Norway's largest pension fund divests from 14 arms firms

KLP has stopped investing in companies with ties to nuclear and regular arms production. It's not the first time the fund has made such a move on humanitarian grounds.


Raytheon, one of the firms behind the Patriot missile launcher, is among the firms that KLP has divested from

Norway's largest pension fund said on Thursday that it has divested from 14 nuclear and regular arms-producing companies.

Oslo-based KLP said it made the decision after reviewing its ethical criteria on weapons.

"This will primarily mean companies that produce certain types of weapons which, by their nature, violate fundamental humanitarian principles,'' the fund said in a statement.

"The criterion applies mainly to nuclear weapons and cluster munitions, as well as anti-personnel mines," it said in a statement.

Which companies is KLP divesting from?

As of this month, KLP won't do business with companies including Britain's Rolls Royce Holdings PLC, Massachusetts-based Raytheon Technologies Corp. and France's Thales.

KLP is also divesting from UK-based Babcock International, China Shipbuilding Industry, Dassault Aviation, Elbit Systems, General Dynamics, KBR, L3Harris Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, Leidos Holdings, Leidos Inc and Leonardo.

Two of the companies — Elbit Systems and Leonardo — have already been excluded by KLP for other reasons.

The exclusions mean that KLP has sold shares worth just over 1 billion Norwegian crowns ($117.50 million, €101.8 million) and debt securities in the form of bonds worth about 200 million crowns, the company said.


What are KLP's new grounds for divestment?

KLP has expanded its ethical exclusion criteria to include makers of key components used for nuclear and regular arms and providers of key support services.

"Companies do not need to produce the actual weapons components themselves," Kiran Aziz, KLP's head of responsible investment, told news agency Reuters.

"We are now taking a slightly more stringent line with producers of aircraft and vessels that have been developed, produced or adapted to launch nuclear weapons."

KLP said that Rolls Royce produces components for a number of vessels capable of launching nuclear weapons. Its ethical guidelines said "production of such delivery platforms constitutes grounds for exclusion."

The fund said Raytheon Technologies Corp. develops missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and called it the world's largest producer of guided missiles. Raytheon had previously been excluded from KLP investment because it produces components for nuclear weapons and cluster munitions but was added back last year.

Thales develops and produces components for nuclear missiles. It also produces delivery platforms exclusively intended for such weapons, KLP said.

What is KLP?

KLP manages more than 300 billion kroner for municipal employees in Norway.

This is not the first time that KLP has taken steps to divest on ethical grounds. Earlier this year, the fund divested from 16 companies that operated in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The firms appeared on a UN list of 112 companies that it said were complicit in violating the human rights of Palestinians by operating in the West Bank.

COP26 report: COVID stimulus packages fail to address climate change adaptation

Developing countries face a massive funding shortfall in preparing for inevitable climate change. But governments could use COVID-19 recovery funds to create long-term sustainable climate adaptation measures.


A new UN report has found that financing for climate adaptation measures falls far short of what is needed

Developing countries need to spend up to 10 times more public money than current levels to implement climate adaptation measures that would minimize harm caused by more frequent droughts, flooding and other weather extremes, according to a United Nations report published on Thursday.

Up to $300 billion (€260 billion) will be needed annually by 2030, and $500 billion a year by 2050 to deal with imminent hazards. But in 2019, climate financing to developing countries for mitigating emissions, adaptation, planning and implementation was $79.6 billion, according to "The Gathering Storm: The Adaptation Gap Report 2021." The study assesses shortfalls in finance, knowledge and implementation in climate change adaptation.

At the same time, governments are missing an opportunity to use pandemic recovery packages to invest in green growth and deal with the current and future impacts of climate change, stated the report.
COVID-19 conundrum

The pandemic set back attempts to adapt to climate change, exacerbating existing problems and stretching economic and disaster response capacities in the face of extreme weather, as was seen during the April 2020 tropical cyclone that hit South Pacific islands such as Fiji.

But the vast financial stimulus packages that came in the wake of the pandemic could be targeted to adaptation measures, including storm early warning systems and flood defenses.

