Guatemala’s national disaster agency on Thursday suspended search and rescue efforts at the zone devastated by the eruption of the Volcano of Fire, saying climatic conditions and still-hot volcanic material makes it dangerous for the rescuers.

It said it decided to suspend the search now that 72 hours have passed. That’s the length of time officials had said earlier that some victims might have survived.

Troublesome rain and more volcanic activity had been hindering search searches, but when teams have been able to work in the hardest hit areas, the death toll has continued to rise.

Efforts were cut short again Wednesday when a downpour forced teams to retreat for fear of mudslides. Boiling water flowing down the volcano’s slopes from dangerously hot volcanic gas and ash also posed a threat. A day earlier, flows of super-heated volcanic material forced crews to pull back.

But between stoppages, search teams working with shovels and heavy equipment found more bodies from Sunday’s big eruption. Remains were loaded into body bags and carried out on stretchers.

Guatemala’s National Institute of Forensic Sciences raised the death toll to 99 late in afternoon, an increase of 24 bodies for the day. Only 28 of the total had been identified. At least 197 people were listed as missing.

“Nobody is going to be able to get them out or say how many are buried here,” Efrain Suarez said, standing amid the smoking holes dotting what used to be the village of San Miguel Los Lotes on the flanks of the mountain.

“The bodies are already charred,” the 59-year-old truck driver said….

A U.S. medical team was screening more Americans who work at the consulate in southern China as the State Department confirmed evacuating a number of government employees who experienced unexplained health issues like those that have hurt U.S. personnel in Cuba and China.

The evacuations of workers in Guangzhou followed medical testing that revealed they might have been affected. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said “a number of individuals” had been brought to the U.S. but didn’t say how many were affected or evacuated. A previous case in Guangzhou, disclosed last month, prompted the tests.

Nauert also said that remaining U.S. government personnel and their families in Guangzhou would also be able to request testing if they “noted concerning symptoms or wanted baseline screening.”

The incidents have raised fears the unexplained issues that started in Cuba in 2016 have expanded. The U.S. government has deemed those incidents “specific attacks” on American workers but hasn’t publicly identified a cause or culprit. Most of the incidents were accompanied by bizarre, unexplained sounds that initially led U.S. investigators to suspect a sonic attack.

Symptoms have included dizziness, headaches and an inability to concentrate. The American government worker who previously was removed from China reported “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure,” the Guangzhou consulate reported last month

Security guards outside the Guangzhou consulate on Thursday told reporters to leave the area and not attempt to talk to consulate staff.

Asked…

The on-again, off-again meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been an emotional roller coaster for South Koreans, who now await Tuesday’s historic summit with both hope and doubt.

The hope is that improved relations between Washington and Pyongyang will ease tensions and dispel the threat of war, which has hung over the region for more than a half-century.

But having seen North Korea go back on its word in the past, such as when it broke a previous nuclear pact in 2002, South Koreans remain cautious about the sudden breeze of peace blowing across their divided peninsula.

“North Korea’s willingness for talks seems clear now. The problem is that we are not so sure what they ultimately want,” said graduate student Kim Jae-hak.

For him, the ideal outcome would be a formal declaration to the end the Korean War, followed by the complete denuclearization of North Korea. He warned, however, that high expectations can bring great disappointment, so Koreans should watch how things unfold.

South Korea’s government has been careful to avoid rash comments or hasty interpretations of the seesaw developments in the lead-up to the summit in Singapore. Still, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has made negotiations with North Korea a centerpiece of his administration and has a lot riding on next week’s events.

Moon took office in May 2017 with a pledge to seek improved relations and ultimately peace with North Korea. In April, he met the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, for talks at the Demilitarized Zone dividing their countries and the two set…

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday announced a weeklong cease-fire with the Taliban to coincide with the holiday marking the end of Ramadan next week.

A statement sent from the president’s office on Thursday says the cease-fire will begin on 27 Ramadan, or June 12 on the Western calendar, and last through the Eid al-Fitr holiday, until around June 19. It says the cease-fire does not include al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban, who have steadily expanded their presence in recent years, capturing a number of districts across the country and carrying out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting Afghan security forces.

Gen. Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, the army chief of staff, told reporters that Afghan forces would be on standby throughout the cease-fire and respond to any attacks. He also said the army would continue to battle “international terrorists,” apparently referring to al-Qaida and IS.

Ghani’s statement referred to a gathering of Afghanistan’s top clerics on Monday in which they issued a decree against suicide attacks and called for peace talks. A suicide bomber struck just outside the gathering as it was dispersing, killing at least seven people and wounding 20 in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The Taliban had denounced the gathering, insisting that its jihad, or holy war, against foreign invaders was justified. It instead urged the clerics to side with it against the “occupation.”

The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, but the U.S. still has thousands of…

The United States and China have reached a deal that allows the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. to stay in business in exchange for paying an additional $1 billion in fines and agreeing to let U.S. regulators monitor its operations.

The fine announced Thursday comes on top of $892 million ZTE has already paid for breaking U.S. sanctions by selling equipment to North Korea and Iran. The Commerce Department said that ZTE must also put $400 million in escrow — a sum that it would forfeit if it violated Thursday’s agreement.

In addition, a compliance team chosen by the United States will be embedded at ZTE and the Chinese company must change its board and executive team.

President Donald Trump has drawn fire from Congress for intervening in the case to rescue a Chinese company that had violated U.S. sanctions against two rogue nations that have been pursuing nuclear weapons programs.

“ZTE is essentially on probation,” said Amanda DeBusk, chair of the international trade and government regulation practice at Dechert LLP and a former Commerce official. “It’s unprecedented to have U.S. agents as monitors … It’s certainly a good precedent for this situation. ZTE is a repeat offender.”

In April, the Commerce Department barred ZTE from importing American components for seven years, having concluded that it deceived U.S. regulators after it settled charges last year of sanctions violations: Instead of disciplining all employees involved, Commerce said, ZTE had paid some of them full bonuses and then lied about it.

The decision amounted to a death sentence to ZTE,…

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi on Thursday appointed a new prime minister, picking his housing minister Mustafa Madbouly to form a government.

The appointment came three days after the outgoing premier, Sherif Ismail, submitted his government’s resignation, in keeping with political tradition at the start of a new presidential term. El-Sissi was sworn in on Saturday for a second, four-year term in office, after being re-elected in a vote in which he faced no serious challengers.

El-Sissi and Ismail are known to enjoy a close working relationship. Ismail sought medical treatment in Germany late last year. He returned home a month later showing considerable weight loss, some of which he has since regained.

During Ismail’s treatment in Germany, Madbouly served as acting prime minister in November and was widely seen as likely to succeed Ismail.

Madbouly has been housing minister since March 2014. The 52-year-old architect and urban designer served as director of the United Nations’ HABITAT Regional Office for Arab States from 2012 until 2014. His appointment to form a new government was announced by presidential spokesman Bassam Radi on his Facebook page.

Source: Associated Press

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Spanish environmental authorities say they have captured a rare lynx in Catalonia, three years after it was released in Portugal. Litio, a four-year-old Iberian lynx, had been spotted on the outskirts of Barcelona on May 29.

Officials said Thursday in a statement that the lynx was captured Wednesday by local fauna and flora authorities along with members of a European animal conservation project.

Local authorities said, the Iberian lynx, critically endangered species, had not been seen in Catalonia since the early 20th century.

Litio was born in captivity and released into the wild in Portugal’s Vale do Guadiana natural park in 2015, with a GPS tracking collar that soon stopped working.

In good health, the feline has been released back into the wild in Andalusia with a new tracking collar.

Source: Associated Press

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