Category: Foreign

(tca/dpa/NAN/FLOWERBUD NEWS) A 30-year-old man was crushed to death by a falling elevator in his luxury apartment building Thursday as passengers watched in horror, officials said.

Samuel Waisbren rode the elevator down to the lobby of his 23-story apartment building, known as the Manhattan Promenade, at 344 Third Ave. near E. 26th Street with six other residents about 8:30 a.m., but didn’t make it out alive.

The victim’s devastated father, Dr. Charles Waisbren, made this known to the New York Daily News by phone from his home in Milwaukee on Friday.

“It’s hard to see how you can go on living when such a big thing is taken from you,” Waisbren said.

He added: “Sam was an absolutely wonderful young man. Smart and loving and very, very sensitive.

”He had his whole life ahead of him.”

Waisbren started to walk out of the elevator on the heels of another passenger when the lift suddenly plummeted, crushing him, according to officials and a building worker who witnessed the gruesome mishap.

The passenger, who made it off the elevator spun around and tried to help the trapped victim.

A worker, who witnessed the horror said, ”The elevator took him down. It’s awful. It was disgusting.”

The five people who remained on the descending elevator were forced to watch as Waisbren was sucked into the gap between the shaft and the elevator car, officials said.

“Some people were left on the car after the car moved down to the basement,” FDNY Chief Anthony Arpaia said.

Waisbren was crushed by the elevator against a shaft wall and died at the scene, authorities said.

Arpaia said responding firefighters scrambled to remove the five horrified passengers and free the victim.

“The patient was unfortunately stuck between the first floor and basement.

“We had to work pretty hard to get the elevator car moved and extract the patient,” Arpaia added.

Waisbren moved to the city six years ago, relatives said. He worked in sales at software company CB Insights.

“A Midwest boy goes out to the big city, and dies.

“It’s just horrible to feel that he’s not going to grow up to have children, to have his own family, progress in his career,” said his father.

The dad said that his son had complained to his parents about elevator problems in the building.

One-bedroom units go for 3,600 dollars in the building.

“My feeling about New York is you pay a bazillion dollars for rent, the least they could do is provide safety,” the victim’s father said.

The building’s management company, ATA Enterprises, did not return calls for comment.

The building has 17 past building violations, none of them for elevator issues. But residents said the building’s two elevators have long been an issue.

“There’s always something wrong with the elevators.

”They’re always down, people are getting stuck,” said Dayna Sargen, 39, who’s lived in the building with her husband and two small kids for two years.

“If I had ever thought that this could happen I would’ve never ever put myself and my family in an elevator.

“It’s just sad. It’s tragic,” she added.

City Buildings Department inspectors were investigating how the elevator malfunctioned.

“Elevators are the safest form of travel in New York, due to the city’s stringent inspection and safety requirements.

“We’re determined to find out what went wrong at this building and seek ways to prevent incidents like this in the future,” said Buildings Department spokeswoman Abigail Kunitz.

See the video below: Warning: graphic content

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(FLOWERBUD NEWS)  UN human rights expert critized Malaysia on Friday as having “vastly undercounted poverty” by using an “unduly low poverty line” and by “excluding vulnerable populations from its official figures.”

Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said that Malaysia achieved “undeniably impressive growth in reducing poverty in the last 50 years.”

However, he said, “the official claim that poverty has been eradicated, or exists merely in small pockets in rural areas, is incorrect and has crippled policymaking.”

Official statistics suggest Malaysia’s official poverty rate dropped from 49 per cent in 1970 to 0.4 per cent in 2016. However, the percentage is calculated off a poverty line of RM 980 (235 dollars) per household per month – a figure Alston called “tragically low.”

“Actual poverty rates are much higher than official figures suggest, and the Government needs to reassess how it measures poverty,” Alston said in a report published following an 11-day factfinding mission.

The undercounting had led to “underinvestment in poverty reduction and an inadequate social safety net that does not meet people’s needs,” he added.

Alston pointed to indigenous communities, migrant workers, refugees and the stateless as groups that had been “systematically excluded from official poverty statistics.”

Alston’s findings corroborate a 2018 report by non-profit Khazanah Research Institute that found structural weaknesses in official poverty measures and said that poverty statistics would be higher if the index was adjusted to reflect reality. (dpa/NAN)

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government on Monday declared a cease-fire with the separatist forces of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the country’s southern regions.

