BEIJING – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.2 jolted Dodecanese Islands, Greece at 0749 GMT on Monday, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said.
The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 36.53 degrees north latitude and 25.63 degrees east longitude.
XINHUA
BAMAKO – The collapse of an illegally operated gold mine in western Mali on Saturday has killed 50 people, a local official said on Sunday.
The tragedy occurred in Bilalkoto, a village in the commune of Dabia, located in the Kenieba district of the Kayes region.
A local official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the collapse was triggered by a Caterpillar machine falling onto an artisanal mine where a group of people were working in search of gold. The rescue operation has concluded, and no one remains trapped under the rubble. A total of 49 women and one man lost their lives in the incident.
Malian Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maiga said Sunday night that the government would take “relentless” measures in response to the mining disaster.
Mali is one of Africa’s major gold producers. However, local authorities struggle to regulate illegal mining activities, and artisanal miners often work under extremely hazardous conditions, leading to frequent and often deadly mining accidents.
On Jan. 29, a gold mine collapse at a mining site in the Danga area of the Kangaba district, Koulikoro region, killed 13 people.
XINHUA
ZURICH – A 23-year-old Syrian stabbed several people on a street in the centre of the Austrian town of Villach on Saturday, killing a 14-year old boy and injuring four other people, police said, adding that the suspected attacker had been arrested.
Further details, such as whether the attacker knew any of the victims, remained unclear, a spokesperson for the police in the southern state of Carinthia said. The injured were aged between 14 and 32, he added.
REUTERS
KRAGUJEVAC, Serbia – Tens of thousands of students marched into the central Serbian city of Kragujevac on Saturday, demanding justice after a deadly railway disaster, in one of the biggest shows of anger against the government.
In the three months since 15 people were killed when a roof collapsed at a newly-renovated train station in Serbia’s second-biggest city of Novi Sad, mass demonstrations have grown into the biggest threat yet to President Aleksandar Vucic’s decade-long grip on power.
Joined by teachers, farmers and other workers, the students have drawn support from the wider public as many Serbians have blamed the tragedy on corruption within the government.
On Saturday, students braved near-freezing temperatures to travel to Kragujevac from across Serbia, by bus and even on foot from the capital Belgrade, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) away, beating drums, blowing whistles and waving the country’s flag. Locals greeted them with cheers.
The protesters planned to blockade one of the city’s main boulevards for 15 hours and 15 minutes in a symbolic tribute to the 15 victims. They also held 15 minutes of silence.
“We are here to fight for a better tomorrow, against corruption,” said 20-year-old Jovan, who drove from Belgrade with friends.
By noon, all roads leading to Kragujevac were jammed with traffic. As the numbers swelled, locals brought the protesters homemade pies and hot tea.
Verica, a 52-year-old professor from the city, joined the protest with her teenage daughter.
“I have not been so happy and proud for a long time,” she said.
Vucic’s government has said it will launch an anti-corruption campaign, and has also denied allegations of corruption.
Vucic on Saturday assembled supporters from the Republika Srpska in neighbouring Bosnia, as well as from Serbia, at a rally in the town of Sremska Mitrovica, in the country’s northwest.
“Their goal is not to topple Vucic, but to bring down Serbia,” Vucic said of the protesters, adding that they were backed by unspecified Western countries.
STUDENT DEMANDS
Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and two other ministers have resigned over the protests and prosecutors have charged 13 people in connection with the roof collapse.
Daily protests, however, have continued and students have taken over university buildings and blocked highways and squares.
“We want to be able to continue our studies but only when our demands are met,” said Djordje Vujovic, 22, a mechanical engineering student.
The students are demanding that authorities publish documents relating to the station roof collapse, justice for those responsible, the dismissal of charges against protesting students, and an increased budget for higher education.
Ivan and Ivana, 23-year-old mathematics students, were among a group of around 400 people who had walked for four days to reach Kragujevac from Belgrade.
“We wanted to show the people living in the country that we support them,” Ivan said. “We do not think only about the people in Belgrade.”
REUTERS
MUNICH – A 37-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter died on Saturday from injuries they sustained when an Afghan national drove a car into a crowd in Munich on Thursday, German police said on Saturday, the first fatalities from the incident.
Prosecutors had said on Friday that at least 39 people were injured, some of them critically, when the car ploughed into trade union activists demonstrating for higher pay.
Authorities said they were treating the incident as a religiously motivated attack.
