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Canary Islands volcano: Hundreds more evacuated as La Palma lava nears sea

 An erupting volcano on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands has forced authorities to evacuate another village in the path of lava gushing towards the sea.

The evacuation of El Paso was ordered after lava started spewing from a new crack in the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

More than 6,000 people have fled from lava that has buried hundreds of homes since the eruption began on Sunday.

Four earthquakes hit the island shortly after the new eruption vent opened.

Local officials said the lava could trigger a chemical reaction that causes explosions and the release of toxic gasses when it reaches the sea.

Marine authorities have established an exclusion zone of two nautical miles (3.7km) at sea, in the area where the lava is heading.

This was done “to prevent onlookers on boats and prevent the gases from affecting people”, the president of the island’s council, Mariano Hernández, said.

Experts told local media the lava is expected to reach the sea at about 12:00 (11:00 GMT) on Monday. Residents have been told to stay away from the area, which has been cordoned off by police.

In the meantime, the lava continues to advance down the volcano’s western flank, destroying everything in its path.

As of Tuesday morning, the lava had covered 103 hectares (1 sq km) and destroyed 166 houses, the EU’s Copernicus service estimated. A satellite image showed the lava’s path down the mountain.

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Citing the mayor of El Paso, Sergio Rodríguez, the Cadena SER radio station reported that as many as 300 homes had been destroyed by the lava so far.

So far no casualties have been reported, but footage showed lava overwhelming roads, farms and swimming pools on the island, which is popular with tourists.

There were mandatory evacuation orders for four villages, including El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane, and temporary shelters have been set up.

One local named Laura told Cadena SER she and her family had no time to prepare for the evacuation.

“My house is not affected, but my neighbours have lost their houses, their small businesses. This is a catastrophe,” she said.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

image caption Lava from the eruption has gushed through the landscape since the eruption started

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has delayed a trip to a UN summit in New York while he oversees ongoing rescue efforts.

Aviation authorities said the eruption had not affected air traffic in the Canary Islands.

The volcano lies in the south of La Palma island, which is home to around 80,000 people.

It last erupted 50 years ago. Scientists are unsure how long this eruption will last.

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Kenyan athletes Kiprono, Lagat, win men’s and women’s Rome Marathon

 Langat Clement Kiprono and Peris Cherono Lagat won the men’s and women’s Rome Marathon, respectively, on Sunday.

Kenya’s Kiprono finished ahead of Emmanuel Naibei and Ulfata Deresa Geleta with a time of two hours, eight minutes and 22 seconds.

The women’s marathon was lead mostly by Kenyan athlete Judith Jurubet, but in a late surge her compatriot Peris Cherono Lagat crossed the line ahead with a time of two hours, 29 minutes and 29 seconds.

Last year’s race was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and this year’s edition was pushed back from April, its normal spot on the calendar, for the same reason.

More than 7,500 runners were on the early-morning starting line in the shadow of Rome’s Colosseum. The city’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, was the race’s ceremonial starter.

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Russia shooting: Gunman kills six at Perm University

 A gunman killed six people and injured 28 others at a university in the Russian city of Perm, officials have said.

The assailant walked on to the campus on Monday morning and started shooting.

Students and teachers barricaded themselves inside the university building, while others were seen screaming and jumping from windows.

Authorities said the attacker, a student at the university, was injured and detained by police.

Russia’s interior ministry said the attacker was shot during an exchange of gunfire with a police officer Konstanin Kalinin, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene.

Mr Kalinin then disarmed the assailant, who had a gun and a knife, before administering first aid.

In a statement, President Vladimir Putin called the shooting “a great loss not only for the families who lost their children but for the whole country.”

The incident occurred at 11:00 (06:00 GMT) at Perm State University, located around 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) east of the capital, Moscow, in the Urals. Officials initially reported eight had died, but subsequently revised the death toll down.

One professor at the university described students leaping out of buildings: “They jumped out in some horror, screaming,” he told the BBC.

“One of the students told me that it was a shooting. I heard pops, everyone began to scatter in different directions. I went to my students in the second building and continued to hear the pops.”

Other students locked themselves into classrooms in a bid to escape the gunman.

“There were about 60 people in the classroom. We closed the door and barricaded it with chairs,” one student, Semyon Karyakin, told Reuters news agency.

This piece of footage of students jumping to safety was broadcast on Russian TV:

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The gunman reportedly acted alone and said he had no political or religious motives.

In a social media post he also said he was consumed by hatred and intended to do harm to others.

“I’ve thought about this for a long time, it’s been years and I realised the time had come to do what I dreamt of,” he said on a social media account attributed to him that was later taken down, Reuters news agency reports.

Earlier this year, a 19-year-old gunman opened fire in his old school in the central Russian city of Kazan, killing nine people.

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Russia behind Litvinenko murder, rules European rights court

 Russia was responsible for the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has found.

Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who became a British citizen, died of polonium poisoning in 2006 in London.

A UK public inquiry conducted in 2016 concluded that the killing was “probably approved” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has always denied any involvement in his murder.

The UK inquiry said former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi and another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun deliberately poisoned Mr Litvinenko by putting the radioactive substance into his drink.

Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, took the case against Russia to the Strasbourg-based rights court, which has agreed with the UK inquiry’s conclusion.

“The Court found in particular that there was a strong prima facie case that, in poisoning Mr Litvinenko, Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun had been acting as agents of the Russian state,” the ECHR ruled.

