Migrant crisis: 100,000 have crossed Mediterranean for Europe since Jan: UN

More than 100,000 migrants and refugees have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe since the beginning of the year, and 2,247 have died trying, the UN said today.

Between January 1 and July 3, more than 85,000 migrants landed in Italy, nearly 9,300 arrived in Greece, nearly 6,500 arrived in Spain and over 270 landed in Cyprus, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

While the numbers are staggering, they remain far below last year's figures.

During the same period in 2016, 231,503 people made the crossing to Europe, with the 100,000-mark passed already in February that year.

But at that time most of the migrants were crossing from Turkey to Greece, and an EU deal with Ankara in March last year effectively hit the breaks on that movement.

So far this year, Italy has meanwhile taken in nearly 85 percent of the people crossing the Mediterranean.

Rome will on Thursday host an informal meeting of EU justice and interior ministers to discuss the migrant crisis.

Italy has been pushing for other European countries to open up their ports to rescue ships in order to share the burden.

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Bangladesh garment factory blast: 10 killed, rescue operations underway

At least 10 people were killed and 50 others injured in a boiler room explosion at a garment factory in central Bangladesh. The search for more bodies in the debris continues, officials said on Tuesday.

The accident took place around 7 PM on Monday at the export-oriented textile factory Multifabs Limited, which employs nearly 6,000 people.

Most employees were on leave to celebrate the Eid-ul Fitr when the explosion occurred. "We found eight bodies on Monday and one in the morning (Tuesday) when we started removing the debris again," Gazipur Fire Service Assistant Deputy Director Akteruzzaman said.

"We are not sure if there are more bodies inside because no one could give a detailed account of any missing person," he was quoted as saying by Efe news.

Of the 50 injured, one person later died in the hospital, taking the deaths to 10, Akteruzzaman added.

"The factory was closed until Monday and we started the boiler only in the evening. One of the two boilers exploded within an hour of starting the operation in the evening," Multifabs Chairman and Managing Director Mohiuddin Faruqui said.

According to Faruqui, between 25 and 30 people were inside the factory at the time of the explosion, while many bystanders were also injured.

Gazipur district factory inspector Farid Ahmed said that the factory's licenses were all in order and that the reason for the explosion was yet unclear.

Last week, labour union organisations IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union announced the signing of a new agreement with more than 20 international textile companies to ensure safety in Bangladeshi factories, among other issues.

The sector has been under the spotlight over its working conditions since the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in 2013, which left more than 1,100 dead and 2,500 others injured.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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China's Hebei province to replace 11.48 MT old steel capacity with new one

China's Hebei province will slash 11.48 million tonnes in outdated steelmaking capacity to accommodate the expansion of a new plant, part of efforts by the country's top steel-producing region to rein in surplus production.

China, the world's biggest steel producer, has been shutting outdated steel plants but also keeping any expansion under control to help tackle a years-long glut.

Authorities closed more than 600 steel mills producing low-grade construction steel during the first half of the year, cutting capacity by about 120 million tonnes, the state-owned China Economic Daily reported earlier on Tuesday.

Last month, China said it has reduced its total steel production capacity by 42.4 million tonnes as of end-May, meeting 85 percent of its full-year target.

In Hebei, the combined reduction in steelmaking capacity at nine mills of more than 11 million tonnes was meant to make way for the expansion of a plant by Shougang Jintang Iron and Steel Co, according to a document published on the Hebei government's website this week.

The expansion at Shougang Jintang Steel's plant will add new capacity of 5.1 million tonnes, it said. The entire plant, when finished, can produce 9 million tonnes of steel products annually.

Shougang Jintang is a unit of Chinese conglomerate Shougang Group.

Hebei aims to cut total annual steel production capacity to less than 200 million tonnes by the end of the decade from 286 million tonnes in 2013.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Germany bus crash: 18 dead, 30 injured in Bavaria

A bus carrying German senior citizens on vacation crashed into a truck today on a highway in Bavaria and burst into flames, killing 18 people and injuring 30 others, some seriously, officials said.

