Category: NEWS

ISTANBUL – A snowstorm has battered Istanbul since Thursday, disrupting daily life, causing delays in air, sea, and land transportation, and forcing schools to close for a second day.

The storm brought a significant drop in temperature and heavy snowfall, peaking on Friday.

Disruptions were reported at Istanbul’s two major airports, namely Istanbul Airport on the European side and Sabiha Gokcen Airport on the Asian side.

Snow-covered runways caused some flights to circle in the air, with some aircraft reporting fuel emergencies.

Sabiha Gokcen Airport authorities said 45 percent of Friday’s flights were canceled, along with 30 percent on Saturday and 10 percent on Sunday. Turkish Airlines also reported cancellations at both Sabiha Gokcen and Istanbul Airports.

Local media reported minor accidents on icy roads, while ferry services experienced cancellations and delays.

Istanbul Governor Davut Gul announced that all educational institutions in the city would remain closed on Friday. Motorcycle vehicles and couriers were also banned from traffic from Friday midnight until further notice.

The Istanbul Disaster Response Plan is in operation across all 39 districts, with efforts to salt roads and clear snow-covered areas ongoing, Gul said.

The Istanbul Governor’s Office said over 1,000 homeless people had been placed in shelters.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu urged citizens to avoid driving, use public transport, or refrain from going outside unless absolutely necessary.

Authorities forecast the snowstorm will last until Monday morning, with temperatures fluctuating below zero at night.

XINHUA

COLOMBO – Two people were killed in a wild elephant attack in Aralaganwila in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province on Thursday night, local media reported on Friday, citing police.

The victims were identified as a 72-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman from the same family.

Sri Lanka has been grappling with a severe human-elephant conflict for years. Between 2015 and 2024, 3,477 wild elephants and 1,190 people have died as a result of the crisis, Minister of Environment Dammika Patabendi told the parliament earlier this month.

The North Central Province has recorded the highest number of human-elephant conflict incidents in the country. Of the province’s 29 Divisional Secretariat Divisions, 27 have seen a sharp rise in such conflicts in recent years.

XINHUA

MOSCOW – Lapan warga Rusia dipenjarakan kerana melakukan serangan pembakaran dan merancang tindakan pengganas didalangi oleh perkhidmatan khas Ukraine, kata Perkhidmatan Keselamatan Persekutuan Rusia (FSB) pada Jumaat.

Mereka “melakukan serangan pembakaran ke atas kemudahan infrastruktur pengangkutan dan organisasi sukarelawan” dan merancang untuk melakukan tindakan pengganas di tapak penempatan tentera atas arahan daripada perkhidmatan khas Ukraine, kata FSB dalam satu kenyataan.

Lapan orang itu menerima hukuman dari 16 hingga 22 tahun atas tuduhan pengkhianatan dan keganasan, tambahnya.

XINHUA

MOSCOW – Eight Russian citizens have been jailed for carrying out arson attacks and planning terrorist acts orchestrated by Ukrainian special services, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday.

They “carried out arson attacks on transport infrastructure facilities and volunteer organizations” and planned to commit terrorist acts on military deployment sites on orders from Ukrainian special services, FSB said in a statement.

The eight people received sentences from 16 to 22 years on treason and terrorism charges, it added.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM – Israel said on Thursday that forensic analysis had confirmed that the body it received from Hamas was not that of hostage Shiri Bibas, whose remains were supposed to be handed over along with those of her two children and another Israeli man earlier in the day.

In a statement, the Israeli military said the identification process conducted by the country’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine revealed that the body was not that of any known hostage. “This is an anonymous and unidentified body,” it said.

The military accused Hamas of breaching the ceasefire agreement by failing to return the remains of four hostages.

The remains of Bibas’ two sons were identified. Ariel was four years old when he was killed, and Kfir Bibas was 10 months old.

The military said that “based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023.”

The children were kidnapped alongside their mother from their home in kibbutz Nir Oz. Their father, Yarden Bibas, was taken separately but was released under the ceasefire agreement on Feb. 1.

Besides, the body of another hostage, Oded Lifshitz, a retired journalist and peace activist, was identified earlier on Thursday.

