Foreign News
Many feared dead in massive Papua New Guinea landslide
A massive landslide is feared to have killed many after it struck six remote villages in Papua New Guinea, local officials and aid agencies said.
The landslide buried more than 100 homes after it struck at around 03:00 local time Friday (17:00 GMT Thursday) in the highlands of Enga, north of the island nation in the south-west Pacific.
It was not immediately clear how many people were trapped in the rubble and no casualties have been officially confirmed. Enga governor Peter Ipatas told AFP news agency it was an “unprecedented natural disaster”.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape said his government has sent disaster officials to the landslide site to “start relief work, recovery of bodies, and reconstruction of infrastructure”. “I will release further information as I am fully briefed on the scale of destruction and loss of lives,” Mr Marape said in a statement.
Images online show dozens of people climbing onto fallen boulders to survey the damage from the landslide. Many houses appeared to have collapsed and trees uprooted.
Rescuers are having a hard time sifting through the debris, reports say.
People can be heard crying and yelling on a video posted by Facebook user Kindupan Kambii from Kaokalam village in Enga.
“There are reports of deaths and multiple casualties, but the exact numbers haven’t been confirmed yet,” said a spokesman from Papua New Guinea’s Red Cross Society.
He added that an emergency response team made up of officials from the provincial governor’s office, police, defence forces, and local NGOs has deployed to the site.
International humanitarian organisation CARE told the BBC it is “currently undergoing a situation assessment” on the incident.
Enga is more than 600km by road from the country’s capital, Port Moresby.
(BBC)
Cissy Houston, renowned gospel singer and the mother of Whitney Houston, died on Monday morning at the age of 91, her family said in a statement.
Houston, a two-time Grammy Award winning singer, died in her New Jersey home while in hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter-in-law Pat Houston said.
“Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness. We lost the matriarch of our family,” she said, adding that her mother-in-law was a “strong and towering figure” in the family’s life.
Houston enjoyed a decades-long successful singing career, where she performed alongside superstars like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin.
Born in New Jersey in 1933, Houston was the youngest of eight children. She began singing at a young age after she formed a gospel group with her siblings.
In the 1960s, she formed the R&B group the Sweet Inspirations, which sang backup for big names like Otis Redding, Dusty Springfield and Dionne Warwick. They also performed on Van Morrison’s hit song Brown Eyed Girl.
After finding success with the Sweet Inspirations, Houston embarked on a solo career, where she sang with artists including Chaka Khan, Jimi Hendrix, Beyonce, Paul Simon, and her late daughter Whitney Houston, who died in 2012 at age 48.
Houston won a Grammy Award for her traditional soul gospel album Face to Face in 1997, and again the following year for her album He Leadeth Me.
She also wrote three books, including one commemorating her daughter, called Remembering Whitney: A Mother’s Story of Life, Loss and The Night The Music Stopped.
At the age of 80, Houston sang once again with Aretha Franklin during her performance on The Late Show with David Letterman, where they performed a cover of Adele’s Rolling in the Deep.
Her daughter-in-law, Pat, said that Houston’s “more than seven-decade career in music and entertainment will remain at the forefront of our hearts”.
She added that the family is “blessed and grateful that God allowed her to spend so many years with us”.
“May she rest in peace, alongside her daughter, Whitney and granddaughter Bobbi Kristina and other cherished family members.”
[BBC]
Ethiopia’s parliament has approved the appointment of a new president to replace the country’s first female head of state, Sahle-Work Zewde.
Taye Astike Selassie, foreign minister since February, has taken up the largely ceremonial role. In Ethiopia, political power lies with the prime minister – currently Abiy Ahmed.
Sahle-Work had reportedly fallen out with Abiy in recent years.
The prime minister’s backing of her initial appointment in 2018 was hailed as a breakthrough for gender equality in Ethiopian politics.
On Saturday, Sahle-Work posted a brief and somewhat cryptic message on X, implying she was unhappy as a result of staying silent for the past year.
Sources close to the 74-year-old told BBC Amharic she had not been happy for some time and was eagerly awaiting the end of her term, due later this month.
During her presidency, she made several calls for peace across the country, though she was criticised for not talking more about the gender-based violence during the two-year civil war in Tigray. But it is believed she was concerned about the current conflicts in Oromia and Amhara regions.
In Amhara, federal forces have been fighting a local militia, which has led to hundreds of deaths and security forces being accused of committing crimes against humanity.
President Taye, 68, an experienced diplomat having served at the UN and in Egypt, is considered close to Abiy. He was sworn in in front of MPs on Monday.
The replacement of Sahle-Work means that Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan is currently Africa’s only female head of state.
[BBC]
The Royal New Zealand Navy has lost its first ship to the sea since World War Two, after one of its vessels ran aground off the coast of Samoa.
HMNZS Manawanui, a specialist diving and ocean imaging ship, came into trouble about one nautical mile from the island of Upolu on Saturday night local time, while conducting a survey of a reef.
It later caught fire before capsizing.
All 75 people on board were evacuated onto lifeboats and rescued early on Sunday, New Zealand’s Defence Force said in a statement.
Officials said the cause of the grounding was unknown and will be investigated.
The incident occurred during a bout of rough and windy weather.
Military officials said rescuers “battled” currents and winds that pushed life rafts and sea boats towards the reefs, and swells made rescue efforts “challenging”.
Officials said the area had not been surveyed since 1987. The vessel’s crew and passengers – including seven scientists and four foreign military personnel – are being accommodated in Samoa before being flown back to New Zealand.
As of 06:40 local time on Sunday (18:40 BST on Saturday), the ship was seen listing heavily with smoke billowing from it. By 09:00 (21:00 BST on Saturday), it was below the surface.
Defence minister Judith Collins described the incident as “a really sad day for the Navy” during a news conference.
She added: “But everyone came through, and that, I have to say, is down to the professionalism [of the crew], the training and their own courage.”
Dave Poole, who witnessed the ship ablaze, told the Reuters news agency: “As we came into the bay we saw the ship and no smoke. Within 15 minutes fire and smoke were visible. It sank shortly after.”
HMNZS Manawanui is the first of New Zealand’s naval vessels to be unintentionally sunk since the nation participated in naval battles during World War Two.
Several other ships have been intentionally sunk in the intervening period for various reasons, including to serve as a diving wreck or an artificial reef.
Military officials said their efforts are now turning towards attempting to salvage the vessel and minimising the environmental impacts of the sinking.
[BBC]
-
News5 days agoSajith top presidential election spender
-
Business6 days agoSri Lanka Tourism surpasses 2023 tourist arrivals
-
News7 days agoSJB-UNP alliance talks break down due to senior UNPer’s intervention – SJB Chairman
-
Features5 days agoThe Economy, Executive Presidency, and the Parliamentary Election
-
Editorial7 days agoThrowing ministers behind bars
-
Sports6 days agoAbheeth takes five but St. Anthony’s ahead
-
News5 days agoRajeev Amarasuriya to run for BASL President 2025/26
-
Business3 days agoADB delegation meets President Dissanayake, pledges continued support for Sri Lanka’s economic development