30 April 2016

Kenya burns huge pile of ivory tusks to protest poaching

A Maasai man in ceremonial dress poses for visitors to take photographs of him in front of one of around a dozen pyres of ivory, in Nairobi National Park, Kenya Thursday, April 28, 2016. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has stacked 105 tons of ivory consisting of 16,000 tusks, and 1 ton of rhino horn, from stockpiles around the country, in preparation for it to be torched on Saturday to encourage global efforts to help stop the poaching of elephants and rhinos.
Kenya's president set fire Saturday to 105 tons of elephant ivory and more than 1 ton of rhino horn, believed to be the largest stockpile ever destroyed, in a dramatic statement by this East African country against the trade in ivory and products from endangered species.
Uhuru Kenyatta put a flame to the biggest of 11 pyres of ivory tusks and one of rhino horn in a chilly afternoon. Overnight torrential rains had threated to ruin the event but stopped midday leaving a mud field around the piles inside Nairobi National Park.

Parts of India ban daytime cooking as hundreds die of heat

An Indian village man sprinkles water from a broken pipe onto his face in a village in Samba district, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Jammu, India, Friday, April 29, 2016. Much of India is reeling under a weekslong heat wave and severe drought conditions that have decimated crops, killed livestock and left at least 330 million Indians without enough water for their daily needs.
With sizzling temperatures claiming more than 300 lives this month in India, officials said they were banning daytime cooking in some parts of the drought-stricken country in a bid to prevent accidental fires that have killed nearly 80 more people.
The eastern state of Bihar this week took the unprecedented step of forbidding any cooking between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., after accidental fires exacerbated by dry, hot and windy weather swept through shantytowns and thatched-roof houses in villages and killed 79 people. They included 10 children and five adults killed in a fire sparked during a Hindu prayer ceremony in Bihar's Aurangabad district last week.

28 April 2016

Kenya: Large pyres set up for massive burn of ivory

A Maasai man in ceremonial dress poses for visitors to take photographs of him in front of one of around a dozen pyres of ivory, in Nairobi National Park, Kenya Thursday, April 28, 2016. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has stacked 105 tons of ivory consisting of 16,000 tusks, and 1 ton of rhino horn, from stockpiles around the country, in preparation for it to be torched on Saturday to encourage global efforts to help stop the poaching of elephants and rhinos.
Kenyan authorities have built towering pyres of more than 100 tons of elephant tusks that will be burned on Saturday, in what wildlife officials believe will be the largest single destruction of ivory in history.
In front of the tusks are illegal ornaments made from ivory, such as a Chinese warrior on horseback with his fist in the air.
As local conservation groups and media visited the ivory-burning site in Nairobi National Park on Thursday, workers were putting the finishing touches to the stacks of ivory as rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service stood guard nearby.

26 April 2016

Memories painful on Chernobyl's 30th anniversary

A woman stands near a memorial to Chernobyl workers and firefighters in the town of Slavutych, Ukraine, early Tuesday, April 26, 2016. Ukraine marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when the 4th unit of the plant exploded early hours April 26, 1986. The city of Slavutych was built following the evacuation of Pripyat, the town of the Chernobyl plant workers, which was just 1.5 kilometers (about one mile) away from the plant. Some 50,000 Pripyat residents were evacuated after the disaster, taking only a few belongings. They never returned, and workers and their families now live in Slavutych.
As Ukraine and Belarus on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident with solemn words and an angry protest, some of the men who were sent to the site in the first chaotic and frightening days were gripped by painful memories.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko led a ceremony in Chernobyl, where work is underway to complete a 2 billion euro ($2.25 billion) long-term shelter over the building containing Chernobyl's exploded reactor. Once the structure is in place, work will begin to remove the reactor and its lava-like radioactive waste.

17 April 2016

Following Diana's footsteps, British royals visit Taj Mahal

Britain's Prince William and Kate Duchess of Cambridge pose for photo during their hike to the Tiger's Nest Monastery, near Paro, Bhutan, Friday April 15, 2016, during day six of the Royal tour to India and Bhutan.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge invoked nostalgia Saturday as they sat and smiled for photos on the same marble bench in front of the Taj Mahal where Prince William's late mother, Princess Diana, had posed alone for a memorable 1992 photo.
Winding down their weeklong royal tour of India and Bhutan, William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, were briefed by a guide as they entered the compound that houses the iconic monument to love.

15 April 2016

As India reels from drought, gov't slammed for poor policies

In this April 12, 2016 photo, a boy who migrated from drought hit areas of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, carries water to his family's makeshift hut in Kukse Borivali, 85 kilometres (53 miles) north-east of Mumbai, India. Decades of groundwater abuse, populist water policies and poor monsoons have turned vast swaths of central and western India into a dust bowl, driving distressed farmers to suicide or menial day labor in the cities.
Shantabai Babulkar's day begins before dawn with a 5 kilometer (3 mile) trek across barren fields and dusty scrubland to fetch water from a distant well for her family.
The two metal pots of muddy water that Babulkar, 58, balances on her head and a third that she carries in the crook of her arm are the only source of water for her and the five members of her family for their day's needs of drinking, cooking and washing.

12 April 2016

Police say 5 connected to India temple surrender after fire

A cyclist rides past damaged structures at the spot where a massive fire broke out during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, Kollam district, southern Kerala state, India, Monday, April 11, 2016. Rescue officials on Monday sifted through a Hindu temple in southern India where at least 110 people died when a fireworks display - an unauthorized pyrotechnic display that went horribly wrong - swept through a temple packed with thousands for a religious festival.
Five people who fled after a weekend fire killed at least 110 people at the southern Indian temple where they are board members have surrendered to police to face prosecution, police said Tuesday.
Police officer Madhusudan said the five were taken into custody late Monday after a two-day hunt by police.

