The Australian city has topped the Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking of the most livable cities in the world for the seventh year in a row.
Melbourne received a score of 97.5 out of 100 on the annual list, which assesses stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure in 140 different cities.
While very little has changed at the top end of the list in the past 12 months, there have been some major changes further down.
Iceland's Reykjavik moved up 13 places from 50 to 37 with a score of 89.9. This significant jump is thought to stem from a rise in tourism as well as redevelopment. Amsterdam, which has seen a decline in crime rates in recent years, has also progressed, shifting up to 18th spot with a score of 94.0.
It's a slightly bleaker picture for Manchester and Stockholm, whose rankings have fallen as a result of high-profile terrorist attacks. Manchester dropped from 43 to 51 on the list, while Stockholm is down to 26, with an overall score of 92.1.
However the overall result is positive on a global scale as 12 cities have seen an improvement in livability, while just six have experienced a decline.
"While the improvement is marginal it does reflect a positive note for global livability, which has been beset by mounting instability over the course of the last decade," says Jon Copestake, editor of the survey.
"Many of the challenges to livability have not gone away, terror attacks have continued and geopolitical posturing has created further international uncertainty. Perhaps a turning point has been reached but livability levels remain low by historical standards."
Unsurprisingly the bottom of the list is made up of cities devastated by war, poverty and political unrest.
Syria's capital, Damascus, is at the very bottom, with an overall livability rating of just 30.2, while Nigeria's Lagos and Libya's Tripoli are just slightly ahead, with scores of 36 and 36.6 respectively.
Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army says move will allow aid deliveries amid reports government is encouraging refugees to flee
Rohingya insurgents declared a month-long unilateral ceasefire last night, saying it would allow aid to reach north-western Myanmar.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) had launched attacks on police posts and an army base last month, prompting retaliation by Myanmar’s military. The violence led to more than 270,000 refugees from the persecuted Rohingya Muslim community fleeing to Bangladesh over the last two weeks, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).
“Arsa strongly encourages all concerned humanitarian actors to resume their humanitarian assistance to all victims of the humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the ceasefire period,” the organisation said in a statement.
In some areas, Arsa militants seemed to have been operating without opposition. Dhaka Tribune journalist Adil Sakhawat told the Observer he had seen black-clothed Arsa militants in control of a Myanmar border outpost at Kutkhali on the Naf river, on the frontier with Bangladesh.
The free hand given to Arsa has led to fears that the government is encouraging refugees to flee across the border into Bangladesh, by providing safe passage through rebel-held crossing points.
According to Sakhawat, who had just returned from the Myanmar side of the border, the militants were armed only with wooden clubs as they watched a steady stream of refugees pass. From Kutkhali, it had been possible to see another border post controlled by Myanmar forces. “They are just watching,” he said.
That the Myanmar military had been allowing Arsa to operate freely in Kutkhali leads to the suspicion that they have opened at least one, if not two, corridors for the refugees to flee down safely, in an attempt to rid north Rakhine state of as many Rohingya as possible. With the Rohingya terrified of Myanmar forces, Arsa’s presence might be aimed at reassuring the refugees that Kutkhali is a safe way out of the country.
Observers suggest the rebels are too weak to seriously challenge the Myanmar armed forces. “Many members of the group have fled and, despite the casualties, they aren’t a very well-armed force,” said Matthew Smith of Fortify Rights, an NGO that has been documenting human rights abuses in Rakhine. “Rohingya know that this group has no capacity to defeat or even fight the Myanmar security forces.”
Yangon, which appears to be waging a campaign against Rohingya villages that many claim bears the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing, is intent on portraying its military campaign in north Rakhine as a response to attacks against nine border posts on 25 August.
Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, Win Myat Aye, said: “Only those who prove they have lived in Rakhine and are citizens would be accepted to come back.”
To the fleeing Rohingya, Arsa is little more than a phantom force or they do not want to talk about it. “I don’t know about Arsa,” said farmer Abdul Kalam, 33, from a village called Sita Porakka in Maungdaw, as he lay in a dirty hospital in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 25 miles from the border.
