IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Tropical Cyclone Debbie batters eastern Australia

    {Damaging winds and flooding rains lash Queensland as Debbie becomes the worst storm to hit the state in six years.}

    Tropical Cyclone Debbie has smashed into Australia’s Queensland coast, bringing damaging winds and flooding rains. The storm has left a path of destruction in its wake with trees and power lines down.

    It is the most powerful storm to hit the region since Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi struck northern Queensland on February 3, 2011.

    Cyclone Debbie is currently located around 200km to the southeast of Townsville. It is still a very large system with the outer-bands extending around 500km in diameter.

    The storm currently has sustained winds of around 140km/hour and gusts nearer 170km/hour; equivalent to a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane. But, having made landfall, Debbie is weakening quickly.

    At its peak, as Debbie crossed Hamilton Island, the winds around the centre of the storm reached 263km/h. Those winds are now easing steadily as the storm moves across Queenland’s rugged terrain.

    Gusts will barely reach 80km/h by 1800GMT on Tuesday. However, as the system continues to track slowly inland, it is staggering along at around 9km/h, it will continue to dump vast amounts of rainfall.

    MacKay had 109mm of rain on Monday following on from 51mm on Sunday. Meanwhile, Hamilton Island and Prosperpine had 106mm and 138mm in the 24 hours up to 0000GMT Tuesday.

    As Cyclone Debbie crawls across central and southeastern parts of Queensland, it is dropping up to 200mm of rain per day in places. Some areas could see as much as 500mm to 600mm of rain by the time the system clears through.

    Even Brisbane is likely to experiencing some degree of flooding late on in the week. Around a month’s worth of rain is expected there by the weekend.

    Around 130mm of rain is likely over the next few days. The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Debbie should finally clear the gold coast late on Friday going into Saturday morning.

    Strong winds and rain lash Airlie Beach as Tropical Cyclone Debbie barrelled across the Queensland coast

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Malaysia says Kim Jong-nam’s body still in Kuala Lumpur

    {Body of estranged half-brother of North Korean leader has not left the country, health minister says.}

    The body of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, murdered in Malaysia last month, is still in Kuala Lumpur, health minister Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said on Tuesday, after reports the remains would soon leave the country.

    Kim was murdered on February 13 after two women – an Indonesian and a Vietnamese – smeared supremely toxic VX nerve agent on his face at the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, according to Malaysian police.

    “We have to check with the forensics department if there was any requirement to bring the body out, but as far as we are concerned there is no change in status quo,” Subramaniam told reporters.

    He said the next of kin have not come forward to provide assistance on how the body is to be treated.

    Media reports on Monday said the body was moved out of the hospital to a funeral parlour and was later being prepared to go on a flight to Beijing.

    Malaysia’s New Straits Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that the body was expected to go from Beijing to North Korea, without disclosing its source.

    Earlier this month, Interpol issued a red notice, the closest mechanism it has to an international arrest warrant, for four North Koreans wanted in connection with the death.

    The death has resulted in a fierce diplomatic dispute between two countries that once had strong ties.

    North Korea has questioned the Malaysian investigation into the death and refused to acknowledge that the dead man is Kim Jong-nam.

    Kim was murdered last month after two women - an Indonesian and a Vietnamese - smeared supremely toxic VX nerve agent on his face

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Trump to sign order scrubbing Obama climate policies

    {An executive order on Tuesday will seek to boost fossil fuels by unravelling Obama measures to combat climate change.}

    US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to undo several Barack Obama-era climate change measures in what his government says is an effort to boost domestic energy production.

    As part of the rollback, Trump will initiate a review of the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The regulation, Obama’s signature effort to curb carbon emissions, has been the subject of long-running legal challenges by Republican-led states and those who profit from burning oil, coal and gas.

    Trump, who has called global warming a “hoax” invented by the Chinese, has repeatedly criticised the power-plant rule and others as an attack on workers and the struggling coal industry.

    The contents of the order were outlined to reporters in a sometimes tense briefing with a senior White House official, whom aides insisted speak without attribution.

    The official at one point appeared to break with mainstream climate science, denying familiarity with widely publicised concerns about the potential adverse economic impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and more extreme weather.