"COVID, in principle, presents a huge opportunity for building back better, for developing new structures for international coordination and collaboration that is currently not being used to the degree that we believe would be possible and also necessary," Henry Neufeldt, chief editor and contributing author of the report, told DW.

 

From locusts to drought: Farmers need to adapt to climate change

Vast sums of money — $16.7 trillion — are being spent as part of fiscal stimulus packages around the world, but only a tiny portion of that has gone to adaptation projects.

"There is a need for more finance to go into this and the pandemic is an opportunity to galvanize the transformational change that we need to see happening," said Neufeldt.

The report cites the World Bank's "Build Back Better" approach, which helps to identify sustainable long and short-term adaptation measures, such as building more resilient urban development, that would reduce a country's vulnerability to climate shocks.

Koko Warner, who manages the UNFCCC's Environmental Migration, Social Vulnerability and Adaptation Section, and was not involved in the report, said adaptation measures take many forms, but are vital to people's survival.

"All over the world people are feeling the adverse impacts of climate change — unexpectedly harsh winter storms, severe drought, locust swarms that destroy crops, life-threatening heat domes, progressive sea level rise that threaten coastal communities," Warner told DW from the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

"These risks require society to adjust and shift. We all rely on stable, safe environments for our survival."

A beacon of hope?

For the first time, the report was able to track significant changes from year to year in adaptation progress. And while financing remains a problem, such projects are slowly picking up steam, the report found.

Countries are gradually paying more attention to adaptation, with 79% now having introduced some sort of planning instrument to prepare for climate change, such as new laws, or policies or strategies. That's an increase of 7% on 2020, and other countries are in the process of building up a plan.

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which funds adaptation projects to protect wildlife, said the report largely reflected the reality on the ground.

"There is some progress on financial investment in adaptation and country-level adaptation planning, but those efforts must be bolstered and expanded to meet the growing risks that both people and nature face from a changing climate," Molly Cross, science director for the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund, told DW.

Cross said one critical aspect of helping humans adapt to climate change is the protection and restoration of intact and healthy ecosystems.

"We must make significant investments in actions that help people and nature cope with and adapt to climate change-related impacts that are already underway," Cross said.

One flagship adaptation project cited in the report is Gambia's efforts across four regions to rehabilitate degraded farmland, savannas and forests with native species, while developing locally managed natural resource-based economies. Another cited project is the restoration of Albania's Kune-Vain Lagoon system, to prevent flooding in surrounding areas and to build associated livelihoods.

7 WAYS AFRICA IS ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Feeding frenzy
Locusts, boosted by drought, heavy rains and warm temperatures, have devastated crops in East Africa. Pesticides can help, though they're not exactly environmentally friendly. Scientists in Nairobi have experimented with fungi and other microbes to make safer poisons. They've also used the locusts' unique smell, which changes as they mature, to break up swarms and even drive them to cannibalism.
1234567

Momentum building, but financing barriers remain

According to the UNFCCC's Warner, as more adaptation projects demonstrate their success, more momentum will build to ensure wide-scale adaptation.

"When people see good results from these efforts and when their communities expect them to be part of the adaptation effort, then we will see change at a massive scale," she said.

"There is every reason to be optimistic because the future is ours to imagine and build. What we collectively achieve here at COP26, and what we do with our families, our peers, our institutions will help ensure stability, safety and well-being of people and nature as climate change unfolds."

Still, the report found that the world needed to spend more on direct investment, as well as remove barriers to private sector involvement.

It also called for debt relief for developing countries, finding this was limiting their ability to adapt to climate change.

"Freeing up the financial squeeze that developing countries have is really important. And this is where developed countries' advanced economies can help significantly," Neufeldt said.

Funding for adaptation and mitigation must go hand-in-hand, because even if the world halts emissions and keeps to the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7-Fahrenheit) threshold, regions will have to deal with a changed climate.

