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‘Our lives stopped’: Relatives plead for Israel hostages
Moran Betzer Tayar, wracked by anguish about the kidnapping of her nephew and his wife by Hamas fighters on October 7, summed up her feelings during a press conference: "On Saturday morning, our lives stopped." The 54-year-old, speaking in Paris on Wednesday, is on a European tour with other relatives of hostages snatched by the Palestinian militant group during a raid that killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians. Israel's retaliation has so far killed more than 6,500 people, including 2,704 children, Hamas says. The Islamists are still believed to be holding more than 200 hostages. It is the plight of these people that Betzer Tayar -- who says she is "worried sick" and cannot eat -- and her compatriots are desperate to keep in the public eye. She told a press conference organized by the Council of Jewish Institutions in France how her relatives were snatched from Kibbutz Nirim, where community members were reportedly besieged for nine hours in one of dozens of attacks staged on 7 October. 'They got me' Two sisters -- Shani and May Yerushalmi -- joined Betzer Tayar to describe how their sister, Eden, was taken from the bar where she was working. "She called us, screaming, saying that terrorists were shooting at them," said Shani Yerushalmi, describing the attack at a rave party where 270 people were killed. Eden hid among bodies of her friends in a car, her sister said, before trying to use a bush as cover. "She told us she could hear the terrorists coming," Shani Yerushalmi said. "We knew it was the last moment with her. Her last sentence was: Shani, they got me." She played the screams of her sister, recorded on her phone, to the gathered journalists. Another of the women on stage, Ofir Weinberg, described how her cousin Itay Svirsky was taken from Kibbutz Beeri, where Hamas fighters killed at least 100 people, according to Israeli authorities. Messages began to pour into the family WhatsApp group on 7 October -- the calls for help and the progress of the attackers documented minute by minute. "I can't even begin to describe the feeling you have when you feel like you're losing your family one by one," said Weinberg. The families have had no news of their loved ones since the Hamas attack. The Israeli army has confirmed only that they are among the hostages taken to Gaza. They are asking for the Red Cross to be allowed to visit their relatives to answer the most basic questions -- whether they are still alive, where they are, and whether they are hurt. But political questions remain taboo. Those caught in the middle of the tragedy decline to speculate on the best course of action for their loved ones: a ground invasion of Gaza or a ceasefire and negotiations. "We're not representing the country... We don't tell Israel what to do," said Ofir Weinberg. "I don't have the answers. I'm just a citizen." The post ‘Our lives stopped’: Relatives plead for Israel hostages appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Medics recount shocking toll of child deaths in Gaza war
Eight sleeping children killed in one strike, doctors fighting but failing to save an unborn child -- such were the stories recounted by Gaza medics on Thursday as Israel stepped up its air strikes. Gaza's Hamas-run government said that children made up 1,524 of the 3,785 people killed since Israel launched a relentless barrage on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attacks. Grief-stricken parents carrying the bodies of children in white shrouds through Gaza streets have become a familiar sight since the war started. Doctors say they are fighting a losing battle against a lack of medicines, water and fuel to keep hospitals running. Eight children aged between two and five were among 10 people from the same family killed in an air strike on a house in the city of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, early on Wednesday, relatives said. "The children were asleep when they destroyed the house," their 67-year-old grandfather, Abu Mohammad Wafi al-Bakri, said. Father escaped Diyala, Ayman, Hamada, Zaher, Uday, Jamal, Nabil and Acil all came from one extended family and all slept on the ground floor. It took an hour after the raid to find their bodies, rescuers said. "None of my children were linked to Palestinian organisations and no men were in the house at the time," said Jihad al-Bakri, father of three of the children. He had left his home an hour before the missile hit to try to find water. At Najjar hospital in Rafah, doctors mourned the unborn child of a woman killed by a missile strike early on Thursday. Arij Marwan al-Banna, seven months pregnant, and her daughters, Sarah and Samya, both aged under 10, were killed on the spot, medical sources told AFP. Banna had fled to her parents' house from northern Gaza after Israel warned its 1.1 million people to head south. Doctors operated but could not save her child. She was posthumously named Fatima and her tiny body bag placed atop that of her mother, doctors said. The Israeli military said on Thursday it had carried out hundreds of air raids in 24 hours, targeting Hamas military infrastructure. Terrified Gaza residents have flocked to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the only possible escape route from the besieged territory, but it has remained closed. Scores of people