News Lelemuku

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM  - Livestock farmer Siphiwe Moyo walks briskly under the scorching sun until she arrives at a shady tree in the middle of a parched, unplanted maize field.

She is making a second check on three emaciated cows, two of which are pregnant.

Moyo, 59, is relieved to see them still standing. She and her husband, Daniel sometimes have to lift the weakened animals back to their feet three times a day in a frantic bid to keep them alive.

As another drought ravages Zimbabwe, farmers in livestock-rich Matabeleland, in the country’s west, are again counting their losses as animals die from thirst and lack of food.

Zimbabwean farmers, hit by more frequent droughts as climate change takes hold, have made efforts to change livestock practices to better cope with dry times - but not all of the new adaptation strategies are holding up, they say.

As a result, in a region where livestock are a store of wealth for most families, drought is again drying up income and reducing savings, farmers say.

“The cattle are our bank,” Siphiwe Moyo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, as her cows - two of them pregnant - stood in the shade.

If the cows die, “we will lose five animals in one go”, she said.

Dying Cattle
In September and October, Matabeleland North reported losses of nearly 2,600 cattle as drought dried water supplies and pastures, said Polex Moyo, an officer for the province’s department of veterinary services.

He believes the losses will be even higher, with many livestock “in very poor condition”, he said.

A year ago, by comparison, 766 cattle were lost over the same period, he said.

Cattle are dying in part because cash-strapped farmers can’t afford to buy the supplementary feed their animals need, particularly with the price surging as demand soars, said Kenneth Nyoni, a trader in agricultural inputs.

A 50-kilo (110 lb) bag of commercial cattle feed is now selling for a third more than a year ago, he said.

Daniel Moyo said his family has already sold three goats to buy cattle feed in an effort to keep the three emaciated cows alive, and he expects to sell more goats.

But the struggling cows also are eating some of the family’s own maize meal - a staple food - mixed with salt and maize stalks saved from a 2017 harvest, he said.

“We have never lost animals to drought before because the situation was never this bad,” he said. Another 20 cattle the family owns “are at risk too unless we get rains soon and they have water and grass”, Moyo said.

Moyo’s neighbours in other villages in Nkayi District are already seeing their animals die.

In Tshutshu, village head Mbulawa Sibanda says he has seen 15 cattle lost to drought in the last few weeks.

The bush is filling with rotting animals, and more will die even if rains come, he said, as pastures take time to recover.

Ngwiza Khumalo, the headman of nearby Mhlabuyatshisa village said his community had lost 18 cattle in the last three weeks.

The deaths come as most rivers in the district have dried up and livestock need to travel ever-longer distances in search of water, Moyo said.

Farmers started reducing their herds as the drought hit, he said, but many took action too late.

STRUGGLING FEEDLOTS

A project in Nesigwe village, to put cattle into feeding pens during droughts - a move that cut losses in a previous drought - also has struggled in recent years, said Moyo, who chairs the effort.

When the project was first established in 2015, farmers fed animals in the pens with commercial feed, with the cost offset by the much higher price the fat cattle brought at market in a year when supplies of them were low.

The cash earned from sales then helped feed other animals, keeping more of them alive.

But a devaluation of Zimbabwe’s currency in late 2016 led to the collapse of the project, as the currency farmers brought in from cattle sales couldn’t buy enough feed to keep other animals alive, said Muhle Masuku, a farmer who helped launch the project.

In September, the International Monetary Fund warned that Zimbabwe’s economy was likely to shrink in 2019 as inflation soared to 300%, the highest rate in the world after Venezuela.

A shortage of foreign currency, water and electricity, combined with rising inflation, have sent the costs of goods and services surging in the country, which declared a drought disaster in August.

Reason Ndebele, a farmer in the village of Mtshengiswa, said saving cattle during drought often required hard work as well as cash.

He has hand-dug a well deep into the dry bed of the Tshangani River to provide water for his 25 cattle, and pulls up 30 20-litre buckets of water each day for them.

He sold some animals to pay for supplementary feed for the rest - something not everyone is willing to do, he said.

“Many farmers are not even keen to sell one animal to buy livestock feed and save 20 animals,” he said.

Farmers - many of whom grow crops as well as raise cattle - also are struggling to afford quality seeds and fertiliser this year, local officials said.

“While farmers are losing cattle in Nkayi, many families are also going for days without food and cannot afford to buy inputs to prepare for farming this year,” said Kufakwezwe Ncube, a councillor in Nkayi Urban Ward 29 and former chairman of the Nkayi Rural District Council.

He called for urgent government help to supply food aid. (VOA/Reuters)

BISMARCK, LELEMUKU.COM - Native American voters face poor access to polling sites, discrimination by poll workers and unfair identification requirements, tribal leaders told members of Congress who traveled Tuesday to a reservation in North Dakota where voting rights were a key issue in last year's U.S. Senate race.

A House elections subcommittee's meeting at the Standing Rock reservation was the latest in a series of on-site visits across the country on voting-rights issues. Activists told the panel that obstacles still remain more than five decades after Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which aimed to eliminate such impediments for minority voters.

“There continues to be barriers -- interpersonal and systemic -- at our polling locations in our tribal communities and for our Native voters across the state,'' said activist Prairie Rose Seminole, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation in northwestern North Dakota.

The bulk of the two-hour hearing focused on North Dakota's voter ID requirements, which have led to two federal lawsuits by tribes who allege the rules are discriminatory and suppress the American Indian vote, which leans Democrat in a Republican-dominant state.

The voter ID dispute drew national attention last fall because of a U.S. Senate race in North Dakota that was seen as critical to Republicans' chances to keep control of the Senate. Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer defeated Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who was seeking a second term.

North Dakota requires that a voter ID include a provable street address, which Secretary of State Al Jaeger says guards against fraud. Tribes allege the moves by state GOP leaders disenfranchised members who live on reservations where street addresses are uncommon or unknown and where post office boxes are the primary addresses.

“The state knew this and they used it to suppress tribal voters,'' said Charles Walker, CEO of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation.

State officials have denied that. The U.S. Supreme Court in October allowed the state to continue requiring street addresses on voter IDs, though Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in a dissent that “the risk of voter confusion appears severe.''

The decision led to an intense effort by tribes and advocacy groups to get tribal members to the polls with proper ID during November's general election. It was largely successful but cost the Spirit Lake and Standing Rock tribes a combined $14,000, in part because they waived normal fees for tribal IDs.