"Climate change is going to have impacts over many hundreds of years. But what we can say is that by taking urgent action in terms of mitigation, we can minimize these future impacts considerably. But we're not going to get rid of all the impacts. Adaptation can also reduce that risk considerably," said Neufeldt.

INDIA: TOWNS DEVASTATED AS KERALA BRACES FOR MORE HEAVY FLOODING
Low-pressure system triggered rains
The off-season torrential rains are the result of a low-pressure system over the Arabian Sea. A total of 13 out of Kerala's 14 districts received much more rainfall than predicted over the past week as a result, according to the Indian government's Meteorological Department. Between October 7 and 13, around 73 millimeters of rain was predicted, but over 194 mm of rain fell — a difference of 166%.
1234567

COP 26: 'One of the whitest' climate conferences in years, say environmentalists

The countries hit hardest by climate change are struggling to attend a UN climate summit that has been hailed as the "best last chance" to stop global warming. What are the implications?


Climate youth activists, Indigenous people, and parents call on leaders to 'End Climate Betrayal'

A catalog of mistakes means that representatives from the Global South have found it difficult to show up to a conference in the United Kingdom where world leaders are deciding how to slow the planet's further heating.

The number of people registered to attend COP26 has doubled from the last UN climate conference in 2019 to almost 40,000 people, according to documents published by the organizers Tuesday, but delegates and observers from poorer countries say their colleagues have struggled to make it to the summit.

Travel restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus, last-minute changes in quarantine rules, and the high costs of flights and hotels have forced many delegates to attend the conference via video call. Because of restrictions on space in the rooms in Glasgow, environmental groups representing vulnerable people across the world say they have been shut out of meetings.

The summit — hailed as the "best last chance" to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures — is an opportunity for world leaders to agree on deals that would stave off increasingly extreme weather. The collective voice of those who really need urgent climate action is what matters, said Tasneem Essop, international director of Climate Action Network, a global network of 1,500 civil society groups. "Unfortunately, that is already diminished," Essop said.

'Views are not being considered'

The UK government, which is hosting the event, claimed in May that COP26 should be "the most inclusive COP ever" and offered vaccines to all delegates, observers and media. But participants have said both vaccines and visas were difficult to get hold of.

Particularly frustrating, they say, is that most poor and middle-income countries were only taken off the UK's coronavirus red list — for which incoming travelers would need to quarantine for 10 days — two weeks before the conference. At such short notice, some delegates had no choice but to stay at home, while others who booked travel last-minute have only been able to find accommodation in the neighboring city Edinburgh.

"If you're not represented, your views are not being considered," said Colin Young, director of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CARICOM), a group of 15 Caribbean countries, some of which were initially on the red list. "Our delegations are always small to start with because of issues of funding. When you have to trim that down even more, then representation is really an issue that we are concerned about."

Seats at the table

At the heart of the dispute is a question of fairness.

Countries from the Global South, which have done the least to cause climate change but bear the brunt of its damages, are fighting for agreements on two key deals at the summit. The first is to fulfil a broken promise made by rich countries at a climate summit in 2009 to give poorer ones $100 billion a year by 2020 to green their economies and adapt to climate change. The second is to acknowledge their role in the losses and damages caused by increasingly extreme weather events like tropical cyclones and wildfires.

Delegates face long waits to get into the COP26 summit. Some 40,000 are registered to attend but many from the Global South have not been able to make it

"That has been an issue that the rich nations have not wanted to address at all," said Essop from Climate Action Network. The voices of poorer countries, she added, would be "critical" to ensure rich countries finance losses and damages.

"If the developed countries are serious, they need to show that leadership commitment," said Halima Bawa-Bwari, an environmental scientist at the Department of Climate Change, Nigeria, adding that many of the Nigerian delegation were missing meetings because they were commuting from outside the city.
Bigger delegations

The UNFCCC, the body that organizes climate negotiations, published a list of registered participants after requests from DW. It shows that compared to the previous year, around 150 countries increased the size of their delegation, 6 stayed the same, and 33 registered smaller delegations.

