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
HARARE – At least 24 people were killed Thursday morning when a bus collided head-on with a haulage truck in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland South Province, state-run newspaper The Herald reported.
The accident occurred at a tollgate near the southern border town of Beitbridge, with 17 people dying on the spot while seven others succumbed to their injuries after being taken to the hospital.
According to the report, 12 of the injured remain in critical condition.
Eyewitnesses told the newspaper that the bus was heading toward Beitbridge, near the South African border, while the haulage truck — carrying 34 metric tons of magnesium — was traveling in the opposite direction. The exact number of passengers on the bus remains unknown.
Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi confirmed the accident to Xinhua, stating that authorities would release further details soon.
XINHUA
TAIPEI – A gas explosion occurred at a department store in the city of Taichung in central Taiwan at around 11 a.m. on Thursday, leaving five dead and 13 injured.
The accident occurred on the floor of a food court, which is under construction.
Search and rescue operations are underway at the scene, with support from local fire authorities.
Further investigation into the cause is underway.
XINHUA
PARIS – More than 10 people were injured on Wednesday night in a grenade explosion in France’s southeastern city of Grenoble, the French daily Le Figaro reported.
The explosion occurred around 8:00 p.m. local time in a bar. Two of the injured were in critical condition, the report said, citing a police source.
Mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle condemned the “criminal act of unprecedented violence” on the social media platform X.
After a preliminary investigation, police have ruled out a terrorist attack, according to the report.
XINHUA
GAZA – The Israeli army has killed 92 Palestinians and wounded 822 others in direct strikes on the Gaza Strip since its truce with Hamas began on Jan. 19, Gaza-based health authorities reported on Tuesday.
Health workers have also recovered 641 bodies, with about 197 of them unidentified, since the truce went into effect, Munir al-Barash, director general of the health authorities, said in a statement.
Since the beginning of the conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas in early October 2023, the Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 48,219, with 111,665 others injured, the health authorities said in a separate statement on Tuesday.
XINHUA
MOSCOW – Russian forces have seized control of the Yasenove settlement in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
It said the center group of forces had “liberated” Yasenove, claiming that Ukraine lost about 505 soldiers, one tank, one armored vehicle, four artillery pieces and seven vehicles in the area.
“Overnight, the Russian armed forces launched a group strike with high-precision long-range land, air and sea-based weapons as well as unmanned aerial vehicles,” the defense ministry said.
The attack targeted gas and energy facilities supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, along with sites used for the preparation and storage of strike drones.
Russian forces are continuing their advance in Yasenove, it added.
Since its special military operation, Russia has destroyed Ukrainian weapons including 653 aircraft, 42,979 drones and 592 anti-aircraft missile systems, the defense ministry said.
XINHUA
ROME – Around 130 people were arrested on Tuesday in a large-scale sting against the Sicilian mafia in Palermo, indicating that it has remained a significant criminal force despite setbacks in recent decades.
“Cosa Nostra”, the mafia syndicate based in and around Palermo, terrorised Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, but has since been overtaken as Europe’s most powerful mob by the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta.
The suspects apprehended on Tuesday were charged with various crimes, including drug trafficking, attempted murder, extortion, illegal online gambling and illegal possession of firearms, Carabinieri police said in a statement.
Additional arrest warrants were issued for 33 suspects who were already in prison for other crimes.
Investigations revealed that Palermo’s mafia families coordinate their activities across the city and its province, like they used to in the golden days of Cosa Nostra, especially as regards drug trafficking, police said.
They said inner city families had regained authority compared to the years in which they were dominated by a faction from Corleone – a town outside Palermo that was the birthplace of notorious bosses Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano.
Modern-day bosses use modern technology to conduct their business, using encrypted mobile phones that are smuggled into prisons to allow jailed bosses to continue exercising their command, investigators said.
Despite being weakened by law enforcement activities, Cosa Nostra continues to attract young people, the Carabinieri said, noting they documented one instance of a new recruit given “mafia lessons” by an older associate.
The would-be mentor gave the young man “specific instructions, inviting him to take as an example his conduct towards people to be subjected to extortion, and advising him on how to relate with mafia leaders,” the police statement said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, writing on X, hailed Tuesday’s arrests as inflicting “a very hard blow to Cosa Nostra”, and giving a clear signal that “the fight against the mafia has not stopped and will not stop”.