“Fifteen dollars is milk and bread for a week for a poor family,'' said Turtle Mountain Chippewa attorney Alysia LaCounte, who broke down in tears during her testimony.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, noted during the hearing that Cramer won handily despite high Native American voter turnout.

Native American Rights Fund attorney Jacqueline De Leon responded: “We don't think that outrage is a get-out-the-vote strategy, right?''

“There are voter suppression issues going on throughout Indian Country that aren't nearly getting the attention or resources that were poured into North Dakota because it just so happened that Sen. Heitkamp was running for re-election, and the Senate balance of power elevated this issue to the national stage,'' DeLeon said.

Davis replied, “So this was all a conspiracy to beat Heidi Heitkamp?''

North Dakota Republican leaders have denied that Heitkamp's surprise 2012 win influenced state voter ID law.

OJ Semans Sr., co-executive director of the Four Directions advocacy group, which has been successful in voting rights lawsuits in South Dakota and other states, implored the subcommittee to work to increase federal dollars that states can dedicate to helping Native American voters.

“The backbone of democracy is going to be given a brace, because people are going to vote,'' he said. (VOA)

BANGKOK, LELEMUKU.COM - A dog found swimming more than 220 kilometers (135 miles) from shore by workers on an oil rig crew in the Gulf of Thailand has been returned safely to land.

A worker on the rig belonging to Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production, Vitisak Payalaw, said on his Facebook page that the dog was sighted last Friday swimming toward the platform.

The crew managed to rescue the dog by putting a rope around its neck and hauling it up. He said the crew speculated it might have fallen off a fishing trawler, and dubbed him “Boon Rod,” or “Survivor.”

The dog landed Monday at the southern port of Songkhla and was declared in good shape after being delivered to the animal protection group Watchdog Thailand. (AP-VOAnews)

HOOPER, LELEMUKU.COM - Tom Geisler has experienced many ups and downs in his 43 years of farming, as weather sometimes helped and often hurt his livelihood. But he was not prepared for what Mother Nature brought this spring.

“Never had anything like this before. Not this kind of a flood,” said Geisler, who is still in a daze and trying to grasp all his losses.

In March, melting snow from a harsh winter combined with a “bomb cyclone” storm caused historic flooding in the fields and communities across the Midwest.

Geisler cultivates corn, soy beans and hay, and raises cattle on 162 hectares (400 acres) of his family’s farm near Hooper, Nebraska. The water has mostly receded, but it left a mess in his fields, and his 134-year-old farm house is unlivable.

Bad timing 

In 10 minutes, Geisler said, water filled his basement and crept into his home. During the worst of the flood, he helplessly listened as his recently born calves cried in distress.

“(They were) bawling all night. Just about made us heartbroken, but they survived. I thought they’d be gone,” Geisler remembered. “(I) couldn’t even get to my calves. It was five foot (1.5 meters) deep out there. I couldn’t even feed them. Two calves are completely gone. They floated away and two cows died."

Timing is bad since it is calving season. Geisler hopes the rest of his cattle recover from the stress of standing in icy water for long periods of time. As for his land, after it dries up, he will have to clear some areas of sand deposits before he can start planting late in the growing season this spring. He estimates the floods did $100,000 in damages to the fences around his farm.

“We lived on this place for 32 years since I’ve been married to my wife, Frances. ... My mother’s been at her place all of her life. She’s 90 years old, and she’s never seen anything like this, either.”

Extreme weather 

Geisler said in the last three years, the weather has been more wet and “extreme” and the storms are “getting intense.”

“We haven’t had a good week of weather since the first week of August of last year. It’s been raining every one or two days every week since then,” he said.

He said over the course of 40 years, farmers may have made the problem worse by switching to row crops like corn instead of grass, alfalfa and small grains such as wheat to feed cattle.

“Now, it’s almost all row crops, so a lot of the water just runs off. I think that has affected our flooding quite a bit.” Geisler explained. “Just really be nice if we all had a patch of grass to hold some water back. Too much land has been highly erodible that’s in row crops right now, I think.”

About six years ago, many farmers replaced grass with corn because of the demand for ethanol and an “excellent” export market, Geisler said.

He pointed to topsoil that had washed away from the fields. He said it takes 100 years to make an inch (2.54 cm) of topsoil, and “probably half an inch is gone. So, that’s 50 years worth of soil.”

One day at a time

Geisler said he will work on repairing the flood damage one day at a time. His younger son, a future farmer, will help.

“We’ve always been resilient, so hopefully we can come back (and) farm some more. I’m the fifth generation of farmers, so hopefully we can continue that trend. I don’t want to give up. Sometimes you feel like it, but I don’t want to." (VOAnews)

RIYADH, LELEMUKU.COM - The Indonesian Ministry of Religion Affairs has pledged to be ‘all out’ to add newly granted 10,000 hajj quota given by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Hajj season this year.

The statement was delivered by Minister of Religion Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin following the decision of King of Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to grant an additional 10 thousand hajj quota for Indonesia during his meeting with President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday (14/04/2019).

“This is the second time that King Salman has agreed to our request for additional hajj quotas,” he said, adding that it shows the Saudi Arabian Government gives a special attention for Indonesia.

Furthermore, Lukman stated that the additional quota was included in the Saudi e-Hajj system and the Ministry would immediately arrange a discussion with the House of Representative (DPR) and the Hajj Fund Management Agency (BPKH).

According to the Minister, the discussion needs to be done immediately because the additional quota brings implications for a number of complex matters such as extra costs for organizing hajj and the provision of hajj services both at home and abroad.

“Together with the DPR, we have agreed on the cost of the 2019 Hajj using optimization funds of Rp7,039 trillion to 204,000 pilgrims. For the 10,000 new pilgrims from the additional quota, additional costs of no less than Rp346 billion are needed,” he said, adding that there would be an additional 25 flight groups and 125 new flight group attendants due to the addition of this hajj quota.

Furthermore, the addition of quotas, he added, will also affect the process of preparing pilgrimage documents in the country and the current visa issuance process requires biometric records that are currently running and are almost complete in several regions.

Almost all procurement services, Lukman continued, will also be affected. He cited the example of accommodation in Madinah that in the Markaziah area—the closest distance to the Prophet’s Mosque— that are almost full.