    In addition to pulling back from the Clean Power Plan, the administration will also lift a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands.

    The Obama administration had imposed a three-year moratorium on new federal coal leases in January 2016, arguing that the $1bn-a-year programme must be modernised to ensure a fair financial return to taxpayers and address climate change.

    Trump accused his predecessor of waging a “war on coal” and boasted in a speech to congress that he had made “a historic effort to massively reduce job-crushing regulations,” including some that threaten “the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners.”

    The order will also chip away at other regulations, including scrapping language on the “social cost” of greenhouse gases. It will initiate a review of efforts to reduce the emission of methane in oil and natural gas production, as well as a Bureau of Land Management hydraulic fracturing rule, to determine whether those reflect the president’s policy priorities.

    It will also rescind Obama-era executive orders and memoranda, including one that addressed climate change and national security and one that sought to prepare the country for the impacts of climate change.

    The administration is still considering whether it should withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. But the moves to be announced on Tuesday will make it more difficult for the US to achieve its goals under the agreement.

    Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, alarmed environmental groups and scientists earlier this month when he said he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.

    The statement is at odds with mainstream scientific consensus and Pruitt’s own agency.

    The overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed studies and climate scientists agree that the planet is warming, mostly due to man-made sources, including carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons and nitrogen oxide.

    The official who briefed reporters said the president does believe in man-made climate change.

    {{The issue of jobs}}

    The power-plant rule Trump is set to address in his order has been on hold since last year as a federal appeals court considers a challenge by coal-friendly states and more than 100 companies who call the plan an unconstitutional power grab.

    Opponents say the plan will kill coal-mining jobs and drive up electricity costs. The Obama administration, some Democratic-led states and environmental groups countered that it will spur thousands of clean-energy jobs and help the US meet ambitious goals to reduce carbon pollution set by the international agreement signed in Paris.

    Trump’s order on coal-fired power plants follows an executive order he signed last month mandating a review of an Obama-era rule aimed at protecting small streams and wetlands from development and pollution.

    The order instructs the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to review a rule that redefined “waters of the United States” protected under the Clean Water Act to include smaller creeks and wetlands.

    While Republicans have blamed Obama-era environmental regulations for the loss of coal jobs, federal data shows that US mines have been shedding jobs for decades under presidents from both parties as a result of increasing automation and competition from cheaper natural gas.

    Another factor is the plummeting cost of solar panels and wind turbines, which now can produce emissions-free electricity cheaper than burning coal.

    According to an Energy Department analysis released in January, coal mining now accounts for fewer than 70,000 US jobs.

    By contrast, renewable energy – including wind, solar and biofuels – now accounts for more than 650,000 US jobs.

    {{Praise and condemnation}}

    The Trump administration’s plans drew praise from business groups and condemnation from environmental groups.

    US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J Donohue praised the president for taking “bold steps to make regulatory relief and energy security a top priority.”

    “These executive actions are a welcome departure from the previous administration’s strategy of making energy more expensive through costly, job-killing regulations that choked our economy,” he said.

    Former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy accused the Trump administration of wanting “us to travel back to when smokestacks damaged our health and polluted our air, instead of taking every opportunity to support clean jobs of the future.”

    “This is not just dangerous; it’s embarrassing to us and our businesses on a global scale to be dismissing opportunities for new technologies, economic growth, and US leadership,” she said in a statement.

    Trump has called global warming a "hoax" invented by the Chinese, and has repeatedly criticised climate change measures as an attack on the US coal industry

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Meat crackdown leaves shortage in India’s Uttar Pradesh

    {Meat sellers across Uttar Pradesh strike against an ongoing crackdown on illegal and mechanised slaughterhouses.}

    India’s most populous state is running out of meat, as tens of thousands of meat sellers across Uttar Pradesh close in protest over a government crackdown on slaughterhouses operating without licences or adequate paperwork.

    After the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh earlier this month on the back of a resounding electoral victory and named a Hindu priest-cum-politician as the state’s chief minister, the government began cracking down on illegal slaughterhouses and meat shops.

    The new chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, is a strong supporter of laws protecting cows, which are revered by devout Hindus, and has publicly opposed beef consumption.