The Yemeni Defense Ministry ordered all the government’s military units positioned in the South-Eastern province of Shabwa and in the southern provinces of Abyan and Aden to immediately stop fighting.

A statement from the Ministry said the declaration of the cease-fire came in response to a call of the Joint Forces Command of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.

According to the statement, Saudi-led coalition involved in a war in Yemen announced the formation of a Saudi Arabia-UAE joint committee.

The coalition said the joint committee would commence work from Monday to stabilise the cease-fire in Shabwa and Abyan.

Spokesman for the coalition, Turki Al Maliki, highlighted the necessity for a commitment by all parties in Shabwa to upholding the cease-fire and maintaining calm.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia and the UAE issued a joint statement calling for engagement in the dialogue that Saudi Arabia called to address the problems in some southern Yemeni provinces.

On Aug. 26, the STC forces announced the launch of a large-scale military operation to seize the strategic province of Shabwa after four days of sporadic battles with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces.

This was over the control of a number of key military bases in the province.

The STC is a part of the Saudi-led Arab coalition to fight Iran-backed Houthi militias in northern Yemen in a war that has rekindled old strains between the north and south of Yemen.

The impoverished Arab country had been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country and seized all northern provinces including the capital Sanaa.

An Israeli combat aircraft on Monday hit the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip after rockets were fired from the territory of the enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that militants from the Gaza Strip fired three rockets toward southern Israel, intercepting two by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and the other hit a road in the vicinity of the coastal Palestinian enclave.

According to the IDF, in response, it’s combat aircraft attacked a number of targets at the Hamas military base in the northern Gaza Strip, including the office of a Hamas battalion commander.

Meanwhile, several Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli counter-attacks and airstrikes against Hamas sites had occurred in the last few weeks.

Israel has been imposing a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip since Hamas took over the enclave in 2007.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Hamas had intensified its campaign against the blockade with weekly rallies near the fence between Gaza and Israel, killing more than 200 Palestinians since the rallies began in March 2018.

(FLOWERBUD NEWS) President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, on Wednesday began a two-day talks with parties, to seek a way out of a political crisis that will lead to the formation of the country’s 67th government since World War II or to early elections.

Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, resigned on Tuesday after launching a blistering attack on his own interior minister, Matteo Salvini, accusing him of sinking the coalition and endangering the economy for personal and political gain.

In a shock move on Aug. 8, Salvini, leader of the far-right League party, declared that his alliance with the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement was dead and called for elections.

Salvini had repeatedly promised that the 14-month-old government would last a full five-year term and appeared confident his move would trigger early elections, allowing him to cash in on the League’s surging popularity.

But the gambit could backfire and open the door to power for his rivals.

Politicians from Five-Star and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) are openly discussing forming a new coalition that would push the League into opposition and give Italy a more centrist, pro-European government.

”The interior minister has shown he is following his own interests and those of his party … his decisions pose serious risks for this country,” Conte.

Conte, who does not belong to either ruling party, told the Senate on Tuesday before heading to the president’s palace to resign.

Financial markets rallied on Conte’s resignation, seemingly hopeful that a 5-Star/PD coalition can be ushered in and snap polls avoided.

Some investors fear that if Salvini uses elections to form a League-led government as prime minister, he will ramp up spending and set the heavily indebted nation on a collision course with the EU.

Germany’s finance minister on Wednesday said that a new coalition in Italy looked likely and that there was no sign of a looming euro zone crisis due to the political upheaval in Rome.

”It looks as if a new government, perhaps with a different composition, will emerge,” German Finance, Minister Olaf Scholz, said.

Mattarella will meet with all the parties in parliament, one by one, to see if a new coalition can be formed.

Failing that, he would have to dissolve parliament, three and a half years ahead of schedule, to allow for autumn elections.

He will begin with minor groups at 1400 GMT but will not hear the main parties until Thursday, concluding with Five-Star at 1500 GMT.

The PD’s leadership is also scheduled to meet at 0900 GMT on Wednesday to discuss the prospect of joining forces with Five-Star.