But it is unclear how many of those roughly 22,000 registered delegates, 14,000 observers and 4,000 journalists will turn up. The UNFCCC did not specify which participants are only attending virtually. It had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.

"If it's held virtually, Africa can't participate," said Mamoudou Ouedraogo from the civil society group Association for Education and Environment in Burkina Faso, adding that unlike many of his colleagues, he was lucky to be able to get to Glasgow.

Participants attending virtually have to battle with poor internet connections. "You can go two, three days without internet," Ouedraogo said.

Bianca Coutinho, an advocacy advisor at ICLEI, a group representing mayors across the world, said they had been forced to ask mayors from cities in the Global South to speak on behalf of others who could not make it. They also held joint sessions with some participants attending virtually and others in-person. "Luckily, the hybrid events are working," she said.

Civil society

Elsewhere within the conference halls, participants are finding it hard to take part in sessions described as open.

To help maintain social distancing, many sessions are ticketed. But coalitions of environmental groups have been granted just a handful of tickets to cover dozens of events, campaigners said.

"There is not enough space in the venue to accommodate everybody that is accredited," said Nathan Thanki from the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

The overall result, participants have complained, is a climate summit in which the countries and peoples hit hardest by climate change are unable to get their voices heard.

"Civil society, social movements and governments have found it incredibly challenging to jump through all the hoops necessary to get here to the UK," said Thanki. "Compared to previous years, this COP is one of the whitest."

With additional reporting from Irene Banos Ruiz and Heather Moore, and data analysis from Gianna Grün

Coral bleaching impacts 98% of Great Barrier Reef: study

The frequency, intensity and scale of climate-fuelled marine heatwaves that cause coral bleaching are increasing, researchers say SARAH LAI AFP/File

Issued on: 04/11/2021 - 
Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) – Coral bleaching has affected 98 percent of Australia's Great Barrier Reef since 1998, leaving just a fraction of the world's largest reef system untouched, according to a study published Friday.

The paper in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology found that just two percent of the vast underwater ecosystem had escaped impacts since the first mass coral bleaching event in 1998 -- then the world's hottest year ever, a record that has repeatedly been broken as climate change accelerates.

Lead author Terry Hughes, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, said the frequency, intensity and scale of climate-fuelled marine heatwaves that cause coral bleaching are increasing.

"Five bouts of mass bleaching since 1998 have turned the Great Barrier Reef into a checkerboard of reefs with very different recent histories, ranging from two percent of reefs that have escaped bleaching altogether, to 80 percent that have now bleached severely at least once since 2016," he said.

Bleaching occurs when healthy corals become stressed by spikes in ocean temperatures, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues which drains them of their vibrant colours.

The Great Barrier Reef has suffered three mass bleaching events during heatwaves in 2016, 2017 and 2020, leaving many affected corals struggling to survive.

Government scientists said in July that corals have shown some signs of recovery since the last bleaching but admit the long-term outlook for the 2,300-kilometre-long (1,400-mile-long) ecosystem is "very poor".

The reef is also susceptible to harm from cyclones and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish, which eat the coral, with both factors becoming more damaging due to climate change.

The research found corals that had previously been exposed to heatwaves were less susceptible to heat stress, but co-author Sean Connolly, from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, warned more frequent and severe bleaching would reduce the reef's resilience.

Bleaching occurs when healthy corals become stressed by spikes in ocean temperatures WILLIAM WEST AFP/File

"Corals still need time to recover before another round of heat stress so they can make babies that will disperse, settle and recover the depleted parts of the reef," he said.

"Action to curb climate change is crucial."

The findings come during a landmark United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, where Australia committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 but failed to announce a more ambitious 2030 target.

One of the world's biggest exporters of coal and gas, Australia's economy is heavily reliant on fossil fuels and its conservative government has been reluctant to kick the country's addiction.

© 2021 AFP

Spain unveils plan for revival of crisis-hit lagoon

Issued on: 04/11/2021 - 

Dead fish began washing up on the Mar Menor's shores in August 

Jose Miguel FERNANDEZ AFP/File

Madrid (AFP) – Spain's environment ministry on Thursday unveiled a roadmap for regenerating the stricken Mar Menor, one of Europe's largest saltwater lagoons that is slowly dying from agricultural pollution.

