Environment
More flee volcano: More people fled their homes on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent on Sunday as La Soufrière volcano rumbled loudly for a third day and the heavy weight of its ashfall damaged some buildings. Residents reported widespread power failures early in the day, though authorities restored electricity to most of the island by late afternoon.
The eruption Friday of La Soufrière prompted many people to evacuate their homes, and others who had remained in place sought shelter elsewhere Sunday.
The volcano’s rumbles were heard in the capital of Kingstown, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south.
“I’m just here wondering when it’s going to calm down,” resident Kalique Sutherland said.
The eruption could continue for some time, said Richard Robertson, the lead scientist at the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center.
“It’s likely that at some point it would quiet down and hopefully we would have a break so that we could recover a little bit more, but don’t be surprised if after the break it picks up like this again,” Robertson said.
Elford Lewis, a 56-year-old farmer who evacuated his home on Sunday morning, said the ongoing eruption is worse than the last big one in 1979.
“This one is more serious,’’ said Lewis, who witnessed the big eruption decades ago.
An eruption of the 4,003-foot (1,220-meter) volcano in 1902 killed roughly 1,600 people.
About 16,000 people have had to flee their ash-covered communities with as many belongings as they could stuff into suitcases and backpacks. However, there have been no reports of anyone being killed or injured by the initial blast or those that followed.
Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of the 32 islands that make up the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has said people should remain calm and keep trying to protect themselves from the coronavirus. He said officials were trying to figure out the best way to collect and dispose of the ash, which covered an airport runway near Kingstown, and fell as far away as Barbados, about 120 miles (190 kilometers) to the east. (AP)
Call to protect environment: Protesters in Serbia rallied Saturday demanding that the government protect the environment in a Balkan nation that has seen record levels of air pollution and scores of other ecological problems following decades of neglect.
Several thousand people gathered outside the Serbian parliament building in the capital of Belgrade for an “ecological uprising” against what organizers say is a widespread environmental devastation in the nation aspiring to join the European Union. Some wore face masks to ward off coronavirus but not all.
Serbia has faced mounting problems that include poor garbage management and high air pollution caused by the use of poor-quality coal and other pollutants. Rivers have been polluted by toxic industrial waste and many cities, including Belgrade, lack good sewage and waste water systems.
“We came to say ‘No!’ to those who jeopardize our rivers and our nature every day,” said Aleksandar Jovanovic, who belongs to a movement opposed to building small hydropower plants on Serbia’s rivers.
Protesters carried banners reading “Cut corruption and crime, not forests!” or “Water is life” and “Plant a tree!” - referring to shrinking green areas in the cities, particularly in Belgrade, where huge concrete residential areas have sprung up in recent years. “I think this is the most important topic in our lives,” said protester Bojana Jovanovic.
The protesters demanded a ban on building small hydroelectric plants, better environmental education, greener urban areas and cleaner air. International studies have suggested that air pollution is shortening the lifespans of people living in the Western Balkans.
Hours before the rally, the Serbian Environment Ministry said that Serbia’s many problems are not new and insisted the government has launched projects aimed at finding long-term solutions to pollution. Environment Minister Irena Vujovic later described the protest as political, saying organizers wanted to make “quick political gains” rather than work to solve problems. (AP)
NEW YORK: As Lorne Michaels was putting together a writing team for what became “Saturday Night Live,” Rosie Shuster was paired with a former National Lampoon staffer known for her dark humor, disciplined approach and gift for parody, notably a Volkswagen ad that mocked Sen. Ted Kennedy’s notorious car ride on Chappaquiddick Island. Anne Beatts.
“She was witty, and she was good at editing. It was a good team,” Shuster said of Beatts, who died Wednesday at age 74.
Unlike Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner and other cast members Beatts and Shuster wrote for, Beatts wasn’t widely known to the public and could be reached in her final years simply by emailing her at Chapman University, where she taught comedy writing. But among her peers, and generations of writers and performers who followed, she was a pioneer, a force, and an easy rebuttal to the undying prejudice that women can’t be funny.
From 1975-80, Beatts and Shuster worked on such recurring sketches as the creepy babysitter Uncle Roy (played by Buck Henry) and Aykroyd’s equally perverse Fred Garvin. But their most lasting creation was the Nerds — snivelly Lisa Loopner (Radner) and snotty Todd DiLaMuca (Bill Murray). The Nerds were an act, and a kind of diary. Shuster and Beatts, who later created the groundbreaking teen sitcom “Square Pegs,” both identified as nerds and their writing often played against the real-life, ever-changing romance between Radner and Murray.
“The dynamic between Billy and Gilda was fabulous,” Shuster told The Associated Press during a phone interview following Beatts’ death.
The writing process itself was exhausting, hilarious and sometimes infuriating. Female comedy writers were rare at the time, and getting their ideas even listened to left their heads scarred “from bashing them against the glass ceiling,” Shuster said. John Belushi, who was otherwise friendly with Beatts and Shuster, was so resistant to material written by women that Shuster deliberately left her name off a sketch she wrote with James Downey to ensure the actor would work in it. (AP)
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LOS ANGELES: Reaction to the death of Grammy-nominated rapper DMX who died Friday at 50.
“Earl Simmons was a wonderful, caring father, and a sensitive, thoughtful man. Unfortunately, Dark Man X took over and ran amok, tormented and struggling to find the light . ... DMX gave me the inspiration to keep going at Def Jam when rap became soft and silly,” Lyor Cohen, a former executive at Def Jam, said in a statement.
“DMX is a legend,” said hiphop and electronic music producer Flying Lotust. “You can’t be a fan and not feel empathy for him in his journey,” Flying Lotus said on Wednesday while the rapper was hospitalized. “You think of ‘Belly’ and all the great stuff that he was part of. But he was dealt such a weird hand, I think, with the drug stuff. And I just have empathy because I know it’s a real thing that addiction is crazy. And so many people, they struggle with it and it’s not easy.”
“It’s so sad to hear about the passing of DMX. He was a true legend to the hip-hop community. I was individually inspired by him from his unique style. I remember touring and being on a lot of shows with him. One day I was coming out of my hotel and DMX saw me and asked, ‘was his child’s mother pulling me back?’ ‘Pulling Me Back’ was my latest record at that time for the ladies. I used to date his child’s mom and he knew that but he was cool. It never was an issue because he knew it was before him. He always showed me love and we always talked when we ran into each other,” rapper Chingy said in a statement. (AP)