    The slaughter of cows and the consumption of beef are taboo for most Hindus. Their slaughter is barred by law in most Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh.

    “All the illegal operations in slaughterhouses should end now,” Adityanath said on Sunday at a rally in his hometown of Gorakhpur, where he is also the high priest of the Gorakhnath Math, a religious order based in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

    “The majority of the slaughterhouses and meat shops are running without licences and government approval. I know, in the name of buffalo, cows are being slaughtered in many abattoirs. This should end.”

    So far, there have been no reports that any of the slaughterhouses shut down were selling cow meat instead of the usual water buffalo meat, which is permitted.

    Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 204 million, is India’s largest meat-producing state and has 41 licensed slaughterhouses.

    Many more operate illegally by bribing local authorities, like thousands of small businesses in this corruption-plagued country.

    Uttar Pradesh’s government earns more than 110 billion rupees ($1.7bn) a year from the industry.

    “We know it is a money spinner industry for the government, but the party had promised to people in its election campaign to close down illegal slaughterhouses and meat shops,” said Vijay Bahadur Pathak, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state general secretary.

    “Money or no money, we will fulfil our poll promise.”

    {{‘Unjustified’}}

    Aquil Ahmad, a meat shop owner in Lucknow, the state capital, said that even though he has a licence, he has decided to close his shop in support of others in his fraternity.

    Meanwhile, many meat shop owners are struggling to obtain the requisite paperwork.

    Niaz Quereshi, an official with Quereshi Mahasabha, an association of meat sellers, called the government crackdown “unjustified”.

    He said government officials were harassing people trying to get licences and were asking for bribes.

    “We are being sent from one table to another and from one room to another by clerks,” he said. “They are harassing us.”

    As meat has disappeared from the markets, many restaurants have been forced to shut down or change the menu.

    Tundey Kababi, a 105-year-old kebab institution in Lucknow known for its delicately spiced buffalo meat fare, has had to pull its top-selling item from the menu.

    “We are not getting an adequate supply of buffalo meat because of the crackdown on slaughterhouses,” said Tundey Kababi’s owner, Raees Ahmad.

    “We are forced to sell kebabs made of chicken and mutton. Our customers are not happy, but we have no other option.”

    The crackdown has even hit the carnivores in the state’s zoos.

    Zoos in Lucknow and the neighbouring city of Kanpur have sent an urgent message to the state government saying the lions aren’t keen on eating goat meat.

    “Now we serve goat meat, but the animals are not eating it to their fill,” said Nasim Zaidi, a veterinarian at a state-run hospital.

    The government has received similar complaints from a lion safari park in Etawah, which is home to three grown lions and two cubs.

    “Initially, the lions were fed goat and chicken meat, but I am told that they are not relishing that,” said Dara Singh Chauhan, Uttar Pradesh’s minister for forests.

    “Arrangements have been made to transport buffalo meat from other areas of the state.”

    As a resurgent Hindu majority pushes for a nationwide ban on slaughtering cows, the meat industry is scrambling to survive

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Gaza-Israel border shut after Mazen Faqha killing

    {Hamas closes northern Gaza crossing ‘until further notice’, as it reflects on Mazen Faqha’s killing, blamed on Israel.}

    Hamas authorities have shut the Gaza border with Israel after the killing of a senior commander, which Hamas blamed on “Israel and its collaborators”.

    The rare measure reflected Hamas’ shock after the killing of Mazen Faqha , who was found shot dead at the entrance of his Gaza City home late on Friday.

    Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum on Sunday announced (Arabic) that the Beit Hanoun checkpoint, which faces the Israeli crossing of Erez in the north of the Gaza Strip, would be closed until further notice.

    “In light of the humanitarian situation, only the residents of Gaza with humanitarian cases will be allowed to return to Gaza via the Beit Hanoun checkpoint,” Bozum said.

    Hamas’ foreign ministry clarified in a press release on Monday that it would allow the families of prisoners, people seeking medical care, women, and all males under the age of 15 and over the age of 45 to exit Gaza through the Beit Hanoun checkpoint.

    Hamas security services are investigating the circumstances of Faqha’s killing.

    Bozum called on Gaza’s citizens and media to be responsible in dealing with the event and not to circulate rumours about the incident.

    Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera that Hamas will not announce how it plans to respond to the assassination, but the “blood of our people will not go in vain, especially in a crime this big”.

    On whether the group plans to respond militarily, al-Zahar said, “This is a security issue that we cannot disclose. But for sure, the Israeli entity will be punished and deterred.”

    Hamas, the group that rules Gaza, said Faqha was shot four times in the head with a silenced gun. The group said that Israel and its “collaborators” were responsible for the killing.

    “No one would benefit from this crime except the Zionist enemy and not to mention, the Zionist enemy announced in all of its media that the leader, Mazen Faqha, is on the top of the wanted list,” senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil told Al Jazeera.

    “The Palestinian resistance has its methods and the capacity to respond,” al-Bardawil said.

    “The punishment will be of the same nature as the attack. The matter is now in the resistance movement’s hands,” he added.

    READ MORE: Hamas blames Israel after Mazen Faqha assassination

    Faqha, 38, was a senior Hamas official in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when he was jailed by Israel in 2003 for planning attacks against Israelis.

    He was sentenced to nine life terms but was released into the Gaza Strip as one of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners that Israel let go in exchange for soldier Gilad Shalit.

    Shalit was held in the coastal enclave after being seized in a cross-border raid in 2006.

    An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the assassination in the Hamas-run Palestinian coastal enclave, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2006.

    The Islamic Jihad movement said Faqha’s assassination marked the beginning of “a new offensive” by Israel against the Palestinian resistance, and that the resistance had the right to respond and defend itself.

    Thousands poured into the streets of Gaza for the funeral of Mazen Faqha

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Uber stops self-driving cars test programmme after Arizona crash

    {Uber has grounded its fleet of self-driving cars pending an investigation into the crash of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona, a spokesperson for the car-hailing service said on Sunday.}

    No one was seriously injured in the accident which occurred on Friday in Tempe, Arizona while the vehicle was in self-driving mode, the company said.

    “We are continuing to look into this incident and can confirm we had no backseat passengers in the vehicle,” the Uber spokesperson said.

    The accident occurred when the other vehicle “failed to yield” while making a left turn, Tempe police spokeswoman Josie Montenegros said.

    “The vehicles collided causing the autonomous vehicle to roll onto its side. There were no serious injuries,” she said.

    Self-driving Uber vehicles always have a driver who can take over the controls at any time.

    Montenegro said it was uncertain whether the Uber driver was controlling the vehicle at the time of the collision.

    The company grounded its self-driving vehicles in Arizona after the accident and then followed up pulling them off the road in Pittsburg and San Francisco, the two other locations where it operates self-driving vehicles, the company said.

    Uber has been dogged by problems in recent weeks, including the sudden, unexplained resignation of company President Jeff Jones, allegations of sexual harassment, and a lawsuit filed by Google alleging Uber stole trade secrets.

    A number of executives have left the company in recent weeks, including Uber president, Jeff Jones, as troubles have mounted.

    Advocates of self-driving cars say that they can cut down on deadly traffic accidents by eliminating human error.

    But there have been accidents, including a fatality in Florida in May when a truck struck a speeding Tesla that was on autopilot.

    An investigation found no safety-related defects with the autopilot system, but concluded that the driver may have had time to avert the crash if he had been paying closer attention.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny detained in Moscow rally

    {The coordinated protests called by opposition leader Alexei Navalny are some of the largest in Russia since 2011-12.}

    Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and dozens of others have been arrested as thousands of people across Russia defied bans on rallies to protest against government corruption.

    The demonstrations on Sunday were organised by Navalny, a Kremlin critic and anti-corruption campaigner, who urged people to take to the streets to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

    “Don’t try to fight for me,” Navalny wrote on Twitter after police in Moscow put him in a minibus, urging people to stay with the rally. “Our issue today is the fight against corruption.”

    Navalny called for the protests after publishing a detailed report this month accusing Medvedev of controlling a property empire through a shadowy network of non-profit organisations.

    Medvedev, who has so far made no comments on the claims, is accused of amassing a private collection of mansions, yachts and vineyards. As the alleged luxuries include a house for raising ducks, many of the placards in the protests showed mocking images of yellow toy ducks.

