A South Korean hiker lost in dense Australian bushland for six days without food and in near-freezing temperatures has spoken about how dreams of a warm bed and her parents kept her alive. Joohee Han, 25, shared her tale of survival after she fell into a deep ravine while taking photographs from a mountaintop south of Cairns in northern Queensland state.

Rescuers had said her chances of staying alive in the rugged terrain, where temperatures dropped to 9C (48F), had been “near zero”. She disappeared on 1 June after telling friends she was going to climb Mount Tyson, but was only reported missing on Wednesday, with rescuers eventually finding her on Thursday.

Han told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Saturday she was knocked unconscious for several hours after falling, and woke up at night on the side of a steep slope. “I pretty much didn’t move from where I fell from because it was so steep. Even putting a foot wrong would’ve been instant death,” she said. “It still makes me teary thinking about that, thinking, ‘am I going to die?’ But there was so much I still wanted to do, food I wanted to eat, and people I wanted to see again. I thought of my parents so much.” Despite the fall from what she thought was about three storeys high, Han sustained only a broken tooth, bruises and cuts.(theguardian)…[+]

Grenada – The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) today announced that it will renew support for a programme designed to help countries in the Region strengthen their human and institutional capacity to design and implement policies which promote growth and reduce poverty. The Bank’s Board of Directors approved USD1 million (mn) towards the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) programme until 2022.

CARTAC is one of 10 regional technical assistance centres operated by IMF around the world. In the Caribbean Region, the Centre has supported capacity-building in public financial management, tax and customs policy and administration. Also, it has contributed to improving the quality of statistics in the real and external sectors to strengthen policymaking. “Since 2002, CDB has provided strong support to CARTAC’s operations, acknowledging the pressing need to foster sustainable growth and reduce poverty across our Borrowing Member Countries. The Bank is pleased to renew its support for the programme’s fifth phase, and looks forward to a continued partnership with IMF and other CARTAC development partners, who share a common goal of addressing skills gaps to improve institutional quality in our Region,” said Dr. Justin Ram, Director of Economics, CDB.

CARTAC has provided assistance with the implementation of Value Added Tax as a reliable and efficient revenue source in eight regional countries. Also, the Centre has supported the development of modern revenue administrations, including large taxpayers units; efforts to cross-match data to enhance tax compliance; and the implementation of the Automated System for Customs Data Acquisition, post-clearance audits, and trade facilitation. All of these initiatives contribute to improved fiscal resilience in the recipient countries.(CDB)…[+]

The Spanish newspaper El País has appointed its first female editor in its 42-year history at the end of a week that has also seen a record number of women chosen to serve in the new government’s cabinet.

Soledad Gallego-Díaz, 67, joined the paper shortly after its founding in 1976 and has been its correspondent in Brussels, London, Paris, Buenos Aires and New York. She has also served as deputy editor and ombudsman. She was nominated by El País’s board and received the backing of more than 97% of the paper’s staff in a vote on Thursday. Addressing the paper’s journalists on Friday morning, Gallego-Díaz reminded them that they existed to serve their readers. “They know what they can call on us for and what they can’t, and what they fundamentally want from us is that we don’t stray from the truth,” she said.

Her nomination still needs to be formally approved by the board of directors of El País, the biggest Spanish-language publication in the world and an institution both in Spain and Latin America. Gallego-Díaz replaces Antonio Caño, who occupied the post since 2014.(theguardian)…[+]

The TV chef Anthony Bourdain has died at the age of 61. The cable news network CNN, which hosted Bourdain’s globetrotting culinary travel guide Parts Unknown, confirmed Bourdain’s death on Friday and said it was suicide.

The CNN chief executive, Jeff Zucker, sent a note to staff saying the circumstances of the death are still unclear but that “we do know that Tony took his own life”. “Tony was an exceptional talent. A storyteller. A gifted writer. A world traveler. An adventurer. He brought something to CNN that no one else had ever brought before,” Zucker said in the letter. “This is a very, very sad day.” Bourdain was understood to have been in France working on an upcoming episode of his award-winning CNN series. His friend Eric Ripert, the French chef, found Bourdain unresponsive in his hotel room.(theguardian)…[+]

Grenada – The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), has approved a loan of USD5.6 million (mn) to assist the Government of Anguilla in meeting its fiscal obligations after the destruction caused by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The funds will allow the Government to focus on its recovery priorities, without having to divert resources to meet financing needs.

“Hurricane Irma resulted in a major economic setback for the island of Anguilla. The Government is now facing a financing gap, having had to meet increased spending needs, while at the same time facing a loss of revenue from a missed tourism season. This loan will provide a needed liquidity buffer for post-Irma rehabilitation during 2018, allowing focus to be placed on the critical social and economic needs of the country,” said Dr. Justin Ram, Director of Economics at CDB.

The loan is repayable over a period of 13 years, inclusive of a grace period of three years. Hurricane Irma caused approximately USD507 mn in damage on Anguilla, including to much of the island’s physical infrastructure, air and sea ports. In addition, the tourism industry—the main driver of growth in the country—suffered significant losses. These factors are expected to have a major negative impact on Anguilla’s revenues during 2018. Irma’s impact further deepened socioeconomic challenges in Anguilla as the Government worked toward recovery from a near decade-long fallout of the financial crisis, which threatened the island’s economic security due to contractions in the two main economic sectors—tourism and financial services.

In December 2017, CDB approved a loan of USD5 mn to assist in the restoration of electricity on Anguilla, and in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the Bank provided an Emergency Relief Grant of USD200,000 to the Government. Since 2000, CDB has provided USD4.3 mn in support for three disaster management projects in Anguilla.(CDB)…[+]

Battling cancer and attempting to get by on a fixed income in one of the world’s least affordable housing markets, he turned a Vancouver Tim Hortons into his makeshift home. Now his death – while sitting alone at a table of the ubiquitous Canadian coffee chain – has cast a spotlight on the toll the city’s housing crisis is taking on Vancouver’s most vulnerable.