XINHUA

SYDNEY – Authorities in the Australian state of Queensland have reported a fifth death from melioidosis linked to heavy rainfall.

An elderly person from the city of Townsville, over 1,000 km northwest of Brisbane, has become the fifth person in the state’s tropical northern region to die of melioidosis in the current wet season, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted Queensland Health as saying on Friday.

Melioidosis is a rare tropical disease associated with the wet season that is spread through contact with contaminated water, soil and air.

Townsville and its surrounding regions were hit by catastrophic damaging flooding earlier in February.

Queensland Health on Feb. 12 said that there had been two deaths from melioidosis in the state’s far north since the start of the wet season in November.

On Wednesday it confirmed two more deaths, both in the city of Cairns north of Townsville, and reported that there had been 41 cases of melioidosis since Jan. 1.

Steven Donohue, director of the Townsville Public Health Unit, said on Friday that more than 20 cases have been recorded in the local area in February.

He told the ABC that people cleaning up from the floods should wear boots, long pants and long sleeves and wear a mask when using hoses.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM – Israeli police on Thursday reported a series of explosions on buses in central Israel in what they said appeared to be a militant attack. No injuries were reported.

Police spokesman Asi Aharoni told Channel 13 TV that explosives were found on two other buses. He called on the public to be alert and report any suspicious objects to authorities.

The explosions took place just hours after Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza — the first of eight hostages that Israel believes are dead and to be returned during the current phase of the ceasefire.

Police rushed forces to the scene in Bat Yam, a Tel Aviv suburb, as they searched for suspects. Police spokesman Haim Sargrof says drivers have scanned all buses and trains, and those scans are complete.

“We need to determine if a single suspect placed explosives on a number of buses, or if there were multiple suspects,” he said.

Tzvika Brot, mayor of Bat Yam, said it was a miracle that no one was hurt. He said the buses had finished their routes and were in a parking lot. He said one of the unexploded bombs was being defused in the nearby town of Holon.

Sargrof said the explosives matched explosives used in the West Bank, but he declined to elaborate.

Israel has repeatedly carried out army raids on suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. As part of that crackdown, it has greatly restricted entry into Israel for Palestinians from the occupied territory.

Since the ceasefire in Gaza took effect on Jan. 19, Israel has been conducting a broad military offensive against Palestinian militants in the West Bank. In the past, militants have entered Israel and carried out shootings and bombings in Israeli cities.

AN-AP/Feb 20, 2025

BEIRUT – Israel said Friday it struck crossings on the Lebanon-Syria border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons, with a Syria war monitor reporting an unspecified number of people wounded in the attack.

The Israeli military said its air forces “struck crossing points in the area of the Lebanon-Syria border” used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group “in attempts to smuggle weapons into Lebanese territory.”

“These activities constitute a blatant violation of the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon,” the statement added.

A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been in place since November 27, after more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war. Both sides have accused the other of violating the deal.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the overnight strikes put an “illegal crossing” near Lebanon’s frontier town of Wadi Khaled, which borders Syria’s Homs province, “out of service” and wounded a number of people.

The raids came “after a convoy of smugglers’ vehicles was observed headed from Syria toward Lebanon,” added the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman reported “heavy material damage to buildings and vehicles.”

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported “enemy aircraft flying at low altitude over the city of Hermel” and villages in the Bekaa Valley in the country’s northeast near the Syrian border.

Under the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in south Lebanon alongside UN peacekeepers as the Israeli army withdrew over a 60-day period that was later extended to February 18.

Hezbollah was to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle remaining military infrastructure in the south.

Israel announced just before the latest deadline that it would temporarily keep troops in “five strategic points” near the border.

Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike targeting a tunnel on the Syria-Lebanon border used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons.

In January, Israel carried out air strikes in Lebanon targeting areas in the east and south according to Lebanese state media, with the Israeli military saying it hit Hezbollah targets including smuggling routes along the border with Syria.

Syria shares a 330-kilometer (205-mile) border with Lebanon, with no official demarcation.

Hezbollah lost a supply route when opposition forces in December ousted Bashar Assad in Syria, where Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes since war broke out in 2011.