The plan would curb some harmful agricultural practices blamed for pushing the lagoon in southeastern Spain to what ecologists have described as "the brink of ecological collapse".

"The environmental crisis of the Mar Menor is unsustainable, the damage must be stopped immediately," Environment Minister Teresa Ribera said as she unveiled the 382-million-euro ($440-million) investment plan on a visit to the area.

In August, millions of dead fish and crustaceans began washing up on the lagoon's shores, scenes that experts have repeatedly blamed on agricultural pollution.

They say the sea creatures died due to a lack of oxygen caused by hundreds of tonnes of fertiliser nitrates leaking into the water, triggering a phenomenon called eutrophication which collapses aquatic ecosystems.

The ministry's plan for 2022-26 includes short- and medium-term steps to slash the contaminants entering the lagoon, ending illegal irrigation practices and revitalising the Mar Menor's shoreline.

It outlines several environmental regeneration projects to support biodiversity in and around the lagoon, including the creation of a 1.5-kilometre (one mile) buffer zone along the Mar Menor's shores.

Earlier this year, Ribera accused regional authorities of turning a blind eye to farming irregularities in the Campo de Cartagena, an intensively farmed area surrounding the lagoon.

The plan involves cracking down on illegal irrigation and cutting off supplies to farms without irrigation rights, reviewing permits for wastewater disposal and monitoring livestock farms.

Earlier this month, ecologists submitted a formal complaint to the EU over Spain's "continued failure" to protect the Mar Menor, urging the European Commission to take "immediate action".

Although the lagoon is protected under various EU directives and the UN environment programme, they said Spain has failed to comply with its legal obligations, taking "only superficial steps" to safeguard the Mar Menor from damaging agricultural practices.

© 2021 AFP

Mexico's heritage 'not for sale,' culture minister says

Issued on: 04/11/2021 

Mexican Culture Minister Alejandra Frausto told AFP in an interview that her country's heritage 'is not for sale'

PEDRO PARDO AFP

Mexico City (AFP) – Mexico's culture minister has hit out at foreign auctions of pre-Hispanic artefacts from the Latin American country, saying her nation's heritage "is not for sale."

In an interview with AFP, Alejandra Frausto lamented that "cultural heritage has become an object of commerce," despite being part of "the identity of peoples."

Two French auctions of pre-Hispanic pieces are the latest to anger President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government, which says the items were obtained "illegally."

"We made an appeal to the auction houses and they told us they were certain that the ownership is legitimate," Frausto said.

"According to Mexican law, any piece of national heritage that is permanently outside the country, not temporarily for an exhibition or cultural cooperation, comes from an illegal act," she added.

Since Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, 5,800 pieces have been returned to Mexico and are now on display in the country's museums, she noted.

Italian general Roberto Riccardi was recently awarded the Aztec Eagle, the highest distinction granted to a foreigner in Mexico, for his work in the recovery of archaeological pieces.

Such objects are not luxury items or home decorations but part of what "makes us a cultural nation," Frausto said.

That is why "heritage is not for sale," she added.

Mexico had called for the cancelation of the auction of 40 objects by the Artcurial house in Paris that nevertheless went ahead this week, as well as another planned next week by Christie's.


A visitor looks at a sculpture called "El Creador" at the "Greatness of Mexico" exhibition at the National Museum of Anthropology in the Mexican capital Pedro PARDO AFP/File

In July, Mexico and France signed a declaration of intent to strengthen their cooperation in the fight against trafficking in cultural property.

Frausto said her country now had more tools at its disposal to tackle the problem.

"We broke the inertia," said the minister, who also plans to stand up for indigenous weavers in a row over what Mexico calls cultural appropriation by international fashion houses.

In recent years Mexico has been trying to recover artefacts in the hands of private collectors around the world, with only partial success.