The two parties have been bitter political foes for years. (Reuters/NAN)

(FLOWERBUD NEWS) A Salvadoran court on Monday acquitted a woman accused of homicide after giving birth to a stillborn baby in a case that drew international attention to the socially conservative nation’s strict abortion ban.

Evelyn Hernandez, 21, was previously convicted of intentionally inducing an abortion and had already served three years of a 30-year prison sentence.

“Thank God, justice was done,” Hernandez, in tears, told a cheering crowd outside the courthouse. “There are many women who are still locked up and I call for them to be freed soon, too.”

In February, the Supreme Court ordered Hernandez released and retried, saying that the original judge’s decision was based on prejudice and insufficient evidence.

Hernandez was raped by a gang member and said she was unaware of her pregnancy until just shortly before she gave birth to a stillborn son in April 2016.

“This is a resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas director, said about the verdict.

Some 147 Salvadoran women have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison in such cases between 2000 and 2014, according to the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, a local rights group.

The group said it will seek fresh reviews of at least 16 similar cases.

Read also: FG demands prosecution of Ekweremadu’s attackers

Women prosecuted under El Salvador’s hard-line abortion laws include those who have suffered stillbirths after home deliveries as well as abortions induced because of medical emergencies.

Hernandez’s case attracted international attention and came nearly three months after President Nayib Bukele took office pledging a softer approach to abortion in a country that bans any intentional termination of a pregnancy.

At a university forum during the campaign, Bukele said he favored legal abortion in cases where the life of the mother is at risk, a position that represented a significant shift for the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and evangelical country’s abortion politics.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that there are many more women whose liberty has been unjustly taken from them. We’re moving forward, and we want to keep fighting for the freedom of the others just like we were able to do for Evelyn,” said Hernandez’s lawyer, Bertha Deleon.

A Salvadoran court on Monday acquitted a woman accused of homicide after giving birth to a stillborn baby in a case that drew international attention to the socially conservative nation’s strict abortion ban.

Evelyn Hernandez, 21, was previously convicted of intentionally inducing an abortion and had already served three years of a 30-year prison sentence.

“Thank God, justice was done,” Hernandez, in tears, told a cheering crowd outside the courthouse. “There are many women who are still locked up and I call for them to be freed soon, too.”

In February, the Supreme Court ordered Hernandez released and retried, saying that the original judge’s decision was based on prejudice and insufficient evidence.

Hernandez was raped by a gang member and said she was unaware of her pregnancy until just shortly before she gave birth to a stillborn son in April 2016.

“This is a resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas director, said about the verdict.

Some 147 Salvadoran women have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison in such cases between 2000 and 2014, according to the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, a local rights group.

The group said it will seek fresh reviews of at least 16 similar cases.

Read also: FG demands prosecution of Ekweremadu’s attackers

Women prosecuted under El Salvador’s hard-line abortion laws include those who have suffered stillbirths after home deliveries as well as abortions induced because of medical emergencies.

Hernandez’s case attracted international attention and came nearly three months after President Nayib Bukele took office pledging a softer approach to abortion in a country that bans any intentional termination of a pregnancy.

At a university forum during the campaign, Bukele said he favored legal abortion in cases where the life of the mother is at risk, a position that represented a significant shift for the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and evangelical country’s abortion politics.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that there are many more women whose liberty has been unjustly taken from them. We’re moving forward, and we want to keep fighting for the freedom of the others just like we were able to do for Evelyn,” said Hernandez’s lawyer, Bertha Deleon.

Culled from Reuters

• U.S. President Donald Trump stepped up a series of attacks on automakers on Wednesday for not backing his administration’s plan to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency rules.
• Trump singled out Ford Motor in particular for backing a deal with California for stricter fuel economy standards.
• Ford said in a statement that it is focused on acting to protect the environment while also protecting the affordability of vehicles. “This agreement with California provides regulatory stability while reducing CO2 more than complying with two different standards,” it said.

U.S. President Donald Trump stepped up a series of attacks on automakers on Wednesday for not backing his administration’s plan to roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency rules, singling out Ford Motor in particular for backing a deal with California for stricter fuel economy standards.

Ford is one of four automakers, along with Honda Motor, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG , that reached a voluntary agreement with California on fuel efficiency rules, defying Trump and his administration’s effort to strip the state of the right to fight climate change by setting its own standards.