Hezbollah holds sway in large parts of the Lebanese-Syrian border region, and had fought alongside Assad’s troops during the war.

AN-AFP

BEIRUT – Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed Thursday when leftover munitions exploded inside a house in northwest Syrian Arab Republic, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the deadly blast a day after another organization said two-thirds of Syrians risked being killed or wounded by unexploded ordnance.

“Seven civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when leftover munitions stored inside a house” in Idlib province exploded, said the Observatory, adding the toll was provisional.

An AFP correspondent saw civil defense personnel working to remove rubble and pull victims from the destroyed house.

Mohammed Ibrahim, from the civil defense in Idlib, said they received a report “of an explosion of unknown provenance in Nayrab, and when teams headed to the site, they found unexploded ordnance.”

Syria’s conflict has killed more than half a million people and forced millions from their homes since erupting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Non-governmental organization Humanity and Inclusion said Wednesday that of the around one million munitions that have landed or been planted across Syria since then, experts estimate that 100,000 to 300,000 had never detonated.

It’s “an absolute disaster,” said HI’s Syria program director Danila Zizi, noting “more than 15 million people (are) at risk” out of the country’s estimated population of some 23 million.

As hundreds of thousands of Syrians return to their homes after Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, “urgent action is needed to mitigate the risk of accident,” HI said.

AN-AFP/Feb 20, 2025

HRADEE KRALOVE, Czech Republic – A 16-year-old boy killed two women in a knife attack at a discount shop in the Czech Republic on Thursday, police said, adding the motive remained unclear.

Police arrested the teenager, a Czech national, minutes after the attack at an Action branch on the outskirts of Hradec Kralove, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Prague.

“Both of those attacked suffered injuries which were so serious that they could not be saved despite all efforts of the rescuers,” police said on X.

Police spokeswoman Iva Kormosova said the teenager attacked a shop assistant at the counter and another worker in a service area of the store.

The attacker’s motive was unclear but that there was nothing to indicate a terror attack, police said.
“The information we have for now seems to suggest he chose the victims randomly,” they added.

Rescuers received the first call about 0730 GMT, half an hour after the shop had opened.

“When we arrived, we found two people stabbed,” Anatolij Truhlar, head doctor of the local air rescue service, told the private CNN Prima News TV channel.

“Unfortunately, despite 40 minutes of resuscitation efforts, both persons died,” he added.
Police were deployed outside the Action discount store where a lone candle flickered, and a part of an adjacent car park was closed with police tape until Thursday afternoon.

“I think you’re not safe anywhere, given what’s going on around us,” passer-by Adela Ptackova told AFP.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed condolences to the families of the victims, calling the murders “an incomprehensible, horrendous act.”

Terror attacks are rare in the Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people, but in 2023 a student killed 14 people and wounded 25 in a shooting rampage at a Prague university.

The Czech Republic’s southern neighbor Austria is reeling from the murder of a teenager in a knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker in the city of Villach at the weekend.

AN-AFP/Feb 20, 2025

RAMALLAH – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed Wednesday that Palestine is not for sale and that no part of its land, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or Jerusalem, will be abandoned.

In a statement following a meeting of the Fatah Central Committee in Ramallah, Abbas rejected any attempts to displace the Palestinian people and stressed adherence to international law and the Arab Peace Initiative as the basis for any political solution.

The Fatah Central Committee also reiterated its rejection of any displacement attempts and stressed that Palestinians would resist such efforts through their commitment to their national cause under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The committee praised Jordan and Egypt for rejecting calls for displacement and emphasized the importance of the upcoming emergency Arab summit to address this issue and approve a reconstruction plan for Gaza.

It also highlighted the need for unity behind the PLO to counter Israeli policies and ensure the realization of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

XINHUA

MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday said she does not fear U.S. President Donald Trump and his threats of mass deportations, steep trade tariffs and military “intervention” to combat the drug cartels, as she has the backing of the Mexican people.

During a daily press conference, when asked if the Mexican president feared Trump’s threats, Sheinbaum responded, “No. I have the support of the people. When one has certainty and conviction and knows what one’s principles are, why would one be afraid?”

She allayed concerns over Trump’s measures, noting there is ongoing dialogue between the two governments.