In February, Christie's auctioned 40 pre-Hispanic pieces in Paris for a total of around $3 million.

"We appeal to the ethics of collectors. We appeal to those who may think that acquiring this as a luxury item does not violate the culture and identity of a country," Frausto said.

"Recovering these fragments of the history and cultures of Mexico helps us to recover an identity" that some people wanted to take away, she said.

The illicit trade in cultural goods generates nearly $10 billion each year, according to UNESCO.

© 2021 AFP

US submarine commander fired after crash into sea mountain

Issued on: 04/11/2021 - 

The fast-attack nuclear submarine USS Connecticut -- seen here in May -- collided with an uncharted underwater mountain on October 2, 2021

 Lt. Mack Jamieson,  US NAVY/AFP

Washington (AFP) – The US Navy on Friday sacked the commanding officer, executive officer and top enlisted sailor of a nuclear-powered submarine that crashed into an underwater mountain, saying the October 2 accident was preventable.

Commander Cameron Aljilani and two others were removed from their positions following an investigation into the crash in the disputed South China Sea.

The USS Connecticut was forced to sail on the surface for a week to reach Guam.

"Sound judgement, prudent decision-making and adherence to required procedures in navigation planning, watch team execution and risk management could have prevented the incident," the western Pacific-based 7th Fleet said in a statement.

After a damage assessment in Guam, the vessel will return to the US submarine base in Bremerton, Washington for repairs.

Last week the navy said the investigation showed that the submarine struck an uncharted "seamount" while patrolling below the surface.

Eleven sailors were injured in the accident. According to reports, the crash damaged the sub's forward ballast tanks, but its nuclear plant was not damaged.

The US Navy regularly conducts operations in the region to challenge China's disputed territorial claims on small islands, reefs and outcrops.

Aljilani was replaced by an interim commanding officer.

© 2021 AFP

NASA to deflect asteroid in test of 'planetary defense'

Issued on: 04/11/2021 -



This artist's illustration obtained from NASA shows the DART spacecraft prior to impact with the asteroid Dimorphos Handout NASA/AFP

Washington (AFP) – In the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster "Armageddon," Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck race to save the Earth from being pulverized by an asteroid.

While the Earth faces no such immediate danger, NASA plans to crash a spacecraft traveling at a speed of 15,000 miles per hour (24,000 kph) into an asteroid next year in a test of "planetary defense."

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is to determine whether this is an effective way to deflect the course of an asteroid should one threaten the Earth in the future.

NASA provided details of the DART mission, which carries a price tag of $330 million, in a briefing for reporters on Thursday.

"Although there isn't a currently known asteroid that's on an impact course with the Earth, we do know that there is a large population of near-Earth asteroids out there," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's Planetary Defense Officer.

"The key to planetary defence is finding them well before they are an impact threat," Johnson said. "We don't want to be in a situation where an asteroid is headed towards Earth and then have to test this capability."

The DART spacecraft is scheduled to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:20 pm Pacific time on November 23 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

If the launch takes place at or around that time, impact with the asteroid some 6.8 million miles from Earth would occur between September 26 and October 1 of next year.

The target asteroid, Dimorphos, which means "two forms" in Greek, is about 525 feet in diameter and orbits around a larger asteroid named Didymos, "twin" in Greek.

Johnson said that while neither asteroid poses a threat to Earth they are ideal candidates for the test because of the ability to observe them with ground-based telescopes.

Images will also be collected by a miniature camera-equipped satellite contributed by the Italian Space Agency that will be ejected by the DART spacecraft 10 days before impact.
'A small nudge'

Nancy Chabot of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which built the DART spacecraft, said Dimorphos completes an orbit around Didymos every 11 hours and 55 minutes "just like clockwork."

The DART spacecraft, which will weigh 1,210 pounds at the time of impact, will not "destroy" the asteroid, Chabot said.

"It's just going to give it a small nudge," she said. "It's going to deflect its path around the larger asteroid."

"It's only going to be a change of about one percent in that orbital period," Chabot said, "so what was 11 hours and 55 minutes before might be like 11 hours and 45 minutes."

