
Sweida hospitals overwhelmed amid sectarian clashes, warns WHO
'Inside of Sweida it's a grim picture with the health facilities under immense strain...Electricity and water are cut off, and essential medicine supplies are running out,' World Health Organization representative in Syria Christina Bethke told reporters in Geneva via video link. - Reuters

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The Star
16 hours ago
- The Star
Indonesia readies island medical facility for 2,000 wounded Gazans
In 2020, Indonesia set up a hospital on Galang to treat victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. - Jakarta Post/ANN JAKARTA: Indonesia will convert a medical facility on its currently uninhabited island of Galang to treat about 2,000 wounded residents of Gaza, who will return home after recovery, a presidential spokesperson said on Thursday (Aug 7). Muslim-majority Indonesia has sent humanitarian aid to Gaza after Israel started an offensive in October 2023 that Gaza health officials say has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, whether fighters or non-combatants. "Indonesia will give medical help for about 2,000 Gaza residents who became victims of war, those who are wounded, buried under debris," the spokesperson, Hasan Nasbi, told reporters, adding that the exercise was not an evacuation. Indonesia plans to allocate the facility on Galang island, off its island of Sumatra and south of Singapore, to treat wounded Gaza residents and temporarily shelter their families, he said, adding that nobody lived around it now. The patients would be taken back to Gaza after they had healed, he said. Hasan did not give a timeframe or further details, referring questions to Indonesia's foreign and defence ministries, which did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The plan comes months after President Prabowo Subianto's offer to shelter wounded Palestinians drew criticism from Indonesia's top clerics for seeming too close to US President Donald Trump's suggestion of permanently moving Palestinians out of Gaza. In response to Trump's suggestion, the foreign ministry of Indonesia, which backs a two-state solution to resolve the Middle East crisis, said at the time it "strongly rejects any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians". A hospital to treat victims of the Covid-19 pandemic opened in 2020 on Galang, which had been until 1996 a sprawling refugee camp run by the United Nations, housing 250,000 of those who fled the Vietnam War. - Reuters


The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Francis Ford Coppola recovers after scheduled heart procedure in Rome
ROME: Francis Ford Coppola, the acclaimed American director of 'The Godfather' movies and 'Apocalypse Now,' underwent a non-emergency cardiac procedure in a Rome hospital and is doing fine, he and a U.S.-based representative said on Tuesday. 'Mr. Coppola went in for a scheduled update procedure' performed by renowned Italian-born cardiologist Dr. Andrea Natale 'and is resting nicely,' the representative said in response to Italian media reports that the director was hospitalised. 'All is well.' Coppola, 86, has been a patient of Natale for more than 30 years, the representative said. The filmmaker was admitted on Tuesday to the Policlinico Tor Vergata, a public hospital in the Italian capital, news agency ANSA reported. The U.S.-based representative declined to give any details about the nature of Coppola's medical procedure, but said: 'There was not an emergency. He went to the hospital in a car. He had a scheduled appointment.' Coppola posted a photograph of himself on Instagram appearing relaxed and smiling with a message reassuring fans, 'I am well.' 'Da Dada (what my kids call me) is fine, taking an opportunity while in Rome to do the update of my 30-year-old afib procedure with its inventor, a great Italian doctor - Dr. Andrea Natale,' it said. He did not elaborate further. The term 'a-fib' in medical parlance is short for atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heart rhythm. Natale, currently the executive director of the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute, is an electrophysiology specialist who pioneered several treatments and devices for the treatment of such disorders. Coppola was in Italy to promote his latest movie, the science-fiction epic 'Megalopolis,' a $120 million self-funded production about a visionary architect's quest to transform a futuristic version of New York City called New Rome into a utopian community. The film, which has drawn mixed reviews and struggled at the box office following its 2024 debut at the Cannes Film Festival, was reported to have received a special screening at the Magna Graecia Film Festival in Catanzaro, Italy. The Italian-American director has won five Academy Awards, four of them for his work on the first two films in 'The Godfather' trilogy, widely considered by cinema buffs to rank among the greatest movies of all time. - Reuters


The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Francis Ford Coppola recovers after scheduled heart procedure
ROME: Francis Ford Coppola, the acclaimed American director of 'The Godfather' movies and 'Apocalypse Now,' underwent a non-emergency cardiac procedure in a Rome hospital and is doing fine, he and a U.S.-based representative said on Tuesday. 'Mr. Coppola went in for a scheduled update procedure' performed by renowned Italian-born cardiologist Dr. Andrea Natale 'and is resting nicely,' the representative said in response to Italian media reports that the director was hospitalised. 'All is well.' Coppola, 86, has been a patient of Natale for more than 30 years, the representative said. The filmmaker was admitted on Tuesday to the Policlinico Tor Vergata, a public hospital in the Italian capital, news agency ANSA reported. The U.S.-based representative declined to give any details about the nature of Coppola's medical procedure, but said: 'There was not an emergency. He went to the hospital in a car. He had a scheduled appointment.' Coppola posted a photograph of himself on Instagram appearing relaxed and smiling with a message reassuring fans, 'I am well.' 'Da Dada (what my kids call me) is fine, taking an opportunity while in Rome to do the update of my 30-year-old afib procedure with its inventor, a great Italian doctor - Dr. Andrea Natale,' it said. He did not elaborate further. The term 'a-fib' in medical parlance is short for atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heart rhythm. Natale, currently the executive director of the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute, is an electrophysiology specialist who pioneered several treatments and devices for the treatment of such disorders. Coppola was in Italy to promote his latest movie, the science-fiction epic 'Megalopolis,' a $120 million self-funded production about a visionary architect's quest to transform a futuristic version of New York City called New Rome into a utopian community. The film, which has drawn mixed reviews and struggled at the box office following its 2024 debut at the Cannes Film Festival, was reported to have received a special screening at the Magna Graecia Film Festival in Catanzaro, Italy. The Italian-American director has won five Academy Awards, four of them for his work on the first two films in 'The Godfather' trilogy, widely considered by cinema buffs to rank among the greatest movies of all time. - Reuters