الكاتب: kafej

A woman has been identified 31 years after her body was found in Belgium.

Rita Roberts, from Cardiff, was previously referred to as the “woman with the flower tattoo”.

Ms Roberts’s body was discovered on 3 June 1992 against a grate in the water of the river Groot Schijn in Antwerp.

Police said she had been violently killed. Her family said the news was “shocking and heartbreaking”.

Officers said her most striking feature was a tattoo on her left forearm of a black flower with green leaves and “R’Nick” written underneath.

She was 31 when she moved to Antwerp in February 1992. Her last communication with her family was a postcard in May 1992.

An appeal was launched on 10 May this year to help identify her body.

A family member in the UK recognised the tattoo on the news and informed Interpol and Belgian authorities.

In a tribute, Ms Roberts’s family said she was “passionate, loving and free-spirited” and had been “cruelly taken away”.

“There are no words to truly express the grief we felt at that time, and still feel today,” they added.

They said while the news had been “difficult to process”, they were “incredibly grateful to have uncovered what happened to Rita”.

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Her family described Ms Roberts as “a beautiful person who adored travelling”.

“She loved her family, especially her nephews and nieces, and always wanted to have a family of her own,” they added.

“She had the ability to light up a room, and wherever she went, she was the life and soul of the party. We hope that wherever she is now, she is at peace.”

Belgian authorities are now appealing for any information on Ms Roberts or the circumstances surrounding her death.

Which other countries have banned TikTok?

TikTok has been banned in several countries, with many citing security concerns about the Chinese app.

The UK and US governments have banned the app on government phones, as has the European Parliament, European Commission and EU Council.

TikTok has repeatedly denied it has ever shared data with the Chinese government and said it would not do so if asked.

Other countries to ban it from government devices include Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Taiwan.

Nepal’s neighbour India banned TikTok over fears it could compromise national security and integrity.

Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership banned it in 2022 on the grounds of protecting young people from “being misled”.

Pakistan has banned it over what the government terms its “immoral and indecent” content, while Somalia banned it over concerns about terror-related content.

Israel’s military has said it is working to bring incubators into Gaza amid claims dozens of babies could die at the Shifa hospital because there is no power.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said 32 patients, including three babies, have died since the hospital’s emergency generator ran out of fuel on Saturday.

On Tuesday, a statement from the Israel Defense Forces was posted on social media with an image showing a soldier unloading incubators from a van after distress calls claimed 36 babies at Shifa were in danger due to a lack of electricity and dwindling supplies.

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The military did not make it clear if the incubators had been delivered or how they will be powered.

Shifa remains encircled by Israeli troops and tens of thousands of people have fled the hospital in the past few days – including large numbers of displaced people who had taken shelter there.

It is estimated about 650 patients and 500 staff remain in the hospital, which can no longer function, along with around 2,500 displaced Palestinians sheltering inside with little food or water.

On Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry released images of about a dozen premature babies wrapped in blankets together on a bed to keep them at a proper temperature.

Otherwise, “they immediately die”, the Health Ministry’s director general Medhat Abbas said.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that Shifa “must be protected”.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” Mr Biden added.

The UN humanitarian office, known as Ocha, has said fighting is continuing around hospitals and that only one in the north is able to receive patients.

All the others are no longer able to function and mostly serve as shelters from the fighting.

These confrontations have forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from what many saw as the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza.

This has left critically wounded patients, newborns and their caregivers with dwindling supplies and no electricity, health officials have said.

Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its fighters.

It has accused the militant group of setting up its main command centre in and beneath Shifa, which is Gaza’s largest hospital – a claim both Hamas and hospital staff have denied.

And on Monday, the military released footage of a children’s hospital that its forces moved into over the weekend, showing weapons it said it found inside, as well as rooms in the basement where it believes the militants were holding some of the around 240 hostages they abducted.

“Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the army’s chief spokesperson, standing in a room of the Rantisi Children’s Hospital.

Explosive vests, grenades and RPGs were displayed on the floor.

On Monday, the Red Cross began to evacuate around 6,000 patients, staff and displaced people from another hospital, Al-Quds, after it shut down due to a lack of fuel.

However the aid organisation said its convoy had to turn back because of shelling and fighting.

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As of 10 November, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

This figure is understood to include dead militant fighters.

About 2,700 people have been reported missing.

At least 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians in the Hamas attack on 7 October.

Palestinian militants are holding nearly 240 hostages seized in the surprise raid, including children, women, men and older adults.

The military says 44 soldiers have been killed in ground operations in Gaza.

Climate change is causing “hazard flips”, where areas that used to be prone to drought experience flooding, and vice versa. 

The “whiplash effect” of these erratic extremes affects millions of people living in poverty, research by WaterAid reveals.

Analysis of satellite imagery and climate data by WaterAid in partnership with the universities of Cardiff and Bristol shows commmunities are being exposed to extremes they are not equipped to deal with.

Climate change will not create the same hazards across the world despite globally warming temperatures, co-lead researcher Professor Katerina Michaelides from Bristol University said.

“Instead, the hazard profile for any region is likely to change in unpredictable ways,” she said.

In northern Italy, the number of intense dry spells has more than doubled since 2000 – but these have been punctuated by extreme flooding, including deadly floods in May and June this year.

Before that, a winter of little snowfall left a walkway in Lake Garda exposed and Venice battling dry canals.

