Thirty-one asylum seekers were rescued after they were pushed back into Turkish territorial waters by Greek elements, the provincial Coast Guard Command said on Tuesday.

The command said a rescue boat was dispatched to Dikili district shores in western Izmir province and the asylum seekers were referred to the provincial migration office.

Turkey and human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practice of pushing back asylum seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children./aa

GENEVA(AA)

Europe experienced its coldest spring for years in 2021, but temperatures were well above average in other parts of the world, especially in northern Africa, the Middle East, northern and western Russia, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday.

"Europe had its coldest spring since 2013; the average March-May temperature was 0.45 C below the 1991-2020 average," said Clare Nullis, the spokeswoman for the WMO, at a UN press briefing on World Oceans Day.

"Just because this year has got off to a relatively cool start by recent standards does not mean that we've hit the pause button on climate change."

The WMO says there is a 90% chance that one of the next five years will be the warmest on record.

Nullis cited data from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service that Europe's cold May contrasted with the global average temperature for the month, which was 0.26 C higher than the mean in 1991-2020.

Temperatures were well above average over western Greenland, North Africa, the Middle East, and northern and western Russia.

Still, below-average May temperatures were reported over the southern and central US, parts of northern Canada, south-central Africa, India, eastern Russia, and eastern Antarctica.

CO2 still key climate change driver

The WMO spokeswoman explained how carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are still a key driver of climate change.

"Yesterday, we saw the release of very worrying figures from Mauna Loa (in Hawaii), the world's oldest benchmark atmospheric monitoring and monitoring station, which has the longest track record of monitoring greenhouse gases," said Nullis.

"The monthly average CO2 concentration at Mauna Loa observatory reached a new record 419.13 parts per million (ppm) in May, up from 417.31 ppm in May 2020," she said, citing the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The WMO official noting World Oceans Day said the rate of ocean warming over the past decade has increased.

"These CO2 figures which I mentioned are going to have a very real and very serious impact on the ocean, and this is because the ocean absorbs more than 23% of CO2 emissions."

According to the WMO, ocean acidification and marine heatwaves have already weakened coral reefs that shield coastlines and are vital marine ecosystems.

The ocean also absorbs more than 90% of the excess heat from human activities, with 2019 seeing the highest ocean heat content on record, and this trend likely continued in 2020, said the WMO.

In the last 30 years, between 25% and 50% of the world's live coral have been lost, "and it is predicted that by mid-century we could lose functional coral reef ecosystems around most of the world," according to a UNEP/FAO (UN Environment Program/Food and Agriculture Organization) report issued for World Environment Day on June 5.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday called the killings of four members of a Muslim family a “terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.”

The victims were killed when a pickup truck driver intentionally plowed into the group in London, Ontario late Sunday.

Their lives were taken in a “brutal, cowardly, brazen act of violence,” Trudeau said in an address to the House of Commons. “This killing was no accident.”

The deceased are a 74-year-old woman, a man, 46, a woman, 44 and a 15-year-old girl.

Another family member, a boy, 9, was also struck and he is in a hospital in a serious but non-life-threatening condition.

Nathaniel Veltman, 20, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, said police.

“There is evidence that this was a planned, premeditated act and that the family was targeted because of their Muslim faith,” according to London Police Detective Inspector Paul Waight at a news conference on Monday./aa

YAOUNDE, Cameroon(AA)

Over 3,300 people, including 2,000 children and more than 500 women, have been forced to flee their homes after the recent harrowing assault on a village in Burkina Faso, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.

At least 138 civilians were killed in the June 5 attack on Solhan village in Burkina Faso’s northeastern Sahel region, near the border with Niger, making it the “deadliest since 2015,” according to UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch.

Fearing for their lives, thousands of men, women, and children rushed for refuge in the nearby villages of Sebba and Sampelga, arriving “with few or no belongings.”

“The majority were generously welcomed by local families who are sharing what little they have. The new arrivals urgently need water and sanitation, shelter, essential aid items and medical care,” Baloch said at a press briefing in Geneva.

“Authorities have delivered almost 400 tons of food and thousands of relief items, while UNHCR partners are providing medical care and psychosocial support.”

According to the UN agency, violence in the country has forced more than 1.2 million Burkinabe from their homes since 2019.

“Already this year, some 150,000 people have been internally displaced, with 84% either women, who face a high risk of gender-based violence, or children, half of whom have reportedly been subjected to physical violence and abuse,” the spokesperson said.

He added that violence and displacement have also surged in neighboring Mali and Niger.

“Mali hosts 372,000 IDPs [internally displaced persons], a 7% rise since the start of the year. In total, 237,000 refugees and 300,000 IDPs live in Niger, with a rise of 4,000 refugees and 2,000 IDPs since the start of the year following an increase in attacks,” Baloch said.

The Kuwaiti Cabinet decided, in its meeting yesterday, chaired by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled, to operate direct flights to the United Kingdom and to open museums and cultural centers as of Sunday, the 13th.

The newspaper also learned that the countdown to opening the airport has begun, based on information that the Supreme Ministerial Committee for Coronavirus Emergencies is preparing the arrangements and procedures required to open the airport in early August, provided the epidemiological situation is stable, and strict health conditions and procedures are accepted in preparation for submission to the Council of Ministers.

And the sources added: Allowing entry to holders of valid residency permits from individuals is also under study, especially since the Ministry of Health is treading in an excellent arrangement under the supervision of the Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basil Al-Sabah to achieve community immunity.

The sources indicated that putting these arrangements into effect will be after the approval of the Council of Ministers, so that it works with the currently approved mechanism, which is the requirement of vaccination with an approved vaccine, and the stay of arrivals in a third country for a period of 14 days, with a new identification of countries in which the transit period may be spent while maintaining institutional quarantine and conducting checks. Currently scheduled PCR.

The sources stressed that no recommendation was made to the Council for compulsory vaccination against the Coronavirus for citizens or residents.