45 more killed in Gaza as toll reaches 151

GAZA CITY: At least 15 Palestinians were killed in new Israeli strikes on Gaza City late on Saturday, medics in the coastal enclave said.
“At least 15 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City that hit a house and a mosque,” emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. An earlier toll said 10 were killed.Another 35 were wounded in the same strike, and one more person was killed in southern Gaza´s Rafah that also injured five people, Qudra said.

The new deaths brought the toll in the fifth day of the conflict to 151, with more than 1,000 people wounded.

Earlier, Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed 30 people on Saturday, including two severely handicapped women in a care facility, medics said.

The Jewish state kept options open for a possible ground offensive into densely populated Gaza despite international pressure to negotiate a ceasefire in the conflict.

In strikes, eight people were killed in raids on Gaza City, central El-Bureij and northern Jabaliya. They included a woman aged 25, and a 16-year-old, Qudra said.

Earlier, six men were killed in the Sheikh Radwan district of western Gaza City, Qudra said. Aged from 21 to 58, they were sitting outside homes in the area when the strike hit, witnesses said. Neighbours told AFP two nephews of former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya were among them and named them as Nidal and Alaa al-Malash.

Their deaths followed an early morning strike that killed two women at a charitable association housing the disabled in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. The women, Suha Abu Saada and Ola Washahi, both had severe mental and physical handicaps, association director Jamila Alaywa said. Four others were wounded in the attack —three residents and a helper, she said.

Another three people were killed in eastern Gaza City and three in an attack on the western side of town.

Earlier, Qudra announced the deaths of eight other Palestinians in raids that hit targets including a bank, two mosques and the houses of Hamas officials. Israel’s military said at least one of the mosques was being used to store weapons.

Israel began Operation Protective Edge on Tuesday in an attempt to halt cross-border rocket fire by militant groups. Gaza militants have fired approximately 525 mortar rounds and rockets that struck Israel, while another 138 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, the army said on Saturday.

Despite international concern, truce efforts have been unsuccessful, according to Egypt, which has been key in mediating previous ceasefires between Hamas and Israel. “Egypt has communicated with all sides to halt violence against civilians and called on them to continue with the truce agreement signed in November 2012,” the foreign ministry said.

“Former British premier Tony Blair, the envoy for the so-called Quartet of Middle East diplomatic players, flew into Cairo on Saturday for talks on ending the violence.

Ismail Haniya, Gaza’s former premier and the most senior Hamas official in the coastal enclave, ruled out any halt to hostilities. “(Israel) is the one that started this aggression and it must stop, because we are (simply) defending ourselves,” he said.

Israel says preparations are underway for a possible ground incursion, with tanks and artillery massed along the border and some 33,000 reservists mobilised out of 40,000 approved by the cabinet. More armour was seen heading south on Saturday morning.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he expected a political decision on a possible ground operation by Sunday. “At the moment we are dealing with the first phase air attacks,” he told Channel One television on Friday. “I imagine we shall decide tomorrow (Saturday) or the day after on the next stage.

Kuwait requested an emergency Arab foreign ministers meeting to discuss “the deteriorating situation”, which a diplomat at the Arab League said will be held on Monday.

Israeli strikes on residential buildings in Gaza brought a rebuke from the UN human rights office over civilian casualty toll. “Even when a home is identified as being used for military purposes, any attack must be proportionate and precautions must be taken to protect civilians,” said spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.

Amnesty International called for the United Nations “to immediately impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups” and launch an enquiry into “violations committed on all sides”.

Reuters add: Israel rushed an eighth missile interceptor battery into service on Saturday to counter stronger-than-expected rocket fire from Gaza as the military pounded positions in the Palestinian enclave for a fifth day.

A mosque in the central Gaza Strip was bombed to rubble. The Israeli military said the mosque had housed a weapons cache.

“Eight other mosques have been damaged from bombing and 537 Gaza houses have either been destroyed or damaged, according to the Gaza-based Al-Mezan Association for Human Rights.

West Africa Ebola death toll hits 337: WHO

GENEVA: The death toll in West Africa´s three-nation Ebola outbreak has risen to 337, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, making it the deadliest ever outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever.

Fresh data from the UN health agency showed that the number of deaths in Guinea, the hardest-hit country, has reached 264, while 49 had died in Sierra Leone and 24 in Liberia.

The new toll marks a more than 60-percent hike since the WHO´s last figure on June 4, when it said 208 people had succumbed to the deadly virus.

Including the deaths, 528 people across the three countries have contracted Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, the WHO said.

Yet agency spokeswoman Fadela Chaib insisted the far higher number of cases did not mean the virus was spreading faster.