The same climate patterns have been seen in the southern Shabelle region of Ethiopia.

By contrast, over the last two decades, areas in Pakistan, Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana – normally associated with hotter, drier conditions – have flipped to become increasingly wetter and flood-prone.

The research examined flooding and drought hazards over the last 41 years across six countries: Pakistan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique. Italy was included as a European comparison.

In general, the countries that used to experience frequent droughts that are now more prone to frequent flooding, while others historically prone to flooding now endure more frequent droughts.

Co-lead researcher, Professor Michael Singer from Cardiff University, warned these “hazard flips” are “something most places on the planet will have to address”.

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The consequences of the erratic extremes are “devastating” for communities, researchers warned – wiping out crops and livelihoods, damaging often-fragile water supply infrastructure, disrupting water supply services, and exposing people to disease and death.

Tim Wainwright, WaterAid’s chief executive, said: “For the world’s most vulnerable, this is a matter of life or death. We cannot let climate change wash away peoples’ futures.

“From drought-stricken farmlands to flood-ravaged settlements, communities in Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Ethiopia are all experiencing alarming climate whiplash effects; Uganda is experiencing ever more catastrophic flooding and Mozambique a chaotic mix of both extremes.

“While we will all pay a price for global water stress, it’s those living on the frontline of the climate crisis who are paying for it now – their lives hanging in the balance.”

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In Uganda, the data showed the eastern region of Mbale was showing a significant tendency towards much wetter conditions, with unprecedented flooding over the last three years.

WaterAid spoke to retired primary school teacher Okecho Opondo, 70, who said the change in weather patterns was creating “total confusion”.

“The months that used to be rainy are now dry. When the rains come, they can be short yet heavy, leading to floods.

“On other occasions the rainy periods are too long, leading to destruction of infrastructure and crop failure. And then the dry periods can be very long, further leading to crop failure and hunger.”

In Mozambique, a 14-year-old called Kiequer said the floods had affected their education.

“I was traumatised by that February rain. When the sky gets cloudy, I always get scared. I don’t think that day of the floods will ever leave my imagination.”

Health facilities and ambulances have protected status under international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch affirms.

Israel’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, health personnel and ambulances in Gaza should be “investigated as war crimes”, international NGO Human Rights Watch has said.

The Israeli military’s “apparently unlawful attacks” are further destroying Gaza’s healthcare system at a time when medics have unprecedented numbers of severely injured patients, and hospitals have run out of medicine and basic equipment, the group said on Tuesday.

“Despite the Israeli military’s claims on November 5, 2023, of ‘Hamas’s cynical use of hospitals’, no evidence put forward would justify depriving hospitals and ambulances of their protected status under international humanitarian law,” HRW added.

A war crime is a serious violation of international humanitarian law, committed with criminal intent. HRW urged the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel’s actions.

Healthcare system ‘devastated’

As of November 10, two-thirds of primary healthcare facilities and half of all hospitals in Gaza are not functioning, according to the United Nations. And as of November 12, at least 521 people, including 16 medical workers, have been killed in 137 “attacks on health care” in Gaza, the World Health Organization said.

“Israel’s repeated attacks damaging hospitals and harming healthcare workers, already hard hit by an unlawful blockade, have devastated Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure,” said A Kayum Ahmed, special adviser on the right to health at HRW. “The strikes on hospitals have killed hundreds of people and put many patients at grave risk because they’re unable to receive proper medical care.”

Between October 7 and November 7, HRW said it investigated attacks on or near five healthcare facilities in Gaza.

It found that Israeli forces struck the Indonesian Hospital multiple times between October 7 and 28, killing at least two civilians; the International Eye Hospital was struck repeatedly and completely destroyed on October 10 or 11;  the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital was forced to close on November 1, days after air raids on or near the facility; a man and a child were injured after repeated attacks on the al-Quds Hospital; and Israeli forces struck well-marked ambulances on several occasions – at least a dozen people were killed or wounded in one incident outside al-Shifa Hospital on November 3.

“These ongoing attacks are not isolated. Israeli forces have also carried out scores of strikes damaging several other hospitals across Gaza,” HRW said.

‘Special protections’

“Intentionally directing attacks against … medical units and transport” is prohibited as a war crime under the ICC’s Rome Statute, HRW noted.

“Hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that have special protections under international humanitarian law, or the laws of war. Hospitals only lose their protection from attack if they are being used to commit ‘acts harmful to the enemy’, and after a required warning,” it said.

Israel claims that Hamas fighters have set up command centres beneath hospitals like al-Shifa and the Indonesian Hospital – claims Hamas and the hospital staff deny.

“These claims are contested,” HRW said. “Human Rights Watch has not been able to corroborate them, nor seen any information that would justify attacks on Gaza hospitals.”

HRW also criticised the “sweeping nature” of Israel’s evacuation orders, which did not take into account specific requirements for hospitals and patients. The group said there was no way to ensure safe compliance as “there is no reliably secure way to flee or safe place to go in Gaza”, which raised concerns that “the purpose was not to protect civilians, but to terrify them into leaving”.

“The Israeli government should immediately end unlawful attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and other civilian objects, as well as its total blockade of the Gaza Strip, which amounts to the war crime of collective punishment,” HRW said.

It added that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups should also take feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control.