10 April 2016

Fireworks accident at temple in India kills more than 100

In this image made from video, a flash from an explosion is seen from the ground during a fireworks show at a temple in Kollam, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, early Sunday, April 10, 2016. A number of people were killed and many more injured in a massive fire that broke out in a temple caused by fireworks that had been stored in the temple in preparation for the Hindu new year festival, according to an official.
The Hindu temple in southern India was packed with thousands for a religious festival early Sunday when the fireworks began — an unauthorized pyrotechnic display that went horribly wrong.
Explosions and a massive fire swept rapidly through the Puttingal temple complex about 3 a.m. in the village of Paravoor, killing 102 people and injuring 380 others, officials said.

5 April 2016

India's central bank cuts key lending rate to 6.5 percent

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan addresses a press conference on the first monetary policy announcement of the current fiscal year in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, April 5, 2016. The RBI on Tuesday cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point and hinted at other measures to boost liquidity and spur economic growth.
India's central bank on Tuesday cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point and hinted at other measures to boost liquidity and spur economic growth.

The Reserve Bank of India reduced its repo rate to 6.5 percent. This is the rate at which the central bank lends to commercial banks.

The cut takes interest rates to their lowest level in five years and aims to boost the economy by lowering the cost of borrowing. It also comes as inflation has eased.

Panama lawyers at center of offshore scandal make odd couple

A marquee of the Arango Orillac Building lists the Mossack Fonseca law firm, in Panama City, Monday, April 4, 2016. Panama's president says his government will cooperate "vigorously" with any judicial investigation arising from the leak of a vast trove of information on the offshore financial dealings of the world's rich and famous. An international coalition of media outlets Sunday published investigations it said stemmed from the leak of 115 million records kept by the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca on behalf of clients.
The lawyers at the center of an uproar over the hidden financial dealings of the world's wealthy are an odd pairing of a German-born immigrant and a prize-winning Panamanian novelist whose books sometimes mirror the seedy world of politics he's come across in his work.

In a nation that for decades has been tainted by allegations of money laundering on behalf of drug traffickers and corrupt oligarchs, the polyglot lawyers who founded the Mossack-Fonseca law firm established themselves as the leaders among a plethora of firms in Panama dedicated to creating shell companies to stash wealth overseas.

4 April 2016

Philippines launches world's first mass dengue vaccination

In this Sept. 25, 2012, file photo, a Filipino worker sprays a chemical to prevent to kill dengue-carrying mosquitos as part of observance of the "Clean Up The World 2012" in suburban Pasig, east of Manila, Philippines. The Philippines launched the first public immunization program for dengue fever on Monday, April 4, 2016, seeking to administer to a million schoolchildren the world's first licensed vaccine against a mosquito-borne disease that the World Health Organization estimates infects 390 million people a year globally.
The Philippines on Monday launched the first public immunization program for dengue fever, seeking to administer to a million schoolchildren the world's first licensed vaccine against a mosquito-borne disease that the World Health Organization estimates infects 390 million people a year globally.
Hundreds of fourth-graders at a public school in metropolitan Manila's Marikina city were given the first of three shots of Dengvaxia. Some of the pupils received their vaccination shot under the glare of cameras during a festive ceremony at a gymnasium festooned with multicolored bunting and preceded by songs and dances performed by the children.

2 April 2016

Vietnam elects police chief to No. 2 post of president

New Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang takes the oath of office after being elected as the head of state in Hanoi, Vietnam, Saturday, April 2, 2016. Vietnam's National Assembly has elected Public Security Minister Quang, 59, to be the country's new president, the second-highest post in the country.
Vietnam's police chief was elected Saturday by the National Assembly to become president — the second-highest post — and promised to "resolutely" protect the country's sovereignty amid an ongoing territorial dispute with longtime rival China.

Public Security Minister and police general Tran Dai Quang, 59, received 436 votes from 465 assembly members who cast their votes, the Communist government said on its website.

Indian police quiz company officials after overpass collapse

General view shows a partially collapsed overpass in Kolkata, India, Friday, April 1, 2016. The overpass spanned nearly the width of the street and was designed to ease traffic through the densely crowded Bara Bazaar neighborhood in the capital of the east Indian state of West Bengal. About 100 meters (300 feet) of the overpass fell, while other sections remained standing.
Indian police are investigating possible murder charges against 10 construction company employees who have been either arrested or detained in connection with the collapse of an unfinished overpass in Kolkata that killed at least 24 people, officials said Saturday.
Rescuers continued clearing rubble from the scene of Thursday's accident. Some 67 people have been pulled out alive, but rescuers doubted more survivors would be found.

1 April 2016

Indian rescuers dig through overpass debris after 23 die

General view shows a partially collapsed overpass in Kolkata, India, Friday, April 1, 2016. The overpass spanned nearly the width of the street and was designed to ease traffic through the densely crowded Bara Bazaar neighborhood in the capital of the east Indian state of West Bengal. About 100 meters (300 feet) of the overpass fell, while other sections remained standing.
Using saws, small cranes and bare hands, rescuers searched for survivors Friday under the crumbled concrete and twisted steel from an overpass that collapsed onto a crowded Kolkata neighborhood, killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 80.
With more than half the debris cleared by Friday morning, 67 people have been pulled out alive, Kolkata police Sgt. P. Chakraborty said. But more people were still feared trapped. It was not clear how many are missing.