"There is no sudden rise," she said in an email to AFP, pointing out that the increase could be explained by the heightened vigilance in the region and the confirmation of previously suspected cases.

Retroactive investigations were pushing up the numbers, she said, stressing that WHO´s toll should be seen as "provisional", since "new samples are being taken daily and tests are underway." (AFP)

Death toll from Karachi airport attack rises to 22

KARACHI: Death toll from a brazen militant attack on Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport attack has risen to 22 after recovery of two more bodies from Cargo Terminal, according to a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority.

The spokesman said that the two men were burnt to death after a fire erupted at the terminal during the militant attack.

He further said that five people were still missing and efforts were underway to recover them.

Death toll doubles in attack on Afghanistan´s Abdullah

KABUL: The death toll from two explosions targeting Afghan presidential front-runner Abdullah Abdullah doubled on Saturday, with at least 12 people confirmed dead in an attack that triggered strong international condemnation.

Abdullah survived the assassination attempt on Friday when the blasts, including a suicide bombing, targeted his campaign motorcade in Kabul ahead of next week´s hotly contested run-off election.

It was the second attack on Abdullah during Afghanistan´s fractious election season, which has seen an uptick in violence with Taliban militants threatening to disrupt the polls.

"The casualty toll has increased to 12 people, while a further 40 people, including one woman, were wounded," Sayed Gul Agha Hashemi, head of Kabul police´s criminal investigation branch, told AFP.

Afghan officials on Friday said that six people were killed in the attack. Abdullah himself escaped unhurt but said he had lost three of his campaign workers.

The UN Security Council condemned the attack strongly, calling for an orderly transition to a new government in Afghanistan.

"The members of the Security Council underlined their support for Afghanistan´s democratic processes, and looked forward to the second round of the presidential election," it said in a statement on Friday.

The United States also denounced the attack, saying that "the Afghan people deserve democracy -- which they´ll be exercising next week -- not violence".

No one has thus far claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt but Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt the June 14 run-off election.

"The high number of civilians killed and injured further shows a complete disregard for the lives of ordinary Afghans," said Jan Kubis, head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"Such an attack on a busy road used by many civilians violates the most basic principles of humanity," he said in a statement.

Afghanistan is in the middle of elections to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled since the fall of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

Abdullah fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed for an outright victory in the April first round and will face former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani in the run-off.

Saudi MERS toll surges to 282: ministry

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia´s death toll from the MERS coronavirus has surged to 282, the health ministry said on Tuesday, following recalculations in the world´s worst hit country.

"A comprehensive revision" going back to 2012 has resulted in revising up the death toll, which had stood at 190 people, while the number of infected cases rose from 575 to 688 people, the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, the health ministry announced that acting minister Adel Fakieh had sacked one of his deputies, Ziad Memish, without giving reasons for the dismissal.

Fakieh, who is the labour minister, was assigned the health portfolio after former health minister Abdullah al-Rabiah was himself dismissed in April without official explanation.

Upon his appointment, Fakieh promised "transparency" in providing the public and media with information about the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Like SARS, it appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering coughing, breathing difficulties and a temperature. But MERS differs in that it causes rapid kidney failure.

Last month, Fakieh announced he was sacking the head of the King Fahd Hospital in the western city of Jeddah, where a rise in MERS infections among medical staff sparked panic among the public.

Most cases of the disease have been in Saudi Arabia, but the virus has been imported to more than a dozen other countries. All of those cases relate to people who became ill while in the Middle East. (AFP)

Iraq attacks kill 33 as 2014 death toll tops 4,000

BAGHDAD: Attacks across Iraq killed 33 people on Wednesday, the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead this year.

The shootings and bombings struck in Baghdad and restive parts of the north and west, leaving dozens more wounded, security and medical officials said.

The protracted spike in bloodletting has fuelled fears that Iraq is slipping back into the all-out conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007, when a brutal sectarian war left tens of thousands dead.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in north Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding 50 others, security and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Elsewhere in and around the capital, six people were killed in multiple attacks, while three others died in the northern provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh.

Also in north Iraq, a series of 11 bombings in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu killed five people, four of them members of the same family, and wounded 11.The blasts targeted homes belonging to ethnic Turkmen.

The town, which is also populated by Arabs and Kurds, lies in a stretch of territory that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of the central government.

Insurgents often exploit poor communication between Arab and Kurdish security forces to carry out attacks in the area.

Toll in Karachi violence rises to six

KARACHI: Five persons lost their lives in an hour in various violent incidents across the metropolis, raising the toll to six on Saturday, Geo News reported.