“I don’t know why the military attacked our village,” said Kalam, also from Sita Porakka. Around him, Bangladeshi military intelligence officers milled. Fleeing Rohingya speak of the Myanmar military murdering civilians with impunity, aided by local ethnic-Rakhine militiamen.
In the past few days, the first Rohingya from Rathedaung, 25 miles (40km) from the Naf river, have begun to cross into Bangladesh. Their stories suggest that in central Rakhine the military is waging an even more systematic and brutal campaign against civilians. In a mud hut in Kutupalong refugee camp, new arrivals from Rathedaung have found shelter with relatives. “In every family, there are two to four people who have been killed by the Burmese military,” says Neyamullah, 21.
According to the UNHCR, the refugees now face increasingly dire conditions as they attempt to rebuild their lives. Thousands of Rohingya are spilling down the road that links Ukhia and Gumdum, waiting for local Bangladeshis to give them food or building materials. Local truckers, who have plied a brisk trade ferrying Rohingya to the refugee camps, occasionally lob a sack of puffed rice onto the road as a gesture of support.
“We need food urgently,” said Jaheed Hussain, 45, crouched in a shelter that he has been building. Beside him, a plastic bag with Burmese characters was stuck in the mud. “I have nothing left,” he said. Jaheed’s shelter hugs the side of the highest hill in Teing Kali. From the top he can see the smoke still billowing from the village in Myanmar that he fled from on 25 August.
“The Rohingya need food, medical support and shelter,” said Nur Khan Liton, a Bangladeshi human rights activist. “The international community is ignoring people’s basic needs.”
Many of those crossing into Bangladesh arrive destitute. “They want 10,000 Bangladeshi taka ($122) to take us,” said one new arrival, bemoaning the price that Bangladeshi fisherman are asking to take them across the river.
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Florida facing its 'most catastrophic' storm ever, as Irma arrives
‘Leave now,’ governor warns, with hurricane bearing down on Keys after killing 25 in wave of Caribbean devastation
Florida faces the “most catastrophic” storm in its history as Hurricane Irma prepares to unleash devastating force on the state, including 120mph winds, life-threatening sea surges that could submerge buildings and an advance battery of tornadoes.
“You need to leave – not tonight, not in an hour, right now,” Governor Rick Scott commanded in a press conference, 12 hours before the cyclone was expected to make landfall on Sunday morning. “This is the most catastrophic storm the state has ever seen.”
The US national hurricane centre said in its 8pm Saturday update on Irma that “heavy squalls with embedded tornadoes” were already sweeping across south Florida. The US National Weather Service later said the first hurricane-force wind gust had been recorded in the Florida Keys, a low-lying island chain off the state’s southern coast.
Irma dropped to a category three hurricane but could regain its category four intensity as the bathtub-warm seawater of nearly 32C (90F) will enable the storm to build strength.
It was forecast to hit the Keys first, then again near Cape Coral or Fort Myers, and then a third time near Tampa Bay on its path up Florida’s west coast. Weather stations in Marathon, a city in the Keys, reported sustained winds of 51mph (81kmh) with a gust to 71mph (115kmh) on Saturday night.
In Florida’s south-west, officials expected sea surges as high as 15ft (4.5 metres), which can rapidly rise and fall.
“Fifteen feet is devastating and will cover your house,” Scott said. “Do not think the storm is over when the wind slows down. The storm surge will rush in and it could kill you.”
He said at least 76,000 people were without power as the 350 miles (560km) wide storm unleashes winds and rain on the state. Officials said the window for people in evacuation zones was shutting, with gas stations closing and bridges blocked off.
More than seven million people were ordered to flee their homes in several states, including nearly a third of Florida’s population. Around 50,000 people were in 300 shelters around the state, counties enacted curfews and power providers have already begun to struggle with demand.
In Miami, Guardian reporter Richard Luscombe was sheltering with his family in a 5ft x 5ft interior closet with no windows, away from exterior walls and doors.
“My mobile phone has been screaming its high-pitched alarm every 10 minutes over the last hour or so with dire warnings from the National Weather Service to take cover NOW because of tornadic thunderstorms in the area,” he said.
“The threat of tornados comes from thunderstorms in Hurricane Irma’s violent outer bands, which have been circling over Miami-Dade and Broward counties for most of the day as the storm moves ever closer.
“It’s likely to be a long night in the closet with the kids.”
Donald Trump was monitoring the progress of the storm from the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland where he held a cabinet meeting.
In Palm Beach, Trump’s waterfront Mar-a-Lago estate was under evacuation order. “This is a storm of enormous destructive power, and I ask everyone in the storm*s path to heed ALL instructions from government officials,” Trump said on Twitter.
Forecasters said the tropical cyclone would maintain hurricane strength well into Georgia on Monday.
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It leaves behind a trail of devastation in the Caribbean, with 25 confirmed killed, including 11 people on French St Martin and St Barts, four in the US Virgin Islands, three on Puerto Rico, two on Dutch St Maarten, one person in Anguilla and a two-year-old in Barbuda.
Its most recent victim, Cuba, experienced 125mph (200kmh) winds on Saturday that damaged hotels in the island’s best-known beach resorts and forced evacuations as far along the coast as low-lying areas of the capital Havana.
Power was out and mobile phone service was spotty in many regions as Irma, the first category five storm to make landfall on the island since 1932, passed over. The island’s communist government ordered the evacuation of more than a million people from its path.
In the fishing town of Caibarien, streets were carpeted with fresh green seaweed as the water receded, people said it was the strongest cyclone ever to hit the town.
Irma’s turn northward was expected to occur around 150 miles (240km) east of the capital. Nevertheless, authorities shut off power in large parts of the city and evacuated around 10,000 people from central Havana near the Malecon seawall because of fears of flooding from the storm surge.
By Saturday evening, the sea had penetrated two blocks over parts of the city’s historic seafront boulevard, and the waters were expected to advance further as the surge grew. Restaurants on the seaside drive pulled down their shutters and stacked sandbags.
The Caribbean islands will barely have time to take stock before category four Hurricane Jose threatens landfall, complicating relief efforts for islands that have only just emerged from Irma’s winds.
Jose spared Barbuda, where the prime minister estimated 90% of buildings were destroyed by Irma a few days earlier.
Although Jose is weaker and moving away from the Islands, high winds are likely to hit Puerto Rico and possibly Dominican Republic as soon as Sunday morning local time.
However, residents in the British Virgin Islands described a scene of “utter devastation” in the wake of Irma and pleaded for the UK government to send more food, water and shelter.
Natalie Drury, who lives with her husband in Tortola, said she was in a “state of disbelief” about the destruction left by the storm. Homes and businesses had been destroyed, she said, the streets were strewn with sewage and looters had emptied shops.
“We desperately need help as soon as possible. Food, water, shelter. I’m extremely concerned about health and safety – there is sewage absolutely everywhere.
“It’s worse than anyone could have imagined. The country is going to need some serious help. I have no idea how many people have died. We were told yesterday it’s gone up to 10, but obviously that’s all rumours. Nobody knows yet.”
Hurricane Irma has strengthened to a category four storm as it nears Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 130mph (209km/h).
Wind gusts close to hurricane force are already battering islands in Florida's south, with the mainland due to be hit in the coming hours.
Water levels are already rising on the coast of the US state where a huge storm surge is expected.
At least 25 people died when Irma earlier hit several Caribbean islands.
In Florida, 6.3 million people - about 30% of the state's population - had been told to evacuate. But on Saturday, the state governor said it was now too late to leave for anyone remaining.
The National Hurricane Center has issued warnings against "life-threatening" storm surges in the Florida Keys - a chain of small islands in Florida's south - as well as Tampa Bay and other coastal areas.
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More than 200,000 homes in the state have been affected by power outages, with 164,000 outages in Miami Dade county alone, according to utilities company Florida Power & Light.
What is happening in Florida?