In addition to accommodation, other matters that must also be prepared concern transportation buses and baggage charges. “All of it needs costs, either direct costs or indirect costs,” he added. (Setkab)

NEW YORK, LELEMUKU.COM - Is there anything firefighters could have done to control the blaze that tore through Paris' historic Notre Dame Cathedral sooner?

Experts say the combination of a structure that's more than 850 years old, built with heavy timber construction and soaring open spaces, and lacking sophisticated fire-protection systems left firefighters with devastatingly few options Monday once the flames got out of control.

"Very often when you're confronted with something like this, there's not much you can do," said Glenn Corbett, a professor of fire science at John Jay College.

Fire hoses looked overmatched — more like gardening equipment than firefighting apparatus — as flames raged across the cathedral's wooden roof and burned bright orange for hours. The fire toppled a 300-foot (91-meter) spire and launched baseball-sized embers into the air.

While the cause remains under investigation, authorities said that the cathedral's structure — including its landmark rectangular towers — has been saved.

Some of the factors that made Notre Dame a must-see for visitors to Paris — its age, sweeping size and French Gothic design featuring masonry walls and tree trunk-sized wooden beams — also made it a tinderbox and a difficult place to fight a fire, said U.S. Fire Administrator G. Keith Bryant.

With a building like that, it's nearly impossible for firefighters to attack a fire from within. Instead, they have to be more defensive "and try to control the fire from the exterior," said Bryant, a former fire chief in Oklahoma and past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

"When a fire gets that well-involved it's very difficult to put enough water on it to cool it to bring it under control," Bryant said.

And while there's a lot of water right next door at the Seine River, getting it to the right place is the problem, he said: "There are just not enough resources in terms of fire apparatus, hoses to get that much water on a fire that's that large."

Because of narrower streets, which make it difficult to maneuver large ladder fire trucks, European fire departments don't tend to have as large of ladders as they do in the United States, Bryant said.

And what about President Donald Trump's armchair-firefighter suggestion that tanker jets be used to dump water from above on Notre Dame?

French authorities tweeted that doing so would've done more harm than good. The crush of water on the fire-ravaged landmark could've caused the entire structure to collapse, according to the tweet.

Other landmark houses of worship have taken steps in recent years to reduce the risk of a fire.

St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, built in 1878, installed a sprinkler-like system during recent renovations and coated its wooden roof with fire retardant. The cathedral also goes through at least four fire inspections a year.

Washington National Cathedral, built in 1912 with steel, brick and limestone construction that put it at less risk of a fast-moving fire, is installing sprinklers as part of a renovation spurred by damage from a 2011 earthquake.

That cathedral faces fire inspections every two years, but D.C. firefighters stop by more often to learn about the church's unique architecture and lingo — so they'll know where to go if there's a fire in the nave, or main area of the church — for instance.

"It's really important for us to make sure that those local firefighters are aware of our building and our kooky medieval names that we use for all the different spaces and that they know where to go," said Jim Shepherd, the cathedral's director of preservation and facilities.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the New York Archbishop who often visited the Notre Dame Cathedral while studying in Europe, saw significance in the fact that the fire broke out at the beginning of Holy Week, when Christians there and around the world prepare to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"Just as the cross didn't have the last word, neither — for people of faith in France — will this fire have the last word," Dolan said. (AP-VOANews)

HO CHI MINH, LELEMUKU.COM - If a basic tenet of communism is equality, including based on gender, then from some points of view the Socialist Republic of Vietnam would seem to be faring well on its founding ideology.

Women are visible everywhere across the country of 100 million people, whether they are running iconic companies, government ministries, or single-parent households. Female Vietnamese also show up in jobs stereotypically associated with males, such as construction workers, taxi drivers, and police officers.

But when considering all of the data that indicate Vietnam is ahead of most other countries in gender equality - like the percentage of women who are in the labor force or who are chief executive officers - it is easy to overlook the fact that men still have an edge in so many areas.

The average income of women in the Southeast Asian country is $224 (5.2 million Vietnam dong) a month, according to figures released in March by Adecco Vietnam, a firm that sells staffing services. That pay level amounts to just 81% of the average income of men.

In addition to the wage gap, there is the matter of unpaid labor. Beyond the official work day, Vietnamese women spend another five hours daily on tasks like cleaning the house or looking after a sick relative.

“Every day has just 24 hours, to be divided among work, family, and oneself,” said Nguyen Hong Phuong, the director of finance at Adecco Vietnam. “It will not always be divided evenly, but balance and prioritizing will always be the key.”

While men are starting to pick up the slack, they still enjoy pride of place in the household. For a man, the advantage begins even before birth, when parents prefer to bear a boy rather than a girl, through a childhood without the expectation he will help with domestic chores, until adulthood, when the man switches from having his mother care for him to having his wife take on the burden.

​The rate of men who have indefinite term work contracts with foreign invested companies is 73.9%, compared with 67.7% for women, according to Adecco Vietnam. It also said that in job interviews, employers tend to ask female candidates not about their work experience or their professional goals, but about their marriage and family plans, as it would cost money for them to hire someone who eventually gets pregnant and goes on leave.

In an indication of the responsibility that still falls on women in Vietnam, one of the key priorities for female employees when they are seeking out an employer is that the company has a suitable parental leave policy, according to a study released March 8 by the United States Agency for International Development. That is in contrast to the Philippines, where women who were polled said they want diversity in the workplace, and in contrast to Singapore, where women said they want flexible work arrangements, like working from home. The research was conducted jointly by USAID Green Invest Asia and Moxie Future, which both advocate sustainable development.

As in so many countries, women in Vietnam bear the brunt of poverty and the repercussions of natural disasters. That is why there are programs like Technologies for Equality, a competition overseen by the Women’s Initiative for Startups and Entrepreneurship.

Contestants submit inventions that can improve the lives of women in the countryside for a chance to win up to $7,000. So far there have been innovations like Safe Journey, a mobile app that helps migrant workers find jobs and housing, since many rural women move to urban areas to find employment and send money back to their hometowns.

Another is a facility where ethnic minority tea farmers can process their crops for higher value-added products. Ireland and Australia, which are funding the project, will announce the winners later this month.

“This aims to unearth and support innovative solutions to ensure rural women and girls can fully participate and prosper in the workforce and the economy,” Vice Minister Bui The Duy at the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam said at the event launching the competition.

