Brazil is committed to quickly repairing key ports damaged in massive floods in order to recoup millions of dollars in daily losses to the economy, a government official said on Tuesday.
The floods, which have claimed at least 116 lives in the southern Santa Catarina region, severely damaged the major Itajai port, which has lost more than US$400 million in revenue since the flooding began last month, Brazilian Ports Minister Pedro Brito said. He said those losses grow by US$35 million a day. Ships have been forced to dock in ports hundreds of kilometers away in neighboring states.
The flooding also severely damaged the area’s other ports and washed goods on the docks out to sea.
Brito said the government thus far has freed up US$152 million to begin immediate repairs on the Itajai port — the biggest in the area and key to Brazil’s massive beef-exporting industry.
The storms also exacted a high human toll: Rescue workers were searching for 31 people still missing following massive landslides, and officials estimate the death toll could rise to as much as 150.
About 80,000 people were forced from their homes by the storms, which dumped more water on the region during the weekend of Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 than it normally gets in months. Another 8,000 people were displaced in Rio de Janeiro state.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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