Brazil is building 8,000 new homes free of charge for survivors of the deadly mudslides that ripped away mountainsides near Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced on Thursday.
The president said the housing initiative is a partnership between private companies, the federal government and Rio de Janeiro state, where floods and slides killed more than 837 people and left 541 missing.
She said about 20,000 people lost homes and relatives in this month’s floods.
Photo: AFP
A consortium of 12 construction companies will donate 2,000 of the homes on land made available by the state. The other 6,000 homes will be paid for by state and federal governments, also on land set aside by the state, according to Rousseff and Rio state Governor Sergio Cabral.
The homes will go to those who are in shelters and to families that are now being removed from areas that are at risk of future mudslides, Cabral said.
The federal government is also investing heavily in prevention, mapping out fragile terrain that is prone to flooding and mudslides and clamping down on unauthorized building in risky areas, Rousseff said. It is allocating US$60 million for state and local government rebuilding efforts and US$6.6 billion for drainage and hillside stabilization projects.
Cabral said more than 100 bridges were damaged or destroyed, as well as 10 highways and many more rural roads, schools and health clinics.
The government-run Agencia Brasil news service said the Brazilian air force announced that it planned to cease emergency-aid helicopter flights yesterday for the mountain communities north of Rio where heavy rains destroyed whole neighborhoods.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS