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eNCA
an hour ago
- Business
- eNCA
Severe floods threaten historic Romanian salt mine
Romanian authorities scrambled Friday to save a salt mine in the northern village of Praid from further damage after heavy rains worsened flooding at a site that provides the region's economic lifeblood. The floods in recent days have swollen a stream near the partially inundated salt mine, which has been shut down since 5 May. The mine is among the biggest tourist attractions in northern Romania, with almost half a million people visiting the site in 2024, and many locals have depended on tourism related to the mine for decades. "We have to save not just the salt mine there, but the entire community, with thousands of people in danger of not being able to put a loaf of bread on the table," Environment Minister Mircea Fechet told a local TV station Friday, saying "a real tragedy" was hitting the region. AFP | Alex NICODIM According to the National Salt Company, underground stockpiles of salt "have been compromised, including equipment and machinery that can no longer be recovered". Due to heavy rainfall in May, the Corund stream near the Praid mine recorded its highest flow rate in the last 30 years, official data this week showed. But there is no imminent risk of collapse at the mine, said Petres Sandor, an official in Harghita county where the mine is located, which is also home to the largest ethnic Hungarian population in Romania. "The biggest problem is to stop the possibility of water infiltration in order to start the underground work," he said. "A very big danger is related to the state of mind of the population. Unfortunately, it's a feeling of the end of the world," Sandor added, urging tourists not to cancel their reservations. Some locals protested in front of the mine's administrative headquarters on Thursday, voicing anger over preventive measures not having been taken in the past. Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban vowed "financial and practical assistance for the assessment of the damages and reconstruction of the mine" in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
eNCA
an hour ago
- Politics
- eNCA
Rivals neck-and-neck ahead of Poland's 'clash of civilisations' vote
Warsaw's pro-EU mayor and a nationalist historian held their last day of campaigning on Friday for Poland's presidency, with opinion polls predicting a close race in Sunday's vote, which will determine the direction of the key central European EU and NATO member. Centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, 53, faces off against right-leaning Karol Nawrocki, 42, in a runoff vote some analysts have described as a "clash of civilisations". Latest opinion polls predict a close race, with 50.6 percent of the vote going to Trzaskowski and 49.4 percent to Nawrocki, a tiny difference within the margin of error. A victory for Trzaskowski would be a major boost for Poland's government, which has been in a political deadlock with the current president. It could also mean significant changes such as the introduction of civil partnerships for same-sex couples and an easing of Poland's near-total ban on abortion. A win for Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing Law and Justice Party, could undermine Poland's steadfast support for neighbouring Ukraine against Russia. Nawrocki, an admirer of US President Donald Trump, opposes NATO membership for Kyiv and has called for curbs on benefits for the estimated one million Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Analysts say a Nawrocki victory could also lead to fresh parliamentary elections in the country of 38 million people, which has been one of Europe's best economic performers. Given the narrow polling margins, the result of the election may not be known until Monday. "I would be cautious about popping the champagne on Sunday evening," said Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a political expert. Tens of thousands of supporters took part in rival rallies for both candidates on May 25, a week before the runoff. - Counting on turnout - At one of his last campaign events, Trzaskowski called for full mobilisation among his supporters, recalling the record turnout of over 74 percent in the 2023 general election that brought the centrists to power. "If participation is as high as in 2023... we will win these presidential elections," Trzaskowski said Friday in the northern town of Chojnice. He said there would be "chaos" with Nawrocki as president. Nawrocki for his part used his last campaign hours to leave flowers at a monument to Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II. "It was a genocide against the Polish people," he said, adding: "I will be the president of your future. The past and the future can be reunited." Poland, a staunch Ukraine ally since Russia's invasion, wants Kyiv to admit responsibility for the Volyn massacres, in which around 100,000 Poles died between 1943 and 1945. - Far-right voters - The election's final result is expected to hinge on whether Trzaskowski can mobilise enough supporters to come out and vote and whether far-right voters will cast their ballots for Nawrocki. Far-right candidates fared better than expected in the first round of the election on May 18, getting more than 21 percent of the vote -- and leaving Nawrocki a larger pool of votes to draw upon. Trzaskowski won that round by a razor-thin margin of 31 percent against 30 percent for Nawrocki. Materska-Sosnowska called the election "a real clash of civilisations", pointing to major policy differences between the candidates on issues including abortion or LGBTQ rights. The job of Polish president is sometimes dismissed as a ceremonial post, but it comes with crucial veto power over legislation. And that has often stymied Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council chief whose centrist Civic Coalition (KO) has clashed on multiple fronts with conservative President Andrzej Duda since it came to power in 2023. The election campaign saw Nawrocki mired in a few scandals. While arguing against a property tax, he claimed to own just one flat. Later it was revealed he had acquired a second one in a convoluted deal with an elderly man. A bombshell news report also alleged he had arranged prostitutes for guests while working as a hotel security guard.