There is plenty that is going right in Vietnam. With its 71% female workforce participation, and the 25% of CEOs who are women, Vietnam probably has some insight for the rest of the world on equality. Local women generally have maternity leave, workplace protections relating to pregnancy and childcare, low rates of sex based violence, and overall freedom and respect in society.

At the same time, some of Vietnam’s metrics look good because other countries’ do not. Even in a socialist society there is still a ways to go for complete gender equality. (VOA)

PARIS, LELEMUKU.COM - The world reacted with shock, tears and prayers as it watched images of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral burning in Paris on Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation just before midnight. "I tell you solemnly tonight: We will rebuild this cathedral,” he vowed.

He said he would seek international help, including from the "greatest talents'' in the world for the task.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain was ready to help. He called the fire a "catastrophe for France, for Spain and for Europe.''

On the streets of Paris, hundreds gathered, some wept, as they watched the flames engulf the cathedral's spire.

Paris resident Lisa Sussman, originally from Atlanta, in the U.S. state of Georgia, said, "It’s horrible. It really is the center of Paris. I was at the apartment with my friends. It really hurts everyone’s heart — they really feel that connected to it. I feel it, too. It was really tragic to watch the spire fall."

Nearby, another Parisian resident, George Castro, said he was in shock.

"I’m a Christian, a Catholic. I think it’s really, really sad to see this happening right now. Right now, we don’t have many symbols, and this is a huge symbol for the West. It’s very, very sad," he said.

Pope Francis issued a statement late Monday expressing the Vatican’s “shock and sadness” at “the news of the terrible fire that devastated the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a symbol of Christianity in France and in the world.”

Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan prayed at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan for intercession. "God preserve this splendid house of prayer, and protect those battling the blaze,'' Dolan said in a statement.

The Russian Orthodox Church's secretary for inter-Christian relations Hieromonk Stefan called the fire "a tragedy for the entire Christian world and for all who appreciate the cultural significance of this temple,'' the state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump called it a "terrible, terrible fire'' that devastated "one of the great treasures of the world.'' He also had advice for the French on how to fight the fire. "Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!," Trump said on Twitter.

France's Civil Security agency said that wasn't possible. "Hundreds of firemen of the Paris Fire Brigade are doing everything they can to bring the terrible #NotreDame fire under control. All means are being used, except for water-bombing aircrafts which, if used, could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral,'' the agency tweeted in English.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama, in a tweet, called Notre Dame "one of the world’s great treasures, and we’re thinking of the people of France in your time of grief. It’s in our nature to mourn when we see history lost – but it’s also in our nature to rebuild for tomorrow, as strong as we can." He also posted an old photo of himself, his wife Michelle and their two daughters lighting candles in the cathedral.


Celebrities also poured their grief and dismay in tweets. American actress Laura Dern said she was moved to tears. “I’m weeping. Our gift of light,” she wrote. “Notre Dame on fire. My heart is breaking. My grandmother’s and mother’s heart home.”

Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote, “Standing here next to you, heartsick for Notre Dame,” (VOA)

ANKARA, LELEMUKU.COM - Thousands of state employees accused of supporting the Kurdish insurgency in their war against Turkey have lost their jobs — a mass crackdown that has forced many to make radical career changes.

The largest number of firings have occurred in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, and have included teachers, civil servants and local municipality workers.

Some of those dismissed workers are now employed at the Emekciler restaurant, founded by former court official Mustafa Ozer, who opened the restaurant with 22 of his fellow fired workers.

"Of course, it is not that simple to be sacked from your job of 23 years,” Ozer said. “Suddenly one night, your whole life’s effort is taken from you. You are being marginalized, and you are denied the bread that you bring to your home."

Ozer claims his dismissal had more to do with trade union activism than his support of Kurdish insurgents, and called his firing a release in many ways.

“There were daily, weekly lists of people who were sacked,” he said. “We were checking those lists every day to see if our name is on it. Every day, we had the panic. Our nerves were really stretched to the edge during this period. And eventually, our names appeared on the list, and our employment got terminated.”

Ozer and his partners contributed 11,000 lira (about $2,000) to start the restaurant.

“Some of us have a master's degree. Some are two-year college graduates,” said Ozer. “Some headed departments. Some were branch chiefs. Here is my colleague, Seyhmus. He used to work at the state employment agency,” added Ozer.

Seyhmus, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, modestly admits he has few skills to offer.

"I can't really cook, but I help with the running of the place. I don’t have such talent, unfortunately,” he said.

Seyhmus admits adjusting to the loss of a career in which he devoted his life was difficult, but the camaraderie he discovered at Emekciler restaurant helped.

“I am OK now because I saw the true value of friendship. We are like a family here,” he said.

Many of Emekciler's customers are former colleagues. Ozer said they visit, risking trouble at work for eating at a restaurant run by fired workers.

Ankara defends the crackdown, claiming supporters of the Kurdish insurgency have deeply infiltrated the state across the region.

Local and international human rights groups have sharply criticized the firings, claiming most are arbitrary with little or no evidence to justify the dismissal. The government created an appeals process, but so far, less than 5% of applicants were successful.

Zeki Kanay, an academic at Diyarbakir’s Dicle University, lost his job after signing a petition calling for an end to the decades-long war with Kurdish insurgents.

Kanay turned to organic farming on a small plot of land outside city walls. He works the farm with other purged workers and has not yet made a profit. But he said there are other rewards.

"If we didn't have that (the farm), life would be even harder, because this system pushes you to be alone, alienated,” he said. “It (the state) tries to instill fear and break us apart. However, on the contrary, we try to get closer to each other, and that’s how we all can stand on our feet now.”

Bishar Ilci helped Kanay set up the farm. He is working to reintroduce native seeds to the region.

Ilci worked for Diyarbakir’s municipality until Mayor Gultan Kisanak of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) was removed from office and jailed, accused of supporting terrorism.

“I worked in the municipality for 10 years and managed good projects,” said Ilci. “There were various social projects. My last 2.5 years in the municipality was devoted to the (Syrian) Yazidi refugees. We initiated educational projects, vegetable gardens for each family, and ran activities, especially with women. We had done serious work on farming.“

Ilci said he has little hope of getting his job back.

“It feels like the state is trying to discipline us with hunger. We have to learn how to stand on our feet,” he said. “We have given a good struggle for Kurdish rights for many years in this region, and now we say, 'Why can't we do the same with the land, with animals? And why not help your people with healthy food?’” (VOA)

PARIS, LELEMUKU.COM - Distraught Parisians and stunned tourists gazed in disbelief on Monday as a monstrous inferno tore through Paris' Notre Dame cathedral, one of the world's best-loved monuments.

