Rescue crews are trying to locate anyone who may be alive after massive flooding caused a landslide that has killed at least 21 people in Ecuador’s capital of Quito, according to authorities.

Five people are missing and 47 injured thus far, Ecuador's SNGRE emergency service said on Twitter.

Quito’s Mayor Santiago Guarderas said torrential downpour fell late Monday on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, in the La Gasca sector, exceeding the capacity of a water catchment structure on a hillside.

It caused a deluge of mud, water and rocks to sweep down an avenue in the city, sweeping away volleyball players and spectators on a sports field and washing away cars, flooding houses and blocking streets.

Residents were left digging through mud to escape the debris and are still looking for loved ones. Many have been taken to shelters.

Personnel and heavy machinery have been deployed to find survivors, clear roads and fix the failed water catchment system.

Soldiers, police and fire brigades have been mobilized to assist in search and rescue efforts.

Heavy rains reached a record of 75 liters per square meter (20 gallons per square foot) when only 2 liters per square meter (0.5 gallons per square foot) were expected, according to Guarderas.

This is not the first time that the city has faced tragedy from flooding as a similar amount of rainfall was recorded in 2003.

The mayor said measures taken did not prevent the disaster from occurring.

“In spite of the slope protection works and the control of the city's streams, we are not exempt from natural disasters,” Guarderas wrote on Twitter.​​​​​​​

The heavy downpour coincided with a wave of rain that has affected a large part of the country./aa

There is a “very worrying increase” in COVID-19 deaths around the world and preventing transmission of the virus is still paramount, the head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Addressing a webinar, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last Sunday marked two years since a public health emergency of international concern – the highest level of alarm under international law – was declared over the spread of COVID-19.

At the time, there were fewer than 100 cases and no deaths reported outside China, he said.

“Two years later, more than 370 million cases have been reported and more than 5.6 million deaths – and we know these numbers are an underestimate,” said Tedros.

He said “almost 90 million cases have been reported to WHO – more than were reported in the whole of 2020” since omicron was first identified just 10 weeks ago.

“We are now starting to see a very worrying increase in deaths in most regions of the world,” said Tedros.

Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead, said over 22 million cases were reported to the WHO in the past seven days, driven mainly by omicron.

Still need to prevent transmission

“We’re concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines, and because of omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary,” said Tedros.

He warned that “nothing could be further from the truth,” as more transmission means more deaths.

The WHO is not calling for any country to return to the “so-called lockdowns,” but is urging all countries to offer protection using every tool, not vaccines alone, he added.

“It’s premature for any country to either surrender or declare victory,” said Tedros.

“This virus is dangerous, and it continues to evolve before our very eyes. WHO is currently tracking four sub-lineages of the omicron variant of concern, including BA.2.”

The WHO wants countries to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing because the virus will continue to evolve, he explained.

“We can’t fight this virus if we don’t know what it’s doing,” said Tedros, adding that the world “must continue to work to ensure all people have access to vaccines.”

Vaccines may also need to evolve as variants of the virus could continue to escape neutralizing antibodies induced by vaccines against prior strains, he said.

In addition, the reservoir of beta coronaviruses is significant, and new crossovers to humans are likely, Tedros added./aa

At a virtual event held in Washington DC on Wednesday, to coincide with Republic Day, on the theme of “Protecting India’s Pluralist Constitution”, speakers, including Hamid Ansari, focused on what they termed as the rise in hate speech against minorities.

 Criticising India’s recent record on protecting human rights, civil liberties and religious freedom, a United States (US) senator, three US Congressmen, the chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and India’s former vice-president Mohammad Hamid Ansari have warned that the country is steering away from its constitutional values.

At a virtual event held in Washington DC on Wednesday, to coincide with Republic Day, on the theme of “Protecting India’s Pluralist Constitution”, the speakers focused, in particular, on what they termed as the rise in hate speech against religious minorities, the “misuse” of the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act, and the detention of a Kashmiri activist, Khurram Parvez.

The government of India has consistently rejected criticism about its democratic record, defended both its legislative processes and laws, cited the conduct of regular free and fair elections, and pointed to constitutional institutions and protections as evidence of its commitment to democratic principles and values.

The event was organised by a group of 17 US organisations – including the Indian-American Muslim Council (IAMC), a group that the Tripura government, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court about recent communal violence in the state, has accused of having links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and other extremist outfits.

The IAMC has firmly rejected the charge and calls itself an American civil rights organisation.

All the four senior US political figures – Senator Ed Markey and Congressmen Andy Levin, Jamie Raskin, and Jim McGovern – are Democrats, and have, in the past too, raised concerns about India’s democratic record.

