Follow the latest news on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria
The White House on Thursday called for the UN Security Council to pass a resolution that would allow earthquake relief to flow from Turkey to Syria.
“People are literally dying here," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "Time is of the essence.”
The UN this week said Syrian President Bashar Al Assad had agreed for aid to flow through two more border crossing points for at least three months. But the White House lacks confidence that he will abide by the agreement, fearing he could act “in capricious ways”.
“We believe a UN Security Council resolution could add some additional gravity and weight to the decisions that have already been made about opening these crossings,” Mr Kirby said.
Mr Kirby added that the White House wanted a resolution “as soon as possible”.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, said last week's agreement should not replace a UNSC resolution on delivering aid.
Since the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria early last week, 117 aid lorries have been delivered to the rebel-held region of north-west Syria to date. But UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres insists aid is not being provided quickly enough.
“Life-saving aid has not been getting into Syria at the speed and scale needed following last week’s earthquakes,” he said in a tweet.
More than 40,000 people have been killed by the February 5 earthquake and its aftermath, including about 4,400 in north-west Syria, a UN agency reported.
A Security Council resolution on increased aid to Syria would have to be taken up by Brazil and Switzerland, the two countries in charge of the Syria file.
For any resolution to be passed, nine of the 15 member nations would need to vote in favour without any vetoes from China, France, Russia, the UK or US.
The UN has delivered aid to people in north-west Syria through Turkey under a 2014 UNSC mandate. Russia, an ally of Syria, has said the previous mandate permitting one border crossing was sufficient.
Washington last week accused Moscow of complicating efforts to send humanitarian aid to Syria.
Under Mr Assad's agreement, Syria would reopen Bab Al Salam and Al Ra’ee from Turkey in addition to Bab Al Hawa.
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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