REUTERS
BEIRUT – Lebanese authorities said Saturday that more than 25 people had been arrested following an attack on a United Nations convoy the day before that wounded two peacekeepers, including the force’s outgoing deputy commander.
UN and Lebanese officials have condemned Friday’s attack, which came as Hezbollah supporters for a second night blocked the road to the country’s only international airport over a decision barring two Iranian planes from landing there.
“More than 25 people have been arrested by Lebanese army intelligence,” with another person detained by the security services, Interior Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar told reporters after an emergency security meeting Saturday.
“This does not mean these detainees carried out the attack… but the investigations will show who is responsible,” he said.
The army and security agencies would bolster measures to “maintain security and stability,” Hajjar added, and violations would be treated “with all seriousness.”
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has demanded an investigation after one of its vehicles was set on fire during the incident, which wounded outgoing deputy force commander Chok Bahadur Dhakal, a Nepalese national who was heading home after ending his mission.
UNIFIL deputy spokesperson Kandice Ardiel told AFP a second Nepalese peacekeeper was also wounded and hospitalized.
President Joseph Aoun vowed “the attackers will receive their punishment,” and said “security forces will not be lenient with any party that tries to upset stability and civil peace,” according to a statement from the presidency on X.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam strongly condemned the “criminal attack” and promised to arrest the perpetrators during a conversation with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and UNIFIL Commander General Aroldo Lazaro.
In a meeting with Hajjar on Saturday, Salam emphasized the importance of maintaining security across the country, a statement from his office said.
The premier was set to meet other “relevant ministers” later in the day.
The presidency’s statement said Aoun had stressed that the incident “cannot be allowed to be repeated,” adding that the judiciary “has begun investigations on the ground.”
The army said Friday that several areas around the airport had seen “demonstrations marked by acts of vandalism and clashes, including assaults on members of the armed forces and attacks against vehicles.”
Videos circulating on social media showed demonstrators, some hooded and carrying Hezbollah flags, attacking a man in military garb and another in civilian clothes near the torched UNIFIL vehicle.
It remains unclear who was responsible for the attack.
There was no immediate official comment from Hezbollah, but its television channel Al-Manar late Friday blamed unidentified “masked men.”
It said the protesters expressed “their rejection of the attack on the UNIFIL convoy,” adding their goal was “to secure the return of citizens stuck in Iran.”
The group’s ally the Amal movement, led by powerful parliament speaker Nabih Berri, said “the attack on UNIFIL is an attack on south Lebanon” and that “blocking roads anywhere is an assault on civil peace.”
Several countries have condemned the incident, as did UN chief Antonio Guterres.
“Such attacks are absolutely unacceptable… The safety and security of UN personnel and property must be respected at all times,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in a statement.
“Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law… and may constitute war crimes,” the statement said, adding that “UNIFIL must be allowed unrestricted freedom of movement throughout Lebanon.”
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using Beirut airport to transfer weapons from Iran, claims Hezbollah and Lebanese officials have denied.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has a large popular base in Lebanon, though a year of hostilities with Israel and the ousting of its ally Bashar Assad in neighboring Syria have left the group weakened.
Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said Thursday it had “temporarily rescheduled” some flights, including from Iran, until February 18 as it was implementing “additional security measures.”
The date coincides with the deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon and for Hezbollah to vacate positions there, under a ceasefire deal that began on November 27.
AN-AFP/Feb 15, 2025
MOSCOW – The Kremlin on Saturday said it was grateful to Palestinian militant group Hamas for freeing a Russian-Israeli hostage from Gaza in another prisoner exchange with Israel.
“Moscow welcomes the freeing of Alexander Trufanov (identified by Israel as Sasha Trupanov) and expresses its gratitude to the Hamas leadership for taking this decision,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
AN-AFP/ Feb 15, 2025
BEIRUT – Lebanese official media said an Israeli drone struck the country’s south on Saturday, without reporting casualties, days before a deadline in a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“An Israeli enemy drone carried out a strike” targeting the outskirts of the town of Ainata, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) said, adding that “nobody was hurt” and that “drones and surveillance aircraft are still flying over the area at low altitude.”
AN-AFP/Feb 15, 2025
GAZA – Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Saturday handed over three Israeli hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip, as part of the sixth batch of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
XINHUA
VLADIVOSTOK – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Russia’s southern region of Altai early Saturday morning, said local authorities, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The quake was recorded at 04:48 a.m. local time (0148 GMT). The epicenter is located approximately 282 km southeast of the capital of the Altai Republic, about 28 km west of the village of Kosh-Agach, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Altai Republic noted that the quake was felt throughout the Altai Republic.
