التصنيف: estaql

A British woman is among three people who have been arrested in connection with the shooting of a far-right politician in Spain earlier this month.

Alejandro Vidal-Quadras, who co-founded the Vox party, was shot in the face in the affluent Salamanca area of Madrid on 9 November.

The 78-year-old, who also used to lead Spain’s centre-right People’s Party in Catalonia, remains in hospital.

A Spanish man and his British partner were arrested in the city of Lanjaron in southern Spain, according to local media.

A man detained in Fuengirola, also a Spaniard, was arrested in connection with a motorbike used in the shooting.

EFE and other media outlets said none of the three was suspected of having fired the shot that hit Mr Vidal-Quadras.

The shooting is being treated as a possible terrorist attack.

Earlier this month, police said that Mr Vidal-Quadras had raised the possibility he was targeted because of his ties with Iran’s political opposition.

Investigators were exploring a potential Iranian link but so far have no found evidence of one, police said.

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Mr Vidal-Quadras has been aligned for decades with the Iranian opposition in exile.

In January, Iran’s foreign ministry imposed sanctions on him and others with ties to the exiled opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, accusing them of “supporting terrorism and terrorist groups”.

Mr Vidal-Quadras was an important member of Spain’s conservative Popular Party and a European Parliament member before he helped found Vox.

He has not been active in politics for several years but maintained a public role as a media commentator and columnist.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

The motion calling for the closure of the embassy passed with 248 votes in favour and 91 votes against.

South Africa’s Parliament has voted in favour of a motion calling for the closure of Israel’s embassy in Pretoria amid soaring tensions between the two countries over the Israeli assault on Gaza.

The motion is largely symbolic as it will be will be up to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government whether to implement it.

The motion calling for the closure of the embassy passed on Tuesday with 248 votes in favour and 91 votes against.

The motion introduced by the leftwing opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) was backed by the ruling African National Congress and opposed by members of the centrist, white-majority Democratic Alliance (DA) which is largely pro-Israel.

Ramaphosa has previously said his country believes Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinians have been killed.

The vote comes after Israel announced it was recalling its ambassador Eli Belotserkovsky from Pretoria “for consultations”.

The African country has not had an ambassador in Israel since 2018.

More to come…

The first images have emerged of 41 men trapped for a tenth day under a collapsed road in India.

It showed some dozen men in construction hats grouped around the blocked tunnel as they communicated with rescuers on the ground with walkie-talkies.

The video was taken by a snakelike medical endoscopy camera fed through a newly installed pipe used for sending food to the workers.

It was the first time in more than a week that the men received hot food, made up of rice and lentils, sent through the six-inch tube.

Until now, the workers have survived off dry food sent through an even narrower pipe, while oxygen continues to be supplied through a separate one.

Despite reports of some workers falling ill last week, authorities confirmed the group was safe, having also received water, medicine and access to light.

A psychiatrist sent to the site by the state government reported they had been “sleeping well” and advised them to occupy themselves with light yoga and regular conversations.

A landslide on Sunday caused a portion of the 4.5km tunnel in Uttarkashi, northern India, to collapse about 200m from the entrance.

Uttarkashi is about 160 miles (260km) northeast of Delhi, close to the Himalayas.

A huge rescue operation was launched but it was hampered when one of the drills digging towards the men was damaged.

The machine’s high-intensity vibrations caused more debris to fall as the rescue efforts were briefly postponed, to the dismay of family members who hoped to see their relatives.

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Rescue teams will need to clear 103m of rubble to reach the men – nearly double the distance as the original rescue attempt.

There is hope to get a “breakthrough in the next 30 to 40 hours” according to Mahmood Ahmed, the head of the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL) responsible for building the tunnel.

Its construction is part of a flagship federal government project connecting various Hindu pilgrimage sites.

The trapped men are low-wage workers, most from poor states in the north and east of India.

NewsFeed

“Within a year we will eliminate them all.” A video by Israel’s public broadcaster of children singing about Gaza has caused a backlash online, including among many Israelis.

UK officials will meet Turkish counterparts after a 31-year-old woman died following a “Brazilian butt lift” in 2019.

Melissa Kerr died the same day she underwent a procedure to collect fat and inject it into her buttocks in Istanbul on 19 November that year.

She died after injected fat entered a vein before moving and blocking her pulmonary artery.

Her cause of death was recorded as pulmonary thromboembolism and fat embolism, with a secondary cause stated as elective cosmetic surgery.

Norfolk’s senior coroner Jacqueline Lake said that Ms Kerr, from Denton, Norfolk, was only given “limited information regarding the risks and mortality rate” from the operation.

Ms Lake wrote to the Department of Health and Social Care about her concerns after an inquest in September, saying: “I am concerned that patients travelling to Turkey for this procedure are not being made aware of the risks and the high mortality rate associated with this surgery.”

She also raised concerns that there were “no or limited controls with regard to such surgery taking place”.

Maria Caulfield, minister for mental health and women’s health strategy, responded to Ms Lake, saying: “My officials will… be visiting Turkey shortly to meet with their counterparts.

“The intention is to discuss the regulatory framework, and the protections that are in place for UK nationals, and to identify concrete areas where the UK and Turkish authorities should work together to reduce the risks to patients in the future.”

She added: “It is particularly important that those considering having the ‘Brazilian Butt Lift’ (BBL) procedure are made fully aware of the risks and have time to reflect fully on their decision ahead of surgery.

“As you note in the report, the risks associated with this procedure are high.

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“The risk of death for BBL surgery is at least 10 times higher than many other cosmetic procedures, and it has the highest death rate of all cosmetic procedures.

“As you note, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) has advised its members not to carry out Brazilian butt lift surgery until more is known about safer techniques for the procedure.

“The Government is considering how we can most effectively communicate with those considering medical treatment abroad, to ensure people are better informed about the risks ahead of surgery and understand the need to ensure appropriate aftercare, including considering when it may be safe to travel home.”

Ms Caulfield said she hoped her response was “helpful in setting out how seriously the UK Government is taking the issues raised in your report”.

The inquest into Ms Kerr’s death happened five years after mother-of-three Leah Cambridge died from a fat clot caused by a BBL in Turkey in 2018.

The 29-year-old from Leeds travelled to a private clinic in the coastal city of Izmir for the operation after becoming paranoid about excess stomach weight gain, an inquest heard – despite being told by her partner she did not need surgery.

The Foreign Office says it is aware of over 25 British nationals who have died in Turkey since January 2019 following medical procedures.

Its website recommends that anyone planning to travel to Turkey for surgery, including dentistry, should read its advice and discuss their plans with their UK doctor before going ahead.