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Groton Daily Independent
Friday, July 28, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 028 ~ 48 of 54
including medical aid, and reducing delays.
“They said, yes, they would try to speed things up,” Lake said of the rival sides. “They made a commit-
ment and we will now hope that it is met.”
He said the U.N. agency chiefs failed to win assurances though on a key demand — that the govern-
ments pay health workers and teachers who haven’t received their salaries for months.
Lake said aid agencies have been paying per diems to health workers, as part of efforts to restore mini-
mal care, but that this is not a solution.
He said he tried to appeal to the self-interest of the political rivals.
Whoever emerges victorious will “inherit a disaster, a catastrophe that is constantly getting worse,” he
said. “They need to think about what kind of Yemen it is that they will someday need to rule.”
The con ict began after Shiite Houthi rebels swept into the capital of Sanaa in 2014 and overthrew President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognized government. In March 2015, a Saudi- led coalition began a campaign in support of Hadi’s govern and against the Houthis, allied with ousted
President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Since then, the Iranian-backed Houthis have been dislodged from most of the south, but remain in
control of Sanaa and much of the north.
In the southern part of the country, the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the Saudi-led coalition,
has set up its own security forces, running virtually a state-within-a-state and fueling the south’s inde- pendence movement.
Lake said it is “strategically incredibly stupid” for the leaders on both sides and regional actors to keep the ghting going. The con ict today is going to be perpetuated in the next generation, as children grow up with hate and deprivation.
The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, meanwhile, urged the international com- munity to step up political pressure to end the ghting.
The world must “wield in uence over the behavior of warring parties as a matter of urgency,” said ICRC president Peter Maurer in a statement.
Records: Child’s body decomposing on arrival at hospital
WYOMING, Mich. (AP) — The body of a 6-month-old western Michigan boy had already started to de- compose by the time his mother took him to a hospital after she had basically ignored him for two days in her sweltering home with no air conditioning, according to court records.
The temperature in Lovily Johnson’s Wyoming apartment was about 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) a few hours after Noah Johnson was pronounced dead on arrival July 19 at a Grand Rapids hospital.
The child weighed 12 pounds (5.5 kilograms) and also had a severe diaper rash after being left mostly unsupervised and strapped in a car seat upstairs in the home since the morning of July 17 while his mother smoked marijuana and visited friends, MLive.com and WOOD-TV reported.
Johnson, 22, is jailed on rst-degree murder and child abuse charges. She faces an Aug. 2 probable cause hearing.
Court records allege that on July 17 Noah was given a bottle around 10 a.m. and then was left alone for nearly 12 hours. The boy’s diaper was not changed during that time. The following day he was left alone from about 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and then until 5 a.m. the next day.
MLive.com reported Johnson didn’t call 911 when she returned home and found her son unresponsive. She called her father, who also didn’t call emergency services but did drive them to the hospital.
Johnson had previous contacts with the state that involved Noah and his older sister.
Child Protective Services led a complaint in March 2015 after Johnson’s newborn daughter tested posi- tive for marijuana. Johnson told authorities that she had smoked marijuana during her pregnancy.
Earlier this month, another complaint was led after Noah was left in an unlocked vehicle parked outside a video rental shop.
Johnson’s daughter, now 2 years old, was placed in state care last week.