XINHUA
BEIJING – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.0 jolted Western Texas at 05:23:23 GMT on Saturday, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences said.
The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 31.68 degrees north latitude and 104.03 degrees west longitude.
XINHUA
NEW DELHI – At least 14 people have died and around 27 were injured in two separate road accidents in north India, confirmed the police on Saturday.
Ten persons died and nearly 19 were injured when the vehicle they were traveling in collided head-on with a bus coming from the opposite direction in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh near the Prayagraj district.
The mishap occurred on the Mirzapur-Prayagraj highway at around midnight.
The dead belonged to the central state of Chhattisgarh, and were heading towards Prayagraj to take the holy dip in “Triveni Sangam”, which is the confluence of three rivers namely Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati in Prayagraj district during the ongoing spiritual festival “Maha Kumbh”.
The bus carrying around 25 passengers hailing from another central state of Madhya Pradesh was coming from Prayagraj when the accident took place.
In another mishap, four persons died and eight others were seriously injured in the western state of Gujarat when their vehicle collided with a stationary bus late on Friday night in the Dahod district. Those injured were admitted to a local hospital.
XINHUA
MANILA – Four people were killed and two others injured in a fire that hit a residential area in the Philippine capital on early Saturday, local authorities and media said.
The fire broke out before dawn in a row of houses in Pasay City, Metro Manila, local media reported.
Four bodies were already retrieved and two residents suffered minor injuries, according to a report by GMA News Online.
XINHUA
MANILA – A couple and their three kids were killed after their motorcycle collided head-on with a delivery truck in Misamis Oriental province in the southern Philippines, police said Saturday.
Police said the crash occurred in Initao town while the family traveled to a city on Friday afternoon.
All five victims died at the scene due to severe injuries, the police said.
Police detained the truck driver as the investigation into what led to the fatal collision rolled on.
XINHUA
JERUSALEM – About 40 Jewish settlers attacked a Palestinian family near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, injuring four people, Israeli army radio reported on Friday.
The settlers, from an illegal outpost, used dogs, clubs, and pepper spray in the assault, the station said. No arrests were made, according to the radio.
Palestinian sources said 15 sheep were poisoned during the attack. The Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported a higher number of injuries, saying 15 members of the Shallaldeh family were wounded, five of whom were taken to hospital.
WAFA also said the assailants set fire to two vehicles, vandalized several others, and damaged solar panels, tents, and barracks in the area.
The incident comes amid rising settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank in recent months.
XINHUA
LA PAZ – The death toll due to intense rains in Bolivia since November last year has risen to 28, said Juan Carlos Calvimontes, vice civil defense minister, on Friday.
The rains have affected eight of the country’s nine departments. “We are talking about 83 municipalities affected and I am sure that within a week many of them will declare themselves in disaster,” the official told a press conference.
So far, 27 municipalities have declared themselves in a state of emergency, of which 22 belong to La Paz, the department hardest hit by the climate.
The deaths were caused by floods in the departments of Chuquisaca (south), La Paz (west), Tarija (south), Cochabamba (center), Santa Cruz (east) and Potosi (southwest), according to the government.
In addition, four people remain missing, three of them in the north of La Paz and one in the department of Chuquisaca.
The National Meteorology and Hydrology Service predicted that the rains will persist in the coming weeks, with the possibility of extending until March and April.
XINHUA
VIENTIANE – Four people, including Chinese nationals, were killed and many others injured on Friday in a fire and explosion that occurred at a Chinese-owned shop in Nami village of Xay district in northern Laos’ Oudomxay province, according to the Chinese Consulate General in Luang Prabang.
The explosion occurred at around 10:00 a.m. local time, said the consulate general, adding that the incident caused significant damage to surrounding houses.
The fire has been brought under control following firefighting efforts, and the injured have been transported to the hospital for treatment. The cause of the incident is currently under investigation.
Chinese Ambassador to Laos Fang Hong has deployed all-out efforts to treat the injured and assisted their families in handling the aftermath.
A working group from the consulate general went to the local area to provide consular protection and assistance.
XINHUA
SEOUL – Six people have died in a fire in a hotel resort construction site in South Korea’s port city of Busan, according to the city’s fire agency, with a helicopter used to pluck some 14 people to safety after they had taken refuge on a rooftop.
Around 100 people had been evacuated at the sprawling construction site, where work had been going on in three buildings spanning 12 storeys above ground and three below, the Busan Fire & Disaster Headquarters said.