    The protests, which attracted crowds of hundreds or thousands in most sizeable Russian cities, were the largest coordinated outpourings of dissatisfaction in Russia since mass protests in 2011-2012.

    Navalny’s website had previously said that more than 80 towns and cities across Russia would hold protests on Sunday and that authorities had not sanctioned the majority of the rallies.

    Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said the “big story” of the day was the number of demonstrations taking place across Russia.

    “That is rare,” he said. “This suggest that Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption message is really resonating at the moment in Russia, in a way that more generalised anti-government messages don’t.

    “When people feel like the politicians above them are cheating them, that it seems is when Russians get angry and stand up and do something.”

    Russian authorities had warned Navalny’s supporters on Friday not to attend the rally because the event had not been sanctioned by the city administration.

    The Russian constitution allows public gatherings but recent laws have criminalised protests not authorised by city authorities, who frequently refuse to grant permission for rallies by Kremlin critics.

    In the far eastern city of Vladivostok, a Reuters news agency reporter saw the arrest of at least 30 protesters at an unsanctioned rally drawing hundreds of young people to a square near the city’s railway station.

    The arrests started after protesters unfurled banners reading “Corruption steals our future” and “The prime minister should answer”.

    The protesters then marched to a police station to demand that those arrested be freed.

    Hundreds also rallied in the city of Yekaterinburg in the industrial Urals region.

    Witnesses said at least four people holding banners were arrested on the city’s Labour Square, where opposition protesters, nationalists and supporters of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party gathered.

    Police said 500 to 700 people had gathered on Labour Square but did not confirm that there had been any detentions.

    “Corruption affects every person. The fight against corruption can unite all people irrespective of their convictions,” 20-year-old student Ivan told Reuters, asking that his last name not be published.

    Some demonstrators have protested with their faces painted green, a reference to a recent attack on Navalny when an assailant threw a green anti-septic liquid in his face.

    In February, a Russian court found Navalny guilty in a retrial of a 2013 fraud case, which barred him from running for president next year.

    Judge Alexei Vtyurin handed down a five-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of about $8,500 to Navalny for embezzling timber worth about $500,000.

    Navalny, 40, pledged to appeal against the “politically motivated” ruling and continue with his plans of challenging President Vladimir Putin in the forthcoming presidential elections, even though the Russian law bars anyone convicted of a crime from running for a public office for 10 years.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Frustration as cabin electronics ban comes into force

    {Passengers decry US, UK ban on laptops and tablets in hand luggage on some flights from Middle East and North Africa.}

    The US and British ban on laptops and tablets in carry-on luggage on some flights from the Middle East and North Africa has come into force, immediately drawing complaints from passengers at several airports.

    The ban requires that personal devices larger than a mobile phone – such as tablets, laptops and cameras – be placed in checked baggage for US and Britain-bound flights.

    The US restrictions apply to flights originating from 10 airports in countries including Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

    The British restrictions do not include the UAE or Qatar but do affect Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.

    The affected airports had until Saturday to implement the new rules.

    The ban s have already led to discontent and complaints from passengers at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, which is one of those listed.

    “This airport is so secured. The security level is so high compared to other airports in the rest of this part of the world. So why doing that from here?” Haggai Mazursky, a traveller, told Reuters news agency.

    Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said the airlines were trying to limit passengers’ frustrations while holding talks with the US to lift the ban.

    “They [Turkish airlines] believe that if the comfort of passenger is affected, it will impact the industry as a whole and the company as well,” she said.

    “In efforts to make it easier for the passengers, they [Turkish Airlines] are offering free wifi during flights and will also launch a special mobile application in April.”

    US and British officials said the decision to implement the security measures was a result of intelligence showing an increased risk for “terrorist activity” involving commercial aviation.

    However, many observers in the Middle East and North Africa said the ban amounted to discrimination, while others questioned the basis for the electronics ban, saying they were a ploy to undermine the aviation industry of the countries affected.

    “If you say it like this, you are saying everybody can be a terrorist. It’s not respectful. I think it’s not good,” said one passenger at Ataturk International Airport.

