WHO decides mpox epidemic still global health emergency

ROME: More than 200 Italian Jews have signed an appeal against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territories, provoking strong media reaction and dividing the country’s Jewish community.
Writers, academics, philosophers and journalists were among the 220 signatories of the text, which was published in daily newspapers La Repubblica and Il Manifesto.
It claimed that US President Donald Trump “wants to expel Palestinians from Gaza. Meanwhile in the West Bank the violence of the Israeli government and settlers continues.”
“Italian Jews say no to ethnic cleansing. Italy must not be an accomplice,” they added.
The call aims to “bring out a clear and strong Jewish voice of disapproval,” said the Jewish Antiracist Laboratory, a group of young Jewish-origin Italians which is behind the petition.
The organization said it was “opposed to the annexation of Palestinian territories by Israel and all forms of anti-Semitism.”
The head of the Jewish community in Rome, Victor Fadlun, criticized what he said was a “dishonorable” initiative at a time when Israel was holding the funerals of three former hostages.
Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas were kidnapped in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and were killed in captivity in Gaza.
Fadlum’s predecessor, Riccardo Pacifici, said the petition risked “stirring up anti-Jewish hatred,” according to comments published in Il Corriere della Sera.
One of the newspaper’s journalists, Federico Fubini, signed the appeal and wrote on X that he was “against ethnic cleansing in Gaza and oppression in the West Bank.”
Both were “very close to my heart,” he added. “But in no way does this endorse Hamas, obviously, nor the many forms of explicit, insidious and hypocritical anti-Semitism that we see everywhere, including in Italy.”

MANILA: Eight people were killed in a nighttime fire in the Philippine capital region that gutted a three-story residential building early Thursday in less than an hour, officials said.

The fire, which also injured at least one resident, broke out after midnight in the building, which was mostly made of wood, as people slept in San Isidro Galas village in suburban Quezon city, officials said.

An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the fire.

Two of the dead were found on the ground floor and six others were recovered on the second floor, where the fire apparently started, senior fire officer Rolando Valeña told The Associated Press, citing witnesses.

The blaze happened just two days before the Philippines marks fire-prevention month in March, when the government launches an annual campaign to raise awareness about fire hazards ahead of the onset of the scorching summer season.

Many deadly fires in the Philippines have been blamed on poor enforcement of safety regulations, overcrowding and faulty building designs.

A 1996 disco fire in Quezon city killed 162 people, mostly students celebrating the end of the school year, in one of the deadliest nightclub fires in the world in recent decades. 

They were unable to escape because the emergency exit was blocked by a new building next door.