The president said she would never allow Mexico’s sovereignty to be violated, but “if it were to be violated, there is an entire country to defend the homeland.”

Sheinbaum’s statements come one day after Trump said Mexico “is run by drug cartels,” criminal organizations the U.S. government has designated as terrorists.

Trump also accused Mexican authorities of “allowing millions of people” to enter the United States illegally and offered his “help” to stem the flow of immigration.

Officials from both countries will meet in Washington this week to negotiate the suspension of tariffs on Mexican products and strategies to combat drug trafficking, particularly the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

Sheinbaum affirmed that her government does not defend drug cartels or organized crime, saying, “What we defend is sovereignty.”

Mexico will not accept any “extraterritorial measures” that arise from designating the cartels as terrorist organizations, she stated.

XINHUA

BOGOTA – An explosion in downtown Bogota, Colombia’s capital, killed one person and injured seven others on Tuesday night, the city’s mayor, Carlos Fernando Galan, confirmed Wednesday.

“We are supporting @PoliciaBogota to find those responsible for activating, at about 10 pm (Tuesday), an explosive device in the San Bernardo neighborhood. Eight people were injured and were transferred to the Santa Clara Hospital, where one, unfortunately, died,” Galan posted on social media platform X.

The commander of the Metropolitan Police of Bogota, William Lara, said from the scene of the explosion that investigators were looking into the incident.

“Our Judicial Police and Anti-Explosives technicians are verifying whether it corresponds to an improvised device or an industrial explosive device,” he said, adding authorities had begun reviewing security cameras in the area.

Police are also gathering eyewitness accounts of the explosion to quickly identify those responsible, said the police chief.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said it killed three “wanted terrorists” in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, and a Palestinian official reported that Israeli forces were holding the bodies of three people.

Soldiers “eliminated three wanted terrorists in the area of Al Faraa, who sold weapons for terror purposes,” the military said in a statement.

“Two additional wanted individuals were apprehended.”

A Palestinian official confirmed that three people had been killed by Israeli forces.

“Three people were assassinated, and their bodies are being held” by the Israeli forces, Tubas governor Ahmad Al-Asaad told AFP.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has escalated since the October 2023 outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip.

At least 897 Palestinians including militants have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, according to an AFP tally based on figures provided by the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah.

At least 32 Israelis, including some soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or confrontations during Israeli operations in the West Bank over the same period, according to official Israeli figures.

AN-AFP

MADRID – Spanish police said Wednesday they had discovered a tunnel running from Moroccan territory to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta as part of an operation targeting suspected trafficking of hashish.

The police stated the underground gallery, several dozen meters long and 12 meters deep, was uncovered during a search of a warehouse in an industrial zone of Ceuta, a small territory located on Morocco’s northern Mediterranean coast opposite mainland Spain.

“It is a narrow construction, reinforced with wood which could have been used to transport drugs between Morocco and Spain,” said a statement from the Civil Guard police force.

Spanish media reported the tunnel as measuring at least 50 meters long, running just inside Moroccan territory.

It could, however, prove even longer, with authorities yet to determine where it ends.

The discovery came during an operation targeting a number of criminal gangs accused of smuggling hashish into Spain in lorries.

The police said the crackdown, dubbed Operation Hades, has led to the arrest of 14 people over the past three weeks, including two policemen, and the discovery of 6,000 kilos of the drug.

AN-AFP

MARANA, Ariz. — A midair collision involving two small planes in southern Arizona killed at least two people Wednesday morning, authorities said.

Federal air-safety investigators said two people were on board each plane as they collided near Marana Regional Airport on the outskirts of Tucson.

One plane landed uneventfully with the other hit the ground near a runway and catching fire, the National Transportation Safety Board said, based on preliminary information before its investigators had arrived.

The Marana Police Department confirmed two deaths after responding to the crash. The Associated Press left a message with a police spokesperson seeking additional details.

Last week in Arizona, one of two pilots died on a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil after the aircraft veered off a runway in Scottsdale and hit a business jet.

Four major aviation disasters have occurred in North America in the last month. The most recent involved a Delta jet that flipped on its roof while landing in Toronto and the deadly crash of a commuter plane in Alaska.

