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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017 HEALTH & SCIENCE Australia fires ease as damage mounts after record heat SYDNEY: Australia was counting the cost yesterday, with around a quarter still been destroyed as well,” he told above 47 were recorded across some conditions on record ... and yet, the fires to property and livestock yesterday after uncontained, said New South Wales reporters yesterday, without giving num- parts of the state on Sunday. Emergency have been contained, “ he said, adding firefighters battled weekend blazes in (NSW) state Rural Fire Service bers. While bushfires ravage the services sent out some 1.5 million phone that 24 were still raging. some of the hottest conditions on record. Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, as Australian landscape every year, land warnings to residents on the weekend in Communities suffered “enormous” At least 19 homes were destroyed in conditions began to cool. and sea temperatures have been pushed an effort to prevent fatalities. “To come loss of property and livestock, he eastern Australia as emergency teams “We know that there are going to be up due to climate change, increasing the away with no life lost, or serious injury is added. “(But)it could have been much were sent out to assess the damage after homes lost. We know that there are severity of fire seasons. just outstanding,” Fitzsimmons said. worse and were it not for those great a “catastrophic” weekend saw over 100 going to be plenty of other buildings A statewide NSW average tempera- Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull Australian firefighters, it could have fire outbreaks, with 2,500 firefighters that have been destroyed. “There is ture of 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees praised the work of emergency workers, been a truly disastrous weekend in deployed and thousands more on stand- machinery that has been destroyed and Fahrenheit) on Saturday set a new many of whom are volunteers. “We have New South Wales with those record by. About 80 fires continued to burn ... we are talking about livestock that has February record, while temperatures had in New South Wales the worst fire temperatures.” — AFP Down’s Syndrome model debuts label at NY fashion week NEW YORK: Madeline Stuart, the 20-year-old Australian model with Down’s Syndrome challenging stereotypes in the fashion industry, returned to New York on Sunday to strut the runway and debut her own label. Stuart relished her moment on the catwalk, opening with a happy little jiggle and blowing a kiss to the crowd at the end on a rainy, chilly night on the Lower East Side. For the debut of her “21 Reasons Why” label, she wore a white peplum-style top with blue leggings, her hair fluffed up in a top knot and glittery makeup around her eyes. It is a range of sports-casual lycra similar to outfits she is photographed in off the catwalk-leggings, tops and skirts with mottos such as “Fitness Life,” “Supermodel” and “I am Fashion Week.” It “is an inspirational line, it’s for everybody to feel com- fortable, to feel good about themselves,” her mother, Rosanne Stuart, told AFP. A picture of Madeline dressed in a ballgown from her attention-grabbing 2015 New York fashion week appearance featured on the front and back of a singlet and on black leggings. Alessia Cara’s “Scars To Your Beautiful”-an anthem to inclu- sion and acceptance regardless of appearance-played over the loudspeakers. The brand takes its name from the 21st chromosome, an extra one of which causes Down’s Syndrome, and reflects a desire to make people more diverse, caring and loving, and what Rosanne called everyone’s desire to be 21 years old. She said the clothes were completely the work of herself and Madeline. Madeline will be walking in another fashion show in New York yesterday, and also has plans to go to Paris fashion week, model in Los Angeles, show her line of clothing in Denver and model in London, her mother said. Madeline recently got a US work visa, “the only person with an intellectual disability” to have got one, according to her mother and the duo are in and out of the States a lot. The label took second slot in a triple bill in an arts space on the Lower East Side, opened by a flamboyant and emotional catwalk show featuring breast cancer survivors who dared to bare and closing with women in cocktail frocks accompanied by dogs in pet couture. The 16 cancer survivors modeled lingerie and loungewear from AnaOno, which designs specifically for women who have had mastectomies, breast reconstruction or breast surgery. Women of all colors and ages took part, the youngest of whom was 18 when she was diagnosed, in a bid to raise awareness of and boost research into stage four breast cancer. MULHOUSE, Haut-Rhin, France : An unnamed polar bear cub is pictured with its mother, Sessi, at the Mulhouse zoo, eastern France. The polar bear was born on They strutted the runway in platform boots and lingerie, some November 7, 2016. — AFP proudly whipping off their bras and covers to display breast reconstruction or double mastectomies to whoops and cheers from the supportive crowd. — AFP Air quality in Pristina unhealthy, cold winter bites PRISTINA: As the coldest winter in a at 152. “When we wash our white premature deaths and 318 new cases of “(Wooden) stoves are of a bad quality decade swept through the Western clothes and put them outside to dry chronic bronchitis each year. The situa- and have high emissions,” he said, Balkans, air pollution in Pristina caused them, very often we have to clean them tion is not much better in other states in adding that the government should ban by ailing power plants rose to unhealthy again because of the dust,” Besim the Balkans. According to official figures, the use of coal for heating to reduce levels that were sometimes worse than Sllamniku, who lives near the power poor air quality in Macedonia’s capital pollution. The Brussels-based Health those found in Beijing. The air quality plants, told Reuters. Kosovo, which has Skopje is blamed for the premature and Environment Alliance index measured by the United States the world’s fifth largest lignite reserves, death of 1,300 people each year. (HEAL)showed in a research study last embassy in Pristina exceeded 300 for relies on coal for power production and Bosnia is number five on the World year that around 60 percent of emis- several days in December, a level identi- many households use it for heating Health Organization (WHO) list of the sions in the Western Balkans reach fied as hazardous for health. The black because it is the cheapest fuel available. deadliest countries for air pollution with 92 European Union member states. “If the smog above Pristina is caused by emis- But excessive use of coal is taking its toll. deaths in every 100,000 citizens due to pol- EU wants to improve air quality it has to sions from coal-fired power plants on “We see a growing number of lution. It comes after Ukraine, Bulgaria, tackle the Balkans. It is difficult to have the outskirts of the city and excessive patients,” Skender Baca, a pulmonologist Belarus and Russia. Anes Podic, an activist clean air if another (country) is polluting use of coal for heating. at the state hospital, told Reuters. A 2013 of the Eko akcija organization in Sarajevo, you,” said Vlatka Matkovic Puljic, HEAL’s NEW YORK: Madeline Stuart, the 20-year-old Australian mod- The air quality index measured by the World Bank study showed air pollution said coal-fired plants and use of coal for health and energy officer for the el with Down’s Syndrome model at New York Fashion week. embassy was in the red again yesterday in Kosovo was estimated to cause 852 heating were the main pollutants in Bosnia. Balkans region. — Reuters.

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