Since he demitted office, former VP Ansari, too, has been critical of the National Democratic Alliance-led government. The USCIRF, a federal agency, has, since 2020, recommended to the State Department that India be designated as a “country of particular concern”, for “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations”, and pushed for sanctions against Indian officials.

Markey, a senator from Massachusetts since 2013, and a member of the House of Representatives from 1976 to 2013, thanked the IAMC for the invitation, and expressed concern at what he called the Modi government’s attempts to “peel back rights of religious minorities in India”. “Laws on religious conversion, citizenship and other restrictive measures fly in the face of India’s inclusive, secular constitution and core tenets of any democracy.”

Markey also accused the Indian government of targeting “the practices of minority faiths”. “In recent years, we have seen an uptick in online hate speech and acts of hate, including vandalised mosques, torched churches, and communal violence.”

He said it was the “duty of the US” to speak up whenever human rights were “under attack”, but especially so when it happened in India since India was a vital US partner. “We come together to celebrate India’s 73rd Republic Day, we will continue to honour the strong ties shared by our two countries while ensuring that we will speak up when a fellow democracy and strategic partner is unable to protect all of its own people.”

Back in New Delhi, many in the government see Markey as having been long hostile to Indian strategic interests and cite his opposition to the India-US civil nuclear deal when he was a member of the House.

Congressman Jim McGovern – a member of the Democratic progressive caucus in the House and the co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan caucus of the House – said there were “worrying signs” that India was witnessing an erosion of secularism, and with it, democracy.

He cited the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the possibility of National Register of Citizens as “institutionalising discrimination against Muslims”; alleged that the restriction on foreign funding to Missionaries of Charity (which he acknowledged was now reversed) as “raising the spectre of discrimination against Christians”: and claimed that the “repression and persistent human rights violations in Kashmir” had the potential to “radicalise entire populations” and lead to “unacceptable outcomes” like the killings of several Hindus and a Sikh last October in Srinagar.

McGovern also spoke about the detention of Khurram Parvez under the UAPA. “That act allows authorities to conduct warrantless searches, arrest individuals, and designate them as terrorists without trial or bail. That act has been used against journalists, activists and politicians in Kashmir and throughout India. This kind of misguided anti-terror legislation is not a sign of a healthy democracy.”

Like Markey, McGovern too cited US partnership with India as a reason for the US administration to speak up. “Here in the US, we are facing our own challenges of rising authoritarianism. Criticism of human rights abuses must not be reserved only for adversaries. If democracy is to prevail in India and world, those of us who truly believe in democracy and secularism that makes it possible must make common cause, at home and abroad…Let’s use this Republic Day to renew our shared commitment to liberal democracy.”

Andy Levin, a member of the House committee on foreign affairs and vice chair of the sub-committee on Asia, Pacific and non-proliferation, spoke about his personal connection to India and said he had travelled there as a teenager, and then spent time in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka as a student.

This, he claimed, had made him a great admirer of India’s secular democracy and tolerance and breadth of Hinduism, and was a source of pride for him as a “Bharatwalla, a friend of India”. “Here in the US, our democracy has come under attack in ways we could never imagine… Being patriotic and loving America with all your heart means speaking out against efforts to weaken our beloved system of government. Similarly, I so deeply love India… so it pains me specially to see the secular pluralist values underpinning India’s Constitution endangered like here in the US.”

Levin cited the dip in India’s rankings in terms of democracy and freedom, and asserted that he would, as a Congressman, use his powers to work to keep India “free, open, pluralistic and democratic society that works for all Indian people”.

Jamie Raskin, chair of the House subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties, thanked Hindus for Human Rights – another co-organiser of the event – for inviting him, said that the separation of the State and Church was essential for the preservation of human rights, and acknowledged that there was a continuing struggle for human rights in India, like in all countries. “But there have been lots of problems with the issue of religious discrimination and religious authoritarianism against Muslims, Hindu minorities dissenting from officially orthodox view, free thinkers and Christians. We want to make sure that India, like America, stays on the path of respecting religious liberty, freedom, pluralism, toleration and dissent for everybody.”

Former VP Hamid Ansari, who was also a long-serving Indian diplomat and chair of the National Minorities Commission, claimed that in recent years, there had been an effort to replace “civic nationalism” with “a new and imaginary practice of cultural nationalism” and present an electoral majority in the guise of a religious majority and “monopolise political power”. “It wants to distinguish citizens on the basis of faith, give vent to intolerance, insinuate otherness and promote disquiet and insecurity. Some of its recent manifestations are chilling and reflect poorly on our claim of being governed by rule of law.” These trends, he said, must be contested “legally and politically”.

