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The UN estimates the number of deaths in the Papua New Guinea avalanche at 670

A United Nations agency estimated this Sunday that more than 670 people were killed in the avalanche of land that in the early hours of Friday buried a remote village north of Papua New Guinea.

The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Papua New Guinea, Serhan Aktoprak, told Australian state television, ABC, that according to the new estimates, more than 150 houses were buried by a layer of rocks and earth between six and eight meters deep and they fear that more than 670 people have lost their lives.

However, the United Nations delegation in Papua New Guinea clarified this Sunday to EFE by email that the number of deaths confirmed so far by the emergency response team is five, those whose bodies have been recovered in the village of Kaokalam, 600 kilometers from the country’s capital, Port Moresby.

“The team has informed us that it is difficult to confirm the actual number (of deaths) while search and rescue efforts continue,” said Kesang Phuntsho, head of the United Nations office in Papua New Guinea.

In addition to the five corpses recovered, the UN delegation indicated in a report this Sunday that there are an undetermined number of injured, “including 20 women and children.”

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The official UN statement is also more cautious about the number of houses buried by the analch, which at the moment is between 50 and 60, in addition to a school, a church, orchards and vehicles.

The United Nations report indicates that the disaster area remains dangerous due to the risk of new avalanches, so they are working on the evacuation of the survivors, about 1,250, according to Aktoprak.

“My colleagues had to escape from the place because of the growing danger, since rocks continue to fall non-stop and the earth continues to slide,” said the head of IOM in the country.

He has also warned that the large amount of land fallen during the avalanche is putting pressure on the houses in the area, so evacuation is necessary.

About 4,000 people officially live in the area where the avalh occurred, although the authorities estimate that the number of people affected is higher, since the town in which it occurred is a place where locals fleeing conflicts and tribal clashes in nearby villages take refuge.

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Much of the village of Kaokalam was buried by a layer of between six and eight meters of rocks and stones and the avalanche affected an area of more than 200 square kilometers, including about 150 kilometers of the main road of the province, which makes it difficult to rescue and help the survivors.

In addition, other sections of access to the village are cut off by previous landslides, so it is only possible to access by helicopter or in off-road vehicles.

Images from the site of the catastrophe shared on social networks show a vast area of rocks and land torn from a hill, as well as neighbors collecting their behods and exploring the area buried by the landslide in search of survivors.

The affected area usually suffers from heavy rains and floods, and the landslides are not unusual in the country, in which, despite the wealth in natural resources, a large part of its more than nine million inhabitants live in extreme poverty and is isolated due to a deficit in communications and infrastructure, especially in remote places such as the current catastrophe.

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International

85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports

The power of criminal gangs in Haiti continues to grow and at the moment they control about 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to “certain estimates” that this Monday were cited in the UN Security Council by Miroslav Jenca, Undersecretary General for Europe, Asia and the Americas in the UN Political Affairs Department.

The gangs have begun to attack the places of “relative security” that remained in the capital, such as the Petionville neighborhood, where UN offices, embassies and foreign personnel are located. There, an attack recorded last Tuesday left “dozens dead,” he said.

In response, spontaneous groups of neighbors have begun to organize armed patrols, to set up unofficial road controls “and to take justice into their hands,” Jenca lamented.

The number of displaced people reaches 700,000

In the vast areas where gangs have control, the security and human rights of their inhabitants are in danger, and especially those of women, since gang members resort to all forms of violence, often sexual violence, to subjugate neighbors.

This situation has caused 700,000 Haitians to flee their homes and are now in a situation of “internally displaced people.”

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Despite this, neighboring countries continue to deport Haitians (170,000 so far), mainly from the Dominican Republic, although Jenca did not cite this country.

What is the situation of the Multinational Mission to contain gangs in Haiti?

The Multinational Security Mission that was supposed to train the Haitian police has so far received only 400 agents of the 2,500 that it must gather, mainly due to lack of funds, and the prospects are so pessimistic that the Government of Haiti has already asked that the MMS be transformed into a classic mission of “blue helmets”.

However, this will not be easy because so far Russia and China oppose the deployment of a peace mission in Haiti arguing that the last mission of this type left the country among very serious accusations of sexual abuse and having caused and spread in 2010 a cholera epidemic that was fatal for the country, leaving thousands dead.

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International

One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape

An Oslo court issued this Wednesday preventive detention of one week with a ban on visits for Marius Borg Høiby, son of Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, for two cases of rape of two different women.

Høiby, 27 years old and the result of a previous relationship with the princess, had been arrested on Monday night for the third time since August for an alleged rape, but the Prosecutor’s Office revealed today at the end of the hearing, held behind closed doors, that another case had been discovered during the investigation.

