Historic sites in Brazil such as the infamous slave harbour Valongo wharf are in danger of crumbling unless they receive more funding, the country’s national heritage authorities have warned. 

Twenty-one local governments have demanded that extra care and funding is provided for the upkeep of Brazil’s 14 Unesco cultural heritage sites and seven natural heritage sites.  

“The main problem is the lack of public policies guaranteeing adequate infrastructure, which affects the heritage sites,” Andrey Schlee, a director at the National Historical and Artistic Patrimony Heritage (IPHAN), told Brazilian newspaper Folha do S. Paulo.

Without policies to maintain local town infrastructure, tourists lack incentives to visit many of these historic town centres, with picturesque vistas spoiled by crumbling historic buildings and litter-filled pavements.

Rio de Janeiro’s Valongo wharf, where almost one million Africans arrived and were sold as slaves during Brazil’s colonial period, is one of the sites which could be affected.

The Valongo wharf was declared a Unesco site last July, based on archaeological discoveries of mass graves for slaves who did not survive the journey across the Atlantic. 

Although the municipal government intends to turn the area into an open-air museum by 2020, institutions charged with caring for the sites have been threatened with closure several times as their funding ran low.

Other sites likely to be affected include historic town centres such as São Luís, where economic difficulties in the early 20th century preserved entire streets of Iberian colonial buildings.

Historic centres in tourist magnets like Olinda, Ouro Preto and Salvador could also be under threat.

Cities recognised by Unesco have reported increases in tourism by up to 50 per cent, and argue that refurbishments would open the door to more government funding.

Brazil’s central government signed off on a £124m deal in 2013 committing to preserving Unesco sites, but IPHAN officials say supplementary measures are necessary. “We want to refurbish the pavements, install electric wiring, and invest in basic sewerage, which many of these historic cities don’t have,” said IPHAN’s director of special projects, Robson de Almeida.

A Spanish village that replaced Pamplona-style bull running in the streets with an animal cruelty-free alternative using gigantic plastic resin balls is considering forcing participants to use helmets after a man was hospitalized with a severe head injury during this year’s run.

The 29-year-old man remains in hospital in Madrid after being helicopter-lifted out of the mountain village of Mataelpino, where he was crushed against a metal barrier during Sunday’s ball running.

The accident comes one year after another man was left in a coma and another suffered three broken ribs after similar incidents during the village’s 2017 festival.

“We have talked to some brands to try to get sponsorship for the use of helmets,” Javier de los Nietos, the mayor of Mataelpino, told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

“We haven’t done it earlier because we didn’t want people to be overconfident and think that nothing will happen if the ball hits them,” he added.

The resin ball, this year reported to weigh around 250 kilograms, careers down the steep streets of the village with metal barriers erected to keep it rolling along the route.

Participants are given safety instructions, and warned against taking a direct hit. “If there is no escape, it’s better to lie down and let the ball run over you,” the runners are told before starting.

Witnesses of Sunday’s run said the injured man “froze” as the ball approached him at the end of the route, crushing him against a safety barrier.

“People who are used to bulls know that they can’t just stand still in front of them because they could be gored. But with the ball some people think that nothing will happen to them, but this is not the case. If they get a direct hit, it can be serious,” the mayor said, adding that another option being considered was to pad the metal barriers.

Hundreds of daredevils travel to Mataelpino for the ball running, while children also take part in a special event on the Saturday with a much smaller ball.

The author of the book "Crazy Rich Asians", which inspired the Hollywood hit film of the same title, is wanted in his home country of Singapore for defaulting on his military service, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

Kevin Kwan, author of the 2013 book and an executive producer of the film, was notably absent from the Singapore premier of the romantic comedy on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Defence said Mr Kwan had failed to register for National Service (NS) in 1990, despite notices and letters sent to his overseas address, and he had also stayed overseas without a valid exit permit.

"Mr Kwan is therefore wanted for defaulting on his NS obligations," the ministry said in a statement.

He was liable to a fine of up to S$10,000 ($7,315) "and/or imprisonment of up to 3 years upon conviction", the ministry said.

Mr Kwan could not be reached for comment.

Singapore has a strict law on national service for all male citizens and enforces it with few exceptions. It makes it illegal for men to give up citizenship without having completed their military service, of about two years.

Mr Kwan left Singapore at age 11, first moving to Texas with his family, and has lived in the United States since then, Singapore media said.

His 1994 application to renounce his Singapore citizenship and a subsequent appeal had been rejected, the ministry said.