Responding to allegations about the organisation’s links to ISI and extremist outfits such as SIMI that got renewed attention in the run-up to Wednesday’s event, Ajit Sahi, IAMC’s advocacy director, said, “The IAMC categorically denies any allegation of being involved with SIMI, Pakistan’s ISI or any terror group… it is a bona fide non-profit registered in Washington DC, and had advocated for civil and political liberties, religious freedom and human rights for two decades.” Sahi said that through this period, no US law enforcement agency had ever suggested that the IAMC may be linked with terrorism, “let alone investigate it”. “Until two months ago, when the IAMC called out the lies of the Tripura Police on the anti-Muslim violence in the state, no Indian law enforcement agency had ever suggested even remotely that the IAMC may be linked with any terror activity or group.”/ Hindustan Times

The European Union on Monday condemned “the continuing grave human rights violations” in Myanmar and reiterated its call for an immediate cessation of all hostilities. 

“Since the military coup, the situation has continuously and gravely deteriorated,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote in a statement marking the first anniversary of the junta’s takeover in Myanmar.

He expressed deep concern over the escalation of violence that has evolved “towards a protracted conflict with regional implications.”

He condemned “in the strongest terms the continuing grave human rights violations” and called for the accountability of those responsible for crimes such as torture, sexual violence, the persecution of civil society and attacks on the civilian population, including ethnic and religious minorities.

Borrell also called for “an immediate cessation of all hostilities and an end to the disproportionate use of force and the state of emergency.”

According to the EU’s estimations, more than 1,500 people have been killed, over 8,600 detained and 80 people sentenced to death over the past year.

In addition, 400,000 had to flee their homes and find shelter in the country as internally displaced since the military takeover while almost one million refugees live in neighboring countries.

On Feb. 1, 2021, Myanmar's military junta seized power after allegations of fraud in the Nov. 8, 2020 general elections and political tensions in the country.

The army arrested leaders and officials of the ruling National League for Democracy party, including de facto leader and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and declared a one-year state of emergency.

On Dec. 6, a military court in Naypyidaw, the country’s administrative capital, sentenced her to four years in prison for violating coronavirus restrictions and incitement, as well as other former leaders of the country./aa​​​​​​​

Climate change is on track to ramp up the annual cost of the United States flood damage more than 25% by 2050, according to new research Monday that warns disadvantaged communities will likely bear the brunt of the financial burden.

The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change used new flood models to map out the present and future impact of rising sea levels, tropical cyclones and changing weather patterns.

Losses include destruction projected to hit homes and businesses. Researchers warned that even more people are expected to move into areas at growing risk of inundation.

"Climate change combined with shifting populations present a double whammy of flood risk danger and the financial implications are staggering," said lead author Oliver Wing of the University of Bath's Cabot Institute for the Environment.

Wing said the findings should be a "call to action" for both a reduction in emissions and efforts to adapt to accelerating climate risks "to reduce the devastating financial impact flooding wreaks on people's lives."

Researchers used nationwide property asset data, information on communities and flood projections to estimate flood risk across the U.S.

The study showed that economically weaker communities with a proportionally larger white population currently face the steepest losses.

But future growth in flood risk is expected to have a greater impact on African-American communities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

"The mapping clearly indicates Black communities will be disproportionately affected in a warming world, in addition to the poorer White communities which predominantly bear the historical risk," said Wing.

"Both of these findings are of significant concern."

'Unacceptable' risks

Average annual flood losses were forecast to increase by 26.4%, from $32 billion at present to $40.6 billion in 2050, based on 2021 U.S. dollar values.

The researchers said these figures are "essentially locked in climatically," meaning that even if emissions fall dramatically, they would still be the same.

They also warned that the expanding population in the U.S. would also significantly increase the flood risk, eclipsing even the impact of climate change.

With inundations expected to intensify in areas where populations are also increasing, the researchers said the average annual exposure of the U.S. population to floods is expected to grow to more than 7 million by 2050, a 97% increase from current levels.

It said increases in climate-enhanced exposure were particularly concentrated along the U.S. East Coast, with existing Texas and Florida residents seeing a roughly 50% increase in flood exposure by 2050.

In terms of increased flood risk due to population growth, the researchers highlighted intensified development on existing floodplains, which they said was "relatively severe in the currently sparsely populated central Prairie States and the Deep South."

The study said even developments currently considered low risk may be in areas expected to see a heightened flood risk in the coming decades.

"Current flood risk in western society is already unacceptably high, yet climate and population change threaten to inflate these losses significantly," said co-author Paul Bates, a professor of hydrology at the Cabot Institute for the Environment.

"The relatively short timescales over which this increase will take place mean we cannot rely on decarbonization to reduce the risk, so we have to adapt better, both to the situation now and for the future."/DS

Asymposium jointly organized by the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) and the Turkish-German University in Istanbul on Monday shed light on the challenges of the Turkish diaspora in Germany and how they fared in the European country after the first mass migration.