Irma is predicted to hit the coast on Sunday morning, but the outer bands are already affecting the south of the state and central Miami is being lashed by heavy rain.
The Florida Keys have suffered some minor damage and are expected to bear the brunt of the storm in the coming hours.
The head of emergencies agency Fema, Brock Long, told CNN there were "no safe areas within the Keys".
"You put your life in your own hands by not evacuating," he added.
"If you're in an evacuation zone, you've got to get to a shelter need to get to a shelter... there's not many hours left", Florida Governor Rick Scott warned residents.
"The winds are coming, there is not gonna be a lot of time now to be able to drive very far."
The western Gulf coast is expected to be worst affected, with cities such as Tampa and St Petersburg in the path of the storm.
The Tampa Bay area, with a population of about three million, has not been hit by a major hurricane since 1921.
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Some 50,000 people have gone to shelters throughout the state, the governor said. Media reports say shelters in some areas have been filling up quickly and some people have been turned away.
Miami city and Broward county have imposed curfews to help clear the roads of traffic.
Which other areas have already been hit?
Cuba: Officials have reported "significant damage", without giving further details, but said there were no confirmed casualties yet, the AFP news agency reports
St Martin and St Barthelemy: Six out of 10 homes on St Martin, an island shared between France and the Netherlands, now uninhabitable, French officials say. They said nine people had died and seven were missing in the French territories, while two are known to have died in Dutch Sint Maarten
Turks and Caicos Islands: Widespread damage, although extent unclear
Barbuda: The small island is said to be "barely habitable", with 95% of the buildings damaged. Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne estimates reconstruction will cost $100m (£80m). One death has been confirmed
Anguilla: Extensive damage with one person confirmed dead
Puerto Rico: More than 6,000 residents of the US territory are in shelters and many more without power. At least three people have died
British Virgin Islands:Widespread damage reported, and five dead
US Virgin Islands: Damage to infrastructure was said to be widespread, with four deaths confirmed
Haiti and the Dominican Republic: Both battered by the storm, but neither had as much damage as initially feared
What about Hurricanes Jose and Katia?
Another storm, Jose, further out in the Atlantic behind Irma, is now a category four hurricane, with winds of up to 145mph.
It is following a similar path to Irma and already hampering relief efforts in some of the worst affected areas.
Residents of Barbuda, left the island as Jose approached but it is no longer expected to hit.
However, tropical storm warnings are in place for St Martin and St Barthelemy, both also hit by Irma.
Hurricane Katia, in the Gulf of Mexico, a category one storm with winds of up to 75mph, made landfall on the Mexican Gulf coast in the state of Veracruz late on Friday.
Powerful guardian of the most sacred place in the city, for almost 2,000 years, Castel Sant’Angelo has towered over the Tiber, first as a symbol of Rome’s imperial power, later as papal fortress. The stones that form it tell a story of stratification, transformation and fascinating events that have occurred over the centuries.
It was built in 123 AD by Emperor Hadrian as a monumental tomb for himself and his family. The land on which it was built had been used for burial purposes since ancient times and was in a favorable position next to the river. It was connected to land by a bridge named “Helius”, one of the names given to the emperor. But Hadrian died before the construction was finished and the emperor Antoninus Pius was the one who completed it and used it as sepulchre for his family members, of which his son, emperor Caracalla, was the most famous.
The monument consisted of three blocks, one on top of the other, and must have been an imposing sight. On its summit was a statue of Hadrian, dressed as the sun god, driving a bronze four-horse chariot. The whole gigantic building was covered with precious marble and statues. In the Middle Ages, its function changed totally: the enormous mausoleum was transformed into a fortress and over the next 10 centuries modified many times.
During that era, it was a fairly common defensive technique to reuse Roman monuments (theaters, monumental tombs, etc.) as part of the city walls to reinforce certain portions, or as military outposts in the areas most vulnerable to enemy attack. Emperor Aurelian, in 271 AD, made it part of the new system of walls and towers around the city.