Thousands of onlookers lined bridges over the Seine and along the river's embankments, held at a distance by a police cordon as the blaze engulfed the cathedral's roof.

"I'm devastated," said Elizabeth Caille, 58, who lives close to the cathedral. "It's a symbol of Paris. It's a symbol of Christianity. It's a whole world that is collapsing."

As dark fell over the French capital, orange flames rising through the heart of the 12th century Gothic cathedral cast an eerie glow through its stained-glass windows and against its stone towers.

Dumbstruck observers stood rooted to the spot as the scale of catastrophe sunk in, questioning whether the cathedral would survive the night as clouds of acrid-smelling smoke rose into the sky. Some were visibly moved.

"It will never be the same" said 30-year-old Samantha Silva, tears welling in her eyes as she explained how she would always take foreign friends visiting Paris to the cathedral.

Built over a century starting around the year 1160, historians consider Notre Dame to be among the best examples of French Gothic cathedral architecture.

Notre Dame survived being ransacked by rioting Huguenots in the 16th century, pillaging during the French Revolution of the 1790s and being left in a state of semi-neglect until Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which led to renewed interest in the cathedral and a major restoration which began in 1844.

The cathedral continued to be used as a place for national mourning in modern-day France. World leaders attended memorial services held for former presidents Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterrand.

"It's horrible, it's 800 years of history gone up in smoke," said German tourist Katrin Recke.

As fire-fighters raced to save priceless artworks, centuries-old gargoyles and the cathedral's northern tower, world leaders expressed sorrow and grief in messages to the French people.

"Notre Dame belonged to all humanity. What a tragic spectacle. What horror. I share the French nation's sadness," tweeted Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Union's executive Commission.

Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton wrote: "My heart goes out to Paris. Notre Dame is a symbol of our ability as human beings to unite for a higher purpose — to build breathtaking spaces for worship that no one person could have built on their own." (VOA)

NEW YORK, LELEMUKU.COM - The United Nations said Monday that the five-year-old conflict in Yemen has taken a "devastating toll" on the country's children, with thousands killed, maimed and recruited to fight since the war began.

"The impact of this conflict on children is horrific," Virginia Gamba, U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, told a meeting of the Security Council. "All parties to the conflict have acted and reacted militarily to events resulting in the use and abuse of children in multiple ways."

Since monitoring began in Yemen in April 2013 (before the conflict fully erupted) until the end of the 2018, Gamba said more than 7,500 children have been killed or maimed and more than 3,000 have been verified as recruited or used, and there have been more than 800 documented cases of denial of humanitarian access to children.

Gamba said children reportedly have been forcibly recruited from schools, orphanages and communities to fight on the front lines, man checkpoints, deliver supplies or gather intelligence.

Last year, over half of the children recruited were under the age of 15. During that period, the U.N. says more than 200 were killed or maimed while being used by the warring parties.

Gamba called out the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels for recruiting the majority of the children, followed by the Popular Resistance, Yemen Armed Forces and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

"The numbers I present to you today represent a mere fraction of violations committed against children in Yemen," she told council members.

In addition to harm to child soldiers, Gamba said of the more than 7,500 children killed or maimed between 2013 and 2018, nearly half of the casualties were caused by Saudi-coalition airstrikes.

Another 40 percent of such casualties came in ground fighting, including shelling and mortars. Gamba said Houthi rebels were largely to blame, followed by Yemeni government forces, among others.

It is not the first time the U.N. has called out the Saudi-led coalition or the Houthis for harming Yemeni children. But while both sides say they avoid harming civilians, the toll continues to rise.

Redeployment of forces

The U.N. has been working to end the conflict. On Monday, special envoy Martin Griffiths offered a glimmer of hope that the parties might be ready to take a first step away from the battlefield.

He told council members that both the Saudi coalition-backed Yemeni government and the Houthis have accepted a detailed redeployment plan to begin moving their fighters away from the crucial Red Sea port city of Hodeida.

"We will now move with all speed toward resolving the final outstanding issues related to the operational plans for phase two, redeployments and also the issue of the status of local security forces," Griffiths told the council in a video briefing from Amman, Jordan.

The parties committed to the plan at talks in Stockholm in December, but efforts to implement the agreement have failed. Griffiths expressed some confidence that they would go forward now.

"When — and I hope it is when and not if — these redeploys happen, they will be the first ones in this long conflict," he said.

Griffiths acknowledged that the "the war in Yemen … shows no sign of abating," and said there needs to be real progress on the military redeployments before the focus can shift back to the political track.

U.S. Acting U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen welcomed Houthi acceptance to phase one of the withdrawal plan and said Washington would be "watching closely to see if they make good on that agreement."

Funds urgently needed

Meanwhile, U.N. humanitarian operations in Yemen are at risk of running out of money in the coming weeks.

In February, international donors pledged $2.6 billion for Yemen relief operations. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — who are prosecuting the war against the Houthis — pledged an additional $1 billion.

But U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock said that nearly four months into 2019, the response plan has received only $267 million in actual funding.

"U.N. agencies are rapidly running out of money for essential relief activities," he warned.

The country, which is facing a cholera epidemic, could see 60% of its diarrhea treatment centers close in the coming weeks if money is not received. U.N. food programs, which provide emergency food assistance to more than 9 million people every month, would also be impacted.

"Closing or scaling back such programs — at a time when we are struggling to prevent widespread famine and roll back cholera and other killer diseases — would be catastrophic," Lowcock said.

He also warned that a potential environmental disaster is brewing off of Yemen's Red Sea coast.

Lowcock said that an oil tanker used as a floating storage and offloading facility, and which is 8 kilometers off the coast at the Ras Isa terminal, is old and has not received any maintenance since 2015. It has about 1.1 million barrels of oil on board.

"Without maintenance, we fear that it will rupture or even explode, unleashing an environmental disaster in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes," Lowcock said.

A Saudi Arabian-led coalition began bombing Houthi rebels in support of Yemen's government in March 2015. Since then, the U.N. estimates more than 10,000 people have been killed, mostly due to coalition airstrikes. (VOA)

MANAGUA, LELEMUKU.COM - Nicaragua's government said Monday it will implement a program to guarantee the safe return of exiles, a proposal the opposition dismissed as "absurd."