waited forlornly about 100 metres (yards) from the crossing hoping that it would reopen to let aid in and refugees out. US President Joe Biden announced after visiting Israel on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to let some food, water and medicines into Gaza. He said some deliveries could be made on Friday. Wary inhabitants kept away from the gates fearing that they would again be a target for Israel's relentless strikes after the crossing was hit four times last week. "I have been waiting for three days with my family in a house 10 minutes away. We are ready with our bags but we just don't know if or when the crossing will open," said Mohammed, a 40-year-old working for an Italian group. Majed, 43, who works for a German organisation, told AFP: "I came on my own this morning. If the crossing opens, I will get my wife and family -- they're ready." He estimated there were about 400 foreigners, dual nationals and employees of international organisations waiting near Rafah. The Hamas government media office said it had no details on aid deliveries. It said the crossing's head of operations, Fuad Abu Btihan, had been killed in the Israeli strikes. Israel intensified its air strikes after Biden flew home and clouds of black smoke again rose over Gaza City. "It's been tough for three nights, but tonight was the hardest," 60-year-old Umm Mohamed Abu Ziada told AFP. The post Medics recount shocking toll of child deaths in Gaza war appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Over a dozen alleged gang members stoned, burned alive in Haiti
More than a dozen suspected gang members were stoned and burned alive on Monday by residents in Port-au-Prince, police and witnesses said, as the UN warned that insecurity in the Haitian capital has reached levels similar to countries at war. "During a search of a minibus in which there were armed individuals, the police confiscated weapons and other equipment. In addition, more than a dozen individuals traveling in this vehicle were unfortunately lynched by members of the population," the police said in a statement. The police did not specify the exact number of victims, nor expand upon the circumstances in which they lost custody of the suspects, who were murdered by residents of the district called Canape-Vert. The violence had started before dawn, when gang members burst into several residential areas of the capital, looting homes and attacking residents, according to witnesses. "It was the sound of projectiles that woke us up this morning. It was 3:00 a.m. the gangs invaded us. There were shots, shots," a resident of the neighboring district of Turgeau told AFP. "If the gangs come to invade us, we will defend ourselves, we too have our own weapons, we have our machetes, we will take their weapons, we will not flee," said another resident. "Mothers who want to protect their children can send them elsewhere," he added. In fact, dozens of families left the neighborhoods caught in the spiral of violence on Monday, AFP journalists confirmed. Men, women, and children fled the scene on foot, carrying a few personal belongings in bags or bundles. At least three other suspected gang members were killed and then burned at midday, according to photos and videos that were shared online. The latest grisly killings came as the United Nations released a report highlighting the surge in murders and kidnappings in the country. Armed gangs "continued to compete to expand their territorial control throughout the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, spreading to previously unaffected neighborhoods," said the report, from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "With the high number of fatalities and increasing areas under the control of armed gangs, insecurity in the capital has reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict," it added. The number of reported homicides in Haiti rose in recent months by 21 percent, from 673 in the last quarter of 2022 to 815 between 1 January and 31 March this year. The number of reported kidnappings soared by 63 percent, from 391 to 637. "The people of Haiti continue to suffer one of the worst human rights crises in decades and a major humanitarian emergency," the report said. Clashes among gangs and with police have "become more violent and more frequent," claiming many civilian lives, it added. The human rights situation of people living in gang-controlled areas "remains appallingly poor" and conditions in areas newly targeted by gangs have "worsened significantly," according to the report. The document highlighted the dire situation for residents of Cite Soleil, along the capital's waterfront, where snipers have shot passersby on the street from rooftops. "The inhabitants feel besieged. They can no longer leave their homes for fear of armed violence and the terror imposed by the gangs," the UN humanitarian coordinator for Haiti said in a separate statement on Sunday. Between 14 and 19 April, clashes between rival gangs left nearly 70 people dead, including 18 women and at least two children, the statement added. "I reiterate the urgent need for the deployment of an international specialized armed force," Guterres said in Monday's report. Guterres in October relayed a call for help from Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, asking the Security Council to send assistance to help police restore order. While some countries have indicated a willingness to participate, none have come forward to take the lead. The post Over a dozen alleged gang members stoned, burned alive in Haiti appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
