Powerful quake adds to Haiti’s misery, killing at least 304

 LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) — A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake added to the misery in Haiti, killing at least 304 people, injuring a minimum of 1,800 others and destroying hundreds of homes. People in the Caribbean island nation rushed into the streets to seek safety and to help help rescue those trapped in the rubble of collapsed homes, hotels and other structures.

Saturday’s earthquake struck the southwestern part of the hemisphere’s poorest nation, almost razing some towns and triggering landslides that hampered rescue efforts in two of the hardest-hit communities. The disaster also added to the plight of Haitians, who were already grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, a presidential assassination and deepening poverty.

The epicenter of the quake was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The widespread damage could worsen by early next week, with Tropical Storm Grace predicted to reach Haiti late Monday or early Tuesday.

Aftershocks were felt throughout the day and late into the night, when many people now homeless or frightened by the possibility of their fractured homes collapsing on them stayed in the streets to sleep — if their nerves allowed them.

In the badly damaged coastal town of Les Cayes, under darkness that was only punctured by flashlights, some praised God for surviving the earthquake.

“We are alive today because God loves us,” said Marie-claire Jean-Pierre, whose home collapsed a moment after she and her son stepped outside when they felt the ground begin to shake.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients. A former senator rented a private airplane to move injured people from Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince for medical assistance.

Henry declared a one-month state of emergency for the whole country and said he would not ask for international help until the extent of the damages was known.

“The most important thing is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble,” said Henry. “We have learned that the local hospitals, in particular that of Les Cayes, are overwhelmed with wounded, fractured people.”

Jerry Chandler, director of Haiti’s Office of Civil Protection, told reporters that the death toll stood at 304 Saturday night. Rescue workers and bystanders were able to pull many people to safety from the rubble.

Chandler said a partial count of structural damage included at least 860 destroyed homes and more than 700 damaged. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches were also affected.

On the tiny island of Ile-a-Vache, about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) from Les Cayes, the quake damaged a seaside resort popular with Haitian officials, business leaders, diplomats and humanitarian workers. Fernand Sajous, owner of the Abaka Bay Resort, said by telephone that nine of the hotel’s 30 rooms collapsed, but he said they were vacant at the time and no one was injured.

“They disappeared — just like that,” Sajous said.

People in Les Cayes tried to pull guests from the rubble of a collapsed hotel, but as the sun set, they had only been able to recover the body of a 7-year-old girl whose home was behind the facility.

“I have eight kids, and I was looking for the last one,” Jean-Claude Daniel said through tears. “I will never see her again alive. The earthquake destroyed my life. It took a child away from me.”

The reports of overwhelmed hospitals come as Haiti struggles with the pandemic and a lack of resources to deal with it. Just last month, the country of 11 million people received its first batch of U.S.-donated coronavirus vaccines, via a United Nations program for low-income countries.

The earthquake also struck just over a month after President Jovenel Moïse was shot to death in his home, sending the country into political chaos. His widow, Martine Moïse, who was seriously wounded in the attack, posted a message on Twitter calling for unity among Haitians: “Let’s put our shoulders together to bring solidarity.”

As he boarded a plane bound for Les Cayes, Henry said he wanted “structured solidarity” to ensure the response was coordinated to avoid the confusion that followed the devastating 2010 earthquake, when aid was slow to reach residents after as many as 300,000 Haitians were killed.

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized an immediate response and named USAID Administrator Samantha Power as the senior official coordinating the U.S effort to help Haiti. USAID will help to assess damage and assist in rebuilding, said Biden, who called the United States a “close and enduring friend to the people of Haiti.”

Argentina and Chile also were among the first nations to promise help.

Humanitarian workers said gang activity in the seaside district of Martissant, just west of the Haitian capital, also was complicating relief efforts.

“Nobody can travel through the area,” Ndiaga Seck, a UNICEF spokesman in Port-au-Prince, said by phone. “We can only fly over or take another route.”

Seck said information about deaths and damage was slow coming to Port-au-Prince because of spotty internet service, but UNICEF planned to send medical supplies to two hospitals in the south, in Les Cayes and Jeremie.

People in Port-au-Prince felt the tremor and many rushed into the streets in fear, although there did not appear to be damage there.