The rules under the California plan are looser than the Obama-era regulations but stricter than what the Trump has proposed.

Trump said company founder Henry Ford would be “very disappointed if he saw his modern-day descendants wanting to build a much more expensive car, that is far less safe and doesn’t work as well, because execs don’t want to fight California regulators.”

Ford said in a statement that it is focused on acting to protect the environment while also protecting the affordability of vehicles. “This agreement with California provides regulatory stability while reducing CO2 more than complying with two different standards,” it said.

There is no evidence that existing fuel economy rules would degrade vehicle performance. And environmentalists and many states challenge Trump’s assertion that his administration’s proposed rule would boost vehicle safety or dramatically reduce the price of vehicles — and argue that consumers will save more in reduced fuel costs under the Obama rules.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra responded to Trump’s attacks on automakers saying it would result in an additional 540 million metric tons of greenhouse gases and other harms. “This doesn’t look like a better alternative to us,” he said.

The White House has urged other automakers not to back the California agreement, while Democrats have been calling and writing automakers urging them to sign on with California.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday ridiculed the voluntary framework, which it said “so far has been nothing more than a press release.”

“My proposal to the politically correct Automobile Companies would lower the average price of a car to consumers by more than $3000, while at the same time making the cars substantially safer. Engines would run smoother. Very little impact on the environment! Foolish executives!” Trump tweeted earlier.

Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, representing General Motors, Toyota Motor, Ford, Volkswagen and others, said the companies “look forward to seeing a final rule soon. We support increases to standards that optimize all the priorities, including affordability so more Americans can buy a new car, plus preserving jobs and safety at the same time.”

GM has not backed the voluntary agreement, arguing that it does not properly credit the company’s electric vehicles.

Even so, Trump tweeted that the founders of Ford and GM “are ‘rolling over’ at the weakness of current car company executives” over the fuel rules, adding: “Crazy!”

GM did not immediately comment.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said Trump’s tweet was completely untrue. “Trump’s rollback is unraveling from every corner,” he said.

All major automakers are on record saying they oppose the administration’s “preferred option” announced in August 2018, which would freeze fuel economy requirements at 2020 levels through 2026.

Trump’s tweet misstated some aspects of the administration’s proposal, expected to be finalized sometime after late September. The proposal said that by the 2030 model year, the average price increase of a new vehicle would be reduced by $1,850 and consumers would pay $490 less for financing, insurance and taxes. There is nothing in the administration’s proposed revisions that would result in engines running more smoothly.

The Trump plan’s preferred alternative would hike U.S. oil consumption by about 500,000 barrels per day in the 2030s while reducing automakers’ collective regulatory costs by more than $300 billion. It would bar California from requiring automakers to sell a rising number of electric vehicles or setting state emissions rules.

The administration says the increased fuel use would hike the average global temperature by 3/1000th of one degree Celsius by 2100, but would save thousands of lives over the next 30 years — in part because consumers would more quickly buy safer, cheaper vehicles. Environmentalists and many states reject that analysis.

The Obama-era rules adopted in 2012 called for a fleet wide fuel efficiency average of 46.7 miles per gallon by 2025, with average annual increases of about 5%, compared with 37 mpg by 2026 under the Trump administration’s preferred option.

CULLED REUTERS.

(FLOWERBUD NEWS) Chinese telecommunication company, Huawei, on Friday, refuted a U.S. news report, alleging that the company aided the Ugandan government to spy on opposition politicians.

The company also refuted allegations that it went with Ugandan officers to Beijing for technical training.

Huawei in a statement referred to the report titled “Huawei Technicians Helped African Governments Spy on Political Opponents” by the Wall Street Journal as unfounded.

It claimed that the news lack accurate assertion against its business operations in the east African country.

The multinational company said its code of business conduct prohibits any employees from undertaking activities that would compromise its customers or end users’ data or privacy or that would breach any laws.

The company alleged that it has never developed any intelligence monitoring project for Uganda or signed any contract related to spying and intelligence related activities.

Huawei added that the only security-related project that the company has in Uganda is the installation of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, which was specifically for public security surveillance and identification of criminal activities.

“The training we offer police officers is only how to manage the CCTV system,’’ the statement said. (Xinhua/NAN)