In late January, 67 people aboard an American Airlines passenger were killed when an Army helicopter collided with it in Washington, D.C., marking the United States’ deadliest aviation disaster since 2001. Just a day later, a medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.

The airport in Marana has two intersecting runways but operates without an air traffic control tower.

A multimillion-dollar project was underway to build a tower but delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back construction. Tens of thousands of flights arrive and depart from the airport annually.

AP

WASHINGTON – The United States on Wednesday designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa Cartel and other drug cartels as global terrorist organizations, according to a Federal Register notice, a move that comes as President Donald Trump steps up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members in the U.S.

The notice issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the groups pose a risk to U.S. national security, foreign policy and economic interests.

Trump, a Republican, issued an executive order after taking office on January 20 that called on officials to evaluate whether any criminal cartels or transnational gangs should be designated as terrorism groups.

Trump earlier this month delayed a move to impose steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada over what he said was insufficient cooperation to thwart illegal immigration and trafficking of illicit fentanyl.

CNN reported this week that the CIA was using drones to carry out surveillance in Mexico. The covert operations had not been previously disclosed and Reuters was unable to verify the report.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that U.S. drone flights over Mexican territory were part of a collaboration with the U.S., adding that there was nothing illegal about it.

During Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency, he considered terrorism designations for cartels but ultimately shelved the plans. Some top U.S. officials at the time had privately expressed misgivings that the measure could damage relations with Mexico and hinder the fight against drug trafficking. Another concern was that the designations could make it easier for migrants to win U.S. asylum by claiming they were fleeing terrorism.

Some analysts have said the terrorism designations could expose asylum seekers who pay cartels to be smuggled to the possibility of prosecution or being barred from the U.S.

Designating a group as a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO, is aimed at disrupting its finances through sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on its members and associates. The scope of the designation announced on Wednesday was not immediately clear.

The terrorism designation notice will formally be published in the Federal Register on Thursday. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment, saying the agency was notifying key stakeholders before the designations take effect.

After taking office, Trump also ordered his administration to prepare for the possibility of invoking a 1798 wartime law that could allow him to deport alleged gang members without court hearings, although he has not yet taken that step.

REUTERS

ISTANBUL – Six migrants drowned while another 27 were rescued by the coast guard when their boat started sinking off the western coast of Turkiye, the interior minister said on Wednesday.

The incident took place before dawn just south of the seaside resort of Izmir in the waters separating the Turkish coast from the Greek island of Samos, which lies just 15 kilometers (nine miles) away.

“The bodies of six lifeless illegal immigrants were fished out of the water,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X, adding that the coast guard had rescued 27 others, one of whom was detained on suspicion of smuggling.

Last month, seven migrants drowned in the same stretch of water.

Shipwrecks are very common on the short but perilous route between the Turkish coast and the nearby Greek islands of Samos, Rhodes and Lesbos that serve as entry points to the European Union.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2,333 migrants disappeared or died in the Mediterranean last year.

AN-AFP/Feb 19, 2025

SAO PAULO, Feb 19 – A British journalist has been missing in Brazil for more than 10 days, a foreign correspondents’ association said late on Tuesday, urging authorities to step up their search efforts.

Charlotte Alice Peet, 32, was reported missing after a trip to Sao Paulo, according to a statement from the Rio de Janeiro-based Association of Foreign Press Correspondents.

The group said she contacted a friend in Rio on February 8 about her plans to visit the coastal city and find a place to stay, but the friend “replied that unfortunately she could not host her.”

“Days later, Charlotte’s family in Britain contacted this friend saying they had lost contact with the journalist,” ACIE added.

Peet had previously worked as a freelancer in Brazil, reporting for Al Jazeera and British news outlets.

ACIE said Sao Paulo police were handling the case, based on her last known whereabouts, adding that her family had shared with local authorities information about her flight to Brazil, as well as a copy of her passport.

Sao Paulo’s public security office confirmed in a separate statement that “the case is being investigated by the 5th Missing Persons Unit, which is taking steps to locate the missing person and clarify the facts.”

REUTERS

BEIRUT – Lebanese official media said Israel struck a southern town on Wednesday, killing one person, a day after Israeli troops withdrew from most of the border area apart from five points.