Haiti, where many live in tenuous circumstances, is vulnerable to earthquakes and hurricanes. It was struck by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in 2018 that killed more than a dozen people.

By late Saturday, the island had experienced six aftershocks stronger than 5.0 and nine above 4.0.

Claude Prepetit, a Haitian civil engineer and geologist, warned of the danger from cracked structures.

“More or less intensive aftershocks are to be expected for a month,” he said, cautioning that some buildings, “badly damaged during the earthquake, can collapse during aftershocks.”

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Nicki Minaj and husband Kenneth Petty sued for alleged harassment by woman who accused him of raping her

 The New York lawsuit claims that Minaj offered the accuser $500,000 (£360,000) and a bespoke 'happy birthday' video message for her 16-year-old daughter.

Nicki Minaj and her husband are being sued for alleged harassment by a woman who accused him of raping her 27 years ago.

The woman, 43, claims she has suffered an “onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits” from Minaj, her husband Kenneth Petty and their associates.

She says they offered her $500,000 (£360,000) in a bid to get her to revoke her story that Petty attacked her as a 16-year-old in Queens, New York in 1994.

Petty, who shares an 11-month-old son with Minaj, pleaded guilty to attempted rape at the time and served four-and-a-half years in prison.

Image:Minaj in New York in 2016. Pic: AP/Star Max

The new lawsuit, filed to the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, claims that after Petty, 43, was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in California last year, the accuser started to receive messages from the couple.

It says that rap superstar Minaj tried to fly her to Los Angeles so she could “help” her with the legal action.

The accuser then claims Minaj tried to get her to accept a statement drafted by her publicist, which recanted any claims of sexual assault in 1994.

During one of the conversations, the accuser told the rapper: “I need you to know woman to woman that this happened,” the lawsuit states.

After that, the woman claims she was subject to an “onslaught”, with two people contacting a member of her family to say Minaj would offer her half a million dollars to revoke her claims.

On one occasion, Minaj is alleged to have offered to send the woman’s 16-year-old daughter a bespoke ‘happy birthday’ message.

The star is also said to have offered her $20,000 (£14,000) in cash.

According to the lawsuit the woman has been left “distraught” and unable to work since May 2020 due to “severe depression, paranoia, constant moving, harassment and threats”.

She is now living in isolation in Florida in fear of retaliation.

Minaj and Petty have not yet responded to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

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Japan marks 76th anniversary of WWII defeat; no Suga apology

 TOKYO (AP) — Japan marked the 76th anniversary of its World War II surrender on Sunday with a somber ceremony in which Prime Minister Yosihide Suga pledged for the tragedy of war to never be repeated but avoided apologizing for his country’s past aggression.

Suga said Japan never forgets the peace that the country enjoys today is built on the sacrifices of those who died in the war.

“We will commit to our pledge to never repeat the tragedy of the war,” he said in his first speech at the event since becoming prime minister.

Suga did not offer an apology to the Asian victims of Japanese aggression across the region in the first half of the 20th century — a precedence set by his predecessor Shinzo Abe, who was frequently accused of trying to whitewash his country’s brutal past.

In a largely domestic-focused speech, Suga listed damage inflicted on Japan and its people, including the U.S. atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities and the fierce battle of Okinawa, and mourned for them.

Emperor Naruhito, in contrast, expressed “deep remorse” over his country’s wartime actions in a carefully nuanced speech that followed the footsteps of his father, who devoted his 30-year career to making amends for a war fought in the name of Hirohito, the current emperor’s grandfather. Naruhito also said he hoped that people can put their hearts together to overcome the difficulty of the pandemic while seeking happiness and peace for all.

Amid Tokyo’s surging coronavirus infections, about 200 participants, reduced from about 6,000 before the pandemic, mourned for the dead with a minute of silence. Masks were required, and there was no singing of the national anthem.

Suga vowed to cooperate with the international community in tackling global issues under “proactive pacifism,” a vision that Abe promoted to allow Japan to play a greater military role in international conflicts.

Beginning 2013, Abe stopped acknowledging Japan’s wartime hostilities or apologize in his Aug. 15 speeches, scrapping a nearly 20-year tradition that began with the 1995 apology of Socialist leader Tomiichi Murayama.

