ANKARA (AA) – Droughts may affect more than three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050, the UN said on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought which was observed on June 17. This year’s theme, “Rising up from drought together,” highlighted the need for early action to avoid disastrous results for humanity ...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pre-monsoon rains killed at least seven people, flooding large parts of Pakistan in the past 24 hours, officials and local media said on Sunday. Flashfloods washed away several bridges and roads, submerged farmlands, and knocked out power in many parts of the southwestern Balochistan province. Torrential downpour...
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Bangladesh’s northeastern border district of Sylhet has been inundated by massive floods in less than one month, marooning more than 1 million people and causing property damage, according to officials. All 13 sub-districts of the tourist-hub region, famous for tea gardening, have been flooded from days-long heav...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – A massive fire raged through an high-altitude forest in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least four people, officials and local media reported. The wildfire — the second that the country has suffered in less than two weeks — engulfed large swathes of forestland in the Shangla district of Khy...
ISTANBUL (AA) – The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) will hold its annual meeting in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh from Wednesday. The four-day meeting will start under the main theme of “Beyond Recovery: Resilience and Sustainability” and will be attended by ministers from 57 member countries and representatives of Islam...
Baghdad, Iraq – AFP Iraq closed public buildings and temporarily shut airports Monday as another sandstorm — the ninth since mid-April — hit the country, authorities said. The capital Baghdad was enveloped in a giant dust cloud that left usually traffic-choked streets largely deserted. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi ordere...
GENEVA – The UN has revealed that up to 18 million people in Africa’s Sahel region will face severe food insecurity over the next three months — the highest number since 2014. It also issued a warning about drought-induced food scarcity extending to East Africa. Jens Laerke, Geneva spokesman for the United Nations Office for […]...
Chibayish, Iraq – AFP Iraq’s vast swamplands are drying out and becoming so clogged with waste their very existence is at risk, activists warn. The swamps, nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, are one of the world’s largest inland deltas. The wetlands barely survived the wrath of dictator Saddam Hussein, who order...
Keeping global warming below the 1.5°C threshold by the end of the century will require halting construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure and closing many existing sites. That’s according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters. “Some existing fossil fuel licenses and production will need to be revok...
ABUJA, Nigeria (AA) – Nigeria’s minister of water resources warned Thursday that most regions of the country are at high risk of flooding. Suleiman Adamu in a statement said that 32 out of 36 provinces in the country may face severe storms and floods, noting there may be food shortages in these regions. Adamu also […]
