Australia launches campaign to end elder abuse
Canberra, July 22: The Australian government has launched a new campaign to end elder abuse.
In a speech to the National Elder Abuse Conference in Adelaide on Monday, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus described the exploitation of older Australians as a shameful and often hidden form of cruelty and mistreatment, Xinhua news agency reported.
He announced 4.8 million Australian dollars ( $3.2 million) in funding for a national advertising campaign to raise awareness about elder abuse.
According to a government study published in 2021, one in six older Australians had experienced abuse in the previous 12 months but over 60 per cent did not seek help or advice.
“If an older person does not feel that they can reach out for help, then we have failed them,” Dreyfus said on Monday. “In addition to physical abuse, elder abuse can involve psychological or emotional abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse or neglect. It is ugly, it is unacceptable and it must be eliminated.” (IANS)
Boeing stays close to the ground at UK air show
London, July 22: European planemaker Airbus plans to show off its newest passenger jet with daily flight demonstrations during one of the world’s biggest aviation trade fairs. But an ongoing safety and manufacturing crisis has rival Boeing keeping a lower profile at the Farnborough International Air Show. The beleaguered American company isn’t bringing any jetliners to take part in aerial displays at the event that kicks off Monday near London. The president of Boeing’s international strategy and operations division said the company remained focused on satisfying the concerns of U.S. regulators and “meeting our customer commitments” rather than selling a lot of planes. (AP)
Cyprus displays ancient looted antiquities
Nicosia, July 22: Cyprus on Monday put on display artifacts – some of them thousands of years old – that were returned after a Turkish art dealer looted them from the ethnically divided island nation decades ago.
Aydin Dikmen took the artifacts from the country’s breakaway north in the years after Cyprus’ split in 1974, when Turkiye invaded following a coup mounted by supporters of union with Greece. The antiquities were kept in Germany after authorities there seized them in 1997, and protracted legal battles secured their repatriation in three batches, the last one this year. Addressing the unveiling ceremony at Cyprus’ archaeological museum, President Nikos Christodoulides said the destruction of a country’s cultural heritage as evidenced in recent conflicts becomes a “deliberate campaign of cultural and religious cleansing that aims to eliminate identity”. Among the 60 most recently returned artifacts put on display include jewellery from the Chalcolithic Period between 3500-1500 BC and Bronze Age bird-shaped idols. Antiquities that Dikmen also looted but were returned years ago include 1,500-year-old mosaics of Saints Luke, Mark, Matthew and James. (AP)
