World

Turkish president declares emergency as Turkey-Syria quake death toll passes 7000

Published

4 years ago

February 8, 2023

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces devastated by two earthquakes that killed more than 7200 people and left a trail of destruction across a wide area of southern Türkiye and neighbouring Syria.

A day after the quakes hit, rescuers working in harsh conditions struggled to dig people out of the rubble of collapsed buildings.

As the scale of the disaster became ever more apparent, the death toll looked likely to rise considerably. One United Nations official said it was feared thousands of children may have been killed.

And residents in several damaged Turkish cities voiced anger and despair at what they said was a slow and inadequate response from the authorities to the deadliest earthquake to hit Türkiye since 1999.

“There is not even a single person here. We are under the snow, without a home, without anything,” said Murat Alinak, whose home in Malatya had collapsed and whose relatives are missing. “What shall I do, where can I go?”

Monday’s magnitude 7.8 quake, followed hours later by a second one almost as powerful, toppled thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks.

Tens of thousands of people were injured or left homeless in cities in Türkiye and northern Syria.

Winter weather has hampered rescue and relief efforts and made the plight of the homeless even more miserable. Some areas were without fuel and electricity.

Aid officials voiced particular concern about the situation in Syria, already afflicted by a humanitarian crisis after nearly 12 years of civil war.

Erdogan has declared 10 Turkish provinces a disaster zone and imposed a state of emergency there for three months. This will permit the government to bypass parliament in enacting new laws and to limit or suspend rights and freedoms.

The government will open up hotels in the tourism hub of Antalya to temporarily house people impacted by the quakes, said Erdogan, who faces a national election in three months’ time.

The death toll in Türkiye rose to 5434, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, adding that 31,777 people were injured. In Syria, the toll was at least 1832, according to the government and a rescue service in the insurgent-held northwest.

Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people were affected in an area spanning roughly 450km from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, and 300km from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south.

Syrian authorities have reported deaths as far south as Hama, some 250km from the epicentre.

“It’s now a race against time,” World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva. “Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminishes.”

Across the region, rescuers toiled night and day as people waited in anguish by mounds of rubble clinging to the hope that friends, relatives and neighbours might be found alive

In Antakya, capital of Hatay province bordering Syria, rescue teams were thin on the ground and residents picked through debris themselves. People pleaded for helmets, hammers, iron rods and rope.

One woman, aged 54 and named Gulumser, was pulled alive from an eight-storey building 32 hours after the quake.

Another woman then shouted at the rescue workers: “My father was just behind that room she was in. Please save him.”

The workers explained they could not reach the room from the front and needed an excavator to remove the wall first.

More than 12,000 Turkish search and rescue personnel are working in the affected areas, along with 9000 troops. Some 70 countries and sending personnel, equipment and aid, including New Zealand which will donate $1 million to Türkiye and $500,000 to Syria.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it was too early to say if the country would send search and rescue staff, but he was not ruling it out.

“The international community supported New Zealand extensively following the Christchurch earthquake. So of course, we acknowledge how these things happen, we acknowledge the devastating effects that they can have. We’ve had firsthand experience in New Zealand of that. Naturally our thoughts are going to be with the people in Turkey and Syria in what is undoubtedly an absolutely tragic situation.”

But the sheer scale of the disaster is daunting.

“The area is enormous. I haven’t seen anything like this before,” said Johannes Gust, from Germany’s fire and rescue service, as he loaded equipment onto a truck at Türkiye’s Adana airport.

Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said 5775 buildings had been destroyed in the quake and that 20,426 people had been injured.

In Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said: “The earthquakes … may have killed thousands of children.”

Syrian refugees in northwest Syria and in Türkiye were among the most vulnerable people affected, Elder said.

In the Syrian city of Hama, Abdallah al Dahan said funerals for several families were taking place on Tuesday.

“It’s a terrifying scene in every sense,” said Dahan, contacted by phone. “In my whole life I haven’t seen anything like this, despite everything that has happened to us.”

Mosques opened their doors to families whose homes were damaged.

State news agency SANA said at least 812 people were killed and 1449 people injured in the government-held provinces of Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, Idlib and Tartous.

At least 1020 people were killed in Syria’s opposition-held northwest and 2300 injured with the toll expected to “rise dramatically”, the White Helmets rescue team said.

“There are lot of efforts by our teams, but they are unable to respond to the catastrophe and the large number of collapsed buildings,” group head Raed al-Saleh said.

Time was running out to save hundreds of families trapped under the rubble of buildings and urgent help was needed from international groups, he said.

A UN humanitarian official in Syria said fuel shortages and the harsh weather were creating obstacles.

