JOHANNESBURG: Police are on the hunt for suspects after nine people were fatally shot in separate shooting incidents in two provinces of South Africa on Saturday night, police said on Sunday.

The latest slew of shootings come on the heels of an uptick in violent deaths in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates.

Four people were shot and two more were injured at the Thembelihle informal settlement in the Gauteng province. Preliminary investigation suggests that a group of men were playing dice at a street corner, at approximately 19:30 p.m (1730 GMT) on Saturday, when they were attacked by unknown assailants who shot at them, the authorities said in statement.

“Four people were certified dead on the scene on Saturday while two people were taken to the nearest medical care centre after sustaining gunshot wounds,” the police said.

In another separate incident also at Thembelihle, in the south of Johannesburg, a 36-year-old man who appeared to have been robbed of his belongings, including a cellphone and bicycle was found shot dead, they added.

Police said that the motive for the shootings cannot be confirmed at this stage.

Meanwhile in the Western Cape Province, police have launched an investigation into the circumstances of a triple murder last night in Khayelitsha township. A fourth one was an unrelated incident, Colonel Andre Traut said.

On Friday, eight suspects linked to the “random” separate shooting and robbery incidents of six people on Thursday night at the Alexandra township in Johannesburg were arrested, officials said.

It was not yet clear whether the suspects in the Alexandra shooting were in the same group that carried out all the killings.

Around 20,000 people are murdered in South Africa every year out of a population of about 60 million.

S&P Global Ratings on Friday placed Kuwait's currency sovereign credit ratings at A+, raising the Gulf country's future outlook from "negative" to "stable." In its report, the ratings agency expected the major oil exporter to benefit from favorable oil prices and production until the end of next year.

It also forecasted a 2022-23 cumulative general government surplus of 18 per cent of GDP based on an USD 75-80 oil price, saying this would allow authorities to "replenish liquidity in Economics

The report expected Kuwaiti authorities over the next two years to adopt measures to diversify its income sources, "so that the previous fiscal funding impasse with the depletion of liquidity at the GRF (General Reserve Fund) does not recur, even if oil prices fall below current levels." The agency said it "could lower" Kuwait's rating if no sustainable comprehensive financing arrangements are made over the next three years.

This rating may be raised, it also said, "if the government successfully implemented a comprehensive structural reform package aimed at improving fiscal financing mechanisms, diversifying the economy and reducing the non-oil deficit." Kuwait has "limited government financing needs" until 2025 after its repayment of a USD 3.5 billion Eurobond in March, it added, revealing that the general government debt now stands at just 3.5 per cent of GDP. The Gulf country's heavy dependence on oil sees this sector occupy an estimated 90 per cent of exports and government revenue, constituting nearly 50 per cent of the GDP average, according to the report.

"Kuwait is set to notably benefit from the currently favorable terms of its (oil) trade," it highlighted, forecasting oil prices to drop between 2002 and 2024 from USD 102 per barrel, to USD 85 per barrel and USD 55 per barrel year-on-year respectively. It said Kuwait's oil production has risen in line with the phase out of OPEC+ production cuts, averaging 2.4 million barrels per day in 2021, which it expects will rise to 2.75 million barrels per day and 3 million barrels per day over the next two years respectively. This will keep the OPEC member country in compliance with OPEC+ agreements, it mentioned.

Economic growth will hit 8 per cent this year and 5.5 per cent in 2023 followed by "more modest growth rates" of around 2 per cent in the 2024-2025 period, it suggested. The agency also estimated Kuwait's net general government assets to reach 370 per cent of GDP by the end of the year.

Economic growth will hit 8 per cent this year and 5.5 per cent in 2023 followed by "more modest growth rates" of around 2 per cent in the 2024-2025 period, it suggested. The agency also estimated Kuwait's net general government assets to reach 370 per cent of GDP by the end of the year.