On Sunday, before attending the ceremony at Tokyo’s Budokan hall, Suga laid flowers at a nearby national cemetery for unknown soldiers. While Suga stayed away from controversial Yasukuni shrine, he did send a religious offering to the shrine, Japanese media reported.

Victims of Japanese actions during the first half of the 20th century, especially the Koreas and China, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism because it honors convicted war criminals among about 2.5 million war dead.

Abe, who stepped down as prime minister last year, prayed at the shrine Sunday, and so did three other members of Suga’s Cabinet. Two other ministers visited the shrine Friday.

The visits sparked criticism from China and South Korea.

On Sunday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed “deep disappointment and regret” over the Japanese leaders’ visits and offerings to the shrine, saying it “beautifies Japan’s past war of aggression” and honors “war criminals.” It urged them to show “sincere remorse through action” so that the countries could develop “future-oriented ties.”

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Ghana welcomes home Tulsa Race Massacre survivors Mama Fletcher and Uncle Redd

 At 107 and 100 respectively, Fletcher and Redd walked, yes walked, from their car to a brief but joy-filled VIP airport reception~

Ghana’s peace and stable democracy, along with her open-arms posture to returning global African family paid huge dividends as two of the three remaining survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre chose the west African country over Egypt and a couple of other east African countries for their dream visit to the Motherland.

When the Delta Flight from New York Landed on runway 210 of the Kotoka International Airport at 2:26pm on Saturday August 14, the jubilation began with a look of amazement on the face of Dr. Toni Luck who had traveled to Ghana from Johannesburg, South Africa to welcome them. “The plane is on the ground y’all,” Luck said.

Adjacent to her, septuagenarian Ambassador Erieka Bennet, Head of the Diaspora Africa Forum jumped up and down like a kid who just received a dream gift at Christmas saying “I wanna see the plane, I wanna see the plane.”

Six weeks of work went into planning the first trip to Africa by Mother Viola Fletcher and her brother Hugh Van Ellis mostly called “Uncle Redd.” And the VIP Lounge was abuzz with excitement.

The first car brought Michael Thompson, founder and CEO of Our Black Truth which sponsored the trip. Thompson’s statement was brief. “It’s a dream come true, and I’m looking forward to learning more about Ghana,” he said.

       

Thompson’s curiosity about Ghana had already started with his confession that he had started working his cameras as early as the short ride between the airplane and the VIP lounge.

Other members of the duo’s delegation including the daughter of Uncle Redd arrived to a rousing welcome before the vehicle pulled up and the small crowd gathered at the VIP Lounge caught their first glimpse of Mother Fletcher and Uncle Redd.

When the wheel chairs first came out the expectation was that Mother Fletcher and her brother Uncle Redd would sit in them. Not so. The two centenarians grabbed onto their walkers and strolled into the lounge in calculated steps that still stated clearly that they have taken very good care of themselves to be walking at all.

After some brief introductions, the welcome team carefully escorted them into their vehicles, and with the media bus in tow and a motor rider escorting, the motorcade navigated the circumference of the airport and headed to the La Palm Royal Beach hotel, which is now unofficially the “Mama Fletcher’s Palace.”

Upon arrival, traditional drumming and dancing welcomed them to the “Palace” and the Tourism team decorated the famous visitors with the specially woven Kente stole bearing “Beyond The Return” inscription to formally welcome them to Ghana.

After the traditional welcome, the considerate handlers of Mother Fletcher and Uncle Redd quickly ushered them into their rooms and continued with an arrival orientation only with the accompanying members of the entourage. For all intensive purposes and in recognition of their age, the two Centenarians were done for the day except for dinner.

Not much has been planned beyond church service for Sunday, but Monday marks the beginning of the actual tour of Ghana including stops at the Presidency and the Osu Dungeon.

DNT News, Accra, Ghana

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US issues terrorism alert to warn COVID measures and 9/11 anniversary could spark violent attacks

 The Department of Homeland Security has issued the warning as al Qaeda released the first English-language edition of its Inspire magazine in four years.

The upcoming 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the reimposition of coronavirus restrictions could spark violent attacks by extremists, the US Department of Homeland Security has warned.