‘Time doesn’t heal’: Ukraine’s war widows count the cost
Olga Slyshyk began to fear the worst in January this year when her husband, Mykhailo, a military engineer serving on the front line in eastern Ukraine, didn't contact her on her birthday. It wasn't unusual for the 40-year-old trained lawyer to be offline for days at a time, but Slyshyk knew he would reach out -- one way or another -- on January 14 if he was alive and well. "I was sure he would call or find some way to congratulate me. But I had had a very bad dream and I already knew something was wrong," she told AFP in Kyiv wearing black and holding her two-year-old son Viktor. "On January 15, I found out he had died." More than one year after Moscow invaded, Slyshyk is among a growing number of women widowed by Russian forces and left to count the cost of Ukraine's determination to hold out and push Moscow's invasion back. Neither side has disclosed the exact figures of troops killed, though recently leaked US intelligence documents suggest as many as 17,500 Ukrainian servicemen have been lost. Slyshyk said a social media group for war widows she joined had more than 300 members after her husband was killed defending Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region, but it had doubled in size since. President Volodymyr Zelensky last August hosted widows and their children at an honors ceremony to reassure next of kin their loved ones' sacrifice had not been in vain. "They will remain forever at battle. But they live on in the memory of their relatives," he said, greeting mourning women and their children one by one. Thirty-year-old Slyshyk, who was born in Mariupol -- a port city besieged and captured by Russian forces last spring -- said she often evokes the memory of her killed husband. "All the time. Both in my head and aloud. I'll be unable to open a tin can, weeping from frustration, and I cry out: 'Misha, I'm not even able to do this' and then suddenly, it opens." Daria Mazur, 41, said she learned of her husband's death in 2014 from graphic pictures of his bloodied corpse published on Russian media after fierce fighting with Kremlin-backed separatists. He was killed while withdrawing from Ilovaisk, an infamous and costly chapter of the conflict for Ukraine that saw hundreds killed that August as Kyiv troops pulled back in the face of advancing pro-Russian forces. "Time does not heal. You just get used to it. You accept it. You learn to live with it. And that pain just becomes a part of you," she told AFP in her kitchen in Kyiv, next to pictures showing her husband smiling with their child in his arms. They met on a beach in 2006, fell in love and married in 2010 in the southern region of Kherson, where Mazur fled from when Russia invaded last February. Her hometown is currently occupied by Russian forces. She said her final conversations with her husband, Pavlo, who was 30 when he was killed, betrayed a sense of foreboding. He knew the situation was precarious. "He told me: 'please promise me that no matter what happens to me, you will be happy,'" she recounted to AFP. "These guys are giving their lives so we can live on," she added, referring to Ukrainian servicemen fighting now. It was precisely this need to go on that pushed Oksana Borkun, who also lost her husband to the Russian invasion, to create "We Have to Live," an organization that supports widows -- the same group that Slyshyk joined. Borkun said that while the government offers financial and psychological support, she wanted to go a step further. "The girls face a huge amount of pain. You can say it's possible to go crazy from it. Life is going on around you, and you want to talk to those who understand." The organization gathers money for widows, offers logistical and moral support, too, but chiefly it provides a platform -- mainly online -- for already nearly one thousand widows country-wide to share. For Slyshyk, her husband's family has proven a stronger pillar of support than her own. Her mother, who is also a widow of two years, lives in Donetsk, a pro-Russian stronghold city captured by separatists in 2014 and does not support Ukraine in the war. The fact they have both lost their husbands has not brought them together, she said. Months after Mykhailo's death, Slyshyk is torn when weighing whether his sacrifice was worth it. "He said he was going there for me and Viktor," she recounted, explaining her husband believed Ukraine had no choice but to fight back and win. "But if you want me to be safe, to be ok, I need you by my side, not somewhere else," she added, swallowing back tears. "For now, I'm emotionally conflicted". The post ‘Time doesn’t heal’: Ukraine’s war widows count the cost appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Philippines logs 40 pertussis deaths this year
MANILA, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Forty children have died of whopping cough, a respiratory infection also called pertussis, since this year, the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) has reported. The DOH said in a statement on Wednesday that cases have continued to increase since the start of this year, recording 568 cases from Jan. 1 to March 16. "The total number of cases for the same period in 2023 was.....»»