It concluded that Russia’s failure to refute claims that it organised the hit further pointed towards the state’s responsibility.

Both Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun have denied any involvement in the killing.

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DNT Across Africa in Five Minutes

 Rwanda

Paul Rusesabagina, 67, was found guilty of backing a rebel group behind deadly attacks in 2018 and 2019.His family has called the trial a sham, saying he was taken to Rwanda, from exile, by force.

The US, where Rusesabagina is a resident, said it was concerned by the conviction.His journey from celebrated figure to state enemy happened as his criticism of the government grew.

Ghana

Takoradi, Sept 20, GNA – The Sekondi Takoradi Metropolis will play host to the “#Fix TheCountry” team to drum home the need to work on developmental challenges in the Western Region.

The #FixTheCountry tagline has raised awareness among the authorities and the public on how citizens could stand up to demand the fixing of socio-economic challenges.

Uganda

A court in Uganda has granted bail to two opposition MPs who have been charged with murder over a spate of killings with machetes in the country’s central region.

However, MP Allan Ssewanyana and Muhammad Segirinya – who were detained about two weeks ago – will spend another night in custody, as it was too late to do the paper  work for their release.

South Africa

Sixty-three endangered African penguins have been killed by a swarm of bees in a rare occurrence near Cape Town, bird conservationists in South Africa say.

The protected birds, from a colony in Simonstown, were found on the shore with multiple bee-stings.

Kenya

Langat Clement Kiprono and Peris Cherono Lagat won the men’s and women’s Rome Marathon, respectively, on Sunday.

Kenya’s Kiprono finished ahead of Emmanuel Naibei and Ulfata Deresa Geleta with a time of two hours, eight minutes and 22 seconds.

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Rwanda: Former hotelier Paul Rusesabagina to learn fate today

 Hero for Hollywood, “terrorist” in Kigali: Paul Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda”, has become one of the most famous opponents of the Rwandan regime, which accuses him of being responsible for deadly attacks carried out by a rebel group.

The former director of the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali will be tried on nine charges, including “terrorism”, and his fate will be decided Monday. He faces life in prison.

The story of this moderate Hutu with a quiet appearance, with his moustache and well-dressed suit, inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda”, released in 2004, which recounts his rescue of more than 1,000 people during the 1994 genocide that left 800,000 dead, mostly Tutsis.

Portrayed on screen by Don Cheadle as a soft-spoken altruist, Mr. Rusesabagina is also one of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s fiercest critics.

Now 67, he reappeared in Rwanda in August 2020, after nearly 25 years in exile, in a pink prison uniform, handcuffed, after what he denounced as an “abduction.

The Rwandan justice system accuses him of being the mastermind of attacks carried out by the National Liberation Front (FLN), a rebel group considered terrorist by Kigali.

He and his family deny this. His relatives say he has always been the courageous, calm and determined man portrayed in the Hollywood blockbuster and denounce a “political” trial aimed at silencing an opponent.

“Dad has always advocated for justice, peace and human rights. Now it is his rights that are being violated,” said his niece and adopted daughter, Carine Kanimba, in October 2020.

– Ordinary” man –

Born in 1954 into a farming family in central Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina briefly studied theology and then hotel management in Kenya and Switzerland.

Returning to Rwanda in 1984, he was hired as deputy general manager of the most prestigious hotel in the capital, Kigali, the Hotel des Mille Collines.

When the genocide began in April 1994, hundreds of people, mainly Tutsis, took refuge there.

A moderate Hutu married to a Tutsi woman, Paul Rusesabagina talked with the killers, soothed them with beers, and used his connections to obtain food, while his “guests” drank the water from the pool. He will send SOS to the European governments and to the American president Bill Clinton with the fax of the hotel.

American journalist Philip Gourevitch, who met him, describes him as “a mild-mannered, solidly built man of rather ordinary appearance.”

“That’s how he seemed to see himself, an ordinary person who did nothing extraordinary in refusing to give in to the whirlwind of madness that surrounded him,” he wrote in his 1998 book “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.”

Paul Rusesabagina is disappointed with the new Tutsi-dominated government, which overthrew the extremist Hutu regime and put an end to the genocide.

He accuses the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and its leader Paul Kagame of authoritarianism and of fueling anti-Hutu sentiment. He left the country in 1996 with his wife and children for Belgium and the United States.

– Notoriety and criticism –

The release of “Hotel Rwanda” in 2004 brought him sudden fame: he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the United States and gave conferences around the world…

However, he was criticized by survivors of the Mille Collines, who accused him of taking advantage of their misfortune and of embellishing his role.

“He took advantage of the refugees (who) paid for their rooms and for food,” one of them, Edouard Kayihura, told AFP: “A hero is someone who puts his life at risk to save others. I can’t think of anyone who has done that to save us”.

With his newfound fame, Rusesabagina has also become more vocal against Paul Kagame, which has led to attacks from regime supporters.

“As he was attacked, he was pushed into more extreme positions,” says Timothy Longman, a professor at Boston University who first met him in the mid-1990s.

Linked to exiled opposition groups, Rusesabagina helped found the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD) in 2017, of which the FLN is considered the armed wing.

In 2018, in a video, he considered “the time has come for us to use all possible means to bring about change in Rwanda, because all political means have been tried and failed.”

But he has always denied any involvement in the attacks for which he is being tried.

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