The agency added that the US is in a “heightened threat environment” that has been fuelled by resentment over measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, and extremists motivated by racial and ethnic hatred.

In a terror alert released on Friday, the department said coronavirus-related stress has “contributed to increased societal strains and tensions, driving several plots by domestic violent extremists, and they may contribute to more violence this year”.

Officials also noted how al Qaeda has released the first English-language edition of its Inspire magazine in four years.

The terror group has apparently released the edition to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks it orchestrated in 2001.

The DHS has warned that the anniversary and approaching religious holidays “could serve as a catalyst for acts of targeted violence”.

However, the department did not city any specific threats in its National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin.

Domestic extremists motivated by religious and ethnic hatred have attacked houses of worship and other gatherings in the past, but the agency said there aren’t any “credible or imminent threats identified to these locations”.

As in previous bulletins, the DHS expressed concern about both domestic extremists motivated by “personal grievances and extremist ideological beliefs” and foreign influences.

The agency said Russian, Chinese and Iranian government-linked media outlets have helped spread conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19 and the effectiveness of vaccines and have in some cases amplified calls for violence against people of Asian descent.

How has the Taliban advanced so quickly?

In a bulletin issued in May, the DHS had warned that domestic extremists could take advantage of moves earlier this year to ease COVID-19 restrictions to launch attacks on a broader range of targets.

The warning comes as the UK defence secretary told Sky News al Qaeda “will probably come back” in Afghanistan as the security situation there deteriorates.

Speaking to Kay Burley, Ben Wallace was highly critical of the US decision to withdraw troops from the country.

When asked about the situation in Afghanistan, Mr Wallace said: “I’m absolutely worried that failed states are breeding grounds for those types of people.

“Of course I am worried, it is why I said I felt this was not the right time or decision to make because, of course, al Qaeda will probably come back, certainly would like that type of breeding ground.”

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Zambia: Hakainde Hichilema takes early presidential election lead

Opposition candidate tallied 171,604 votes versus the 110,178 garnered by incumbent Edgar Lungu.

Zambia’s opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has taken an early lead in the country’s presidential election over incumbent Edgar Lungu, according to the first results from the electoral commission on Saturday.

Hichilema tallied 171,604 votes versus the 110,178 garnered by Lungu in the results for 15 of the southern African nation’s 156 constituencies.

Those 15 constituencies include perceived Lungu strongholds, suggesting that Hichilema has gained ground since the last elections in 2016, when he lost by a slim margin in a contested vote marred by allegations of rigging by Lungu.

A total of 296,210 votes were cast in those constituencies, representing a 71.75 percent turnout rate, chief electoral officer Patrick Nshindano told a media briefing in the capital, Lusaka.

The first results, initially expected on Friday, were delayed after counting went on overnight because of the huge voter turnout and because political parties objected to the electoral commission’s initial figures in one constituency, which differed from those from monitors on the ground.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia allowed the last polling station to remain open until 5am (03:00 GMT) on Friday to give people who queued for hours an opportunity to cast their ballots amid restrictions on internet access and violence in three regions.

In Chawama township in Lusaka, Lungu’s parliamentary constituency before he became president, residents said supporters of both Lungu and Hichilema both claimed victory and celebrated throughout the night.

Lungu’s ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party said its vote tally showed a huge turnout in its strongholds and it was confident of victory. Hichilema is running for the United Party for National Development.

Social media access was largely restored in Zambia on Saturday.

Al Jazeera’s Haru Matasa, reporting from the capital Lusaka, said the vote “is still too close to call”.

“It seems for now that the opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema is leading,” Mutasa said.

“But like in many African elections, the urban results are usually announced first, and in the urban areas that is where the opposition has its strongholds. When the rural results start coming in that’s when sometimes things seem to change so, in a couple of hours and maybe a day or so, we will have a clearer indication of what actually is going on.”

‘A huge referendum’

Lungu – who deployed the military following pre-election clashes – strengthened the army presence in three provinces after two deaths were reported on election day, including a PF chairman.

An estimated seven million people registered to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections that saw top contender Hichilema, a successful businessman, challenge Lungu’s attempt to win a second five-year term.

Hichilema, who is running for the sixth time, was backed by an alliance of 10 parties.