Mr Kwan’s book and the film directed by Jon M Chu depict Singapore as a playground for the super-rich in a story about an Asian-American woman who goes to the city state to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family.

Mr Kwan himself comes from a prominent Singapore family.

His great grandfather was a founding director of the Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation – Singapore’s oldest bank.

The Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan drowned in a hotel bath wearing her pyjamas, an inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court heard. 

The Irish singer, from Kilmallock, County Limerick, was pronounced dead aged 46 on January 15 at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London, where she had been staying while recording.

Coroner Shirley Radcliffe told an inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court that the cause of death was drowning due to alcohol intoxication and concluded that the death was an accident.

PC Natalie Smart, who attended the scene, told the inquest: "I saw Mrs O’Riordan submerged in the bath with her nose and mouth fully under the water."

The inquest heard that there were empty bottles in the room – five miniature bottles and a bottle of champagne – as well as containers of prescription drugs with a quantity of tablets in each container.

Toxiclocology tests showed only "therapeutic" amounts of medication in O’Riordan’s blood, but showed up 330mg of alcohol per 100mls of blood – meaning she was more than four times the 80mg legal limit for driving.

Profile | Dolores O’Riordan

O‘Riordan’s death was described as "an accident" and "drowning due to alcohol intoxication" by coroner Shirley Radcliffe. She said it would seem that O’Riordan – who was wearing a long-sleeved vest and pyjama bottoms – became unconscious in the bath, adding: "There’s no evidence that this was anything other than an accident."

O‘Riordan, who would have turned 47 on the day of the inquest, was renowned for her distinctive singing voice. Her mother, brother and sister-in-law attended the inquest and heard that the singer checked into the hotel on January 14.

She was in touch with room service at around midnight and phoned her mother at around 3am. She was later found unresponsive in the bathroom and confirmed dead at 9.16am.

The inquest heard that O’Riordan had bipolar disorder but responded well to treatment. The hearing was also told that she went through periods of abstention and periods of excessive drinking.

The inquest heard that he had spoken to psychiatrist Dr Seamus O Ceallaigh on January 9 and was in "good spirits".

In a statement issued after the hearing, the band said: "On January 15, 2018, we lost our dear friend and band mate Dolores O’Riordan.

"Today we continue to struggle to come to terms with what happened. Our heartfelt condolences go out to Dolores’ children and her family and our thoughts are with them today.

"Dolores will live on eternally in her music. To see how much of a positive impact she had on people’s lives has been a source of great comfort to us.

"We’d like to say thank you to all of our fans for the outpouring of messages and their continued support during this very difficult time. We request, please, for our privacy to be respected at this time."

The Cranberries enjoyed huge success in the 1990s with tracks including Zombie and Linger. O’Riordan – who was also a member of alternative rock group DARK – had been working on a new studio album with The Cranberries before she died. Sales and streams of The Cranberries’ back catalogue rocketed by 1,000% in the days after her death.

Her bandmates – Noel Hogan, Fergal Lawler and Mike Hogan – said they were "devastated" by the news of her death, adding "the world has lost a true artist".

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British mother of one held in Iran on espionage charges, has been sent back to prison after requests to extend a three-day furlough were rejected. 

Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe’s family said the 40 year old was "shaking and crying" after prosecutors withdrew an earlier promise of an extension to her temporary release on Sunday afternoon. 

"Nazanin’s extension was not granted, and she has been taken back into prison this evening," her husband Richard Ratcliffe said in a statement.

"Rather than being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, and the upset that would cause to Gabriella, Nazanin has decided to return to Evin prison, as per the orders of the Prosecutors Office," he added. 

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a dual Iranian-British national, was arrested in April 2016 at a Tehran airport when she and her then 22-month-old daughter, Gabriella, were about to return to the UK after a family visit.

Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency, was jailed for five years after being accused of seeking a “soft overthrow” of the Islamic Republic.

She was released on a three-day furlough to spend time with her daughter, now four, on Thursday. Gabriella has been living with Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe’s parents in Tehran since the arrest.

Mr Ratcliffe said prosecutors on Sunday morning initially told his wife and her lawyer that a request for extended furlough had been granted because of good behavior. 

They were later informed that the necessary papers had not been signed and that she would have to return to Tehran’s Evin prison by sunset on Sunday. 

"This feels a dark world. I used to pray – but these past two years I’ve lost much of my faith. Who would take a child from their mother?" Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe said in comments released by her family.