REUTERS
BUCHAREST – Romanian children receive their first smartphone at an average age of eight, with many spending between one and three hours online daily, according to a study published Tuesday by Google Romania.
The research, conducted by market research firm Topline as part of the “EU Family Safety Survey 2024,” surveyed 570 Romanian parents between August and September 2024. The findings reveal that nearly half of parents give their children a smartphone between the ages of five and eight, while more than a third do so when their children are between the ages of nine and 12.
The primary reason parents cite for introducing smartphones at an early age is maintaining constant communication with their children. Additionally, a significant number admit that they do not want their children to feel socially excluded.
As digital exposure increases, so do concerns about online safety. Most children between five and 12 spend between one and three hours online daily, while teenagers typically exceed three hours.
Young children mainly use smartphones to access educational apps and video games, while social media is popular among children over the age of nine. However, parental control over online activity decreases as children grow older.
XINHUA
At least one person was killed on Monday after a midsize business jet skidded off the runway while landing at the Scottsdale, Arizona, municipal airport and collided with another jet that was parked, authorities said.
Dave Folio, a spokesperson with the Scottsdale Fire Department, said at a press conference that at least four other people were injured in the crash.
One person remains trapped inside one of the planes and first responders were working to free them, he said, while three other people were taken to area hospitals.
Folio provided no other details and it was not immediately clear what caused the jet to skid off the runway.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it was investigating the crash, which it said involved a Learjet 35A that skidded off the runway, which then collided with a Gulfstream 200 jet.
The incident comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of U.S. air safety.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators are probing three deadly crashes in recent weeks: the midair collision of a passenger jet and U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people, a medical jet crash in Philadelphia that killed seven people and a plane crash in Alaska that killed 10 people.
REUTERS
NUR SHAMS, Palestinian Territories – Dozens of Palestinian families fled on Monday from the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, as Israel pushed on with a sweeping military operation.
“We hear explosions and bombings as well as bulldozers. It’s a tragedy. They are doing here what they did in Gaza,” said Ahmed Ezza, a resident.
Ahmed Abu Zahra, another resident of the camp which is on the outskirts of Tulkarem, said he was forced to leave his home.
“The (Israeli) army came and we were forced to leave after they started destroying our homes.”
Three Palestinians, including two women and a young man, were killed on Sunday in Nur Shams, the health ministry in the territory said.
Israel said its military police had opened an investigation into the death of one of them, a woman who was eight months pregnant.
It said on Saturday it had launched an operation in Nur Shams, part of a much larger campaign that began in January in Tulkarem and Jenin, which it said had “targeted several terrorists.”
In the streets of Nur Shams camp, under a light rain, residents were fleeing.
An AFP photographer saw dozens of families hastily leaving the camp, while bulldozers carried out large-scale demolitions amid gunfire and explosions.
According to Murad Alyan, from the camp’s popular committee, “more than half of the 13,000 inhabitants have fled out of fear for their lives.”
Since January 21, the Israeli military has been conducting a major operation in the “triangle” of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem, where half a million Palestinians live.
Israel says it is targeting “terrorist infrastructure.”
Jenin in particular is a bastion of armed Palestinian militant groups.
“The objective of these operations is not security-related, but political,” said Abdallah Kamil, the governor of Tulkarem.
“They destroy everything,” he said of the Israeli military. “They are trying to change the demographics of the region.”
Israel insists that its operations are targeted at Palestinians suspected of preparing attacks against Israeli citizens.
The Palestinian foreign ministry accused Israel of applying “the same policy of destruction” in the West Bank as in Gaza.
Violence has exploded in the occupied West Bank since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
At least 887 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed by the Israeli military or settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 32 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.
AN-AFP
GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 10 – A bus veered off a highway bridge into a polluted ravine in Guatemala City early on Monday, killing at least 51 people and trapping survivors, a spokesperson for the city’s fire department said.
The densely packed bus was traveling into the capital from the town of San Agustin Acasaguastlan on a busy route into the city from when it plunged approximately 20 meters from Puente Belice, a highway bridge that crosses over a road and creek.
The spokesman, Carlos Hernandez, said the bodies of 36 men and 15 women had been sent to a provincial morgue set up for the accident.
Images shared by the fire department on social media showed the bus partially submerged in wastewater surrounded by victims’ bodies.
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo declared three days of national mourning and deployed the country’s army and disaster agency to assist response efforts.
