Google honors physicist Stephen Hawking with new Doodle

Google honored late physicist Stephen Hawking on Saturday with a Doodle. Image courtesy of Google

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Google celebrated what would have been physicist, cosmologist and author Stephen Hawking's 80th birthday Saturday with a new Doodle.

Hawking was born on this day in Oxford, England, in 1942. He died at the age of 76 in 2018.

Google's homepage features an image of Hawking in his trademark wheelchair with a background of a galaxy spinning in space. Clicking on the graphic brings up an animated video depicting scenes from Hawking's life.

Artist Matthew Cruickshank created the Doodle.

"Today's video Doodle celebrates one of history's most influential scientific minds, English cosmologist, author, and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking," Google said.

"From colliding black holes to the Big Bang, his theories on the origins and mechanics of the universe revolutionized modern physics while his bestselling books made the field widely accessible to millions of readers worldwide."

Hawking was known for his work as a theoretical physicist in which he studied the universe and black holes.

RELATED UPI Archives: Stephen Hawking's nurse ruled unfit to practice

His expertise in astrophysics rose to fame in 1988 with the publication of his book, A Brief History of Time. The book became an international bestseller, selling more than 10 million copies in 35 languages.

Hawking was one of the rare scientists who rose to pop star fame, giving numerous televised interviews and even appearing in The Simpsons, Futurama and The Big Bang Theory.

He also became an advocate for disability issues after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral disease -- more commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease -- in 1962. The disease gradually paralyzed him over decades and he was dependent upon a wheelchair for mobility and a computer to speak and write.

RELATED  UPI Archives: Stephen Hawking's voice sent into space toward a black hole

Hawking was the subject of the 2014 biopic The Theory of Everything starring Eddie Redmayne as the physicist and Felicity Jones as his former wife, Jane Hawking. Redmayne won the Oscar, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and British Academy Film awards for Best Actor for the role.

Record number of Florida manatees died in 2021


Members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission prepare to release a rehabilitated manatee back into the wild in Florida. The state announced that 1,101 of the animals died in 2021, the highest total in at least the last 12 years. Photo courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Florida's manatee population saw its highest death toll in at least a dozen years in 2021, the state announced.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is reporting a total of 1,101 of the mammals died last year.

That figure is almost double the state's five-year average of 625 deaths.

Last week, a new emergency rule went into effect providing more protection for manatees. It established a temporary no-entry zone, which is supervised by law enforcement and the commission's biologists.

Manatees are a protected species in Florida, which recorded 637 of the animals' deaths in 2020.

The second-highest death toll since 2010 occurred in 2013 when 830 animals died.

A majority of the deaths occurred on the state's east coast, in what the commission calls a manatee mortality event.

Watercraft were listed as the animals' cause of death in 103 cases, which was the second-lowest number for that cause in the last five years.

"The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continue to investigate a high level of manatee mortalities and respond to manatee rescues along the Atlantic coast of Florida," says a statement on the commission's website.

US Treasury Department to send $1B in pandemic rental assistance


Janet Yellen, U.S. Treasury secretary, speaks during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in September. The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday it would reallocate $1.1 billion in pandemic rental assistance from places where it went unused to states and cities with a higher need for the aid. 

File Photo by Al Drago/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday it would reallocate $1.1 billion in pandemic rental assistance from places where it went unused to states and cities with a higher need for the aid.

California will receive about $50 million in reallocated funds, the most of any state. New Jersey will receive $43 million; New York will receive $27 million; and the District of Columbia will receive $18 million. The rest will be divided among local governments and Native American tribes nationwide.

This is the first round of payments being made as the Treasury Department works to redistribute funds from the $46.5 billion in emergency rental relief programs created by the U.S. Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 75% of the funds were voluntarily given to governments in the same state as the entities to which they had been granted, according to the Treasury Department. It was not immediately clear which, if any, grantees had been forced to give up their funds.

Grantees who received the funds initially faced losing it if they didn't obligate at least 65% or spend 15% of the money by November.

"Any amounts recaptured from a grantee were first prioritized to grantees in the same state that were deemed eligible to receive reallocated funds," the Treasury Department said in a news release.

Funds were then distributed nationally, prioritizing grantees that had substantially completed their spending the $25 billion distributed in the first round of emergency rental assistance. Grantees that made quicker progress in the second round of funding were weighted more heavily.

