Landslides triggered by heavy rains in southwestern Colombia this week have killed an estimated 51 people and paralyzed the country's main port on the Pacific.
A pre-dawn landslide on Wednesday, triggered when the rain-swollen Dagua River overflowed its banks, devastated an area of the Valle Del Cauca department between Cali, its capital, and the port of Buenaventura.
Since then, 15 landslides, five of them massive, have been recorded in the area.
According to official figures, 11 people were killed -- including a reporter who was covering the disaster -- and 40 people were missing.
The social protection minister, Diego Palacio, said that despite the major rescue operation under way, the number of deaths "could reach 50."
"We have recovered 11 bodies, but are extremely worried about the high number of missing. After hours and in spite of their efforts, aid teams have not been able to rescue the more than 40 people who are missing," Palacio said.
Five army and air force helicopters helped evacuate the Buenaventura area, rescuing victims who had lost their homes, their clothes ripped off by the violent mudslides.
President Alvaro Uribe ordered the evacuation of some 1,200 tourists by government aircraft after surveying the stricken area by air.
"We will concentrate this Good Friday, so that my God helps us to see how we respond" to the tragedy, the president said. "We are going to muster all our strength."
Uribe said he was considering declaring an economic emergency in the area, a move that would free public money to aid the more than 700 people affected in the disaster and speed recovery efforts.
The disaster has caused heavy economic losses in the Andean country as roads to the port that normally see 100 cargo trucks a day remain blocked.
The tourism sector also has been hit. A hotel association noted there had been 20,000 confirmed hotel reservations for Holy Week, but only 1,200 tourists at Pacific seaside towns were waiting to be evacuated.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of