“The infrastructure is damaged, the roads that we used to use for humanitarian work are damaged,” UN resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told Reuters from Damascus.

A fire that engulfed hundreds of shipping containers at Türkiye’s Iskenderun port was put out, the defence ministry said, but it was not clear when operations there would resume.

In Malatya, Türkiye, locals with no specialist equipment or even gloves tried to pick through the wreckage of homes crumpled by the force of the earthquake.

“My in-laws’ grandchildren are there. We have been here for two days. We are devastated,” said Sabiha Alinak.

“Where is the state? We are begging them. Let us do it, we can rescue them. We can do it with our means.”

NZ looking to learn from experience

New Zealand Earthquake Commission chief resilience and research officer Dr Jo Horrocks told Morning Report the Türkiye earthquake was geologically similar to the Kaikōura earthquake in 2016, but with very different results.

“A large part of that is due to the sheer population density that we see in Türkiye and Syria versus Marlborough, but the really big thing is of course the building standards and we are lucky that we’ve had very good building standards in place and complied with since the ’70s,” Horrocks said.

“Türkiye has also got reasonable building standards, but I think there’s possibly issues with how that’s being implemented in practice, sort of enforcement and monitoring.”

There was lots to learn from their experience, she said.

“I know that some of the engineering community in New Zealand is already starting to look at what we might learn from this, what we might learn from the ground motion versus the building performance.

“I think we will have some discussions about whether it’s appropriate to send sort of a reconnaissance team at some point, and that’s mainly to learn for New Zealand. But also what we might be able to offer in return.”

The existing building stock was her biggest worry for earthquake preparedness, she said.

“Wellington obviously comes to mind, but there’s processes in place, there’s legislation in place to try and fix our worst sort of vulnerabilities if you like. A lot has been put in place since the Canterbury earthquake sequence, including to address things like unreinforced masonry.

“So we’ve come a really, really long way in the last 12 years, but always looking for that extra thing we can do that might mean you know less impact in the future.”

Source: RNZ

World

Voters deliver historic rebuke to Trump as Democrats win House and Senate

Published

1 week ago

November 5, 2026

News Staff

By Joseph Ax, Brad Heath and Jason Lange

Democrats seized control of both the Senate and House on Tuesday (US time), scoring sweeping victories in Republican strongholds for the first time in generations as tens of millions of voters delivered a scathing rebuke to President Donald Trump.

Voters in conservative bastions who had propelled the president to his second term in office just two years ago swung dramatically toward Democrats, fueled by deep frustration over the unpopular war with Iran, anxiety over the high cost of living and anger at Trump’s stewardship of the country.

Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression nearly a century ago. In South Carolina, a state that Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024, Democrats turned aside his hand-picked Senate candidate.

And in Texas, the biggest Republican state, Democrats ended a decades-long losing streak in seismic fashion, winning a Senate seat and ousting three-term Governor Greg Abbott.

The results will usher in a new era of divided government in Washington, following two years in which the Republican-controlled Congress rarely exercised its power to rein in Trump.

Once seated in January, Democrats are expected to use their power to investigate Trump’s administration, family and allies and demand concessions on major legislation. The Democratic Senate can block Trump’s nominees, including any US Supreme Court justices should a vacancy arise.

“There is now a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America,” said Chuck Schumer, the party’s Senate minority leader. “Americans voted for change, and now Democrats must deliver.”

Trump, who is barred by the US Constitution from seeking a third term, has exercised an iron grip on his party for most of the last decade. But the new balance of power in Washington may accelerate his lame-duck status, as attention turns toward the 2028 presidential race and potential successors begin competing for political influence in a post-Trump world.

Despite worries from Democrats that Trump might seek to overturn the election results, as he did in 2020, the president accepted the outcome, congratulating Democrats in an interview with Fox News. He also said he would work with Democrats on issues such as immigration, though he threatened to veto any “insane” bills they passed.

rnz

World

Cold case solved: DNA links serial killer Ted Bundy to 1974 murder of Utah teen

Published

2 weeks ago

October 29, 2026

News Staff

A Utah cold case tied to notorious serial killer Ted Bundy has been solved.

Fifty-two years to the day her body was found, detectives closed the investigation into the murder of 17-year-old Melissa Ann Smith. DNA evidence identified Bundy as the killer, investigators revealed Tuesday.

Smith’s body was found by hunters in a wooded area bordering Salt Lake and Summit counties on 27 October, 1974. The investigation into her murder has remained open since that day, until now.

A recent break in a Utah County cold case is being attributed to the resolution. Investigators say the same DNA profile used to identify Bundy as the killer of Laura Ann Aime was used to solve Smith’s murder.