Anyone who fled in the past year and does not have an open court case or formal accusation against them will be eligible to return, the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement. It said the International Organization for Migration will provide technical support.

The government made the proposal to the opposition Civic Alliance on April 10, but said it didn't reach a consensus.

Alliance director Azahalea Solis said the group rejected the proposal as "absurd."

"It's ridiculous to act like the exiles would believe the same government that threatened them, persecuted them, killed their relatives and occupied their houses is now going to safeguard their lives and safety," Solis said. She said the proposal did not include any real mechanism for protecting those who return.

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, at least 325 people have been killed during the past year of unrest. The commission estimates there are more than 52,000 people who have fled the country, mostly to Costa Rica.

The Civic Alliance believes there are at least 160 people who fled the country while facing an arrest order.

Solis said the alliance had countered the government's idea with a plan for returns to be supervised by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, but said the government rejected that idea. The government has opposed the commission as a guarantor of the negotiations.

She also criticized the government for not completing the release of political prisoners that authorities had promised.

'Tremendous joke'

Jairo Bonilla, a student protest leader who went to Costa Rica last year, said he still receives daily threats from government supporters.

"For us as exiles there is no guarantee that we could return and nothing would happen to us," said Bonilla, who maintained that he is accused falsely of violent acts during the protests.

Bonilla also said President Daniel Ortega is trying to relieve international pressure on his government.

"He wants to make it seem like everything is normal in Nicaragua, that Nicaragua is negotiating, when every day they are killing more people, they are arresting more people without the world realizing it," Bonilla said.

Human rights activist Sara Henriquez, exiled in Italy, called the proposal a "tremendous joke."

"We don't have any assurance that they aren't going to kill us," she said. "All of us who left for exile, it was because we were threatened with death or we have cases with the police." (VOA)

PARIS, LELEMUKU.COM - Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames Monday in a roaring blaze that devastated the Parisian landmark, a searing loss for the city and for France.

Here are five facts on the Gothic masterpiece that celebrated its 850th jubilee in 2013:

* The first stone of the Notre-Dame de Paris ("Our Lady of Paris") cathedral was laid in 1163 in the reign of Louis VII, as the medieval city of Paris was growing in population and importance, both as a political and economic center of the kingdom of France.

* Construction would continue for much of the next century, with major restoration and additions made in the 17th and 18th century. The stonework and stained glass of the edifice recreate images and lessons from the Bible.

* Dominating the structure are its two 13th century bell towers. The so-called "bourdon," the largest bell, goes by the name of "Emmanuel."

* The 387 steps up to the towers take visitors past the gallery of chimeras, mythical creatures typically composed of more than one animal. The most famous of these, the "Stryge" gargoyle sits atop the cathedral watching Paris with its head resting in its hands.

* Victor Hugo used the cathedral as a setting for his 1831 novel, "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame." Quasimodo, the main character, is feared by Parisians because of his deformity but finds sanctuary in the cathedral and is employed as a bell-ringer. Quasimodo has been portrayed by Hollywood actors including Charles Laughton and also in an animated Disney adaptation. (VOA)

NEW YORK, LELEMUKU.COM - Reuters won two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, one for an investigative report that revealed the massacre of 10 Muslim Rohingya men by Buddhist villagers and Myanmar security forces, and one for photographs of migrants on the U.S. border, the Pulitzer administrator announced.

The Pulitzers, the most prestigious prizes in American journalism, have been awarded since 1917 after being established in the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. The 18-member Pulitzer board is made up of past winners and other distinguished journalists and academics.

Reuters and the Associated Press were both awarded prizes for international reporting.

The Reuters entry featured an investigative report that revealed the massacre of 10 Muslim Rohingya men by Buddhist villagers and Myanmar security forces at the village of Inn Din, in the heart of the conflict zone of Rakhine State. The story can be read here.

Two young Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, both Myanmar citizens, found a mass grave filled with bones sticking out of the ground. They went on to gather testimony from perpetrators, witnesses and families of victims. They obtained three devastating photographs from villagers: two showed the 10 Rohingya men bound and kneeling; the third showed the mutilated and bullet-ridden bodies of the same 10 men in the same shallow grave.

Before Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo could complete their story, they were arrested in December 2017 in what international observers have criticized as an effort by authorities to block the report. The article, "Massacre in Myanmar," was completed by colleagues Simon Lewis and Antoni Slodkowski and published in February of last year.

In September, they were sentenced to seven years behind bars. As of Monday, they have been in jail for 490 days.

In the breaking news photography category, 11 Reuters photographers contributed pictures to "On the Migrant Trail to America," a package of images of asylum seekers and others from Central America to the U.S. border.

One photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon showed migrants fleeing tear gas launched by U.S. authorities into Mexico at the San Diego-Tijuana border. In the image a mother grabs her twin daughters by the arm, one in diapers and wearing rubber sandals, the other barefoot, as a teargas canister emits its fumes.

In another image, an aerial photo, Mike Blake was the first to photograph the detention facility in Tornillo, Texas, where children walked in single file, like prisoners.

Goran Tomasevic captured an image in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a city with one of the highest murder rates in the world, of a rooster scratching in the dirt next to the slain body of a Barrio 18 gang member. Tomasevic was a previous finalist for his pictures of the war in Syria. (VOA)

LOS ANGELES, LELEMUKU.COM - When the last drop — or gallon — of blood is shed and an exultant victor has ascended to the Iron Throne, viewers may be split over how HBO's fantasy saga ended but they'll be joined in deprivation.

"What do you do without `Game of Thrones?"' will be the lament heard after the May 19 finale, said media analyst Larry Gerbrandt. The question is even more critical to the pay-cable channel, which soared on dragon's wings with its hugely popular, eight-season adaptation of George R.R. Martin's novels.

Keeping subscribers on board means more than another hit, even one as globally dazzling as "Game of Thrones" proved to be. But it's where HBO can start to protect its brand and position, observers say, an effort both demanded and compounded by an increasingly congested small-screen landscape and the expectations of the channel's corporate owner since 2016, AT&T.

"I think they need a prestige show on this level to remain HBO," Bill Carter, a media analyst for CNN and former reporter for The New York Times. But "more than ever, it's really hard to find a hit show and to break through in this marketplace."

The channel is well into the hunt for a worthy successor, with one possibility an untitled prequel to "Game of Thrones" created by Martin and Jane Goldman and starring Naomi Watts. Set to begin shooting a pilot in June, it's among several potential "Thrones" spinoffs being weighed, with discussions at HBO about "how many is too many," said programming chief Casey Bloys.

"We have high hopes" for the pilot, he said. "But I want to be clear, nobody is going into this thinking that we're going to do a prequel and all of a sudden everybody who automatically watched `Game of Thrones' is going to watch this. ... It'll have a different feel and different rhythm. We're not trying to do the same show again."

That begs the question of what more HBO has to offer, he said. During a period in which "Game of Thrones" was off the air for scheduling reasons, series including "Westworld," "Sharp Objects" and "Barry" proved strong draws, Bloys said.

"I'm not going to argue that we won't miss `Game of Thrones.' It's been a fantastic show for us, but life does go on," he said. He points to a deep bench of returnees, including Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon's "Big Little Lies," and newcomers including the graphic novel-based "Watchmen" from "Lost" producer Damon Lindelof. One marquee series that's also in its final season: the much-admired comedy "Veep," with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

HBO, which launched in 1972 and whose cachet has long justified the boastful slogan, "It's not TV. It's HBO," has reached this crossroads before. At the turn of the century, pop-culture sensations "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" boosted the channel's visibility and subscribers and made it a serious player for prestige awards — including cable's first-ever Emmys for best drama and comedy series. After the shows wrapped, the channel moved nimbly on with audience-pleasers including "Six Feet Under" and "True Blood."

But that was then, and this is the time of streaming — or, in shorthand, Netflix, along with a growing host of others including Amazon and Hulu — and a shoulder-bumping rush for stars and showmakers to churn out more and more fare for outlets already awash in programming.

HBO, no longer a singular alternative to staid broadcast networks, also got new corporate ownership when AT&T bought its parent company, Time Warner. HBO recently saw the exit of its chief executive, Richard Plepler, who had been with the channel for nearly 30 years and guided it to "Game of Thrones" glory.

With AT&T's resources, HBO has stepped up production and will see a 50% increase in the number of original program hours this year, Bloys said, arguing that volume doesn't preclude high quality: "There's nothing in 2019 that we're putting on the air because we're trying to hit an hour count. ... We haven't lowered any of our standards to reach a certain level of programming" and there is no pressure to do otherwise from WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey, he said.

Subscribers ultimately will decide whether they think the shows are what they want. But expanding the pipeline is unavoidable, said Tuna Amobi, a media and entertainment analyst with investment firm CFRA.

"It's a very different competitive landscape for HBO than it was when they launched `Game of Thrones,' and they realize that. That's why you see them ratcheting up their investments in their programming," Amobi said. Also key is how HBO's online platform is integrated with planned WarnerMedia streaming offerings to reach the broadest audience possible and make full use of its content, he added.

HBO "cannot rely on the old ways of doing things and hope that being a premium channel will bail you out," he said.

"Game of Thrones," which debuted in 2011, has flourished despite the confounding number of small-screen choices. From its first-season average weekly tally of 9.3 million cumulative viewers, the series rose to a seventh-season high of 32.8 million across all HBO platforms, including the channel itself and streaming services HBO Go and HBO Now and over a period extending 30 days beyond the season's end.

It benefited from the devoted following for Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" clutch of novels. It was richly and painstakingly produced, filmed in 10 countries including Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Morocco, Iceland and Canada. Its appealing cast became household names, and the female characters that grew in stature and strength as the drama unfolded are routinely namechecked as part of the female-empowerment zeitgeist.

"Game of Thrones" could boast of its Emmy dominance as well, with 47 trophies to date including three best drama series awards. Last year, it denied a second consecutive win to a worthy opponent, Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," but HBO itself lost valuable Emmy bragging rights: It was surpassed in total nominations for the first time in 17 years and by relative newcomer Netflix, and the streamer tied HBO in wins.

Analyst Gerbrandt, of Media Valuation Partners, isn't counting the channel out. Many viewers still like so-called "curated" TV delivered to them, as opposed to searching online through dozens or hundreds of offerings, he said. There's also the power of perception at work.

"If there's a brand that survives strictly on name, it's probably HBO," he said. (VOA)

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - An Instagram account that published comic strips depicting the struggles of gay Muslims in Indonesia has disappeared from the site following a frenzy of moral outrage online in the world's biggest Muslim nation.

The Ministry of Communications said Wednesday that the account under the username Alpatuni was pornographic, which violated the law on information and electronic transactions. In a statement it said Instagram had “fulfilled” its request made in a warning letter for the account to be removed.

Instagram, however, said it had not removed the account. A spokeswoman said there were a number of reasons an account may no longer be accessible including the account holder deleting it, deactivating it or changing the username.

The comics depicted gay characters facing discrimination and abuse, which has become increasingly common in Indonesia since late 2015 when conservative politicians and religious leaders began a campaign of portraying lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as a threat to the nation.

An account of the same name on Facebook, which owns Instagram, was also no longer accessible.

The social media company is regularly in the crosshairs of regulators, rights groups and the public as it unsuccessfully tries to balance what CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called “giving people a voice” and demands for censorship of content posted on the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms.

Instagram's content guidelines, published in Indonesian, say the service is a mirror of the diversity of the community.

Human Rights Watch's Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono criticized the government's demands that the account be blocked.

“That account describes mostly the problems of gay individuals in Indonesia. It's no secret that many LGBT individuals are arrested, their houses raided, some are sentenced to prison terms,” he said. “The Indonesian government does not help them in demanding the removal of that account.”

The communications ministry said it appreciated that members of the community reported the gay Muslim account, which “accelerated” its removal.

Some Indonesian netizens in turn congratulated the ministry. On Twitter, Fahmi Alfansi Pane, a policy analyst at the Indonesian parliament, thanked officials for “acting decisively” to protect public morality but also told The Associated Press he had never seen the comics.

Local media, quoting the communications minister, reported the ministry would block Instagram in Indonesia if the Alpatuni account wasn't removed.

The government frequently threatens to block Western social media and internet companies for content deemed illegal but has never taken such measures, possibly fearful of a public backlash due to the huge popularity of the services with Indonesians.

