Mayor: Oust U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees
Jerusalem’s outgoing mayor is calling on the international community to consider his proposal to end the local operations of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, saying there is “no such thing” as a refugee in the city.
In an interview, Nir Barkat, who is leaving office after elections this month, said that he was inspired to make his proposal after the United States cut off $300 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency last month.
Barkat said schools run by the agency use textbooks that promote anti-israel incitement. He said Israel can provide better education and health services to Palestinians who rely on the agency.
PALU, Indonesia — The death toll from the devastating earthquake and tsunami on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island neared 2,000 on Monday, but thousands more are believed unaccounted for and officials said search teams plan to stop looking for victims later this week.
The official toll hit 1,948, mostly in the hard-hit city of Palu, said Jamaluddin, an official from the disaster task force who uses one name. He corrected the number during a news conference in Jakarta after initially saying it was 1,944. He said a navy ship had docked in the area and opened a field hospital.
Willem Rampangilei, head of the National Board for Disaster Management, said there could be as many as 5,000 victims still buried in deep mud in Balaroa and Petobo, two of Palu’s hardest-hit neighborhoods. But he added that number must be verified by his teams because it is an unofficial figure which came from village heads in the area. The Sept. 28 quake caused loose, wet soil to liquefy there.