Author: Himalaya Post

UNITED NATIONS, United States – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday announced the appointment of Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s twice-serving president who endured torture under the Pinochet regime, as the world body’s next human rights chief. Bachelet, 66, is set to replace Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein of Jordan, a sharp critic of US President Donald Trump’s policies, who held the post of UN high commissioner for human rights since September 2014. A two-time president who ranks among the world’s most powerful women in politics, Bachelet also served in 2010 as the first director of UN Women, the UN agency promoting gender equality worldwide. Guterres informed the General Assembly of his decision in a letter on Wednesday following consultations with the heads of regional groups at the United Nations, a UN statement said. The 193-nation assembly will meet on Friday to vote on the appointment, which is expected to win approval, diplomats said. Zeid is due to step down on August 31. Bachelet will step into a position that has drawn much controversy under Zeid, who decided not to seek a second term after losing support from powerful countries including the United States, Russia and China. Zeid last year compared Trump to a bus driver “careening down a mountain path”, engaged in “reckless driving” for his attacks on the media. In an implicit swipe at Zeid, US Ambassador Nikki Haley urged...

MATARAM (WEST NUSA TENGGARA), Indonesia – The devastating earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok was “exceptionally destructive” and wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions, relief agencies warned as the death toll jumped to more than 160 on Thursday. Relief efforts have yet to reach parts of the island four days after the quake hit, Indonesian authorities said, as hopes fade of finding further survivors among the wreckage. “There are still some evacuees that have not yet been touched by aid, especially in North Lombok and West Lombok,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho tweeted Thursday. A total of 164 people were now confirmed dead in the quake, Nugroho told AFP, with a further 1,400 seriously injured and more than 150,000 displaced. Local authorities, international relief groups and the central government have begun organising aid, but shattered roads have slowed efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north of Lombok, which bore the brunt of the quake. “We are still waiting for assessments from some of the more remote areas in the north of the island, but it is already clear that Sunday’s earthquake was exceptionally destructive,” Christopher Rassi, the head of a Red Cross assessment team on Lombok, said in a statement. “I visited villages yesterday that were completely collapsed.” Tens of thousands of homes, businesses and mosques were levelled by the quake, which struck...

MATARAM, Indonesia – A strong aftershock struck Indonesia’s Lombok on Thursday, causing panic among evacuees sheltering after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160 on the holiday island four days earlier. The 5.9-magnitude quake Thursday struck at a shallow depth in the northwest of the island, the US Geological Survey said, even as relief agencies raced to find survivors among wreckage from Sunday’s quake. “The quake was felt strongly. There have been 355 aftershocks since Sunday,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. Evacuees at a shelter in northern Lombok’s Tanjung district ran out onto the road crying and screaming, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Motorcycles parked on the street toppled over and the walls of some nearby buildings collapsed. A woman wearing a motorbike helmet was seen crying with her two daughters in her arms. “We were stuck in the traffic while delivering aid, suddenly it felt like our car was hit from behind, it was so strong,” witness Sri Laksmi told AFP. “People in the street began to panic and got out of their cars, they ran in different directions in the middle of the traffic.” The aftershock comes after Sunday’s devastating 6.9-magnitude earthquake, which relief agencies said had wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions of northern and western Lombok. A total of 164 people have been confirmed killed in Sunday’s quake,...

BUENOS AIRES –  Argentine senators on Thursday voted against legalizing abortion in the homeland of Pope Francis, dashing the hopes of women’s rights groups after the bill was approved by the legislature’s lower house in June. According to an official tally, 38 senators voted against the measure to legalize the termination of a fetus during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, 31 in favor, while two abstained. The vote was welcomed by fireworks and shouts of joy among anti-abortion activists gathered outside of Congress. At the other end of the square, tears were seen streaming down the faces of pro-abortion advocates, many wearing the green scarves that had come to symbolize their cause. A handful of demonstrators started fires and threw stones as they clashed with riot...