Israel Missiles Hit Syria’s Latakia Port

^{PHOTO: FIREFIGHTER DOUSING CONTAINER FIRE IN LATAKIA PORT SMOKE RISING IN DISTANCE, SOUND OF EXPLOSIONS}

INTERNATIONAL: Fires erupted in Syria's Latakia Port's container storage area following an Israeli missile attack from Mediterranean Sea, igniting the fire in the container terminal, Syrian state media has reported on Tuesday. Firefighters contained a blaze that raged for hours.

The attack, the second in December, has damaged facades of a hospital, some residential buildings and shops. The Syrian defence ministry has said in a statement that Israeli "aggression" had caused material damage the scale of which was still being assessed.

Israel has mounted frequent attacks against what it has described as Iranian targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah have deployed over the last decade to support President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's war. Latakia, a Mediterranean port, is Syria's main commercial port.

Syrian officials and state media said Tuesday’s attack caused more damage and the explosion could be heard miles away. Syrian air defenses were activated when the missiles started to fall on the terminal at around 3:20 a.m.

Russia, which has been Assad's most powerful ally during the war in Syria, operates an air base at Hmeimim some 20 kilometres away from Latakia.

Rohingya Refugees Stranded in Indonesia’s Off Coast

^{PHOTO: ROHINGYA REFUGEES ON BOAT, INDONESIAN NAVY PREPARING BOATS TO DELIVER AID TO REFUGEES, SOUNDBITES FROM INDONESIAN NAVY OFFICIAL AND LOCAL FISHING COMMUNITY LEADER}

Indonesian authorities will help repair a stranded boat packed with Rohingya off its coast but will not allow its passengers to seek refuge in the Southeast Asian country and will turn the vessel away. This was announced by the officials on Tuesday.

 The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the displacement crisis in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar.

Fishermen first spotted the skiff on Sunday, adrift off the coast of Bireuen, a district on the western island of Sumatra, with around 120 men, women and children on board.

A local fishing community leader says that the refugees had been at sea for 28 days and some of them had fallen ill and one had died.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees and is predominately seen as a transit country for those seeking asylum to a third country. Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar have for years sailed to countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia between November and April when the seas are calm.

 Temporary Shelters in the Philippines Might Turn into Covid-19 Hotspots

The difficulty in maintaining social distancing in temporary shelters has raised concerns of accelerated coronavirus transmission after super Typhoon Rai struck the Philippines almost two weeks ago.

At least 389 people have died with 64 more missing from Typhoon Rai, the 15th and most powerful to have hit the country this year. This was confirmed by a government disaster agency said on Monday.No house was spared from the wrath of the typhoon in the coastal town of Ubay in Bohol.

Homes were shattered into pieces and survivors were trying to fix what they could. But most homes have gone beyond repairs.Hundreds of families are now staying at evacuation centers.Hundreds of people took refuge in a school-turned shelter during the height of the typhoon.

There are 16 families staying in one room alone.Most of the evacuees don't wear masks and there is no social distancing.Health experts warn that temporary shelters might turn into COVID-19 hotspots especially with the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

There was a report from a local health support officer that in one northern municipality there have been evacuees who have coughs and colds and skin diseases. Proper hygiene is hard to maintain inside the shelters because there's limited supply of water.The health department admits that their manpower and resources were severely affected by the typhoon. But they appeal to the evacuees to observe health protocols.

Under this state of destruction, worrying about the COVID- 19 pandemic is far from the residents' minds right now. They say they are more worried about how to survive day by day. With no food and water, they are more afraid of their families starving than getting infected by the coronavirus. They have received a few kilos of rice and canned food but it's not enough to survive.

Only 40 percent of the population in Bohol has been fully vaccinated. The local health department says that the vaccination rate would help blunt the spread of the coronavirus.