Developments in that case brought the Smith investigation back to the surface and helped resolve the decades-old mystery, Summit County Sheriff Kacey Bates said.

Tuesday’s announcement was hinted at by Utah County investigators in April, when they announced the closure of the Aime cold case, which was tied to Bundy. At the time, a UCSO detective said the DNA profile used to link Bundy to the murder had been shared with other departments, with the hope that it could lead to closing more cases.

Bundy, who is confirmed to have killed and assaulted women across Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah and Florida between 1974 and 1978, confessed to 28 murders but is believed to be responsible for hundreds of deaths.

He was executed by electric chair in Florida in 1989.

Source: RNZ & CNN

World

Netanyahu touts Trump endorsement on eve of vote, suggests they may restart war on Iran

Published

3 weeks ago

October 27, 2026

News Staff

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted of his endorsement from Donald Trump on the eve of Israel’s election, suggesting the two leaders could restart their war against Iran if he wins, after Trump said they should “finish the job”.

“US President Donald Trump has come with a friendship that has never existed before between an Israeli prime minister and an American president. And it is doubtful we will ever have such a friendly president again,” Netanyahu said in a televised appearance late on Sunday night. “He has another two years, and he says he is calling on you to vote for me.”

In his own social media post on Sunday, Trump, who launched the Iran war jointly with Netanyahu in February, said: “Vote for Bibi Netanyahu for Prime Minister, we have to finish the job that we started!”

Netanyahu said Trump was willing to take action “that would finally, finally, remove the Iranian threat”, but only as long as Netanyahu himself remains in power.

“And I have already instructed the Mossad and the IDF (military) to bring down this regime, to bring down this regime because that is the only way to put an end to this threat,” Netanyahu said, referring to Israel’s main intelligence service and military.

Asked for comment on Netanyahu’s remarks, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said: “As President Trump stated, Iran is in very bad condition, both economically and militarily, and the blockade will remain in full force and effect, with oil flowing in record numbers of barrels through the Hormuz Strait.”

“The United States will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections,” Kelly added via email, referring to the November 3 vote in the US.

Netanyahu’s leading opponent, centrist former military Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, posted his own comments on social media, praising Trump as “a true friend of Israel”.

“I value his efforts and his commitment to Israel’s security, and I am confident that he will work in full cooperation with any leader chosen by the people.”

Former Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz (2nd-R) and former Israeli army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (R), both members of the current Israeli five-person war cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meet with the visiting US Secretary of State in Tel Aviv on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP) — Former Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz (2nd-R) and former Israeli army chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (R).

Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP

Eisenkot accuses Netanyahu of fear-mongering

Tuesday’s vote, Israel’s first since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, is the first chance for voters to deliver a verdict on the worst security failure in generations and the wars on multiple fronts that followed.

With Netanyahu already at the helm of the most right-wing government in Israeli history, politics have shifted even further to the right. Nearly all Jewish-led parties, including that of the hawkish Eisenkot, now oppose the “two-state solution” that underpinned decades of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

But many voters say the divisive politics of Israel’s longest-serving leader make the country weaker. Polls suggest Netanyahu’s Likud Party will lose seats, potentially depriving his coalition of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties of its narrow majority.

Eisenkot and an array of opposition parties ranging from the rump of the centre-left to the right, also have no clear path to unseat him.

Netanyahu, 77, is an unrivaled master of political survival: the only time since 2009 that opponents managed to wrest him briefly from the premiership, it took four inconclusive elections within two years to get him out. He was back 18 months later.

Neither side planned major public events for Monday. But both posted on social media, drumming on the election’s major themes: for Netanyahu, that he is the only leader with the mettle to face down Israel’s enemies; for his opponents, that his divisive politics have weakened the country.

Netanyahu shared an AI-generated video on Monday of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father Ali Khamenei was killed on the first night of US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Lying in a hospital bed, the younger Khamenei says his own vote would be “definitely not Bibi. Another term like this and I will be meeting my father sooner than expected.”

On Sunday Netanyahu posted a computer-generated photo of a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv, saying Israel was in existential danger from Iran.

Eisenkot responded by accusing him of “relying on a campaign of fear-mongering, lies, and threats – including images of nuclear bombs in the heart of Tel Aviv. This time, it won’t work for him.”

Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu carries its own political risks a week before a legislative election in which his own Republicans are seeking to hold onto power.

The Iran war is deeply unpopular in the United States, blamed for a surge in prices especially for fuel. Major fighting has been suspended for months after ceasefire negotiations held without Israeli participation.

Source: Reuters & RNZ