"How can I survive tonight – with those tears of my baby, pouting and crying, and telling me she doesn’t want me to go back," she said.  

The family released a new photograph showing the mother cuddling her daughter before she was driven back to prison by her father on Sunday evening. 

Amnesty International called the decision a "crushing disappointment" and called on the British government to push Iran to release her permanently. 

“There were real hopes that not only would her three-day furlough be extended, but that her permanent and unconditional release was also just around the corner," Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s Director, said.

Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe is one of several British dual nationals being held in Iran. 

Human rights groups have accused the Iranian government of using the British and other dual national prisoners as leverage in diplomatic disputes with Western countries, including over £300 million Britain owes Tehran for an unfulfilled 1970s arms deal. 

Donald Trump has received a letter from Kim Jong-un seeking a second meeting between the two leaders.

The White House said it was a "very warm, very positive letter", which showed North Korea had a "continued commitment to focus on denuclearisation".

Mr Trump and Kim held their first summit in Singapore in June. But late last month Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, cancelled a planned trip to Pyongyang with talks deadlocked.

Sarah Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, said: "The primary purpose of the letter was to schedule another meeting with the president, which we are open to, and are already in the process of coordinating."

She declined to say whether the next meeting would be held in Washington.

South Korean president president Moon Jae-in is due to visit Pyongyang next week for his third meeting with Kim this year.

On Sunday, North Korea refrained from displaying its intercontinental missiles in a massive parade through Pyongyang celebrating the country’s 70th birthday.

In quotes | Singapore summit North Korea Trump Kim

John Bolton, Mr Trump’s national security adviser, said: "President Trump tried to hold the door open to Kim Jong-un and his regime if they would denuclearise.

"But President Trump can’t make the North Koreans walk through the door he is holding open. They are the ones that have to take the steps to denuclearise, and that is what we are waiting for."

Mr Bolton said he believed North Korea could denuclearise in less than one year if it wanted to.

 

Greek police have charged a Syrian "hero" refugee, who was once hailed for saving people from a sinking boat in the Mediterranean, with helping migrants illegally enter the country.

Sara Mardini, 23, who has settled in Germany, was arrested last week in what police said was an operation to dismantle a "criminal network" involving 30 members of an NGO working on the island on Lesbos, where thousands of migrants are living in camps.

"For me, this is clearly a case of criminalising help given to refugees," Haris Petsikos, her lawyer said, adding that she is being detained in a prison outside of Athens.

He said Ms Mardini, who denies the charges, had been volunteering on the island for Emergency Response Centre International.

She was arrested alongside one of the NGO’s leaders, Greek national Nassos Karakitsos and Irish volunteer Sean Binder.

Ms Mardini and her younger sister Yusra’s struggle to reach Lesbos from Turkey made the news in 2015, when they used their swimming skills to pull to safety their water-logged boat with another 18 people onboard.

The following year Yusra, now a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, participated on the refugee team at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Ms Mardini went on to win a scholarship studying economics and social sciences at Bard College in Berlin.

British film company Working Title Films is set to turn the story of the sisters into a film, directed by Stephen Daldry, who is behind Billy Elliot and The Reader.

"We are in close contact with Sara’s legal counsel and these clearly unsubstantiated charges seem more about halting the operations of the NGO in question than about any actions of Sara or her fellow volunteer," said Florian Becker, managing director of the German college, who said she is committed to helping refugees. "The priority is to get her out of prison."

Police accuse members of the NGO of offering direct assistance to people traffickers, asking for advance warning of arrivals without passing on information to authorities. Lesbos has been a key gateway into the European Union since the start of the bloc’s migration crisis in 2015.

At the height of the influx, some 5,000 migrants and refugees, mostly from war-torn Syria, landed on the island’s beaches on a daily basis.

It now has the highest concentration of migrants in Greece, with the worst conditions in the camp of Moria where over 8,300 people live, according to UN figures – about triple the nominal capacity.

The Trump administration has decided to cut more than $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians, following a review of the funding for projects in the West Bank and Gaza, the State Department said Friday.

The department notified Congress of the decision in a brief, three-paragraph notice sent first to lawmakers and then to reporters. It said the administration will redirect the money to "high priority projects elsewhere."

The move comes as President Donald Trump and his Middle East pointmen, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, staff up their office to prepare for the rollout of a much-vaunted but as yet unclear peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians.

"At the direction of President Trump, we have undertaken a review of US assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with US national interests and provide value to the US taxpayer," the department said. "As a result of that review, at the direction of the president, we will redirect more than $200 million … originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza."