The young man, who is not part of the Royal House, is also being investigated for injuries and damages against three of his ex-girlfriends and for threats to a man.

Prison for two cases of rape in Norway

The hearing began at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and ended two hours later, but Judge Anne-Lene Åvangen Hødnebø did not issue her opinion until after 22:00.

According to public television NRK, the police used as evidence recordings found on Høiby’s phone.

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In both cases it is sexual intercourse without penetration, reported the Prosecutor’s Office, which had requested two weeks in prison.

“The reason we asked for two weeks is that we discovered another violation last night. It is a case of sexual relationship without intercourse with a woman unable to resist the act. We are investigating two rape cases,” prosecutor Andreas Kruszewski said at the end of the hearing.

HØiby’s lawyer, Øyvind Bratlien, stated that his defendant denies the accusations and described the allegations as a “catastrophic” error of judgment.

Three arrests since August

Høiby was arrested on Monday night when he was driving with his ex-girlfriend, the protagonist of the incident that led to the first arrest and which he is forbidden to contact.

His home in Skaugum, on the same property where Crown Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit reside, was searched by police officers.

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According to Norwegian media, the first alleged rape occurred at the young woman’s home in March of this year; the other, in her residence in Skaugum a few weeks ago.

It is the third arrest of Høiby, who was arrested a few hours ago in early August after an incident in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and was accused of injuries, damage and threats, in a case that was later expanded and that also includes two of his previous partners and another person.

Høiby admitted a few days after his arrest in August in a statement part of the accusations and admitted to having problems with alcohol and other drugs and suffering from mental problems.

The Royal House is reluctant to talk about the case

The Norwegian Royal House has been reluctant to comment on the case of the young Marius Borg Høiby, which has generated a lot of media attention in this Nordic country, and only Prince Haakon has made statements.

“I think Marius faces serious accusations. The judicial system must do its job,” Haakon said today from Jamaica, where he attended an event organized by the UN.

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The heir to the Norwegian throne said that as “parents” they have tried to get the young man to receive “help.”

Høiby is the result of a previous relationship of Mette-Marit and has no official commitments to the Royal House, although he attends some celebrations such as the birthdays of his stepbrothers and has always maintained the relationship with both Haakon and Kings Harald V and Sonia.

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International

The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal

The Ethics Committee of the US House of Representatives did not make public this Wednesday due to lack of agreement the report of its investigation into Matt Gaetz, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, to be the next attorney general and investigated for inappropriate sexual behavior and drug use.

The president of that commission, Republican Michael Guest, told the press at the end of the nearly two-hour meeting at the Capitol that there was no consensus among the members when making that document public.

That body was going to put its decision to a vote last Friday, but Gaetz’s resignation from his seat two days earlier, after being appointed by Trump, delayed that scrutiny and effectively ended the investigations into him.

Although with the departure of the Florida representative of Congress, the commission was left without jurisdiction to investigate him, the publication of the conclusions of his investigation opened in 2021 for alleged inappropriate sexual conduct, irregular use of campaign funds, acceptance of bribes and drug use was still in the air.

Committee interviews

The committee interviewed two women who testified that Gaetz, nominated for attorney general, paid them for having sex at a party in Florida, where prostitution is illegal.

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According to the women’s lawyer to the NBC News channel, Joel Leppard, one of them also testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor, although he said that he did not think he knew that he was 17 years old at the time.

Gaetz has denied those accusations and Trump’s transition team considers them unfounded and recalls that the Department of Justice closed a parallel investigation without charges.

Review of the report

Several senators, both Republicans and Democrats, had said that they wanted to review that report before the Judicial Committee of the Upper House examines Gaetz’s nomination next year and then the plenary of that hemicycle validates or stops it.

The authorization of the positions of the future cabinet depends on the Senate, but until then Gaetz has the support of Trump, who has stated that he does not question his own decision, and also of the future vice president, JD Vance, who accompanied him to Congress this Wednesday.

Report on Gaetz next attorney general has had leaks

However, although the House Committee on the House of Representatives stopped the dissemination of the report, there have already been leaks in the national press.

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The lawyer of the two women indicated that they provided that committee with numerous photos related to the time they spent with the Republican, who according to that lawyer paid 6,000 dollars to one and 4,000 to another to sleep with them.

The leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, had wanted to stay out of the committee’s decision, but at the same time he did not consider it appropriate for it to disseminate his investigation: “That would open Pandora’s box and I don’t think it’s something healthy for the institution,” he said.

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