Its strategic position controlling northern access to the city made it a fundamentally important outpost, thus Castel Sant’Angelo, reinforced with extra towers and walls, became a defensive bastion during the time of the barbarian invasions, and by the Middle Ages, had already been transformed into an unassailable fortress.
The Castle maintained its defensive role for centuries and its importance grew even more when the neighborhood called “Borgo” sprang up around the tomb of Saint Peter. Pope Leo III surrounded it with high walls called the Leonine walls, founding a fortified citadel around the Vatican that was ultimately completed by Pope Leo IV.
During medieval times, Rome’s most powerful families fought for control over Castel Sant’Angelo up until the return of the papal court from its long sojourn in Avignon in the second half of the 1300s, when it passed permanently into the hands of the pontiffs. Upon his return from France, Pope Urban V declared that the only guarantee of control over Rome was to give him the keys to the Castle. He defended it with a garrison of French soldiers but the population rose up against him, occupied the Castle and even tried to raze it to the ground.
Boniface IX turned it into his residence, making the unassailable fortress a symbol of the worldly power of the popes, and connected it to the outside with a drawbridge. As with all fortresses, the castle had everything necessary within its walls in case of siege: huge water cisterns, granaries, even a mill. It also had an escape route created by the popes: the so-called “Passetto di Borgo”, a secret corridor that connected it to the Leonine walls and the Vatican, a convenient passageway that guaranteed the safety of the pope in dangerous situations, something that certainly wasn’t unusual in turbulent medieval Rome. There were many popes who used it —and in a hurry, too: the Borgia Pope Alexander VI used it to escape to the castle and from Charles VIII troops. More famous was scurrying Clement VII who used it to escape the Landsknechts during the even more famous Sack of Rome in 1527, running across it, dodging a hailstorm of gunshot as no other pope had ever done before.
Castel Sant’Angelo was considered so difficult to attack that the popes decided that there was no better place to store their treasures and so created the “Hall of the Treasury”, in which was placed an enormous chest. This gigantic safe was built directly inside the treasury room and was made much larger than the doorway so that possible evil-doers wouldn’t be able to spirit the whole thing away out the door.
At the beginning of the 16th century, during the reign of Pope Alexander VI, the castle was completely transformed. This was when it became a powerful war machine: the Roman foundations were turned into huge bastions, the accessway over the bridge was made more secure with the construction of a round tower, and all around the walls, the waters of the Tiber were used to create a moat.
During the Renaissance, Michelangelo had a hand in making the papal apartments ever more opulent. Finally, Bernini rendered the whole scene still more spectacular: he reinvented the bridge that connected the castle to land, that which became Sant’Angelo Bridge, and made it an obligatory passageway for the pilgrims crossing the Tiber, protected by the reassuring gaze of ten beautiful angels that carried symbols of the passion of Christ.
The presence of angels wasn’t enough to wipe out the memory of the atrocities committed within the castle, however: in its courtyards, executions by decapitation were carried out and the heads of the unfortunates were hung from the parapets as a warning to the populace; in the dark, dank dungeons of the castle, the most horrible tortures imaginable were used even on illustrious names like Giordano Bruno, accused of heresy and burned at the stake in Campo de’ Fiori; count Cagliostro, wizard, masonic alchemist and healer, was put more than once into prison there for scams and robberies during his rather adventurous life, finally being closed up inside Castel Sant’Angelo on accusations of heresy.
The only one who managed to escape the fortress was Benvenuto Cellini, goldsmith, sculptor and writer, imprisoned for having supposedly stolen goods from the pope, breaking his leg during the escape.
Even music has celebrated the monument: Castel Sant’Angelo is the scene of the tragic epilogue of Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca”, in which the protagonist, wild with pain for the loss of her lover and chased by the guards, throws herself from the castle walls.
Whoever comes to Rome today and makes their way towards the Vatican, can’t help but raise their eyes to admire this astounding work that has changed over the centuries and that no longer needs to defend itself; the reassuring presence of the angel on the highest terrace, with clothes and hair moved by the wind, still watches over and protects the city.
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