Believed to be in his 70s and known to his friends as Ted, the man was a familiar figure at the Tim Hortons in the city’s downtown. Friends described him as a kind and easygoing man who had lived out the past decade at the 24-hour coffee shop, sleeping and eating at a table near the washroom. Witnesses said he may have spent hours slumped at his table last week, unresponsive, before a passerby alerted staff.

“It is a nearly unimaginable scenario,” said Jeremy Hunka of the Union Gospel Mission. “To have somebody dying for hours in a public restaurant at a table, where customers are drinking their coffee, coming and going, and nobody is noticing this person’s dying breath.” His death has prompted renewed scrutiny of the link between the city’s red hot property market – where the average cost of a detached home hovers around C$1.8m ($1.4m) – and levels of homelessness that have soared to record highs in recent years. The number of homeless in the city is continuing to grow at a pace of about five people a week, said Hunka. “We need more housing, more supports, and more compassion.”(theguardian)...[+]

Vladimir Putin on Thursday demanded that Russian officials be given consular access to Yulia Skripal and that Russian law enforcement agencies take part in the investigation into her poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent. Skripal and her father, a former double agent who was released from Russian prison in a spy swap with the UK in 2010, were poisoned with a novichok nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury in March. British officials have blamed Russia for the attack, calling it the first use of a military-grade nerve agent in Europe since the second world war.

“We would very much like to be given access to our citizens, to Yulia in this case, and to be given the opportunity to take part in the investigation,” Putin said during a nationally televised question-and-answer session on Thursday. Putin also said that both Skripal and her father would have died if a military-grade nerve agent was used.

Both Skripals were found unconscious and “critically unwell” after the poisoning. Doctors were concerned they could die or suffer irreversible brain damage. Both eventually recovered to the point where they could be discharged from the hospital. Sergei Skripal has not spoken publicly about the attack, while in a statement in May, his daughter asked for privacy. The recovery had been “slow and extremely painful,” she said, adding that she wanted to care for her father and eventually “return home to my country”.(theguardian)…[+]

Grenada – The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), the Government of Guyana and the University of Guyana have signed a USD150,000 agreement to support the institution’s efforts towards the construction of a new library. The agreement was signed on May 29, on the margins of the 48^th Annual Meeting of CDB’s Board of Governors, which took place in Grenada.

“We are optimistic that this process will place the University of Guyana further along the path to having new facilities that are environmentally resilient, socially inclusive and a place of study and lifelong learning for the men and women who attend this institution,” said Dr. W^m. Warren Smith, President, CDB.

“This project is small but very poignant and very important; is going towards the advancement of the library facilities and we hope that with this other donors and other development partners can come on board, just like CDB […] to help with the reshaping of the university,” said Hon. Winston Jordan, Minister of Finance, Guyana. “We know that the library of any university is the intellectual centerpiece of what it does by way of what it does in education and instruction, by way of what it does in research for public policy and social benefit, and we at the University of Guyana have been without that critical infrastructure value for a long time. And so as we move along the project of rebuilding our university this is a demonstration of ‘putting your money where your mouth is’, and we are delighted to be able to have that,” said Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Ivelaw Lloyd Griffith.

The seven-month technical assistance project for which the agreement was signed will allow the University to undertake a comprehensive assessment of its current library infrastructure, and prepare designs and cost estimates for construction of a new library. The designs will be supported by an Environmental and Social Management Framework to ensure a socially inclusive, environmentally sensitive and hazard- and climate-resilient new facility.(CDB)…[+]

The California judge in the Stanford sexual assault case has been recalled from office by local voters, an extremely rare outcome in the US court system and a major victory for activists who waged a two-year campaign against the official. Judge Aaron Persky faced international scrutiny in June of 2016 after he sentenced the ex-Stanford University student Brock Turner to six months in jail. Turner, whose name became synonymous with campus sexual assault across America, had been convicted of three felonies for assaulting an unconscious woman outside of a fraternity party on the elite campus in northern California.

The law prescribed a minimum of two years in state prison for Turner’s offenses, but Persky ordered more limited jail time and probation, which resulted in the then 20-year-old being released after three months. Persky, who recently said he had no regrets about the case, is the first judge to be recalled by US voters since 1977, and the first in California since 1932.

The Stanford case ignited international debates about sexual violence long before the #MeToo movement shone a light on assault, harassment and abuse in a wide range of industries. The case went viral after the victim read a powerful 7,000-word statement in court about rape culture and the trauma she endured in the aftermath of the attack and during the trial. The judge also received backlash for expressing sympathy to Turner during sentencing, saying: “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.” Turner’s father was also criticised for lamenting that his son was facing consequences for “20 minutes of action”.(theguardian)…[+]

Jeremy Corbyn has compared the government’s Brexit strategy to the chaos on Northern trains as he again used prime minister’s questions to pressure Theresa May on what the Labour leader said was ministerial deadlock on the issue.

In a tightly focused approach, the Labour leader asked May a series of specific policy questions about Brexit, which she pointedly refused to answer, bringing jeers from the opposition benches. In response, May repeatedly sought to bring the subject back to Labour’s own divisions on Brexit, prompting Corbyn to remark at one point: “The last time I looked at the order paper it said prime minister’s question time.” Corbyn began by noting that last month the Brexit secretary, David Davis, had promised a “detailed, ambitious and precise” white paper on the government’s Brexit negotiating position, asking whether it would be published before next week’s crucial votes on the EU withdrawal bill.(theguardian)…[+]