REUTERS
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 – U.S. President Donald Trump said Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, contradicting his own officials who had suggested Gazans would only be relocated temporarily.
In an excerpt of a Fox News interview released on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying the U.S. gives the two countries “billions and billions of dollars a year.”
Asked if Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, Trump told Fox News: “No, they wouldn’t because they’re going to have much better housing.”
“I’m talking about building a permanent place for them,” he said, adding it would take years for Gaza to be habitable again.
In a shock announcement on Feb. 4 after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Trump proposed resettling Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians and the U.S. taking control of the seaside enclave, redeveloping it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Residents of Gaza have broadly rejected any suggestion of moving from the strip, as has the Palestinian Authority and the militant group Hamas that administers Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump’s statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was “irresponsible.”
“We affirm that such plans are capable of igniting the region,” he told Reuters on Monday.
Netanyahu, who praised the proposal, suggested Palestinians would be allowed to return.
“They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza,” he said the day after Trump’s announcement.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will depart later this week for his first visit to the Middle East in the job, said on Thursday that Palestinians would have to “live somewhere else in the interim,” during reconstruction, although he declined to explicitly rule out their permanent displacement.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disparity between Rubio and Trump’s most recent remarks on the plan.
Trump’s comments come as a fragile ceasefire reached last month between Israel and Hamas is at risk of collapse after Hamas announced on Monday it would stop releasing Israeli hostages over alleged Israeli violations of the agreement.
Israel’s Arab neighbors, including Egypt and Jordan, have said any plan to transfer Palestinians from their land would destabilize the region.
Rubio met Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Washington on Monday. Egypt’s foreign ministry said Abdelatty told Rubio that Arab countries support Palestinians in rejecting Trump’s plan. Cairo fears Palestinians could be forced across Egypt’s border with Gaza.
Trump is set to host Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House on Tuesday.
Trump said in the Fox News interview that between two and six communities could be built for the Palestinians “a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.”
“I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent,” he told Fox.
REUTERS
GUATEMALA CITY – At least 31 people were killed and several others were trapped under the wreckage in a river after a bus carrying 75 people plunged into a ravine in Guatemala City on Monday, rescue workers said.
XINHUA
CAIRO – Libya authorities uncovered nearly 50 bodies this week from two mass graves in the country’s southeastern desert, officials said Sunday, in the latest tragedy involving people seeking to reach Europe through the chaos-stricken North African country.
The first mass grave with 19 bodies was found Friday in a farm in the southeastern city of Kufra, the security directorate said in a statement, adding that authorities took them for autopsy.
Authorities posted images on its Facebook page showing police officers and medics digging in the sand and recovering dead bodies that were wrapped in blankets.
The Al-Abreen charity, which helps migrants in eastern and southern Libya, said that some were apparently shot and killed before being buried in the mass grave.
A separate mass grave with at least 30 bodies was also found in Kufra after raiding a human trafficking center, according to Mohamed Al-Fadeil, head of the security chamber in Kufra.
Survivors said nearly 70 people were buried in the grave, he added. Authorities were still searching the area.
Migrants’ mass graves are not uncommon in Libya. Last year, authorities unearthed the bodies of at least 65 migrants in the Shuayrif region, 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli.
Libya is the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe. The country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Oil-rich Libya has been ruled for most of the past decade by rival governments in eastern and western Libya, each backed by an array of militias and foreign governments.
Human traffickers have benefited from more than a decade of instability, smuggling migrants across the country’s borders with six nations, including Chad, Niger, Sudan Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia.
Once at the coast, traffickers pack desperate migrants seeking a better life in Europe into ill-equipped rubber boats and other vessels for risky voyages on the perilous Central Mediterranean Sea route.
Rights groups and UN agencies have for years documented systematic abuse of migrants in Libya including forced labor, beatings, rapes and torture. The abuse often accompanies efforts to extort money from families before migrants are allowed to leave Libya on traffickers’ boats.
Those who have been intercepted and returned to Libya — including women and children — are held in government-run detention centers where they also suffer from abuse, including torture, rape and extortion, according to rights groups and UN experts.
AN-AP
JERUSALEM – Israeli forces expanded their military operation in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, launching a raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp, a military spokesperson said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that large forces from the IDF, Shin Bet security agency and Border Police began operating overnight in Nur Shams. The camp, located in the Tulkarm Governorate in the northwestern West Bank, has been a focal point of recent raids.
