Mes: agosto 2019

(CBS/AP) MANILA, Philippines – Philippine disaster officials were shifting Friday from rescue work to a massive clean-up of the capital following nonstop rains that left tons of muck and debris from floods littering the city. The torrential monsoon rains that began Sunday left at least 60 people dead in the worst flooding in Manila since 2009. More than half of the sprawling metropolis of 12 million was submerged at the peak of the floods, and schools and offices closed for days. About 2.4 million people in Manila and nearby provinces have been affected, forcing more than 360,000 to seek shelter in government-run evacuation centers, the Office of Civil Defense reported Friday. The sun was out for a second day Friday, and residents were hard at work fixing disheveled homes and stores in flood-hit communities that resembled a wasteland covered with mounds of mud-caked garbage. “It’s really an eyesore when we saw it from the helicopter,” said civil defense chief Benito Ramos. “There will be no more rescue. It’s now ‘Operation Cleanup.”‘ He said soldiers will be mobilized to help local authorities collect the debris that have clogged streets and waterways. Some of the displaced in still-crowded evacuation centers have begun to trickle back to their communities, where floodwaters have subsided, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said. Reservists will be assigned to help repack relief supplies for people still in...

(AP) AZAZ, Syria – Residents of this north Syrian border town like to snap photos of their children atop the tank parked downtown, one of more than a dozen captured or destroyed by rebels in the battles last month that “liberated” the area from President Bashar Assad’s army. Across the street in air-conditioned offices once occupied by Assad’s Baath party, a new political order is emerging. Local rebels have formed committees to fix power lines, fire up bakeries and staff the nearby border crossing with Turkey. They also run security patrols and a prison with some 60 captives. Two men were executed by firing squad recently after a judge and Islamic clerics found them guilty of murder. “We run a state system here,” said Samir Hajj Omar, the silver-haired former teacher who heads the rebel political office for Azaz, a town of 35,000. “We’re enforcing the law.” In recent months, Syria’s rebels have extended control over a large swath of territory in the northeastern corner of the country after forcing the army from town after town in a string of bloody street battles. As a result, for the first time in Syria’s 17-month conflict, rebels have a cohesive enclave in which they can move and organize with unprecedented freedom, plus a long stretch of the border with Turkey key for moving out refugees and smuggling in weapons. They also...

(AP) CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez announced Thursday that Venezuelan security forces have arrested a U.S. citizen and suspect he is a mercenary who could be involved in an alleged plot to destabilize the country if the opposition’s candidate loses the upcoming presidential election. Chavez said the Hispanic man was detained Aug. 4 while crossing into Venezuela from Colombia. The president said the man was carrying a U.S. passport with entrance and exit stamps from countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya as well as a notebook containing geographical coordinates. The man’s identity was not released. Chavez did not say where he was being interrogated. An official from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas did not answer repeated telephone calls seeking comment on Chavez’s announcement. “He has all the appearance of a mercenary,” Chavez said, speaking during a campaign rally in the coastal state of Vargas. “We are interrogating him.” The man tore up part of the notebook in his possession when he was detained, 해외 축구 보는 사이트 Chavez said. Chavez suggested, without offering evidence, the American might have been recruited by government opponents to instigate violent protests if opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles loses the Oct. 7 election. Chavez has repeatedly vowed to win re-election and continue trying to steer Venezuela toward socialism. The president has repeatedly claimed the opposition plans to accuse election officials of rigging the...