A Dutch-flagged cruise ship that was hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak reached Spain’s Canary Islands early Sunday morning, where health officials will begin the complex process of evacuating the passengers and most of the crew, and repatriating them to their respective countries. The MV Hondius, currently carrying nearly 150 people from more than 15…
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived in Tenerife Saturday to personally oversee the painstaking process of evacuating more than 100 people from a cruise ship dealing with an outbreak of the rare and deadly hantavirus. Addressing the people of the Canary Islands, where the ship will anchor off the coast of its…
A new case of hantavirus has emerged on the MV Hondius, raising concerns among health authorities regarding human-to-human transmission. Another passenger on the cruise liner MV Hondius has been diagnosed with a hantavirus infection and is being treated in a Swiss hospital. He was on the ship for the first leg (Ushuaia to St Helena,…
Three patients suspected of having the hantavirus were evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship and were on their way to the Netherlands for medical care, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The three are German, Dutch and British nationals, including a British crew member, according to the WHO. The rare outbreak of the…
Typhoon Sinlaku — the strongest tropical cyclone on Earth this year — relentlessly struck a pair of remote U.S. islands in the western Pacific Ocean early Wednesday local time with extremely powerful winds and heavy rain, with residents reporting tin roofs being torn apart. The typhoon had sustained winds of up to 150 mph, equating to…
African experts are demanding an end to the continuous hold of the Chagos Archipelago (Chagos Island), by the United Kingdom with support from the United States government under President Donald Trump, stressing that Island must be returned to Mauritius the rightful owner for a full decolonisation of the continent. This development followed recent reports that…
At least seven people have died and many others are missing after a boat carrying about 200 migrants attempting to reach Europe capsized off the coast of The Gambia, authorities say. The boat overturned on Wednesday midnight near Jinack village in the North Bank Region and it was later found “grounded on a sandbank”, the…
The parliament of the Faroe Islands voted on Thursday to legalise abortion until the end of the 12th week of pregnancy, overturning a decades-old law that prohibited abortions in most cases. Previous legislation allowed abortions only in certain circumstances – such as rape, incest or risk to the health of the pregnant woman – and…
From the rainforests of Central America to low-lying atolls in the Pacific and drought-stricken plains in Africa, leaders came to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday with a common message: climate change is no longer a distant threat, but an immediate danger demanding bolder global commitments. Their appeals, sharpened by rising seas, failed harvests…
With one day remaining before the conclusion of the Third UN Ocean Conference, delegates in Nice are preparing for the adoption of the summit’s eagerly anticipated political declaration. Small island developing States, facing the direct effects of climate change and marine resource decline, are pushing to ensure their perspectives are reflected in global ocean policy….