A Busan fire agency official said on live television that about 25 people had sustained light injuries, including some due to smoke inhalation.
The fire agency said the blaze appeared to have broken out in insulation material loaded near an indoor swimming pool area on the first floor of one of the buildings.
South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok ordered all resources available to be used to extinguish the fire, his office said in a statement.
REUTERS
BERLIN – The number of injuries has risen to 36 after a car rammed into a crowd in Munich, Germany, on Thursday. German prosecutors are treating the incident as a murder attempt, according to Munich police, who held a joint press conference with prosecutors on Friday.
Police said two victims sustained critical injuries, including a young child. Investigators suspect that a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker deliberately drove his car into a trade union rally in the city center. The man, who was in the country on a valid residency permit, was detained at the scene.
The incident comes as Munich braces for heightened security ahead of the Munich Security Conference, a major gathering of foreign policy experts and global leaders set to begin on Friday. The conference venue is located approximately 1.6 km from the crash site.
XINHUA
MOSCOW – Russian forces have taken control of the settlements of Zelene Pole and Dachne in eastern Ukraine, the TASS state news agency reported on Friday, citing the Defence Ministry.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
REUTERS
MUNICH – An Afghan national has admitted to purposefully driving into a crowd of demonstrators in Munich, and authorities have determined an Islamist motive for the crime, a prosecutor said at a news conference on Friday.
“He has admitted that he deliberately drove into the participants of the demonstration,” prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said.
“I’m very cautious about making hasty judgements, but based on everything we know at the moment, I would venture to speak of an Islamist motivation for the crime,” she added.
REUTERS
MOSCOW – The Kremlin on Friday dismissed as a “provocation” accusations by Ukraine that a Russian drone had damaged the containment shelter at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant overnight.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he did not have precise information on the alleged incident but that Russia does not attack nuclear infrastructure.
“The Russian military doesn’t do that. They don’t. This is most likely just another provocation,” Peskov said.
“That’s exactly what the Kyiv regime like to do and sometimes, in fact, does not shy away from doing.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the U.N.’s nuclear energy watchdog both said that radiation levels remained normal after the incident, which came as top U.S., Ukrainian and European officials gathered at the Munich Security Conference to discuss the war in Ukraine.
REUTERS
KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that a Russian drone had struck a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, adding that “radiation levels have not increased.”
The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched more than 100 drones across the country overnight — including attack drones — targeting northern regions of the country where the Chernobyl power plant lies.
“Last night, a Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the cover protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,” Zelensky said in a social media post.
The International Atomic Energy Agency also reported an “explosion” at the site, and said “radiation levels inside and outside remain normal and stable.”
The agency, which has had a team deployed on the site since the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, published images apparently showing the drone on fire after crashing into the covering.
In 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded during a botched safety test, resulting in the world’s worst nuclear accident that sent clouds of radiation across much of Europe and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
Soviet authorities initially tried to cover up and then play down the disaster.
Eventually a massive concrete and steel cover called a sarcophagus was built over the reactor, to contain the radiation.
“The only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia,” Zelensky added in his statement.
There was no immediate response from Russia.
AN-AFP
TAIPEI – An explosion at a department store in the city of Taichung in central Taiwan has killed four people and injured 30 as of 8 p.m. on Thursday.
It was previously reported that five people had died in the explosion. However, one critically injured survivor with cardiac arrest was resuscitated, leading to the revision of death toll to four.
All those injured in the blast have been hospitalized, and no additional victims remain trapped in the department store, according to local authorities.
Taichung’s municipal news bureau said that the emergency has been brought under control following a day of search and rescue work. The department store has been ordered to close its business, and prosecutorial authorities have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the blast.
The explosion occurred at about 11 a.m. in a food court on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store, causing substantial damage to both the facade and interior of the building.
Taichung’s fire department dispatched 27 fire engines and 62 firefighters to carry out the rescue mission. The municipal government immediately implemented traffic restrictions, and later set up an emergency response center to coordinate relevant departments in handling the incident and its aftermath.
Penalties will be handed to those found accountable for the explosion, and bereavement funds will be allocated accordingly, according to the municipal government.
XINHUA, Feb 13, 2025
JERUSALEM – Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday night, with Israel’s military claiming the attacks were aimed at Hezbollah targets, despite a ceasefire between the two countries.