The test is designed to help scientists understand how much momentum is needed to deflect an asteroid in the event one is headed towards Earth one day.

"We are targeting to be as nearly head on as possible to cause the biggest deflection," Chabot said.

The amount of deflection will depend to a certain extent on the composition of Dimorphos and scientists are not entirely certain how porous the asteroid is.

Dimorphos is the most common type of asteroid in space and is some 4.5 billion years old, Chabot said.

"It's like ordinary chondrite meteorites," she said. "It's a fine grain mixture of rock and metal together."

Johnson, NASA's Planetary Defense Officer, said more than 27,000 near-Earth asteroids have been catalogued but none currently pose a danger to the planet.

An asteroid discovered in 1999 known as Bennu that is 1,650 feet wide will pass within half the distance of the Earth to the Moon in the year 2135 but the probability of an impact is considered very slight.

© 2021 AFP

Workers Digging Gas Pipes In Peru Find 2,000-year-old Gravesite

By AFP News
11/04/21

Workers laying gas pipes on a street in the Peruvian capital Lima stumbled on the remains of a pre-Hispanic gravesite that included 2,000-year-old ceramic burial vessels, an archaeologist said Thursday.

A work crew laying a natural gas pipe under a street in Lima, Peru stumbled across a 2,000-year-old burial site, including the remains of six people and ceramic vessels Photo: AFP / Ernesto BENAVIDES

"This find that we see today is 2,000 years old," archaeologist Cecilia Camargo told AFP at the site.

"So far, there are six human bodies that we have recovered, including children and adults, accompanied by a set of ceramic vessels that were expressly made to bury them."

Specialists work around the ancient burial site found by a crew laying a natural gas pipe under a street in Lima, Peru on November 04, 2021 Photo: AFP / Ernesto BENAVIDES

Experts believe the site in the Lima district of La Victoria may be linked to the culture known as "Blanco sobre Rojo," or "White on Red," which settled on the central coast of Peru in the valleys of Chillon, Rimac and Lurin, the three rivers that cross Lima.

"So far, we have recovered about 40 vessels of different shapes related to the White on Red style," said Camargo, head of the cultural heritage department at the natural gas company Calidda.

"Some bottles are very distinctive of this period and style, which have a double spout and a bridge handle," Camargo said.

As finds of ancient artefacts and remains occur frequently in Peru, all public service companies that do excavations have in-house archaeologists, including Calidda, a Colombian-funded company that distributes natural gas in Lima and in the neighboring port of Callao.

END SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN

A public suicide in Iran spotlights anguish over economy
By NASSER KARIMI

1 of 5

A street vendor waits for customer while selling shoes on the side of a highway in southwestern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. As U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic wreak havoc on Iran's economy, suicides in the country increased by over 4%, according to a government study cited by the reformist daily Etemad. About 1 million Iranians have lost their jobs, and unemployment has climbed over 10% — a rate that is nearly twice as big among youths. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Ruhollah Parazideh, a wiry 38-year-old with a thick mustache and hair flecked with gray, was desperate for a job. The father of three in southern Iran walked into a local office of a foundation that helps war veterans and their families, pleading for assistance.

Local media reported that Parazideh told officials he would throw himself off their roof if they couldn’t help. They tried to reason with him, promising a meager loan, but he left unsatisfied.

He soon returned to the gates of the building, poured gasoline over himself, and put a lit match to his neck. He died from his burns two days later, on Oct. 21.

Parazideh’s suicide in the city of Yasuj shocked many in Iran, and not just because he was the son of Golmohammad Parazideh, a prominent provincial hero of the country’s 1980-88 war with Iraq that left hundreds of thousands dead.

It put a spotlight on the rising public fury and frustration as Iran’s economy sinks, unemployment soars and the price of food skyrockets.




His death occurred outside the local office of the Foundation for Martyrs and War-Disabled People, a wealthy and powerful government agency that helps the families of those killed and wounded in Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent wars.