The accident took place around 7 am when the bus rear- ended a trailer-truck at the end of a traffic jam on the A9 highway near Muenchberg, not far from the Czech border. The accident led to long traffic jams on the A9, the main thoroughfare from Berlin to Munich.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, but prosecutors have opened an investigation.

The bus seemed to have caught fire immediately upon impact with the truck, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters after touring the crash site. The truck's trailer also burst into flames.

"Two people are still in life-threatening condition," Dobrint said.

Two drivers and 46 passengers were on the bus. The remains of all bodies were recovered from the bus, including that of the driver at the wheel during the crash, police said.

Police said the truck driver was not injured.

Some 200 emergency crews rushed to the scene and five helicopters whisked the injured to nearby hospitals. Simple wooden coffins were wheeled in for the remains recovered from the blackened, twisted wreckage of the bus.

Police said the ages of those on the bus ranged from 41 to 81 and they were primarily from the eastern German state of Saxony. The news agency dpa reported that all the passengers were German.

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Donald Trump, Angela Merkel to meet ahead of G20 talks

US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel plan to meet Thursday for what are expected to be tricky talks on the eve of a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg.

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the meeting would come before the summit, "most probably in the early evening of Thursday".

The pair are also scheduled to talk by telephone today, Trump said in a tweet.

Transatlantic differences on climate change, trade, defence spending and refugees hang over the July 7-8 meeting of the world's major industrialised and emerging economies.

Last week Merkel met with key European leaders and vowed to make a stand for climate protection and open markets at the meeting with Trump, who has said he will take the US out of the Paris climate deal and pursue a protectionist "America First" policy.

Merkel said that "the differences are obvious and it would be dishonest to try to cover that up. That I won't do."

She also said the US exit from the 2015 Paris climate pact had made Europe "more determined than ever" to make the accord a success.

Today, presenting her party's election platform, she predicted "a whole series of thorny issues" at the G20.

"We know the positions of the US government and I do not expect them to disappear on a two-day trip to Hamburg," the chancellor said.

She warned against high expectations, noting that the summit's final communique has to be "approved unanimously".
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Donald Trump speaks with European leaders ahead of G20 summit this week

US President Donald Trump spoke with German and Italian leaders on Monday, a White House official said, ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies this week that could expose his sharp differences with world powers on trade and other issues.

Trump is preparing for the two-day G20 summit that starts in Hamburg on Friday, just over a month after a G7 summit in Sicily showed deep divisions between Trump and other Western leaders on climate change, trade and migration.

A fractious first NATO summit with Trump also left European allies wondering where the military alliance goes next.

Trump will hold separate meetings with various leaders in Hamburg, including host German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and a potentially difficult first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump announced on Twitter that he would be talking on the phone with leaders from Germany, Italy and France on Monday. The White House later said in a statement that the calls would be with Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, but did not mention French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump and Macron spoke last week when the US president accepted an invitation to attend Bastille Day ceremonies in Paris on July 14.

Representatives for the White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Representatives for Macron's office could not immediately be reached for comment.

In remarks last week, Merkel raised the prospect of an open clash with Trump at the Hamburg summit, although some Trump administration officials have played down the discord.

Heather Conley, a State Department official during the Republican George W. Bush administration, said the United States' European allies are still shocked after the G7 and NATO summits with Trump cast doubt over Washington's relation with its allies.
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Boston airport crash: 10 injured after taxi ploughs into pedestrians

A taxi driver plowed his car into a group of people outside Boston international airport today, injuring 10 people on the eve of the Independence Day holiday in the United States, police said.

The 56-year-old driver was being interviewed by officers but there was no initial indication that the crash was intentional, Massachusetts state police said.

The incident happened at 1:40pm (1740 GMT) at the cab pool at Logan International Airport. Ten people were taken to hospital with injuries of varying severity, police said.

"The cause of the crash remains under investigation," state police added.

US media reported that a taxi driver appeared to have lost control, hitting the gas pedal instead of the break.
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