eNCA
an hour ago
- Politics
- eNCA
Egypt denies court ruling threatens historic monastery
Egypt and Greece sought to ease tensions over the historic St Catherine's monastery in the Sinai peninsula on Friday after a controversial court ruling said it sat on state-owned land. Cairo has denied that the ruling threatens the UNESCO world heritage landmark, after Greek and church authorities warned of the sacred site's status. St Catherine's monastery was established in the sixth century at the biblical site of the burning bush in the southern mountains of the Sinai peninsula, and is the world's oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery. A court in Sinai ruled on Wednesday in a land dispute between the monastery and the South Sinai governorate that the monastery "is entitled to use" the land, which "the state owns as public property". But on Friday, in a phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo was "fully committed to preserving the unique and sacred religious status of Saint Catherine's monastery, and ensuring it is not violated". The Greek premier's office said Mitsotakis emphasised the importance of "preserving the pilgrimage and Greek Orthodox character of the monastery and resolving the issue in an institutional manner", based on an agreement between the two countries. A Greek delegation is due to visit Egypt next week, the government in Athens said. Sisi's office has defended the court ruling, saying that it "consolidates" the site's sacred status, after the head of the Greek Orthodox church in Greece denounced it. - Tourism development - Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens called the court ruling "scandalous" and an infringement by Egyptian judicial authoriities of religious freedoms. He said the decision means "the oldest Orthodox Christian monument in the world, the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine in Mount Sinai, now enters a period of severe trial -- one that evokes much darker times in history". The Saint Catherine area, which includes the eponymous town and a nature reserve, is undergoing mass development under a controversial government megaproject aimed at bringing in mass tourism. Observers say the project has harmed the reserve's ecosystem and threatened both the monastery and the local community. Archbishop Ieronymos warned that the monastery's property would now be "seized and confiscated", despite "recent pledges to the contrary by the Egyptian President to the Greek Prime Minister". Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis contacted his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty on Thursday, saying "there was no room for deviation from the agreements between the two parties", the ministry's spokesperson said. In a statement to Egypt's state news agency, the foreign ministry in Cairo later said rumours of confiscation were "unfounded", and that the ruling "does not infringe at all" on the monastery's sites or its religious and spiritual significance. Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said "Greece will express its official position ... when the official and complete content of the court decision is known and evaluated".
