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Death toll from Indonesia volcano eruption rises to 39

AFP

The death toll from the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Semeru has risen to 39, authorities said Wednesday, as rescuers scrambled to retrieve more bodies under the threat of further volcanic activity.

The highest mountain on the island of Java thundered to life on Saturday, ejecting volcanic ash into the sky and raining hot mud on villages as thousands of panicked people fled their homes.

“The search and rescue team found four more bodies today,” Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said in a statement.

Another injured victim died in hospital on Tuesday, it added, pushing the death toll up from 34 to 39.

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A spokesperson for the agency said 12 people were still missing.

The disaster blanketed villages in grey ash and forced more than 4,000 people to flee to temporary shelters.

Evacuees had been complaining of coughing, chest infections and diarrhoea, according to medics at shelters in Lumajang district.

Others expressed relief at making it out alive and being reunited safely with loved ones.

Sutimah, a 45-year-old woman taking refuge at a shelter, said her husband escaped the mudflows just in time.

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“My husband was working as a miner. If he had run away seconds later, he would have been killed. His colleague, a truck driver, was swept away by the mudflow,” she told AFP.

Rescuers have been braving dangerous conditions in their search for bodies buried under the mud and rubble of collapsed houses.

The head of the country’s volcanology agency said there was also still the potential for “secondary eruptions” and warned people to stay away.

Indonesia has more than 130 active volcanoes and sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes frequent volcanic and seismic activity.

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International

Brazil’s Lula wishes Trump a successful term focused on prosperity and peace

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wished the new U.S. President, Donald Trump, a “successful” term that promotes “prosperity and well-being for the U.S. people” and “a fairer and more peaceful world.”

“On behalf of the Brazilian government, I congratulate President Donald Trump on his inauguration,” said the progressive leader on his social media, shortly after Trump took the oath of office at the Capitol in Washington.

Lula, 79, highlighted that the relationship between Brazil and the United States, one of its most important trade partners, is “marked by a history of cooperation, based on mutual respect and historical friendship.”

“Our countries maintain strong ties in various areas such as trade, science, education, and culture. I am confident that we can continue to make progress in these and other areas,” he added.

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International

Iran hopes U.S. will adopt realistic approaches under Trump administration

Iran declared on Monday that it hopes the new U.S. administration under Donald Trump will adopt “realistic approaches” toward Tehran and show “respect” for the interests of the countries in the region.

The Republican tycoon will take the oath for his second term as president of the United States on Monday at noon Washington time (17:00 GMT).

“We hope that the approaches and policies of the new U.S. government will be realistic and based on respect for the interests… of the countries in the region, including the Iranian nation,” said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baqaei, during a weekly press briefing.

During his first term (2017-2021), Trump implemented a “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran.

In 2018, under his administration, the United States withdrew from the international nuclear deal with Iran, concluded three years earlier, which offered Tehran relief from sanctions in exchange for assurances that the country would not seek to acquire nuclear weapons. Tehran denies any such intentions.

In response, Tehran significantly increased its stockpile of enriched materials and raised the enrichment threshold to 60%, approaching the 90% required to produce an atomic bomb, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Tehran, which has expressed a desire to relaunch negotiations to revive the deal, defends its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop nuclear weapons.

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International

Trump to sign executive order recognizing only two sexes

Donald Trump will sign an executive order instructing his administration to “recognize” the existence of only “two sexes,” future White House officials announced on Monday, just before the Republican’s inauguration.

“What we are doing today is defining that the policy of the United States is to recognize two sexes: male and female,” said the official, speaking to the press on the condition of anonymity.

The aim of the decree is “to defend women against the ideological extremism of gender and to restore biological truth within the Federal Government,” the official added, explaining that a person’s sexual identity will be defined solely by the gametes they possess.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to put an end to the “transgender delusion.”

The elected president also plans to eliminate federal funding for programs supporting diversity in the administration, the same officials from his incoming cabinet stated.

“We are going to end this type of funding, we are going to put an end to these programs,” said one source from the future team, speaking anonymously about antiracism and diversity training courses.

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