Thousands of homes may be inundated, and tens of thousands of homes may be either inundated or isolated as flood continues to wreak havoc in Australia’s state of Victoria.
According to the latest update of incidents and warnings from Victoria’s emergency department, there are over 50 warnings across the state including more than 10 evacuation orders that are mainly for the northern part of Victoria.
Residents in areas such as Shepparton and Murchison, in northern Victoria, were warned as ‘it’s too late to leave’ and to ‘move to higher ground.’
Australian Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt told national broadcaster ABC News on Monday that emergency authorities would be kept busy as conditions continually change.
‘This is a very serious situation. The reports I’m getting, we are could be looking up to 9,000 homes inundated in northern Victoria and potentially close to about 34,000 homes in Victoria either inundated or isolated.’
XINHUA
2 (Paris, France, Oct 17, 2022 (AFP) – Iran’s judiciary authority said Monday that eight prisoners were killed in a fire that raged amid unrest inside Tehran’s Evin prison, doubling the previously reported death toll.
The blaze Saturday night, which Iran said broke out amid ‘riots and clashes’, came after four weeks of protests over the death of 22-year-old Masha Amini, following her arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
The wave of demonstrations has turned into a major anti-government movement in the Islamic republic, confronting its clerical leadership with one of its biggest challenges since the ousting of the shah in 1979.
After four Evin prison inmates injured in the fire died in hospital, ‘the total number of victims of the fire and the clash between prisoners has reached eight,’ said the judiciary’s Mizan Online website.
Gunshots and explosions were heard during the blaze from inside the complex, illuminated by flames and smothered by smoke, in video footage posted on social media channels.
AFP
3 (Sao Paulo, Oct 17, 2022 (AFP) – Far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and leftist challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva traded jabs and insults as they squared off Sunday in their first-ever head-to-head debate, two weeks from Brazil’s presidential runoff election.
Lula attacked Bolsonaro as the ‘king of fake news,’ drawing accusations of lying, corruption and a ‘disgraceful’ record in return, as the rivals sparred in the first debate for their polarizing second-round showdown on October 30.
Lula, the charismatic but tarnished ex-president (2003-2010) who is seeking a comeback at 76, was particularly fiery criticizing Bolsonaro over his handling of Covid-19, which has killed 687,000 people in Brazil, second only to the United States.
Attacking Bolsonaro over his resistance to buying vaccines and touting of unproven medications such as hydroxychloroquine, Lula said the president ‘carries the weight of those deaths on his shoulders.’
‘Your negligence led to 680,000 people dying, when more than half could have been saved,’ the ex-metalworker said in his trademark gravelly voice.
AFP
4 (BOGOTA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) — At least one child was killed and five adults were injured in a plane accident in northern Colombia, local authorities said on Sunday.
The accident occurred around 11:00 a.m. local time (1600 GMT) when a small plane went off the runway at Simon Bolivar International Airport in the city of Santa Marta, Magdalena department.
A child about two years old who was not on the aircraft was killed by the plane as it crashed through the airport fence and hit a tree, the commander of the Santa Marta Metropolitan Police, Colonel Adriana Paz, told local media.
‘We also have five people who were (injured while) being moved or transported by the plane,’ she said.
XINHUA
5 (SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s approval rating rose 1.1 percentage points over the week to 33.1 percent last week, a weekly poll showed Monday.
The negative assessment on Yoon’s conduct of state affairs slipped 1.6 percentage points to 64.2 percent, according to local pollster Realmeter.
Support for the ruling conservative People Power Party came to 36.3 percent last week, up 1.1 percentage points from a week earlier.
The main liberal opposition Democratic Party’s approval rating decreased 2.8 percentage points to 46.4 percent.
The minor progressive Justice Party won 3.7 percent of the support score last week, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous week.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
