Italy Rescues 573 Migrants at Sea, One Found Dead
INTERNATIONAL: The Italian coastguard has rescued 573 migrants at sea who were trying to reach Europe aboard two fishing boats in distress in bad weather, as reported on Tuesday,February 22. One dead body was found.
The rescue operation took place off the southern Italian coast. Three coastguard units transferred the migrants to another vessel, which will bring them ashore at the port of Augusta in Sicily.
The migrants has told the coastguard the body found was that of a migrant who had died several days earlier, the statement has added.
The group of rescued migrants included 59 minors, many of them unaccompanied.
Italy has seen an increase in boat migrants in recent months with the government struggling to secure an agreement with European Union partners over how to deal with the influx.
At Least Two Dead and Over 500 Indigenous Families Affected by Deadly Landslide
Heavy rains has triggered a landslide on Monday ,February 21, in the state of Tarija in Bolivia killing at least two people while eight more are still missing.
Rescue teams and locals continue to search through mud and debris in Entre Rios, a southern municipality in the Andean nation.
"Its not just one person, several people are missing, my neighbour is one of them," said an unidentified member of the Guarani Indigenous group.
Local media has reported that at least 500 families have been directly affected by the mudslides and are desperately searching for survivors while salvaging some of their belongings.
In Bolivia, the annual rainy season begins in November and runs until March.
Parts of Sri Lanka Run Out of Petrol Amid Foreign Exchange Crisis
Long queues of vehicles were sighted at various petrol stations across Sri Lanka on Monday with the country's energy minister warning about a looming fuel shortage as foreign exchange runs short.
"I went to four petrol stations. None of them have diesel. How are we going to do our job?" said Sunil Ranjith, a tuk-tuk taxi driver.
Sri Lanka is trying to arrange a payment of $35 million for a shipment of 40,000 tonnes of diesel with just a few days of stocks left, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila has said on Monday, adding that his ministry was in talks with the finance ministry and the central bank to release the funds.
The minister added that even with the shipment, which had reached the port of Colombo on Sunday , February 20, the Indian Ocean nation would "only have diesel for six days".
State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has begun to ration distribution in an effort to prepare for the crisis, by issuing just about half of what is typically released to pumping stations, the minister has added.
Sri Lanka's power regulator on Tuesday has announced a countrywide four hour and forty minute power cut due to waning diesel supplies, triggering long lines of vehicles at petrol stations ahead of the cut.
The nationwide cut has taken place on Wednesday, authorities said, warning that time could double by Thursday ,February 24 if more fuel was not found.
The announcement, which came as Sri Lanka's cabinet met for a second consecutive day to discuss how Sri Lanka can finance its fuel imports, has sparked panic buying with long lines of vehicles waiting at petrol stations in various cities.
The island nation has been facing blackouts of increasing lengths due to a foreign exchange shortage, leaving it unable to buy enough fuel to power its national grid.