    Geoffrey Thomas, the editor-in-chief of A irlineratings.com, said the UK joining the ban gave it some credibility that there might be an evolving threat, “but at the same time UK has not banned UAE and Qatar, which raises a lot of concern as to what this is all about”.

    “Some suggest that the ban on UAE and Qatar has more to do with the Trump administration’s desire to curb the power of Middle East carriers, because one of the crazy parts about this ban is that Emirates from Dubai to Athens, and on to the US, is not included in the measures.

    “And then you have cities that actually have security challenges, such as Lagos and Islamabad, which are also not included in the ban. So, there are questions about this that leave a lot of experts perplexed,” Thomas said.

    Turkey’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that talks were underway to try to persuade the US and Britain to exclude Turkish Airlines and Istanbul airport from the bans.

    US, UK ban prohibits electronic devices larger than smart phones in cabins for flights coming from the Middle East and North Africa

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • US judge grants asylum to Singapore teen blogger

    {Amos Yee, accused of insulting the island’s late leader and religious groups, was jailed for weeks in 2015 and 2016.}

    A Singaporean teenage blogger who was jailed twice for his online posts insulting his government was granted asylum to remain in the United States, an immigration judge in Chicago ruled.

    Amos Yee was jailed in 2015 for four weeks for hurting the religious feelings of Christians and posting an obscene image as part of his attacks on the island’s late leader Lee Kuan Yew – whose son Lee Hsien Loong is now the prime minister.

    He was jailed again in 2016 for six weeks for insulting Muslims and Christians in a series of videos posted online, but critics claim the real reason was to silence him.

    Judge Samuel Cole issued a 13-page decision on Friday, more than two weeks after Yee’s closed-door hearing on the asylum application.

    “Yee has met his burden of showing that he suffered past persecution on account of his political opinion and has a well-founded fear of future persecution in Singapore,” Cole wrote.

    Cole said testimony during Yee’s hearing showed that while the Singapore government’s stated reason for punishing him involved religion, “its real purpose was to stifle Yee’s political speech”.

    He said Yee’s prison sentence was “unusually long and harsh” especially for his age.

    Department of Homeland Security attorneys had opposed the asylum bid, saying Yee’s case didn’t qualify as persecution based on political beliefs.

    It was unclear whether they would appeal the decision or if Yee would have to remain imprisoned if they did. Attorneys have 30 days to appeal.

    Singapore, an island republic of 5.6 million which has long been been criticised for strict controls on dissent, takes pride in its racial and social cohesion, which it regards as essential for stability in a volatile region.

    Source:Al Jazeera

  • Nicolas Maduro seeks UN help to ease medicine shortages

    {President Maduro asks for support to ‘treat economic and social injuries’ as country suffers severe medicine shortages.}

    Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has asked the United Nations for “help” boosting medicine supplies as he struggles to combat crippling shortages.

    “I’ve asked for support from the UN to help treat economic and social injuries that have hit our people caused by the economic war and the sharp fall in petroleum prices,” Maduro said in a televised appearance on Friday.

    He did not provide any details about the request except to say that the UN has the expertise to normalise the supply and distribution of pharmaceutical drugs in the country.

    But just acknowledging that Venezuela needs outside help is a telling sign of how deep in crisis the country, sitting atop the world’s largest petroleum reserve, has fallen.

    The country is suffering from triple-digit inflation as well as severe shortages of fuel, food and medicines, from painkillers to chemotherapy drugs.

    As many as 85 of every 100 medicines are missing in the country, Venezuela’s main pharmaceutical association has said.

    Shortages are so extreme that patients sometimes take medicines ill-suited for their conditions, doctors warn.

    Leftist President Nicolas Maduro blames the shortages on a right-wing plot to overthrow him.

    On Friday, the Washington-based Organization of American States, OAS, announced that it would hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday to address the situation in Venezuela.

    The announcement comes a day after the United States and group of 13 other OAS nations called on Venezuela’s government to hold elections and immediately free political prisoners.

    OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro is pushing to expel Maduro’s government from the group for breaking the country’s democratic order and violating human rights.

    Venezuela’s government has accused the OAS leader of overstepping his authority in an effort to pave the way for an “international intervention” in Venezuela.

    Source:Al Jazeera