The Treasury Department noted that the emergency rental assistance programs have been effective in preventing evictions during the pandemic, which have remained 60% below historical levels before the pandemic began despite an end to the eviction moratorium in August.

Rock formation collapses onto boats in Brazil killing at least 6 people

Fire department officials are pictured at Lake Furnas after a rock formation collapsed onto multiple boats traveling on a lake in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais on Saturday, killing at least six people. 

Photo courtesy Minas Gerias Fire Department/Twitter

A screenshot taken from a video shared by President Jair Bolsonaro 

shows the moment the rock formation collapses onto two boats in Brazil.

 Photo courtesy Jair Bolsonaro/Twitter

Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A rock formation collapsed onto multiple boats traveling on a lake in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais on Saturday, killing at least six people.

Video posted to social media and confirmed by the fire department in Minas Gerais shows the moment the massive rock formation slammed into the boats on Lake Furnas in the town of Capitólio.

The bodies of six people have been confirmed to have died while divers with rescue teams continue searching for 20 missing people, fire department spokesman Pedro Aihara said.

First responders were able to rescue 24 people from two boats that were directly hit by the falling rock formation, Aihara said. Those survivors were treated for injuries including broken bones.

Dozens of others who were on two nearby boats that suffered an indirect impact were treated for minor injuries, according to officials

"Today, we are suffering the pain of a tragedy in our state, due to heavy rains, which caused the loosening of a wall of stones in Lake Furnas, in Capitólio," Romeu Zema, the governor of the state, said in a statement posted to Twitter.

Search and rescue teams carry a young victim of the rock formation collapse

 in Capitólio, Brazil. Photo courtesy Jair Bolsonaro/Twitter

"Rescue work is still ongoing. I stand in solidarity with the families at this difficult time. We will continue to act to provide the necessary support and support."

President Jair Bolsonaro said in a statement to Twitter that the Brazilian Navy deployed relief teams to help in the region while also providing search and rescue operations for victims of the tragedy.

Brazil: Several dead as cliff collapses on boats

At least six people are reported dead, while 20 others are still missing. Officials suggest that heavy rains were the cause of the accident. 

Parts of a cliff face fell onto boaters on Brazil's Furnas Lake

A slab of rock broke off from a cliff and fell onto boaters at a lake in southeastern Brazil, killing at least six, authorities said on Saturday.

Edgard Estevo, commander of the Minas Gerais State Fire Department, said as many as 20 people were believed to be missing and officials were seeking to identify them.

Officials said at least 32 people had been injured but most had been released from hospitals by Saturday evening.

Divers and helicopters have been deployed to search for the 20 people still missing

Video images showed a group of small boats drifting near a waterfall below a cliff on Furnas Lake when a piece of rock broke off, hitting at least two of the boats.

Another video on social media shows the minute before the incident, with people warning that "many stones are falling" and advising other boats to move away from the rocks.

Where did the accident occur?

Estevo said the incident occurred between the towns of Sao Jose da Barra and Capitolio, located in Brazil's southeastern Minas Gerais state. The boats had left from the town of Capitolio.

Furnas Lake was originally formed along with the creation of a hydroelectric dam and is a major tourist attraction in the area.

Tourists come to see the rock walls, caverns and waterfalls surrounding the Furnas Lake's waters.

Why did the accident happen?

Officials suggested that the rock could have come loose due to recent heavy rains that caused flooding in the state and displaced 17,000 people.

Pedro Aihara, spokesperson for the Minas Gerais State Fire Department, told Brazilian broadcaster GloboNews that the rocks in this area are "more susceptible to the effects of wind and rain" and "show less resistance."

sdi/nm (AP, AFP, Reuters, Lusa

Galapagos Volcano Home To Endangered Lizard Erupts

By AFP News
01/07/22

Rare Charles Darwin Sketch Is Published In New Book 'Plant: Exploring The Botanical World'

A volcano on a Galapagos island that is home to a species of critically endangered lizard has erupted for the second time in seven years, national park officials said Friday.

The Wolf volcano's slopes host the pink iguana, only 211 of which were reported to be left on Isabela, the largest island in the Galapagos archipelago, as of last August.

