THOUSANDS of hurricane survivors have been filing off boats and planes in the capital of the Bahamas, facing the prospect of rebuilding their lives after Hurricane Dorian.
The Bahamas death toll from the hurricane has risen to at least 50, health minister Duane Sands announced. But authorities say they expect to find more bodies as they search through devastated northern areas of the region.
The government has estimated that up to 10,000 people from the Abaco islands alone will need food, water and temporary housing as officials consider setting up tent or container cities while they clear the country’s ravaged northern region so people can eventually return.
The huge piles of debris left by the storm are challenging for search and recovery teams, which cannot use bulldozers or other heavy equipment to search for the dead, making recovery and identification a slow process.
At least five deaths in the US were attributed to the storm, as well as one in Puerto Rico.
MEANWHILE, a female football fan in Iran has died a week after setting herself on fire, reportedly after learning she may have to go to prison for trying to enter a stadium in March.
Sahar Khodayari died at a Tehran hospital on Monday, Shafaghna news agency said. The 30-year-old was known as The Blue Girl on social media for the colours of her favourite Iranian team, Esteghlal.
Women are banned from football stadiums in the Islamic Republic but male Iranian footballers are now calling for reform. Former Bayern Munich midfielder Ali Karimi urged Iranians in a tweet to boycott stadiums to protest against Khodayari’s death.
ELSEWHERE, at least 31 people have died in Iraq after part of a walkway collapsed as tens of thousands of people celebrated Ashoura, causing a stampede in the city of Karbala.
Around 100 others were injured in the incident, which occurred towards the end of the procession, causing a panicked rush.
The incident took place during the so-called Tweireej run, when tens of thousands of people run toward the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala at around noon.
AND finally, the The National Rifle Association (NRA) has sued San Francisco, with the lawsuit accusing city officials of violating the the gun lobby’s free speech rights for political reasons and saying the city wants to blacklist anyone associated with the NRA.
Last week, the US city’s Board of Supervisors passed a resolution calling the NRA a “domestic terrorist organisation”, contending the association spreads propaganda that seeks to deceive the public about the d
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