“An enemy drone struck a vehicle… in the town of Aita al-Shaab,” near the southern border, the official National News agency said, reporting one person was killed.

AN-AFP

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said Wednesday it had filed charges against five reservist soldiers for abusing a Palestinian detainee in July last year.

“Today, the military prosecution has filed an indictment against five reservist soldiers under the charges of causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances… against a security detainee held in the Sde Teiman detention facility,” it said in a statement, referring to a site used to hold Gazans since the war began.

“The indictment charges the accused with acting against the detainee with severe violence, including stabbing the detainee’s bottom with a sharp object, which had penetrated near the detainee’s rectum,” the statement said.

It added “the acts of violence have caused severe physical injury to the detainee, including cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an inner rectal tear.”

It said the incident took place on July 5, 2024, following an instruction to conduct a search of the detainee during which he was “blindfolded, and cuffed at the hands and ankles.”

The detention center near the Israeli border with Gaza was created to hold detainees from the Palestinian territory early in Israel’s war with Hamas, sparked by the militant group’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.

Earlier this month, an Israeli military court sentenced a soldier to seven months in prison after he admitted to “severely abusing” Palestinians at the same detention facility.

AN-AFP

DHAKA – More than 150 students have been injured in Bangladesh during clashes at a university campus, a sign of serious discord between groups instrumental in fomenting a national revolution last year.

Tuesday afternoon’s clashes began after the youth wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) sought to recruit students at the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology in the country’s southwest.

That sparked a confrontation with campus members of Students Against Discrimination, a protest group that led the uprising that ousted autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina last August.

At least 50 people were taken for treatment after the skirmish, Khulna police officer Kabir Hossain told AFP.

“The situation is now under control, and an extra contingent of police has been deployed,” he added.

Communications student Jahidur Rahman told AFP that those hospitalized had injuries from thrown bricks and “sharp weapons,” and that around 100 others had suffered minor injuries.

AN-AFP

LA PAZ – At least 31 people were killed and another 15 injured after a public transit bus plunged into a ravine along the highway connecting western Bolivia’s departments of Potosi and Oruro, local authorities said Monday.

“There are 31 people who lost their lives in this incident. We are still recovering the bodies,” Colonel Limbert Choque, spokesman for the departmental police command in Potosi, told local media.

Preliminary police reports indicate that the bus driver lost control of the vehicle before it veered off the road and fell into an 800-meter-deep ravine on Monday.

Choque said the stretch of road where the tragedy occurred has sharp curves and steep slopes that increase the risk of accidents.

Among the injured are four minors, two of whom are in critical condition and receiving intensive care. The remaining 11 are adults, including two who are undergoing surgery for severe injuries, reports said.

XINHUA

SYDNEY – A man has died in a house fire in western Sydney that authorities believe was sparked by a lithium-ion battery.

Police said that emergency services were called to reports of a fire at a house in Guildford, 20 km west of central Sydney, shortly before 5 a.m. local time on Tuesday.

Fire and rescue teams arrived at the scene and managed to extinguish the blaze, which had caused extensive damage.

Five occupants of the house managed to escape, but a man was found inside. He was treated by ambulance paramedics, but died at the scene.

Police have established a crime scene and commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fire.

Mick Morris from the fire and rescue service told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio that early investigations indicated that a battery from an e-bike started the fire.

“For us, this is a real tragedy because this is three lithium-ion battery events in the last 24 hours, and it’s a significant concern for us,” he said. “We have been warning that it was likely we would see a fatality.”

He encouraged people to be “very cautious” with how they charge batteries.

Fire and rescue commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said earlier in February that authorities were responding to more than one lithium-ion battery fire per day on average.

XINHUA

QUITO – At least four people died and another was injured Monday in a landslide in western Ecuador’s Manabi province following heavy downpours on Sunday, the National Risk Management Secretariat said.

The early morning landslide collapsed a house in the city of Portoviejo, the agency said via social media.

“The National Risk Management Secretariat has activated the necessary resources and is continuously monitoring the emergency,” authorities said.