Nevers Mumba, another presidential candidate who leads the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy opposition party, said on Friday the vote had been “a huge referendum against the Patriotic Front and their inability to lead the nation”. Mumba conceded defeat.

Investors are closely watching the outcome of Thursday’s election: the country is highly indebted and suffered the continent’s first pandemic-era sovereign default in November.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) support, already broadly agreed, is on hold until after the vote. So too is debt restructuring seen as an early test of a new global plan to ease the burden on poor countries.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Fuel explosion in Lebanon kills 20, wounding dozens

 BEIRUT (AP) — A warehouse where fuel was illegally stored exploded in northern Lebanon early Sunday, killing 20 people and burning dozens more in the latest tragedy to hit the Mediterranean country in the throes of a devastating economic and political crisis.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion near the border with Syria. Fuel smuggling operations have been ongoing for months.

The Lebanese Red Cross said a fuel tanker exploded and its teams recovered 20 bodies from the site in the border village of Tleil. In a statement, it said it evacuated 79 people who were injured or suffered burns in the blast. Hours after the blast, Lebanese Red Cross members were still searching the area for more victims as Lebanese soldiers cordoned the area.

A Lebanese military official said the explosion occurred after the army confiscated a warehouse in Tleil where about 60,000 liters of gasoline were stored and the order was given to distribute the fuel to residents of the area. Residents had gathered to acquire the scarce commodity, available only on the black market at exorbitant prices or not at all.

It was not clear what caused it, the official said told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Outside the Salam hospital in the northern city of Tripoli, a woman collapsed after she was told her son succumbed to his wounds.

“Oh my God. He has little kids,” said the woman as she wept. “Why did you leave me Ahmad?”

A young man standing nearby cried: “We will go to your homes and burn you there,” a reference to Lebanon’s political leaders, blamed for decades of corruption and mismanagement that has led the country to bankruptcy.

At a hospital in Beirut, where some of the burn victims were brought, Marwa el-Sheikh from Tleil was waiting for word about her brother who was being treated for burns, and her brother-in-law, a retired soldier, who was still missing.

“Some people were burned beyond recognition,” she told the AP. “They are the victims of the shortcomings and carelessness of our politicians who led us to this.”

A nighttime video circulating online showed residents gathered at the site before the explosion, filling up gallons with fuel. AP footage showed the charged remains of what appears to be part of a tanker that exploded. Lebanese soldiers, a Red Cross vehicle and other trucks could be seen in the area.

Hospitals in northern Lebanon were calling for blood donations of all types. Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan called on hospitals in northern Lebanon and the capital, Beirut, to receive those injured by the explosion, adding that the government will pay for their treatment.

The explosion comes as Lebanon faces a severe fuel shortage that has been blamed on smuggling, hoarding and the cash-strapped government’s inability to secure deliveries of imported fuel.

The shortages have paralyzed the country long dependent on private generators to light up their homes. Most of those generators have now turned off their engines because of the crippling diesel shortages. The American University Medical Center on Saturday warned it may be forced to shut down in less than 48 hours due to fuel shortages, which would threaten the lives of its critically ill patients.

Tleil is about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Syrian border, but it was not immediately clear if the fuel in the tanker was being prepared to be smuggled to Syria. where prices are much higher compared to those in Lebanon.

The fuel crisis deteriorated dramatically this week after the central bank decided to end subsidies for fuel products — a decision that will likely lead to price hikes of almost all commodities in Lebanon, already in the throes of soaring poverty and hyperinflation.

On Saturday, Lebanese troops deployed to petrol stations, forcing owners to sell fuel to customers. Some gas station owners have been refusing to sell, waiting to make gains when prices increase with the end of subsidies.

The Lebanese army also has been cracking down on smugglers active along the Syrian border, confiscating thousands of liters of gasoline over the past days. El-Sheikh said residents had gathered around the confiscated petrol at Tleil, where the army was giving it for free, when the explosion happened.

Lebanon has for decades suffered electricity cuts, partly because of widespread corruption and mismanagement in the small Mediterranean nation of 6 million, including 1 million Syrian refugees.

Sunday’s explosion was the deadliest in the country since an Aug. 4, 2020, blast at Beirut’s port killed at least 214, wounded thousands and destroyed parts of the capital.

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