The military said its forces shot several militants and arrested additional individuals.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that a pregnant woman was killed by Israeli gunfire. The Red Crescent said two other people were shot and badly wounded.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the operation aimed to “crush terror infrastructures” in the West Bank.
The Israeli military launched the major campaign in Jenin on Jan. 21 and expanded it last week to the town of Tamun, southeast of Jenin.
XINHUA
JERUSALEM – Israeli forces have begun withdrawing from a key area in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement that took effect last month, an Israeli government official said on Sunday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told Xinhua that the pullout from the area dubbed by Israel as the Netzarim Corridor — a strip of land that bisected Gaza from north to south — is expected to be completed by late Sunday.
The Israeli military had established posts in the corridor during its 15-month-long assault on Gaza. An Israeli security official, talking to Xinhua anonymously, said that the military was “preparing to implement the agreement according to the guidelines of the political echelon.”
Footage circulating on social media appeared to show troops setting fire to furniture and unidentified boxes at their bases, with a soldier heard shouting, “We will leave nothing for the Gazans.”
The 42-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Jan. 19. Under the agreement, Israel committed to withdrawing its forces from the area. With the truce now past its midpoint, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States are set to determine whether the ceasefire will continue into its second phase, which would include the release of more hostages and Palestinian detainees.
XINHUA
MEXICO CITY – At least 20 people were killed early Saturday when a passenger bus collided with a truck on a highway in the southeastern Mexican state of Campeche, according to local media.
XINHUA
CHENGDU – As of 11 a.m. Sunday, a landslide in southwest China’s Sichuan Province had left one person dead, 28 missing and two injured, local authorities said.
The landslide occurred at 11:50 a.m. on Saturday in Jinping Village, which is located in Junlian County in the city of Yibin.
The province has mobilized 949 personnel from the armed police, firefighting, emergency response, transportation, medical, telecommunication, and other forces to carry out or assist the rescue efforts.
Over 200 rescue vehicles and equipment, including excavators, fire engines and ambulances, have been deployed for on-site rescue operations. The search and rescue efforts are being carried out in 10 grid zones.
A total of 360 people in 95 households have been evacuated. Temporary shelters have been set up, with 162 individuals currently resettled on a household basis.
XINHUA
Sweden’s police have declared that the shooting at the Risbergska School in Orebro, located about 200 kilometers west of Stockholm, has claimed the lives of 11 people.
In an earlier report, five people were announced to have been shot and wounded.
The tragic event occurred at 12:33 p.m. local time (11:44 GMT). The gunman, who had no known connections to gangs or terrorism, is believed to be among those killed.
The reasons behind this crime remain a mystery, and details about the injured individuals are still unclear, local police chief Roberto Eid Forest said.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson expressed deep sorrow, saying that this incident is the worst mass shooting in the country’s history.
The Risbergska School is a center where adults, many immigrants trying to enhance their education and job prospects, come to learn and rebuild their futures.
The tragedy highlights the broader challenges Sweden faces with violence, which has resulted in the highest rate of gun violence per capita in the European Union.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention announced that between 2010 and 2022, 10 people were killed in seven separate violent incidents in Sweden’s schools.
While many Swedes own guns for hunting, the rise of illegal firearms linked to gang activity poses a significant threat.
Previous incidents, like the 2015 murder of a teaching assistant and the 2017 truck attack in Stockholm, serve as reminders of the unending threats to public safety.
IRNA
Ohio Police were searching for a shooter who killed one person and wounded five others at a warehouse building in New Albany on Tuesday, the city said.
The shooter has been identified and police were “working to bring the suspect into custody”, the City of New Albany said in an online statement. The warehouse had been cleared of all employees, it added.
The incident appears to be a “targeted type of attack,” New Albany Police Chief Greg Jones told NBC4 without providing details. He added that no altercation took place before the shooting and the motive had not been released.
A firearm was recovered at the scene, the report said, without providing details about the type of firearm.
Police responded to reports of an active shooter by locking down the warehouse of personal care brand KDC/One, the city said. Images released by local media showed dozens of police vehicles deployed to the site.
The five victims have been taken to hospital for treatment, New Albany’s Chief Communications & Marketing Officer Josh Poland said.
KDC/One provides solutions to many brands in the beauty, personal care, and home care categories.
REUTERS