected in the coming weeks.

Monkeypox is a viral disease that can spread from person to person through close contact with an infected person, including through hugs, kisses, massages or sexual intercourse, according to experts.

--IANS
int/shs