"#Galapagos | Wolf Volcano begins eruptive activity on Isabela Island..." the Galapagos National Park (PNG) said on Twitter, citing staff who witnessed the eruption.

The Wolf Volcano, the highest on the Galapagos Islands, erupted early Friday

 Photo: PARQUE NACIONAL GALAPAGOS via AFP / Wilson CABRERA

For its part, the Geophysical Institute of Quito said the 1,707-meter (5,600-foot) volcano spewed gas-and-ash clouds as high as 3,800 meters into the air, with lava flows on its southern and southeastern slopes.

The volcano, the highest of the Galapagos, is some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the nearest human settlement.

The PNG did not state whether the iguanas or other animals who live on the island were in imminent danger.

The Galapagos pink iguana lives exclusively around the slopes of Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island Photo: PARQUE NACIONAL GALAPAGOS via AFP / Freddy Jiménez

The area also hosts yellow iguanas and the famous Galapagos giant tortoises.

Located in the Pacific some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands are a protected wildlife area and home to unique species of flora and fauna.

The archipelago was made famous by British geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin's observations on evolution there.

The Wolf volcano last erupted in 2015 after 33 years of inactivity, without affecting local wildlife.


The pink iguanas that inhabit its slopes were identified as a separate species only in 2009, and occupy an area of 25 square kilometers (10 square miles). They are found nowhere else.

Isabela island also hosts four other active volcanos.

Too much meat? Spain factory farming debate creates beef

Debate over the environmental impact of Spain's huge factory farming sector is heating up in the country, Europe's biggest meat consumer, and splitting its ruling coalition.

© Miguel RIOPA The growth of Spain's livestock sector is fuelled by external demand, especially from China, as well as within Spain

In an interview published in British daily The Guardian, Consumer Affairs Minister Alberto Garzon lashed out against Spain's "so-called mega-farms", calling them unsustainable.

"They find a village in a depopulated bit of Spain and put in 4,000, or 5,000, or 10,000 head of cattle," he said.

"They pollute the soil, they pollute the water and then they export this poor quality meat from these ill-treated animals."

Garzon is the coordinator of the tiny United Left party, a junior member of the minority coalition government led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, and his comments angered farmers.

© OSCAR DEL POZO Debate over the environmental impact of Spain's huge factory farming sector is heating up

"There are no mistreated animals in Spain, minister," the UPA union, which represents small producers, said in a statement.

It said Garzon's statements were "based on falsehoods, clumsy, nearsighted and could have harmful effects on Spanish meat exports".

Pablo Casado, the leader of the conservative main opposition Popular Party (PP) which is strong in some rural areas, also weighed in, calling Garzon's words "an attack against ranchers and farmers and the image of our country".

Government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez said Garzon was speaking in a personal capacity.

She added that the government "supports the livestock sector, which contributes decisively to our exports"

.

© PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU Spanish Consumer Affairs Minister Alberto Garzon's comments have angered farmers

The debate risks deepening the divide between the Socialists and left-wing coalition partner Podemos ahead of an election in the Castile and Leon region north of Madrid as the PP rides high in the polls.

- 'Bigger and bigger' -

Garzon had already come under fire in July for urging Spaniards to reduce their meat consumption, prompting Sanchez to say that for him "there's nothing that beats a well done steak".

For Salvador Calvet, a University of Valencia professor who studies the sector, the outcry over Garzon's comments is due to the cultural and economic weight of livestock farming, which provides a living for "many families".

© Josep LAGO Spain is Europe's biggest meat consumer

It is responsible for some 2.5 million jobs in the country and accounts for nine billion euros ($10 billion) in annual exports, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

And it is booming. Meat production has increased ten-fold in Spain over the past 60 years, a larger increase than in most other European nations, according to a University of Oxford database.

Although there are fewer farms, their size is getting "bigger and bigger", said Calvet.

The growth of the sector is fuelled by external demand, especially from China, as well as within Spain, where ham, chorizo sausages and other animal products are a key part of many people's diet.

Each Spaniard eats an average of 98.8 kilograms (218 pounds) of meat per year, compared to the worldwide average of 42 kilograms, according to FAO figures.

That makes Spain Europe's biggest meat consumer, ahead of Portugal at 98.7 kilograms and Poland at 88.5 kilograms.

- 'Legitimate debate' -

This level of consumption amounts to more than 270 grams per day, "when international scientific recommendations recommend 300 grams of consumption per week", environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement.

It warned that the consequences of this overconsumption are "devastating".

Greenpeace was one of several environmental groups which backed Garzon, who has also come under fire for banning adverts for sugary foods aimed at children and a crackdown on the betting industry.

"There is a legitimate debate" over the environmental impact of livestock breeding but the reality is "complex and nuanced", said Calvet.

Breeders have "improved" their practices in recent years but they could still do more, he added.

vab/ds/imm

Women’s camel beauty contest makes debut in Saudi Arabia

For first time, women allowed to take part in prestigious King Abdelaziz Festival; previously a men-only affair in conservative kingdom

One participant says staging a contest for women ‘is a big step forward’

Agence France-Presse
Published: 9 Jan, 2022

Camels during the sixth King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, 161km from the capital Riyadh. The festival this weekend has, for the first time, introduced a round for female camel owners. Photo: AFP

Saudi women, in a first for the conservative kingdom, have paraded their camels in a beauty pageant for the prized ‘ships of the desert’.

“I hope today to reach a certain social standing, inshallah (God willing),” said Lamia al-Rashidi, 27, who took part in the weekend contest in the Rumah desert northeast of the capital Riyadh.

Camels are showcased in a parade during the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival. For the first time female camel owners can showcase their animals. Photo: AFP

The event formed part of the prestigious King Abdelaziz Festival, was previously a men-only affair.

“I’ve been interested in camels ever since I was little,” said Rashidi, whose family owns 40 camels.

“Once this event was opened to women, I decided to participate,” said the young woman, wearing a black face covering and with a colourful shawl over her shoulders.

Saudi camel owner Lamiaa al-Rashidi, 27, talks to reporters about her participation in the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival. Photo: AFP

The top five in the field of about 40 participants in the women’s event went home with total prize money of one million riyals (about US$260,000).

The camels’ beauty is judged on several criteria, but the shape and size of the lips, neck and hump are the main attributes.

In December, several participants were disqualified because their animals had undergone Botox injections.

WHAT A BUNCH OF CUTIES

Camels at the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival this weekend. Photo: AFP

In a parade at the event on the red sand track of Rumah, women in black on horseback rode ahead of men in white robes on camels as male musicians, some with swords, danced to the beat of drums.

The oil-rich Gulf state adheres to a rigid interpretation of Islam, but since the rise to power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, some restrictions on women have been lifted as the country opens up with sweeping reforms.

The shift has enabled women to get behind the wheel and take part in mixed-gender settings, even as a rigorous crackdown on dissent remains in place.

“Women have always been an integral part of Bedouin society. They owned and looked after camels,” said Mohammed al-Harbi, a manager of the festival.

Saudi ‘cameleers’ and horsewomen take part in a parade during the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Women’s participation was in keeping with “the historical heritage” of Saudi Arabia, he said.

Munira al-Mishkhas, another participant, said: “Camels have been a part of us for a long time, but staging a contest for us (women) is a big step forward.”

At just seven years old, Malath bint Enad was the youngest contestant and her animal won third prize.

Her proud father, a 35-year-old camel dealer who said he owns more than 200 beasts, was very pleased with the entrance of women.

“This will increase enthusiasm for the festival and increase the value of the camels,” said Enad bin Sultan, clad in traditional costume and red-and-white keffiyeh headdress.

The 40-day festival, which kicked off last month, is an annual Bedouin event that lures breeders from across the Gulf with total prize money of up to US$66 million.

Fire at Bangladesh Rohingya camp leaves thousands homeless


Thousands of people were left homeless after a fire gutted parts of a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, police said on Sunday.

© - A fire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh raced through shelters, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless

About 850,000 of the persecuted Muslim minority -- many of whom escaped a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar that UN investigators concluded was executed with "genocidal intent" -- live in a network of camps in Bangladesh's border district of Cox's Bazar.

"About 1,200 houses were burnt in the fire," said Kamran Hossain, a spokesman for the Armed Police Battalion, which heads security in the camp.

The fire started at Camp 16 and raced through shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless, he said.

"The fire started at 4:40 pm (1040 GMT) and was brought under control at around 6:30 pm," he told AFP.