"This decision takes into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance in Gaza, where Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza’s citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian and economic situation," the notice said, without providing additional details.

One main issue the US has had with support for the Palestinian Authority had been its stipends paid to the families of Palestinians killed, injured or jailed for attacks on Israel.

Israel and the Trump administration, have repeatedly demanded that those payments from a so-called "martyrs’ fund" be halted because they encourage terrorism. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to do so.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation quickly denounced the decision, calling it "the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool. The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion."

"The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale," PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said in a statement. "There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation. The US administration has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in its collusion with the Israeli occupation and its theft of land and resources; now it is exercising economic meanness by punishing the Palestinian victims of this occupation."

The notice did not give an exact amount of the funds to be cut, but said they had been approved in 2017 as part of a $230.1 million package in economic support funds for the Palestinians.

One official said the specific amount had not yet been determined because $25 million in planned 2017 funding for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, which provides health care to Palestinians, remains on hold and under review. All or part of that could still be released or reprogrammed, the official said.

The US had planned to give the Palestinians $251 million for good governance, health, education and funding for civil society in the current 2018 budget year that ends on Sept.30. But with just over a month to go before that money must be used, reprogrammed to other areas or returned to Treasury, less than half has actually been spent.

Earlier this month, the department had released about $60 million of the 2018 money for security projects that encourage cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Israel and Jordan, in particular, had lobbied for the security assistance to be continued.

The loss of the assistance is almost certain to further provoke the Palestinians against the Trump peace plan. The Palestinian leadership has been openly hostile to any proposal from the administration, citing what it says is a pro-Israel bias, notably after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December and moved the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian Authority and Abbas broke off contact with the US after the Jerusalem announcement.

About | The two-state solution

The announcement does not include some $65 million in frozen US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon. However, the Trump administration is extremely skeptical of UNRWA and that money is also likely to be reprogrammed, according to officials.

Friday’s decision follows a similar decision last week in which the State Department announced that it was redirecting $230 million dollars in aid that had been planned for stabilisation programs in liberated areas of Syria. In that case, however, the department said the loss of US funding would be more than offset by other nations, including Saudi Arabia, which announced a $150 million contribution for Syria stabilisation just hours before the American announcement. 

A deluge in India’s flood-stricken southwestern state of Kerala finally let up on Sunday, giving some respite for thousands of marooned families, while authorities feared an outbreak of disease among over 200,000 people crammed into relief camps.

Incessant rains since August 8 have caused the state’s worst floods in a century, and at least 186 people have perished, many of them killed by landslides. The beaches and backwaters of Kerala are top destinations for domestic and international tourists, but far fewer visit during the monsoon season.

The India Meteorological Department forecast heavy rainfall only at one or two places of Kerala on Sunday and withdrew a red alert in several districts. Flood waters too began to recede from several places.

Using boats and helicopters, India’s military has led rescue efforts to reach people in communities cut off for days by the floods, with many trapped on roof tops and the upper floors of their homes, and in desperate need of food and potable water.

Rescue teams were focused on the town of Chengannur on the banks of the Pamba River, where some 5,000 people are feared to be trapped, officials said.

More than 200,000 families have taken refuge at relief camps set up across the state, an official at the Kerala State Disaster Management office said. Kerala’s chief minister had earlier said over 200,000 people had taken shelter in camps since the monsoon rains began three months ago.

Anil Vasudevan, who handles disaster management at the Kerala health department, said authorities had isolated three people with chickenpox in one of the relief camps in Aluva town, nearly 250 km (155 miles) from state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

He said the department was preparing to deal with a possible outbreak of water-borne and air-borne diseases in the camps, where an estimated two million people have taken shelter since the monsoon rains began three months ago.

Kerala, which usually receives high rainfall, has seen over 250 percent more rain than normal between August 8 and August 15, causing the state authorities to release water from 35 dangerously full dams, sending a surge into its main river.

As the rain abated on Sunday morning, one resident in Cheranelloor, a suburb of Kochi situated on the banks of the Periyar river, visited his home to see when he and his family could return.

"The entire house is covered with mud. It will take days to clean to make it liveable. All our household articles, including the TV and fridge have been destroyed," 60-year-old T P Johnny told Reuters.

Kochi’s airport is closed due to waterlogging, and Jet Airways has arranged additional flights from Thiruvananthapuram for passengers holding confirmed tickets from Kochi.