UNESCO World Heritage Committee identifies 12 new sites in its 40th session in Istanbul

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has identified 12 new sites for the World Heritage List in its 40th session at Istanbul - the session had to be cut short due to the unrest that erupted in Turkey. With this, the number of sites added in the current session goes up to 21 and this finally adds up to a total of 1,052 sites in 165 countries.
The breakdown of these 21 newly added sites are - 12 cultural sites, six natural and three mixed ones.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 18 July 2016.

The session also discussed the state of conservation of 155 properties - five of these in Libya have been inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger along with one in Uzbekistan and another in Mali. Additionally, one site in Georgia was removed from the list of endangered sites, while the site of Nan Madol, or the Ceremonial Centre of Eastern Micronesia, was simultaneously inscribed on the World Heritage List and on the List in Danger.
The 40th session had started on July 10 and was cut short by four days due to the attempted coup in Turkey. The unfinished would be taken up at a separate meeting slated to be held in Paris later. The 41st session is scheduled for July 2017 in Krakow, Poland.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Italian coastguard rescues 4200 migrants in 24 hours from 22 boats in the Mediterranean Sea

#ItalianCoastGuard #Libya #mediterraneansea #Syria In one of the largest rescues in recent days, the Italian coastguard has coordinated the rescue of about 4200 migrants based on distress signals from 22 boats sailing across the Mediterranean Sea. During the rescue, they discovered 17 corpses on three inflatable dinghies.
300 other migrants were rescued alive from the three inflatable dinghies where the 17 corpses were recovered. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 30 May 2015.

The distress calls originated from 22 different boats, many of these were off Libya but some were off the southern Italian coast.
The rescue operations were led by the Italian coastguard and included the assistance of Italian, German and Irish naval ships that were working under the auspices of the EU's Frontex border agency. Migrants fleeing from the troubled locations in Syria, Libya have to be rescued on humanitarian grounds and taken care of till rehabilitation is arranged. Till now, more than 40,400 boat migrants have landed up in Italy since the start of the year.
On a rough estimate, the total number of migrants rescued in a period of 24 hours is believed to be one of the highest in recent years. The previous numbers were 3791 migrants on April 12 and 3690 on May 2.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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If the death toll of over 700 is confirmed, it would take the death toll since the start of 2015 to more than 1,600. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 20 April 2015.

Against this background, EU ministers are entering into crisis talks under pressure to confront the people-smuggling gangs. EU president Donald Tusk is considering holding a special summit on the crisis in Luxemburg because member states Spain, Greece, Germany and France have urged for immediate action. The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is spearheading the calls for a summit by the end of the week.
Rights groups including Amnesty International want the restoration of an Italian navy search-and-rescue operation known as Mare Nostrum that had been suspended at the end of last year. This has been replaced by a much smaller EU-run operation called Triton because of financial constraints.
It is understandable because the influx of migrants into European countries is putting a tremendous pressure on the resources of the countries involved.

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