Six In The Morning Monday 10 February 2020

Crew on quarantined Diamond Princess appeal for help

From CNN’s Vedika Sud in New Delhi

Several members of the Diamond Princess crew have appealed for help from the Indian government, and alleged that they are at risk of infection by not being segregated.

So far at least 135 people (including five crew members) have tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus on board the vessel, amid signs of a full blown outbreak -- one of the largest outside of mainland China.

The cruise ship passengers have been under strict quarantine for over a week now, confined to their cabins as medical personnel conduct tests on the 3,700 people on board.

Fires and floods: maps of Europe predict scale of climate catastrophe

Without urgent action, rising sea levels by end of century could leave cities under water

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels

Mon 10 Feb 2020 06.00 GMT

A series of detailed maps have laid bare the scale of possible forest fires, floods, droughts and deluges that Europe could face by the end of the century without urgent action to adapt to and confront global heating.

An average one-metre rise in sea levels by the end of the century – without any flood prevention action – would mean 90% of the surface of Hull would be under water, according to the European Environment Agency.

English cities including Norwich, Margate, Southend-on-Sea, Runcorn and Blackpool could also experience flooding covering more than 40% of the urban area.

Trump’s border wall is destroying sacred Native American sites, congressman says

‘This administration is basically trampling on the tribe’s history,’ says Raul Grijalva

Paulina Firozi

Construction crews began blasting sites in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument as part of the construction of Donald Trump‘s US-Mexico border wall, with the affected areas including sites sacred to Native American groups, according to a Democratic congressman from Arizona.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is an internationally recognised biosphere reserve, meaning it has plants and animals so rare that the United Nations has given it a special designation.

It includes about 330,000 acres of designated wilderness and is home to ancestral grounds sacred to the Tohono O’odham Nation, one of at least a dozen Native American groups that claim connections to grounds within the monument.

Germany: Merkel's chosen successor Kramp-Karrenbauer will not run for chancellor

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, will not run for chancellor. She will also step down as party leader.

The party leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, will not run for chancellor in next year's elections, the party said in Berlin on Monday. 

Kramp-Karrenbauer surprised party leadership on Monday by announcing that she will step down from her position as the head of the party and would not run for chancellor. The jobs should be done by the same person, she is reported to have said. 

Backed by soldiers, El Salvador President Bukele briefly occupies Congress

President Nayib Bukele and a group of soldiers armed with automatic weapons briefly occupied El Salvador’s Congress on Sunday, stepping up a pressure campaign to force lawmakers to back a crime-fighting plan.

Watched by soldiers in full battle uniform, Bukele, 38, sat in the seat reserved for the president of Congress and cupped his hands together to pray, he said, for patience with lawmakers, few of whom turned up at the special session.

“If those shameless people don’t approve the plan of territorial control, we’ll summon you here again (next) Sunday,” he told supporters in a fiery speech outside, as he left the building.

Idlib IDPs: 'The situation is so bad, it is like Judgement Day'

Lack of humanitarian aid and soaring prices of basic goods may lead to famine in northwest Syria, aid workers warn.

by Mariya Petkova

Aid workers and activists have warned of an "unprecedented catastrophe" unfolding in northwest Syria, as government forces, backed by the Russian army and Iranian militias, press ahead with a full-scale assault on opposition-held areas.

Local humanitarian staff said on Sunday that the rapidly deteriorating conditions over the past two weeks had left them struggling to cope with the large numbers of displaced people streaming into the north and west of Idlib and Aleppo provinces.