In 2017, it briefly and partially blocked the Telegram messaging app because of its failure to remove groups linked to violent jihad. (VOA)

NEW YORK, LELEMUKU.COM - Kathryn Tolbert is a journalist, and also one of the directors of the film, ‘Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: the Japanese War Brides.’ It’s a subject she knows well, as Tolbert’s mother, Hiroko Furu-kawa, is a native of Japan. A daughter of privilege, Hiroko became a Japanese war bride, marrying an American stationed in Japan.

“My mother married my American father, who was a U.S. soldier. She barely knew him, yet she moved from Tokyo to her in-laws’ chicken farm outside of Elmira, New York,” Tolbert says.

Tolbert says her mom worked at the family egg farm and ran a small grocery store with her father. Tolbert says her father was happy, but her mother was stoic and determined.

“Mother raised us not with warmth or expressions of love. It was one of hard work, studying and getting ahead,” says Tolbert.

Tolbert says her mother didn’t speak or teach Japanese to her children, believing that she was duty bound to integrate as an American.

After college, Tolbert became a journalist, working for the Associated Press in Tokyo.

“Being in Japan in the mid-70s right after graduating from Vassar College was wonderful. I was the first woman that AP had as a reporter there,” Tolbert says.

In the 1990s, Tolbert worked for the Washington Post, and did a number of stories about Japanese women.

“My parents divorced after 30 years of marriage and she continued running the grocery store and turned it into a great success,” says Tolbert. She was known in the community. And I thought it was interesting but I didn't fully understand her story. I mean when you grow up with somebody that you're close to. And in one sense you know a lot about them, but I once wrote this little essay about what it was like having her as a mother and the problems with her English and what we couldn't understand what other people couldn't understand. And how she pushed us. How education was so important to her. But I didn't understand it,” says Tolbert. I didn't understand the context.”

But context would arrive in the form of the film, “Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: the Japanese War Brides,” which Kathryn Tolbert produced with fellow journalists Karen Kasmauski and Lucy Craft, who are also daughters of Japanese war brides.

“While there is a bit of difference in our stories, they are also similar,” says Tolbert.

In addition to the film, Tolbert has created an oral history archive of Japanese war brides. To date, she has done over 30 stories and continues to record interviews for it. She plans also to use the material for material for a book.

“Traveling around the country and interviewing other families taught me a huge amount and then I understood her (my mother’s) story Because there were great outcomes and terrible outcomes. Of these marriages. There were a lot of them. I can tell their stories and some of them mirrors my own experience.” (VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - The main umbrella organization of religious sisters in the United States is calling for an overhaul of the male-led leadership structure of the Catholic Church, after Pope Francis acknowledged the problem of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious also called Thursday for the creation of reporting mechanisms that ensure sisters who have been abused "are met with compassion and are offered safety."

The conference represents about 80 percent of Catholic sisters in the U.S. Its statement came after Francis acknowledged Tuesday that abuse of nuns was a problem and said the Vatican is working on it but more needs to be done.

The LCWR said current authority structures need to be changed "if the church is to regain its moral credibility and have a viable future." (VOA)

CANBERA, LELEMUKU.COM- Evacuation efforts continue Monday in the Australian city of Townsville in the tropical northeast state of Queensland, after authorities decided to fully open the gates of a dam Sunday.

The floodgates of the city's dam were opened to prevent the Ross River from breaking its banks, flooding some suburbs.

Many homes in Townsville had been left without power and cut off by flooded roads.

Rescue teams, using boats and helicopters have evacuated thousands of Townsville's 82,000 homes, while 400 army personnel have been working to distribute sandbags to properties at risk of inundation.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued a "major flood warning," late Sunday and urged people to seek shelter on higher ground.

"Dangerous and high velocity flows will occur in the Ross River Sunday night into Monday. Unprecedented areas of flooding will occur in Townsville," a statement by the bureau said, adding there was a "risk to life and property".

Speaking to reporters Monday, Queensland state Prime Minister Anastasia Palaszczuk warned that more rain in Townsville and the surrounding area over the next two days could cause flash flooding.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill described the rainfall as a "one-in-100-year event.''

Some 1,012 millimeters of rain was dumped there during the past week, compare to 886 millimeters in all of 1998, which held the previous record for rainfall.

January was the hottest month on record for all of Australia, and southern parts of the country remain in a state of severe drought.

ABU DHABI, LELEMUKU.COM - Pope Francis opened his historic visit to the United Arab Emirates on Monday with a grandiose, pomp-filled welcome ceremony before he was to address faith leaders in a show of religious tolerance in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom.

Francis arrived at the Abu Dhabi presidential palace in a simple Kia hatchback, but was greeted with an artillery salute and military flyover by a country now at war.

Even for a nation known for its excesses, the Emiratis' red-carpet welcome was remarkable for a pope who prides himself on simplicity. It featured horse-mounted guards escorting the pontiff's motorcade through the palace gardens while the flyover trailed the yellow and white smoke of the Holy See flag as cannons boomed.

Francis stood somberly between Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the Emirati vice president and prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, as the Vatican and Emirati anthems played and delegations were introduced.

Francis' speech to the gathering of faith leaders later in the evening is the highlight of his brief, 40-hour visit to Abu Dhabi, the first to the Arabian Peninsula by a pope. His trip culminates on Tuesday with the first-ever papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula - a gathering expected to draw some 135,000 faithful in a never-before-seen display of public Christian worship here.

Francis arrived in the Emirati capital late on Sunday, hours after making an appeal from the Vatican for urgent observation of a limited cease-fire in war-torn Yemen so that food and medicine can get to its people, who are suffering the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Emirates has been Saudi Arabia's main ally in the war in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting the country's Houthi rebels, and Francis' pre-trip appeal was a way for him to avoid embarrassing his hosts with a public denunciation of the humanitarian costs of the war while in the region.

"The cries of these children and their parents rise up'' to God, he said at the Vatican before heading to Rome's airport for his flight.

In a sign that regional politics was playing a not-insignificant role in Francis' visit, the papal plane flew north of Qatar and around the peninsular, energy-rich nation on his flight Sunday.

Four Arab nations - Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - have been boycotting Qatar since June 2017 as part of a regional political dispute. Tensions are still high between the nations, especially after Qatar's win at the Emirates-hosted Asian Cup soccer tournament this past week.

By avoiding Qatari airspace, Francis omitted sending a telegram of greetings to the country's ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as he would do when flying through the airspace of countries. He sent one when passing by the island nation of Bahrain. (VOA)