The Portoviejo Fire Department carried out the rescue operation, and local government personnel are clearing the area and collecting information to assess the damage and define further action.

According to local authorities, the four fatal victims were all members of one family, including a married couple and their two daughters — a four-year-old and a six-month-old infant, who were sleeping when the landslide buried the house under mud.

The area where the landslide occurred is considered high risk due to torrential rains Sunday that weakened the soil.

The latest deaths raise the death toll to nine since winter season storms began on Jan. 1, according to data from the National Risk Management Secretariat.

The provinces hardest hit by landslides, flooding and gale force winds include Guayas (southwest), Chimborazo (center), Manabi (west), Cotopaxi (center), Los Rios (center), Esmeraldas (north) and Zamora Chinchipe (south).

XINHUA

CHENGDU – As of Monday noon, a landslide in southwest China’s Sichuan Province had left 10 people dead, 19 missing and two injured, according to the emergency rescue headquarters.

Houses of 10 households had been buried in the landslide and more than 100 hectares of crops had been damaged.

The landslide occurred on Feb. 8 in Jinping Village, which is located in Junlian County in the city of Yibin.

More than 3,000 personnel from the armed police, firefighting, emergency response, transportation, medical and other forces have been dispatched to join the search and rescue efforts, aided by drones, sniffer dogs and life detector equipment.

Currently, 767 people in 139 households have been evacuated and relocated to safety.

The post-disaster reconstruction work is being carried out simultaneously in Junlian to restore normal production and living order of the affected people.

XINHUA

MOSCOW – A Ukrainian drone strike has hit a pumping station on Kazakhstan’s main oil export pipeline in Russia, its operator said on Monday, reducing flows to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.

A drone struck the Kropotkinskaya station in the southern Krasnodar region, where work was halted to investigate the damage, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) said in a statement.

A source at Ukraine’s SBU security service said that Kyiv had hit the pumping station and the nearby Ilsky oil refinery using drones. The source said both facilities were supporting Russia’s military action in Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones have repeatedly targeted Russian energy infrastructure in recent months, including in the southern Krasnodar region.

The CPC pipeline, whose shareholders include U.S. energy majors Chevron and ExxonMobil, handles almost all of Kazakhstan’s oil exports, which account for around 1% of global daily supply.
Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said oil loadings at the Tengiz oilfield continued as normal.

The strike comes a day before the United States and Russia are scheduled to hold talks on ending the war in Ukraine with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio set to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia.

REUTERS

BEIRUT – An Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle Monday morning at the northern entrance of the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, killing one person.

According to the official National News Agency, firefighting teams have extinguished the flames engulfing the vehicle and retrieved the body of the killed person from the targeted car.

The Al Hadath TV channel said on the X Platform that the target of the airstrike was Mohamad Chahine, a military official from Hamas.

A ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and the Israeli military has been in effect since Nov. 27, 2024, halting over a year of clashes triggered by the Gaza war.

The agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanese territory within 60 days while the Lebanese army assumes control along the border and in the south, ensuring no presence of weapons or armed groups south of the Litani River.

On Jan. 27, Lebanon’s caretaker government announced an extension of the ceasefire agreement until Feb. 18, following the expiration of the initial 60-day period without a complete Israeli withdrawal.

Despite the ceasefire, Israeli forces have continued to conduct strikes in Lebanon, citing security threats.

XINHUA

CAIRO – At least 10 people were killed and three others wounded on Monday in a building collapse in Egypt’s Giza Province, according to local media reports.

XINHUA

ABUJA – At least 13 people have died from a Lassa fever outbreak in the Edo state, southern Nigeria, local authorities said Sunday.

The state government confirmed 83 cases out of 378 suspected infections since Dec. 30, 2024, said State Director of Public Health Stephenson Ojeifo.

“Seven patients are currently receiving treatment, while others have been discharged,” Ojeifo added.

He attributed the high mortality rate to delayed hospital visits, urging communities to seek medical help “if a fever persists beyond 72 hours.”

Lassa fever spreads through food or household items contaminated with rodent urine or feces. It is transmitted when humans contact rat saliva, urine or excrement.

In 2024, Nigeria reported 214 deaths from Lassa fever, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control.

XINHUA