widespread

Overview: Asbestos contamination in children's play sand forces school checks Authorities in New Zealand and Australia are investigating decorative play sand found to contain asbestos, prompting dozens of school and daycare closures as officials trace affected batches. The disruption has focused attention on imported classroom materials and the potential health risk to children and staff. Forty schools and daycare centres in New Zealand closed temporarily while decorative sand was located and removed. More than 70 schools…

Latest situation Conditions in Gauteng are expected to improve after a period of severe weather that disrupted services and response efforts. The latest forecast now calls for only scattered showers across the province. Weather models show a reduction in storm intensity, moving from widespread severe conditions to isolated showers. Authorities report that the earlier severe weather slowed emergency and repair responses in affected areas. Power restoration work is underway in some neighbourhoods where outages occurred…

Alaska Airlines halts flights after data-centre failure; operations slowly restore amid passenger frustration What happened Alaska Airlines briefly suspended operations after a failure at its primary data centre triggered a temporary ground stop that grounded departures to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and disrupted flights across its network. The Seattle-based carrier said it was "actively restoring our operations" after first alerting customers that an information-technology outage was affecting flight activity.…

Zimbabwe’s Human Rights Report: A Pattern of Violence, State Complicity and Vulnerable Lives When the Zimbabwe Peace Project released a terse but damning account this week documenting more than 3,000 victims of rights abuses in a single month, it read like a catalogue of a nation trapped between political control and social distress. The group documented at least 121 distinct incidents in August, finding that women and people with disabilities were disproportionately affected. Nearly half of the violations, the report says,…

Bombing at Opposition Politician’s Home in Zimbabwe Raises Questions About Safety, Impunity Attack and immediate response The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) on Wednesday condemned what it called a “barbaric act of violence” after a bomb exploded at the home of opposition politician Job Sikhala on August 30, an attack that left family members shaken and raised fresh questions about political safety and the rule of law in Zimbabwe. The device detonated while Sikhala was in South Africa—where he had been publicly…

Across continents, an earthquake's echoes: Afghan villages flattened, diaspora left to grieve One week after a late‑night earthquake tore through the steep valleys of eastern Afghanistan, survivors still sift through mud and stone, looking for the impossible — the bodies of loved ones, the foundations of a life. In Ireland, a man named Raoof Safi repeated the same ritual of pale modern grief: scrolling through videos, answering phone calls, counting names. The quake, measured at about magnitude 6.0 and striking around…

Ghana is grappling with the severe repercussions of illegal mining, commonly referred to as Galamsey. This rampant activity, primarily conducted by small-scale miners, is taking place across countless sites, igniting widespread protests and prompting the military to take action against it. As a key player in the global gold and cocoa markets, Ghana is feeling the pinch, as land degradation from these mining operations is significantly affecting agricultural productivity. Despite the apparent environmental hazards and…

Amnesty International says women and girls in Tigray were raped and sexually abused by Ethiopian soldiers and their allies in an attempt to inflict lasting physical and mental harm. In a new report, the rights group says that stories of gang rape, sexual slavery and sexual mutilation amount…

Biden demands the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Tigray WASHINGTON, USA | Joe Biden has called for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean troops from the Tigray region of Ethiopia just days after Washington issued visa restrictions to top officials in Addis Ababa and Asmara, in what could be a game changer among allegations of gross human rights abuses. For over six months, the…

President Félix Tshisekedi's stronghold, the province of Kasaï-Central is experiencing more and more shortcomings. Due to the lack of roads, most things happen with bicycles. The situation is particularly pressing for the World Food Program, as the province is suffering from several types of malnutrition. With our special…