NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Famine appeal: The International Red Cross is appealing for $400 million to help millions of people facing famine or the risk of it in four conflictridden countries — Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Nigeria. The Geneva humanitarian agency said Wednesday that it wants a “massive scaleup” in assistance and hopes to provide “essential aid” to about 5 million people. Operations Director Dominik Stillhart said 20 million people facing starvation “is not something we are dealing with every day.”
_2 Not in school: An aid group says nearly a third of all children in war-torn Afghanistan are unable to attend school, leaving them at increased risk of child labor, recruitment by armed groups, early marriage and other forms of exploitation. Save the Children says more than 400,000 Afghan children, over 1,100 per day, are expected to drop out of school this year due to growing instability and the forcible return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, adding to the 3.7 million already out of school. More than 600,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan in 2016 and around 1 million more are expected in 2017. The report says more than half of all returnee children do not attend school, often working on the streets because their parents cannot find jobs.
_3 Safe water appeal: Nearly a third of people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to safe drinking water, the World Water Council based in Marseille, France, said Wednesday, urging governments to contribute adequate amounts of their budgets toward projects aimed at making safe water widely available. Africa and Asia are the most affected by scarcity of safe water, with Papua New Guinea, Equatorial Guinea and Angola reporting that clean water is available to less than 50 percent of their populations, the statement said. Globally, at least 1.8 billion people use a drinkingwater source contaminated with feces, and half of the world’s population will be living in waterstressed areas by 2025, according to the World Health Organization.
_4 Ferry salvaged: Nearly three years after it capsized and sank into the violent seas off South Korea’s southwestern coast, workers slowly pulled up the 6,800-ton ferry Sewol from the water on Thursday, an emotional moment for a country that continues to search for closure to one of its deadliest disasters ever. More than 300 people died when the Sewol sank on April 16, 2014.
_5 Deportation policy: The German government plans to deport two men investigated for allegedly planning a terrorist attack — even though both were born in Germany and they were not charged. Arrangements are now being made for the two suspects to be deported separately to Algeria and Nigeria, where their parents are from. Neither men is a German citizen, authorities said. A spokesman for the Lower Saxony Interior Ministry told reporters that it was the first time such a policy was implemented in Germany.
_6 Jesus’ tomb: Thousands of Christian pilgrims and members of the clergy gathered at a modest shrine in Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday to celebrate the completion of its $3 million restoration. The shrine had been propped up by an unsightly iron cage since the 19th century. Constructed by Roman emperor Constantine I in the fourth century, it covers the cave in which, the faithful believe, Jesus was buried before his resurrection.
Chronicle News Services