Details have it that four bodies were found from two different areas of the city. Rescue sources told that two bodies bearing torture marks were recovered from Quaidabad area of Madina Colony.

Two more bodies were found from Yaro Goth area of Surjani Town that were dumped in a Suzuki.

Rescue sources told that the deceased were aged between 25 and 30 years.

Moreover, two persons were killed when unknown persons opened fire in Orangi Town no.14 and Rais Amrohi Colony areas.

In another incident, two persons were injured when unidentified persons opened fire in New Karachi sector 5 area. The injured were shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment.

MERS death toll in Saudi climbs to 107

 Health

 

RIYADH: Saudi health authorities announced Saturday two new deaths from the MERS coronavirus, raising to 109 the number of fatalities since the disease appeared in the kingdom in September 2012.

A 25-year-old man has died in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and a woman of 69, who suffered from tuberculosis and anaemia, died in Mecca, also western Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said.

At the same time, 35 new cases of the severe respiratory disease have been recorded, raising the number of sufferers in the Gulf state over the past two years to 396, the world´s highest tally.

On Friday, US health officials said the first case of MERS has been confirmed in the United States.

The person infected with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a health care provider who had travelled to Riyadh for work, they said.

And last week, Egypt recorded its first infection after a person who arrived from Saudi Arabia tested positive.

Public concern in Saudi Arabia over the spread of MERS has mounted after the resignation of at least four doctors at Jeddah´s King Fahd Hospital who refused to treat patients for fear of infection.

Some research has suggested that camels are a likely source of the virus.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for MERS, a disease with a mortality rate of more than 40 percent that experts are still struggling to understand. (AFP)

Death toll hits 32 in India rebel violence: police

GUWAHATI: Police found nine more bodies Saturday after a deadly rampage by tribal separatists in India´s remote northeastern Assam state, taking the death toll to 32 following two days of violence.

The nine bodies, including those of women and children, were recovered from Narayanguri village in Baksa district, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Assam´s main city of Guwahati.

"The death toll has gone up to 32," police inspector general S. N. Singh told. "Security has been further tightened with police and paramilitary troopers deployed in strength.

"Fresh violence erupted Friday night when tribal rebels killed 12 Muslims, a day after they had killed three villagers in the same district and eight more in neighbouring Kokrajhar, opening fire on the victims as they slept in their homes.

The attacks have prompted security forces to launch a massive hunt for the guerillas and have spurred some 5,000 people to flee from their homes, Singh said.

He added that an indefinite curfew has also been imposed in the violence-torn districts, with police given shoot-on-sight orders.

The victims of the attacks were Muslim migrants who have been locked in land disputes with indigenous Bodo tribes in the tea-growing state that borders Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The attacks come as India votes in a multi-phased general election that began on April 7. Polling winds up on May 12, with results to be announced four days later.

Voting in Assam has ended, with April 24 the last day of polling.

Police blamed the attacks on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which has been demanding a separate homeland for decades.

Seventeen people were killed in clashes in the same region in January and thousands of others fled their homes for fear of further attacks.

In 2012, ethnic clashes in the same area claimed about 100 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people.

Death toll hits 32 in India rebel violence: police

GUWAHATI: Police found nine more bodies Saturday after a deadly rampage by tribal separatists in India´s remote northeastern Assam state, taking the death toll to 32 following two days of violence.

The nine bodies, including those of women and children, were recovered from Narayanguri village in Baksa district, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Assam´s main city of Guwahati.

"The death toll has gone up to 32," police inspector general S. N. Singh told. "Security has been further tightened with police and paramilitary troopers deployed in strength.

"Fresh violence erupted Friday night when tribal rebels killed 12 Muslims, a day after they had killed three villagers in the same district and eight more in neighbouring Kokrajhar, opening fire on the victims as they slept in their homes.

The attacks have prompted security forces to launch a massive hunt for the guerillas and have spurred some 5,000 people to flee from their homes, Singh said.

He added that an indefinite curfew has also been imposed in the violence-torn districts, with police given shoot-on-sight orders.

The victims of the attacks were Muslim migrants who have been locked in land disputes with indigenous Bodo tribes in the tea-growing state that borders Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The attacks come as India votes in a multi-phased general election that began on April 7. Polling winds up on May 12, with results to be announced four days later.

Voting in Assam has ended, with April 24 the last day of polling.

Police blamed the attacks on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which has been demanding a separate homeland for decades.

Seventeen people were killed in clashes in the same region in January and thousands of others fled their homes for fear of further attacks.

In 2012, ethnic clashes in the same area claimed about 100 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people.

Saudi health minister sacked as MERS toll rises

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia dismissed its health minister on Monday just days after he visited a hospital at the centre of growing concerns about the kingdom's handling of the MERS virus.