Lebanon’s TV channel LBCI reported that the warplanes targeted localities near the Litani River, including the towns of Yohmor al-Shaqif and Zoutr al-Sharqiya, in addition to the municipalities of Deir Siryan, Zibqin and Yater.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military released a statement, saying its strikes targeted “Hezbollah military sites containing weapons and launchers that pose a direct threat to the Israeli home front.”
Israel has continued to conduct intermittent strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon despite the ceasefire, which took effect on Nov. 27, 2024.
XINHUA
SEOUL – Four people were killed and two others were left in cardiac arrest after fire broke out at a construction site in South Korea’s southeastern port city of Busan on Friday, multiple media outlets said.
The fire broke out at about 10:51 a.m. local time (0151 GMT) at a hotel construction site in Busan, some 325 km southeast of the capital Seoul.
Among six people going into cardiac arrest, four people were confirmed dead later.
Earlier reports said eight people were in cardiac arrest in the fire.
Before the fire outbreak, 10 workers were working inside the building.
The fire was believed to have started from insulation materials loaded near a swimming pool on the first floor.
XINHUA
VATICAN CITY – A top Vatican official on Thursday rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to move Palestinians from Gaza, saying “the Palestinian population must remain on its land.”
“This is one of the fundamental points of the Holy See: no deportations,” Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said on the sidelines of an Italy-Vatican meeting, according to the ANSA news agency.
Moving Palestinians out would cause regional tensions and “makes no sense” as neighboring countries such as Jordan are opposed, he continued.
“The solution in our opinion is that of two states because this also means giving hope to the population,” he said.
Trump has proposed taking over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and moving its more than two million residents to Jordan or Egypt. Experts say the idea would violate international law but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it “revolutionary.”
Pope Francis this week criticized Trump’s plans for mass deportations of undocumented migrants in the United States — drawing a sharp response.
In a letter to US bishops, the head of the Catholic Church called the deportations a “major crisis” and said sending back people who had fled their own countries in distress “damages the dignity” of the migrants.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, responded: “I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us.”
AN-AFP, Feb 13, 2025
CAIRO – Hamas said Thursday it would release Israeli hostages as planned, apparently resolving a major dispute that threatened the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The militant group said Egyptian and Qatari mediators have affirmed that they will work to “remove all hurdles,” and that it would implement the ceasefire deal.
The statement indicated three more Israeli hostages would be freed Saturday. There was no immediate comment from Israel after Hamas’ announcement.
That would allow the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to continue for now, but its future remains in doubt.
Hamas had threatened to delay the next release of Israeli hostages, accusing Israel of failing to meet its obligations to allow in tents and shelters, among other alleged violations of the truce.
Israel, with the support of US President Donald Trump, had threatened to renew its offensive if hostages were not freed.
“We are not interested in the collapse of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, and we are keen on its implementation and ensuring that the occupation (Israel) adheres to it fully,” Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said.
“The language of threats and intimidation used by Trump and Netanyahu does not serve the implementation of the ceasefire agreement,” Qanoua said.
A Hamas delegation led by the group’s Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, met Egyptian security officials on Wednesday to try to break the impasse.
A Palestinian official close to the talks told Reuters that mediators Egypt and Qatar were trying to find solutions to prevent a slide back into fighting.
In a statement, Hamas said the mediators were exerting pressure for the ceasefire deal to be fully implemented, ensure Israel abides by a humanitarian protocol and resume exchanges of Israeli hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel on Saturday.
Israel has called up military reservists to brace for a possible re-eruption of war in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to free further Israeli hostages.
AN-AGENCIES
BERLIN – A car rammed into a crowd in Munich, Germany, on Thursday, leaving several people injured, said local police.
Media reports said the crowd was on strike when the incident occurred.
Bavarian Radio cited an eyewitness as saying that the driver deliberately drove into the group.
The culprit was detained at the scene and an investigation is underway, said the police.
XINHUA
MOSCOW – Russia has foiled a terrorist attack on a railway station in the country’s Pskov region, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement Thursday.
The FSB said it dismantled a cell belonging to an international terrorist organization banned in Russia, whose members from a Central Asian country were planning to commit a terrorist attack on a transport infrastructure facility in the Pskov region.
The members received instructions from an emissary of the organization abroad and were plotting to blow up the building of the railway station in Pskov.
They carried out reconnaissance, acquired components to build an improvised explosive device, and began assembling it, the FSB said, adding that they planned to flee to a Middle Eastern country after conducting the terror attack.
“When detained, the terrorists made armed resistance to the FSB officers and were eventually neutralized by return fire,” it said.
XINHUA