“I was shocked when I heard the news,” said Mina Ahmadi, a student at Beheshti University north of Tehran. “I thought that the families of (war) victims enjoyed generous support from the government.”

Iran valorizes its war dead from the conflict with Iraq, known in Tehran as the “Sacred Defense,” and the foundation plays a big role in that. After the revolution installed the clerically run system, the foundation began providing pensions, loans, housing, education and even some high-ranking government jobs.

Following Parazideh’s suicide, the foundation fired two of its top provincial officials and demanded the dismissal of the governor’s veteran affairs adviser as well as a social worker, lambasting their failure to send the distressed man to a medical facility or others for help, local media reported.

The fallout reached the highest levels of government. Ayatollah Sharfeddin Malakhosseini, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the case a warning that officials should “get rid of unemployment, poverty and the disruption of social ties.”

In 2014, parliament launched an investigation into one of the main banks affiliated with the foundation for allegedly embezzling $5 million. Its findings were never revealed.

The foundation is known to funnel financial support to Islamic militant organizations in the region, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Gaza, leading the U.S. to sanction it in 2007 for supporting terrorism.

Parazideh’s suicide was one of several in recent years that appear driven by economic hardships.

Self-immolations killed at least two other veterans and injured the wife of a disabled veteran outside branches of the foundation in Tehran, Kermanshah and Qom in recent years.

As the coronavirus pandemic wreaked economic havoc, suicides in Iran increased by over 4%, according to a government study cited by the reformist daily Etemad.

For many in the Middle East, the act of self-immolation — the protest used by a fruit vendor named Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia that became a catalyst for the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings — evokes broader discontent with economic woes and the lack of opportunity.

“I don’t know where we are headed because of poverty,” said Reza Hashemi, a literature teacher at a Tehran high school.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump withdrew America from Tehran’s landmark nuclear agreement with world powers and brought back sanctions on Iran, pummeling an oil-dependent economy already hobbled by inefficiencies. The pandemic has aggravated the economic despair. About 1 million Iranians have lost their jobs, and unemployment has climbed over 10% — a rate that is nearly twice as big among youths.

Capital flight has soared to $30 billion, chasing away foreign investors.

Negotiations to revive the atomic accord stalled in the five months since hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi took office, allowing Tehran to press ahead with its nuclear program. On Wednesday, the European Union announced that talks between world powers and Iran on reviving the deal would resume Nov. 29 in Vienna. The announcement stoked modest hopes that the Biden administration can resuscitate the accord.

“It’s impossible to hide people’s discontent with the economy,” said Mohammad Qassim Osmani, an official at the Audit Organization Services, a government watchdog. “The structure of the country is faulty and sick. We need an economic revolution.”

Iran’s currency, the rial, has shriveled to less than 50% of its value since 2018. Wages haven’t grown to make up the loss, and the Labor Ministry reported that over a third of the population lives in extreme poverty.

“About 40 million people in the country need immediate and instant help,” said lawmaker Hamid Reza Hajbabaei, the head of the parliamentary budget committee, in a televised debate last week — referring to nearly half the population.

The deepening poverty goes beyond just numbers, becoming a visible part of daily life. On Tehran’s streets, more people are seen searching through garbage for something able to be sold. Children sell trinkets and tissues. Panhandlers beg for change at most intersections — a rare sight a decade ago.

Petty theft has surged, testing the already-tough justice system. Last week, a Tehran court sentenced a 45-year-old father of three to 10 months in prison and 40 lashes for pocketing a few packs of peanuts.

Gen. Ali Reza Lotfi, Tehran’s chief police detective, blamed the economy for the spike in crime, noting that over half of all detainees last year were first-time offenders.

It has fallen to Raisi to handle the economic pressures. He frequently repeats campaign promises to create 1 million jobs through construction and tourism projects.

But many low-wage workers, bearing the brunt of Iran’s crisis, have no hope.

Last month, in another case that drew huge attention, a 32-year-old teacher facing crushing debt hanged himself in the southern city of Guerash after a bank rejecting his request for a $200 loan.

___

Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.