Abdullah al-Rabiah was named adviser to King Abdullah and replaced by Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, said a royal decree carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia has registered by far the largest number of infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since the disease's discovery in September 2012.

Of 243 confirmed cases across the planet, 231 have been in Saudi Arabia, according to the World Health Organisation.

Of those, 81 people have died, most recently two foreigners in the commercial capital Jeddah where there have been mounting fears of a potential surge in infections.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in Jeddah triggered the temporary closure of a hospital emergency room in the city earlier this month.

The now fired minister visited the facility last week in a bid to reassure the public but on Wednesday at least four doctors at the King Fahd Hospital reportedly resigned after refusing to treat MERS patients.

MERS was initially concentrated in eastern Saudi Arabia but it now affects other areas.

The virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

Saudi health minister sacked as MERS toll rises

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia dismissed its health minister on Monday just days after he visited a hospital at the centre of growing concerns about the kingdom's handling of the MERS virus.

Abdullah al-Rabiah was named adviser to King Abdullah and replaced by Labour Minister Adel Fakieh, said a royal decree carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia has registered by far the largest number of infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since the disease's discovery in September 2012.

Of 243 confirmed cases across the planet, 231 have been in Saudi Arabia, according to the World Health Organisation.

Of those, 81 people have died, most recently two foreigners in the commercial capital Jeddah where there have been mounting fears of a potential surge in infections.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in Jeddah triggered the temporary closure of a hospital emergency room in the city earlier this month.

The now fired minister visited the facility last week in a bid to reassure the public but on Wednesday at least four doctors at the King Fahd Hospital reportedly resigned after refusing to treat MERS patients.

MERS was initially concentrated in eastern Saudi Arabia but it now affects other areas.

The virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

Death toll in Ebola outbreak rises to 121

DAKAR:An outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has been linked to the deaths of more than 120 people, according to the latest World Health Organization count.

There is no vaccine and no cure for the deadly virus, and its appearance in West Africa, far from its usual sites in Central and East Africa, has caused some panic.

Health workers are trying to contain its spread, tracking down anyone with whom the sick have had contact. Mali announced Tuesday that samples from all its suspected cases had tested negative for the disease.

Malian Health Minister Ousmane Kone said that the country had sent out 10 samples for testing at labs in the United States and Senegal, and all were declared negative for Ebola. There are no other known suspected cases in the country.

As of Monday, the U.N. health agency said it had recorded a total of 200 suspected or confirmed cases of Ebola, the majority of which are in Guinea. That figure includes some of the Mali cases that the government now says are negative. The organization said the deaths of 121 people in Guinea and Liberia have been linked to the disease.

Officials have said the current outbreak could last months.

Another Saudi MERS death raises kingdom toll to 67

JEDDAH: Saudi health authorities announced on Wednesday another death caused by the MERS virus in the capital Riyadh, bringing the nationwide toll to 67.

The 57-year-old Saudi national had been suffering from chronic illnesses, the health ministry said.

It also reported that another two Saudis had been infected by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome -- one a 51-year-old and the other a 90-year-old, both of whom are suffering chronic illnesses.

The latest figures bring to 179 the number of cases of MERS in Saudi Arabia since the virus first appeared in the kingdom in September 2012. The virus was initially concentrated in the eastern region but has now spread across more areas.

Eleven new cases were reported in the western port city of Jeddah in recent weeks, causing a wave of panic fuelled by rumours circulated on social networks.

Of the 11 victims, two died while six have recovered and another three are undergoing treatment, according to the health ministry.

Three of the patients in Jeddah were health workers, including one of the two who died, prompting authorities to close the emergency department at the city’s King Fahd Hospital.

Patients were transferred to other hospitals while the department was disinfected in a process expected to take 24 hours, the ministry said on Tuesday.

The MERS virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand the disease, for which there is no known vaccine. A study revealed that the virus has been "extraordinarily common" in camels for at least 20 years, and may have been passed directly from the animals to humans.

The World Health Organisation said at the end of March that it had been told of 206 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 86 had been fatal.

US landslide death toll doubles to 8

ARLINGTON: Authorities say the death toll from a massive landslide in the northwestern state of Washington has doubled to eight.

Snohomish County sheriff´s Lt. Rob Palmer said four more bodies were discovered late Sunday.

Earlier in the day, authorities said one body had been found on the debris field. Three people were already confirmed dead on Saturday. The mudslide that struck Saturday morning also critically injured several people and destroyed about 30 homes. At least 18 people remained missing, though authorities warned that number was "fluid."