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
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