Furthermore, Kuwait's fiscal position was described as a "key ratings strength," as Kuwait Investment Authority's (KIA) total assets, worth 470 per cent of GDP at the end of 2021, remain "substantial." "We also expect the debt law to be passed sometime over 2022-2023 either through parliamentary approval or by Emiri decree, with borrowing set to resume from 2024," said the agency, expecting 75 per cent of deficits to be covered from 2024. /KUNA

Britain should formally apologise to unmarried mothers who were forced to give up their babies for adoption, according to an official report Friday that gave harrowing detail of the anguish suffered by the women.

Some 185,000 children were taken away for adoption between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales, the report by parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights estimated.

The committee’s chairwoman, Labour MP Harriet Harman, said the bond between mothers and babies was “brutally ruptured” over the period.

“The mothers’ only ‘crime’ was to have become pregnant while unmarried. Their ‘sentence’ was a lifetime of secrecy and pain,” she said.

The committee acknowledged the “grave wrong” done to the mothers and their children, Harman said, adding: “It is time for the government to do the same and issue the apology they seek.

“For decades they have been vilified. Now they need to be vindicated.”

The report noted that Australia’s government issued a landmark apology in 2013 for forced adoptions, and Ireland’s did so last year.

Abortion was legalised in England, Scotland and Wales in 1967. But even after then, women faced practical barriers such as objections by their doctors.

Before and after, social stigma against unwed women becoming pregnant could be overwhelming.

One woman told the committee that she felt unable to tell her parents and went instead to stay with a relative.

“When her mother eventually found out, she was berated as ‘damaged goods, no one would ever marry me now, I had brought disgrace to the family’,” the report recounted.

– Forced adoptions persist –

Schools, churches and social services would direct pregnant young women to adoption agencies, often instructing their parents without consulting the women themselves.

In hospitals during childbirth, painkillers would be denied as “punishment” and afterward, babies were sometimes pulled from their sobbing mother’s arms to be taken away for adoption.

“Have you learnt your lesson now?” one woman recalled a doctor telling her while she was in labour.

Another told the committee: “A doctor told me that I should be sterilised as I must be a nymphomaniac.”

The report called for more specialised counselling for people affected, and for the government to make it easier for those trying to trace their mother or child.

Without being drawn on an eventual apology, a government spokeswoman responded: “We have the deepest sympathy to all those affected by historic forced adoption.

“While we cannot undo the past, we have strengthened our legislation and practice to be built on empathy,” she said, stressing that better care was given today for vulnerable women.

But campaigners against forced adoption warn that the practice is still widespread today, with the UK having one of the highest global rates of children being removed against the wishes of parents, often at birth.

Under UK law, mothers who are suffering from mental health issues or are victims of domestic abuse risk losing their children.

More than 1,000 children have been removed against their mothers’ wishes each year this century, according to government statistics.

“There will be apologies demanded,” independent social worker and writer Maggie Mellon told AFP.

“I’m fed up of shouting about things at the time and then having to wait 30 years ’til it is far too late to have justice,” she added./agencies

Representative of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah heads to Saudi Arabia on Saturday to participate in the Jeddah Security and Development Summit.

Leaders of the six-nation GCC are expected to meet US President Joe Biden during the summit for key talks focusing on security and energy cooperation.

The high level meeting is the first featuring a US leader since Al-Ula summit in 2021 which saw the restoration of ties between a Saudi-led block and Qatar after Kuwait-led reconciliation efforts./KT

Excess temperatures brought on by the heatwave that continues to wash over Spain and Portugal have killed at least 322 people.

High temperatures in the first three days of the heatwave in Spain, which officially began on Sunday, killed 84 people, according to figures from the Carlos III Health Institute released on Friday.

The Portuguese Health Ministry reported 238 heat-induced deaths in the country on July 7-13.

Throughout the week, the mercury only kept rising on the Iberian Peninsula, contributing to fears that the final number of deaths would be significantly higher.

On Thursday, it reached 47 degrees Celcius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in the town of Pinhao -- the hottest ever registered in Portugal in July.

The scorching temperatures continue and Spain's public meteorological agency does not expect the heatwave to dissipate until Monday.