Israel bombs Gaza, fights Hamas around hospitals
Israeli forces pounded besieged Gaza on Wednesday and fought Hamas around several hospitals, despite a UN Security Council demand for a ceasefire. Talks in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal involving US and Egyptian mediators have brought no result so far, with Israel and the Palestinian militant group blaming each other. READ: Israel.....»»
Pertussis or whooping cough: 40 child deaths so far this year – DOH
MANILA, Philippines — Assistant Health Secretary Albert Domingo reported on Wednesday that as of March 16 this year, some 40 children had died of whooping cough — a respiratory infection also called pertussis. An increase in new pertussis cases nationwide had been observed nationwide, with 28 cases reported from March 10 to 16. READ: What.....»»
Marian Rivera takes on projects that her children can watch
With her upcoming primetime show, “My Guardian Alien,” Marian Rivera has added sci-fi to the growing array of genres — from drama, fantasy, romance, and action to historical and comedy — that the Kapuso actress has successfully ventured into thus far......»»
Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1600 GMT, March 25
JAKARTA -- One was killed and nine others, including children, went missing after a landslide struck a village in the Indonesian province of West Java on Sunday, a local official said Monday. The disaster took place in Cibenda village in West Bandung regency on Sunday after torrential rain reportedly poured over the area for around two hours. (Indonesia-Landslide) - - - - SYDNEY -- Local media repo.....»»
200 brgy workers, children affected by DavNor floods receive assistance
200 brgy workers, children affected by DavNor floods receive assistance.....»»
Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 1600 GMT, March 25
JAKARTA -- One was killed and nine others, including children, went missing after a landslide struck a village in the Indonesian province of West Java on Sunday, a local official said Monday. The disaster took place in Cibenda village in West Bandung regency on Sunday after torrential rain reportedly poured over the area for around two hours. (Indonesia-Landslide) - - - - SYDNEY -- Local media repo.....»»
Decline in exploitation cases; advocacy efforts strengthened
AN OFFICIAL from the Police Regional Office-Davao Region (PRO-Davao) reported two cases of online exploitation of women and children in the region in 2022......»»
Acciona advocates water conservation
Acciona, a global sustainable infrastructure company, recently launched its water conservation campaign to raise awareness among young children and empower them to become stewards of the vital resource......»»
Zachary Levi, Zooey Deschanel may kakaibang adventure sa upcoming movie
IKA nga nila, “dreams come true.” Kaya naman, samahan natin sa kakaibang adventure ang Hollywood stars na sina Zachary Levi at Zooey Deschanel sa upcoming movie na pinamagatang “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” Ang pelikula ay ang kauna-unahang film adaptation ng 1995 children’s classic book na may kaparehong titulo na isinulat ng American cartoonist na.....»»
PSA opens PhilSys registration for ages 1 to 4
Children ages one to four years old can now register with the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) for the national ID......»»
Think again before buying bunnies as Easter gifts
SAN DIEGO – With Easter just a week away, animal rescue groups in Southern California are urging people not to buy rabbits as holiday gifts for children. They said that what begins as a well-meaning gesture often leads to abandoned animals when the novelty wears off and families realize they’re not equipped to properly care.....»»
3 dead, 592 others afflicted with measles in BARMM since January
Three children in the Bangsamoro region died from measles in the past 10 weeks while 592 others contracted the viral, supposedly vaccine-preventable disease during the period, regional officials reported on Saturday......»»
Pasig: 2 of 17 kids die of ‘whooping cough’
Two of 17 children in Pasig who contracted pertussis or “whooping cough” have died, the city government said yesterday. .....»»
Kids advised to wear masks
People, especially children, have been advised to wear face masks as a form of protection after the Department of Health (DOH) sounded the alarm over the rising cases of pertussis or whooping cough in the country......»»
Why Trump May Benefit from Truth Social Stock Market Merger
A recent study has shed light on the negative effects of excessive screen time on children’s development. Researchers have found that children who spend extended.....»»