eNCA
an hour ago
- Business
- eNCA
New to South Africa, saffron holds promise
Livestock farmer Joe Kroon turned to saffron in desperation when drought threatened his livelihood and, as this season's harvest winds down, he is encouraged by the potential of a new entry into South Africa's farming catalogue. "Every year that we've planted, it's got better and better," said Kroon, who started growing the world's most expensive spice, mostly associated with Iran and Afghanistan, around five years ago with corms imported from The Netherlands. With around one hectare under cultivation at his farm near the town of Graaf Reinet in the dry Karoo region, Kroon is among the few South African farmers pioneering cultivation of the delicate purple crocus and its precious red threads. "Animals were dying and there's no help from the government so I had to find other means of making an income. I started researching and one of the things that came up was saffron," he told AFP. "It sort of exponentially grows each year," he said. "At the end of this year, we're going to lift the crop and replant a bigger area." His partner, Ross Blakeway, expects this season's yield could reach about six kilogrammes, around double the amount of last year. It takes about 150,000 flowers to collect a kilogram of threads. - Porcupines and rabbits - AFP | GIANLUIGI GUERCIA Blakeway said output of their Karoo Saffron partnership is only for the domestic market, including local chefs and as an ingredient in a sauce and a Pure Karoo health range, although there had been some interest from Europe. And while there is promise for South African saffron, it is not a "get rich quick", he said. The corms are expensive and, "it's popular amongst the porcupines and rabbits, so you really have to protect your land," he said. Saffricon, which says it is the largest commercial producer in South Africa with seven hectares, also began cultivation around five years ago. In the process of finding the correct conditions, Saffricon moved several times before settling in the Piketberg area in the Western Cape, said the company's production coordinator, Tiaan Engelbrecht. AFP | GIANLUIGI GUERCIA The company -- which also shares advice and trial packs to potential cultivators, from domestic gardeners to commercial farmers -- wants to build volume for local saffron to become a worthwhile export. "It's been met with a lot of hope for being able to diversify the crops that are available in the country, especially for people who have smaller plots," Engelbrecht said, although there had been some scepticism too. "It's just been absolutely wonderful to see people still being excited about growing the agriculture industry and being excited about new things," he said.
eNCA
an hour ago
- Entertainment
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Experts point out how TV's Dr House often got it wrong
He's the maverick medic who loved to confound the medical establishment with his brilliant, unorthodox diagnoses. But Dr Gregory House, the misanthropic genius who was the star of the long-running "House" television series, got an awful lot wrong himself, Croatian doctors claim. From a neurologist at work on the wrong end of a patient by performing a colonoscopy, or an MRI scan done by a physician who is clearly not a radiologist, Croatian researchers have pulled the American series up on its medical accuracy in a paper published this month. Denis Cerimagic, a professor at Dubrovnik University, and two fellow neurologists -- all big fans of the series -- listed 77 errors after analysing all 177 episodes of the show, which ran from 2004 to 2012. "We focused on the diagnoses of main cases, reality of clinical practice presentation and detection of medical errors," Cerimagic told AFP. He and his peers -- Goran Ivkic and Ervina Bilic -- broke the mistakes down into five categories including misuses of medical terminology, misinformation and simple weirdness -- something which the show's anti-hero, played by British star Hugh Laurie, possessed in abundance. - That limp - They included the use of mercury thermometers -- which had long given way to digital ones -- the term heart attack and cardiac arrest being used interchangeably when they are not the same, and that vitamin B12 deficiency can be corrected with just one injection. Nor is there a universal chemotherapy for all types of malignant tumours, as one episode suggested. But arguably the biggest error of all is that Laurie -- whose character's genius for deduction comes from the misdiagnosis that left him with a limp and chronic pain -- uses his cane on the wrong side. The stick should be carried on his unaffected side, Cerimagic said, though he understood why the actor had done it because "it's more effective to see the pronounced limp on the screen". Their research also found medical procedures being done by specialists who had no business being there, like an infectologist performing an autopsy. At times the series also stretched reality beyond breaking point, with the findings of complex laboratory tests done in just a few hours. And doctors rarely turn detective and take it upon themselves to enter patients' homes to look for environmental causes of illnesses. Not to mention Dr House's unethical behaviour -- "Brain tumour, she's gonna die" the paper quoted him as saying -- and the character's opiates addiction. The researchers say they may have missed other mistakes. "We are neurologists while other medical specialists would certainly establish additional errors," Cerimagic added. - Medical errors - Whatever their criticisms, the researchers say that modern medical series are far better produced than in the past, thanks to medical advisors. It is not like some 20 years ago when you had doctors looking at X-rays upside down, the neurologist said. "Now only medical professionals can notice errors," Cerimagic said. Despite its flaws, they thought the series could even be used to help train medical students. "The focus could be on recognising medical errors in the context of individual episodes, adopting the teamwork concept and a multidisciplinary approach in diagnosis and treatment," Cerimagic said. He said he and his colleagues were taken aback by the response to their paper "House M.D.: Between reality and fiction" -- which is not the first academic study to cast doubt on the good doctor and his methods. "The idea was to make a scientific paper interesting not only to doctors but also to people without specific medical knowledge."