The "60 Years of Turkish Presence in Germany" symposium is among a series of events to mark the anniversary of an agreement between Turkey and Germany for "guest workers," which started last year and continues in 2022, with events organized by YTB. Small groups of workers, who flocked to post-World War II Germany to help revive its economy evolved into the biggest community of expats in the country over the decades, as their number exceed 3 million.

The event discussed the early years of migration, the sociopolitical contribution of Turkish expatriates to German society and solutions to current challenges they faced. In a keynote speech, Abdullah Eren said Turks in Germany now have a strong presence in Germany in all fields, from health to music and sports. "The Turkish community played a critical, even a founding role, in Germany's economic and industrial development and they are now an indispensable part of Germany," he said.

He stated that the accomplishments of the Turkish community in Germany are not "independent of their rights such as equal and active citizenship, active political participation, education, use of their mother tongue and similar aspects, and they need issues they faced in those fields to be addressed."

Eren said there were some 4,700 Turkish civic society organizations in Germany and they helped with the socialization of new generations. He said YTB was helping them with capacity building and hoped that those organizations would work in a more coordinated way in fields such as education in their native language and fight against discrimination. He added that although immigrants made up about 26% of the German population, their political participation and representation were still not at the desired level, and added that the formation of mechanisms to achieve this was inevitable.

Turkish-German University rector professor Halil Akkanat said that the migration 60 years ago strengthened Turkish and German societies. "Nobody could guess that the Turkish population would be an inseparable part of Germany back then," he said. Akkanat noted that Turks in Germany passed the stage of "harmony" with society and started contributing to it in the following years and with the third and fourth generations, the Turkish migration evolved into a success story.

Vice President of Germany’s parliament, Aydan Özoğuz, who is of Turkish descent, told the symposium via video message that the workforce agreement signed years ago changed Germany a lot but they still needed more people to strengthen Turkish-German relations. Özoğuz cited Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, developers of the messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, as among contributors of German society. She highlighted that Germany receives a high number of immigrants but immigrants had no problem in integration. "Yet, we hope that people who live here, integrate with Germany and contribute to the country, would be active in politics as much. It took 30 years (after migration) for a person to join German parliament," she said./DS

Acafe in northeast Thailand has become home to cryptocurrency traders, adding banks of screens showing the latest market moves and dishing out investment advice alongside coffee and cake.

Behind a calm exterior of cherry blossom trees, customers of HIP Coffee & Restaurant stare at their laptops, supping nervously on iced coffee – part of a surging interest in digital assets in Thailand that has regulators worried.

"It's exciting for me to be here because I get to meet people who share the same interests," said Detnarong Satianphut, a 35-year-old crypto trader.

"We (traders) get to exchange information because in the trading world we are coming up against millions of people."

Cryptocurrencies have been gaining momentum in Thailand, with as much as 251 billion baht ($7.62 billion) in digital assets traded in November, according to the latest official data.

Earlier this month, Thailand said it would start to regulate the use of digital assets as payments, warning of potential risks to financial stability and the overall economic system.

HIP cafe, which has been around since 2013, got its crypto makeover in 2020.

A staff member shows one of the local leading crypto exchange Bitkub's logo at a cafe, which has dozens of screens showing the latest trends and prices on various cryptocurrencies for their crypto investors' customers in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand Jan. 21, 2022. (Reuters Photo)

Since then, according to staff, its customers have doubled. Manager Oakkharawat Yongsakuljinda said the cafe provides alternative investment opportunities for people in the surrounding Nakhon Ratchasima province.

It offers free investment consulting and is planning on starting its own cryptocurrency coin.

Its customers say trading in the cafe offers them the best chance of success in a volatile market, in which the most well-known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, hit six-month lows this week.

"Having so many screens helps a lot ... We immediately know and get to analyze crashing factors and whether we should buy," said 23-year-old trader Apakon Putnok./DS

The Taliban's acting minister for higher education announced Monday that public universities in Afghanistan’s warmer provinces will reopen on Feb. 2. 

Shaikh Abdul Baqi Haqqani said in a press statement that all state universities in warmer regions of the country will resume classes while those in colder regions of the country will reopen on Feb. 26.

Haqqani noted that exams will be held three weeks after the start of classes.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education, there are 40 public and 150 private universities across the country. Education has been continuing at private universities.

- Universities closed due to pandemic

At a press conference in September last year, Haqqani argued that the co-educational system is against Islamic and national values.

Stating that in the new term, female and male students will study in separate buildings in universities, Haqqani noted that in universities with limited building facilities, male and female students will come to school at different times.

Universities in Afghanistan had suspended education before the Taliban took over the country due to COVID-19.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan when the US withdrew in August.

After the Taliban seized power, private universities resumed classes in September, while public universities remained closed./aa