In June, when one of the earliest heatwaves in recent Spanish history gripped the nation, the health institute estimates that 830 died due to the high temperatures.

The heat is also taking its toll on Spain's forests, with 32 active wildfires burning as of Friday, including 15 yet to be contained. Extremadura, a region bordering Portugal, has been the hardest hit so far, with two massive fires scorching at least 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres).

Portuguese firefighters are also battling a string of forest fires. This week, almost 190 people have been injured by blazes and 865 evacuated from their homes.

Firefighters also discovered the charred body of one woman in the northwestern Murtosa municipality on Tuesday evening./aa

Northern Italy is battling its worst drought in 70 years, with the government recently declaring a state of emergency in five regions due to a lack of rain and sweltering temperatures.

Since the beginning of the year in the northwestern Piedmont region, only 94 millimeters (3.7 inches) of rain have fallen against an average of 376 millimeters (14.8 inches). The Lombardy region alone has 61% less water this year than the average of the 2006-2020 period.

Lakes are at less than half their capacities, including Lake Maggiore at 34% and Lake Garda at 48%. The Po River, Italy’s longest waterway, at 652 kilometers (405 miles), faces a precarious state, with its capacity down 80% compared to the average of the period.

New beaches are emerging, as well as archeological remains from thousands of years ago.

On July 5 the Italian government declared a state of emergency over the water shortage in five regions of northern Italy – Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto – and allocated €36.5 million ($36.58 million) from its fund for national emergencies for initial interventions.

In some mountain reservoirs, the absence of rainfall and low water levels forced the production of electricity to stop. Measures have also been taken in hundreds of municipalities in areas affected by drought. The water supply is cut during the night, while in others, the use of water is allowed only for personal hygiene and cooking but banned for watering plants or washing cars.

But it is agriculture that is facing the gravest consequences. So far, farmers’ losses total around €3 billion, according to an estimate by the Italian farm lobby Coldiretti – the biggest organization of farmers at the national and European level, with million-and-a-half associates.

Coldiretti thinks that what’s going on is an upheaval that is affecting not only crops but also the environment. The heat – as it emerged from a study presented by Coldiretti head Ettore Prandini a few days ago – has also undermined agricultural yields, with average drops of 30% in 2022 for maize and wheat, threatening to affect future production.

No relief until fall

Gigi Tacchini, 50, is a farmer whose fields are located in Santa Cristina e Bissone, around 45 kilometers (28 miles) southeast of Milan. The lack of water is making his crops suffer.

"I irrigated the corn only once this season, while usually, it receives water four times, with obvious consequences,” he said. “Instead of having plants 3 or 4 meters high with large corn cobs, we have the plants a meter-and-a-half high and with soil so arid that cracks have emerged."

The same applies to soya crops and rice, the most important crop of this farm in its third generation of family farmers.

"This field, cultivated with rice, as well as others, I have to abandon for lack of water. I first had to reduce the sowing and now also the frequency of irrigation. Instead of doing it every eight days, it’s done every 20,” said Tacchini.

“My rice production for this year will be reduced by 30% or 40%," he added, saying he wanted to get some help from the state.

Authorities in Lombardy recently asked the government in neighboring Switzerland to open the Alpine basins in the bordering Ticino canton to drain water and allow it to irrigate the fields of the Po Valley. But they declined, as the Alpine country is facing the same problems.

Due to the drought and the Po River’s low water flow, seawater has advanced by 30 kilometers (18.6 miles), increasing the so-called salt wedge – the rising of the seawater in the course of the river – reaching values double those seen in past years, something that threatens to compromise the irrigation of crops already stressed by drought.

The situation is unlikely to change anytime soon, with high temperatures and scarce rains expected for the weeks ahead, said Stefano Cecchin, the head of Arpa Lombardia, the Lombardy environmental protection agency.

“We have no positive expectations for July when the heat will continue,” he said but added that late August may see improvement.

To see any rainfall, they “will have to wait for autumn, since even September will be a dry month,” he said./agencies