Abdur Rashid, 22, said the fire was so big that he ran for safety as his house and furniture were engulfed by the blaze.

"Everything in my house was burnt. My baby and wife were out. There were a lot of things in the house," he said.

"I saved 30,000 taka (350 dollars) from working as a day labourer The money was burnt in the fire.

"I am now under open sky. I lost my dream."

In March last year, 15 people died and about 50,000 were left homeless in Bangladesh after a huge fire destroyed Rohingya homes in the world's biggest refugee settlement.

Mohammad Yasin, 29, bemoaned the lack of fire safety equipment in the camps.

"Fire occurs here frequently. There was no way we could put out the fire. There was no water. My home is burnt. Many documents, which I brought from Myanmar, are also burnt. And it is cold here," he said.

Bangladesh has been praised for taking in refugees who poured across the border from Myanmar, but has had little success finding them permanent homes.

str-sa/dva

AFP

Tourists question blizzard tragedy in scenic Pakistan town

As unprecedented snowfall thawed at a popular Pakistan mountain resort on Sunday, rescued tourists were found reckoning with the deaths of 22 fellow travellers in a frozen traffic jam.


© Aamir QURESHI Stuck in their cars overnight after a blizzard in Pakistan, 22 people died from the cold or carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes
© Provided by AFP Twenty-two people died in an enormous traffic jam caused by tens of thousands of visitors thronging a Pakistani hill town to see unusually heavy snowfall

"We didn't get any type of alert from society, from the government, from Google, from the news, from the weather," said 18-year-old Duaa Kashif Ali, a tourist from Islamabad.

"Locals helped us," she told AFP, after emerging from a guesthouse where she waited out the worst snowstorm witnessed by Murree in decades.

The mountain-perch town -- 70 kilometres (45 miles) northeast of Islamabad -- has long been a favourite for tourists, who swarmed to see vistas dusted with fresh snowfall this week.



© Aamir QURESHI The mountain-perch town of Murree has long been a favourite for tourists who swarmed to see vistas dusted with fresh snowfall this week

Roads were jammed with traffic from some 100,000 visitors when a blizzard dumped four feet (1.2 metres) of snow from Friday onwards.

Stuck in their cars overnight, 22 people died from the cold or carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust fumes. Among them were 10 children
.
© Aamir QURESHI Many Pakistanis complained on social media that hoteliers had pushed up prices to capitalise on stranded customers, prompting them to sleep in cars

"People here were literally weeping... when they heard," recalled 47-year-old tourist Kashif Ishaq.

As he spoke, a convoy of hulking heavy machinery cleared the ice-bitten roads behind him, ending two days of snowbound isolation for the satellite village of Ratti Gali.

Ishaq arrived here with his daughter Duaa Kashif Ali on Friday night.

Alongside 13 other family members and friends, they ditched three stranded cars and hiked 1.5 kilometres (1 mile) to where a guesthouse owner took them in.

"The locals really helped us," said Ishaq.

"They offered their services, they offered their homes, they offered their restaurants and hotels free of charge."

- A 'natural' disaster -

In nearby Kuldana, about 5,000 people were taken in at the Army School of Logistics on Friday night.

"It was like a natural disaster," said Major Muhammad Umar. "There was no electricity, no gas, no telephone, nothing working."

Eleven-year-old Arosh Yasir, warming up by a gas fire with his family, said they spent the night in their car on Friday before being rescued the following morning.

"Our food was cold and there was no way back or forward," he told AFP.

"I started crying and praying."

Many Pakistanis complained on social media that hoteliers had pushed up prices to capitalise on stranded customers, prompting them to sleep in cars.

Arosh said on Saturday hotels were "either very expensive or had no space", forcing them into the army camp.

On Sunday afternoon, the rescue effort had largely morphed to a repair and salvage operation, aided by steady sunshine winnowing away snowdrifts.

Workmen clambered mountainside pylons to knock free iced electricity wires, whilst others crowded around open car bonnets trying to coax engines back to life.

Some vehicles still remained abandoned under vast snowbanks, forcing ploughs to slalom the precarious mountain tracks.

Among clear spots in the ice were small scatterings of empty water bottles and snackfood packaging, marking where many tourists spent Friday night in their cars.

"It was my worst experience," said 21-year-old Aafia Ali, a visitor from Karachi among the party taking shelter at Ratti Gali.

