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Food is running short in the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the local Red Cross has warned.
The International Committee of the Red Cross team said there was no heating and food supplies were running low as temperatures are set to hit minus 5°C.
“No electricity, water and gas supply, meaning no means for heating,” said Sasha Volkov, deputy head of the Red Cross delegation in the city.
Russian forces intensified their bombardment of Mariupol and other cities on Thursday, trapping hundreds of thousands of people.
“All the shops and pharmacies were looted four to five days ago,” Mr Volkov said, between coughs.
“Some people still have food but I’m not sure for how long it will last. Many people report having no food for children.
“People started to attack each other for food. People started to ruin someone’s car to take the gasoline out.”
He said medicine was running low and water had to be fetched from a local stream.
“We still have some storage of potable water,” Mr Volkov said. “When we run out of the stock, we will boil water from the stream. So we are comparatively good compared to others.
“It's really cold. We still have some fuel for generators so we have electricity for three to four hours a day.
“We have started to get sick, many of us, because of the humidity and cold that we have. We tried to achieve hygiene standards as much as possible but it is not always actually possible.”
The heavy bombardment of the southern port city kept most residents off the streets and in shelters on Thursday.
Fire crews rescued a woman from a destroyed building, and tried to rescue a seriously injured boy from the rubble.
An air strike on a city maternity hospital on Wednesday has sparked international outcry.
The Russian Defence Ministry on Thursday denied it was responsible and claimed the explosions that hit the building were staged to smear Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack a war crime.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he was deeply upset by images showing the use of “lethal weapons … in an indiscriminate manner in the city centre”.
“Nothing justifies” what happened in Mariupol, Mr Macron said.
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
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In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets