DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Indiaʼs former Prime Minister Vajpayee dies Announcing Vajpayeeʼs passing in a New Delhi clinic Thursday, Indiaʼs current prime minister Narenda Modi said his predecessor had "set the foundations for a strong, prosperous and inclusive India in the 21st century." "Atal Jiʼs passing away is a personal and irreplaceable loss for me," Modi said, using a Hindi-language honorific for Vajpayyee. The former premier died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, where he was admitted nine weeks ago. He had suffered a stroke in 2009. "Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support systems. Despite the best efforts, we have lost him today," AIIMS said in a statement.
German river levels fall in heat, drought as farmers seek help The water level on the Oder River at the key Frankfurt 1 measuring point had dropped to 93 centimeters (3 feet) on Wednesday. It was 110 centimeters at the end of July. The river level was the lowest since records began more than a century ago according to Sebastian Dosch, a spokesman for the Eberswalde Water and Shipping Authority in the eastern German state of Brandenburg. Without rain, the Oderʼs water level could be expected to fall a further 2 centimeters per day, Dosch said. The Oder River rises in the Czech Republic before forming 187 kilometers (116 miles) of the border between Poland and Germany as it flows northwards to the Baltic Sea. Germany has faced hot weather and drought conditionsfor weeks. Some thunderstorms and rain over the last weekhave done little to change the situation for the Oder and a number of other rivers.
188/2018 • 17 AUGUST, 2018
Aretha Franklin, ʼQueen of Soul,ʼ dies aged 76 She won 18 Grammys
German doctor stabbed to death at practice A doctor was stabbed to death in his own practice on Thursday in a seemingly unprovoked attack in the southwestern German city of Offenburg. A 26-year-old man allegedly entered the surgery without an appointment and attacked the doctor and an assistant. The assistant was injured during the early morning attack. He then fled the scene, prompting a manhunt involving more than 20 police cars, helicopters and a canine unit, and was soon caught.
Fukushima: UN says clean-up workers in danger of ʼexploitationʼ
After falling gravely ill earlier this month, Aretha Franklin has died. Franklin won 18 Grammys and had some 25 gold records during her long career. Legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin died on Thursday in Detroit, US media reported. She was 76. Her publicist confirmed the death to several US media outlets. "Franklinʼs official cause of death was due to advance pancreatic cancer of the neuroendocrine type, which was confirmed by Franklinʼs oncologist, Dr. Philip Phillips of Karmanos Cancer Institute" in Detroit, her publicist said in a statement. Ray Charles once remarked that soul, as a music genre, was more difficult to explain than electricity. Mahalia Jackson claimed that it began with the laments of people on the cotton fields. But Aretha Franklin insisted: "You donʼt need to be an Afro-American in order to have it. Itʼs something creative, something thatʼs alive. Itʼs honesty." She knew what soul means, having been its undisputed queen since the 1960s. Born on March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, Franklin grew up in a church setting. Her father, Reverend Clarence Franklin, was a Baptist
pastor, and her mother, Barbara Franklin, a famous gospel singer. Reverend Franklinʼs sermons became well-known beyond Detroit, where Aretha Franklin grew up with her three siblings. Her mother died when she was only ten years old. When Franklin, who rarely gave interviews, talked about her childhood, she would focus on its positive aspects. As she told US journalist Mark Bego, music could always be heard in the familyʼs home, where famous musicians would visit. They would eat together and talk, then one would start to play the piano, and spontaneously, all were making music together. Unsurprisingly, Franklin started to sing and to play the piano at an early age, but her career as a gospel singer came to an abrupt end when she became pregnant. She had her first son at age 14, to be followed by her second son at age 16. She never talked about the circumstances or the fathers. These early challenges shaped the young womanʼs character, and her music as well.
Tens of thousands of clean-up workers at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station risk exploitation, UN human rights experts said in a statement on Thursday. The three experts, who report to the UN Human Rights Council, warned that exposure to radiation remained a major risk for workers handling the cleanup of the plant. "Workers hired to decontaminate Fukushima reportedly include migrant workers, asylum seekers and people who are homeless," said the three: Baskut Tuncak, an expert on hazardous substances, Dainius Puras, an expert on health, and Urmila Bhoola, an expert on contemporary slavery. "We are deeply concerned about possible exploitation regarding the risks of exposure to radiation, possible coercion into accepting hazardous working conditions because of economic hardships, and the adequacy of training and protective measures," they said.
weather today BUDAPEST
22 / 28 °C Precipitation: 0 mm