Several Pakistani newspapers published scathing articles on Sunday, attacking authorities for failing to close off the area despite ample warning of heavy snow.

That sentiment was shared among those preparing to make their way off the mountain.

"The management of this area, they are responsible for this," said Aafia Ali.

jts/ecl/dva


AFP

Up to 1,000 vehicles stranded, at least 21 dead amid Pakistan snowstorm

By Adam Douty, AccuWeather & Coburn Swem, Accuweather.com

Pakistani army soldiers take part in rescue works after tourists died amid heavy snowfall in Murree, Pakistan, on Saturday. Photo by Pakistan Inter Services Public Relations/EPA-EFE

At least 21 people are dead after a heavy snowfall in northern Pakistan on Friday.

The snow trapped approximately 1,000 vehicles in and around the town of Murree, according to the BBC.

At least 10 children are apparently among the dead.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted that he was "shocked" and that the government would be ordering an inquiry into the incident.

Local authorities have declared the region a disaster zone and a special military mountain unit was called in to help.

More than 4 feet of snow fell in the area of the Murree Hills resort overnight Friday and early on Saturday, trapping thousands of cars on roadways, Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Al Jazeera.

Tourists reportedly rushed to watch the winter snowfall when the tragedy occurred. Many died of hypothermia after being trapped inside their vehicles.


The temperature dropped below minus 17 during the snowfall.

The event took place in Murree, a mountain resort town, located approximately 22 miles north of the country's capital of Islamabad in the mountainous northern region of the country.

The city is a large tourist area, and according to reporting from The New International, as many as 125,000 cars entered the city during the snowstorm which led to severe traffic jams.

The city attracts tourists each winter as people flock to the region to see snow, according to India Today.

"Around 23,000 vehicles have been evacuated safely from Murree. Around 1,000 are still stranded," according to Rawalpindi deputy commissioner.

A strong storm system brought heavy rain and snow across Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwest India late in the week and into the start of the weekend, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.

Observations from Murree show that about an inch of liquid fell in the city from Friday into Saturday.

"Assuming that the majority of this was snow, and using a simple conversion of 10 inches (25 cm) of snow for every inch of liquid, we can estimate that about 10 inches (25 cm) of snow fell," according to AccuWeather meteorologist Tyler Roys.

The same storm brought slightly over 2 inches of rain to Islamabad.

"Given the mountainous terrain across the region and heavier precipitation in nearby Islamabad, it is likely even heavier snow fell in some areas, especially at higher elevations, that led to such significant travel troubles" added Roys.

"There can still be light rain and snow across the region through the rest of the weekend," said Roys. "Though this is not expected to be heavy enough to bring a repeat of what was just seen."

This event followed a similar event early in the past week when motorists became stranded on Interstate 95 in Virginia.

 

WAGE THEFT
Iran judicial workers hold rare protests after promised wage hike refused

File photo of a protests in Tehran, Iran.

AFP, Tehran
Published: 09 January ,2022: 

Civil servants in one of Iran’s most powerful sectors, the judiciary, held rare demonstrations on Sunday against the government’s refusal to increase their pay.

Ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi, who assumed his post in August, had proposed a salary hike in the last weeks of his previous job as judicial chief.

But the new government which he leads changed its mind.

Hit by severe economic sanctions imposed since 2018 by the United States, Iran has seen its inflation rate surge to close to 60 percent.

Shargh, a newspaper representing the reformist viewpoint, on Sunday published video of a protest by hundreds of men and women in front of parliament in Tehran.

“If our problem is not resolved, we will shut down the justice system!” they chanted.

Another reformist paper, Arman Melli, reported: “Some judicial personnel organized rallies yesterday (Saturday) in most of the country’s cities to protest the rejection of the plan for parliament to increase their salaries.”

The demonstrators held up signs with slogans declaring that “justice workers are unable to support themselves” and decrying the “hypocrisy of the government and parliament.”

Meysam Latifi, head of the Administrative and Recruitment Affairs Organisation, angered judiciary employees with his remarks in parliament on Wednesday, when the increase was rejected.

“We are concerned about the demand to raise judicial salaries because that would lead to the same thing at other agencies,” he said.

Read more: Princeton scholar under fire for boasting about Iran threat against US over Soleimani