Namibian Police Force (NamPol) Erongo Regional Commander, Commissioner Nikolaus Kupembona yesterday confirmed the recent discovery of human body parts discovered at a sewerage dam in Karibib, as those of the six-year-old Adrian Oswyn, who was reported missing on Friday at the town.

In an interview with the media yesterday, Kupembona said that some body parts (feet, hands and arms), were discovered in a plastic bag floating in the sewerage dam just outside town on Tuesday.

He added that the rest of the body was also discovered in the same place yesterday after a search was conducted by NamPol members, noting that the body was about 70 per cent decomposed when it was discovered.

“A DNA test still needs to be carried out just to verify that yes indeed, the body does belong to that of the missing boy, however the mother has positively identified the remains as those of her son,” he noted.

Kupembona added that although investigations are still at an early stage, the police have so far called in several people who are of interest for questioning.

Oswyn went missing after his grandfather escorted him halfway to his mother’s house, after visiting the grandfather the previous day.

The police further noted that when the mother, who assumed the boy was still at his grandfather’s, took some clothes for him, she did not find him at the house and was told that he had been escorted halfway three days earlier.

A missing person’s report was then opened the same day.

(NAMPA)

IB/HP/EK

2 (BEIJING, 13 OCT, AFP) – China’s 20th Communist Party Congress, which begins on Sunday, is expected to deliver President Xi Jinping a historic third term in control of a country his zero-Covid policy has closed off from much of the rest of the world.

Should everything go to plan, by the end of the twice-in-a-decade meeting, the 69-year-old will be reconfirmed as the party’s general secretary, cementing his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

Security has been stepped up around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where on Sunday almost 2 300 delegates from every province in China will gather at the imposing Great Hall of the People.

And as Xi continues to insist the country sticks to its policy of containing and eliminating the coronavirus within its borders, the Congress will take place under strict health protocols.

In a highly choreographed, mostly closed-door conclave, the participants will pick members of the party’s around 200-member Central Committee, which in turn selects the 25-person Politburo and its all-powerful Standing Committee – the country’s highest leadership body.

But in reality, ‘everything has been played out in advance, because the congress does not take place until the factions have agreed’, sinologist Jean-Philippe Beja told AFP.

AFP

3 (WARSAW, 13 OCT, DPA) – The Polish operator of the Druzhba oil pipeline that delivers Russian crude to Europe said there was no sign yet that a leak was caused by sabotage.

‘Based on first findings and the manner in which the pipeline was deformed, it appears that at this point there are no signs of any third-party interference,’ PERN said in a statement.

However, a more detailed analysis was being carried out to determine the cause of the damage and to repair the pipeline so that oil can resume flowing on the section at full capacity.

The leak, which was discovered in a field late Tuesday, is around 70 kilometres from the central Polish city of Plock.

DPA

4 (LONDON, 13 OCT, PA MEDIA/DPA) – Global wildlife populations have fallen by nearly 70 per cent in less than 50 years, conservationists warned as they called for immediate action to halt the nature and climate crises.

WWF’s latest Living Planet report assesses the abundance of almost 32 000 populations of 5 230 species of animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish around the world and how they have changed over the decades.

It reveals population sizes declined by 69 per cent on average between 1970 and 2018, driven largely by the loss and break-up of natural habitat for agriculture, while climate change is also increasingly a threat to wildlife.

Species in freshwater lakes, rivers and wetlands have been worst hit, declining by an average of 83 per cent since 1970.

The worst declines are in Latin America, home to the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, where increasing deforestation is destroying trees and the species that rely on them.

Wildlife population sizes in the region have declined by 94 per cent on average in the past half century, the report said.

Experts said the Amazon is fast approaching a tipping point where it will cease to be a functioning rainforest, without which the world cannot avert dangerous global warming.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency