Death Toll

A business jet with six people aboard crashed Thursday at a regional airport in North Carolina used by NASCAR teams and Fortune 500 companies, erupting in a large fire and killing multiple people, authorities said. Flight records show the plane was registered to a company run by retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle. There were six people on the Cessna C550 that crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Charlotte, the Federal Aviation Administration said. I can confirm there were fatalities," Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said. Golfers playing next to the airport were shocked as they witnessed the disaster, even dropping to the ground at the Lakewood Golf Club while the plane was overhead. The ninth hole was covered with debris. We were like, Oh my gosh! That's way too low,' said Joshua Green of Mooresville. It was scary. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA were investigating. AccuWeather says there was so

A suspected gunman in Sydney's Bondi Beach massacre was charged with 59 offences, including 15 charges of murder, police said Tuesday. The 24-year-old man was charged in Sydney hospital on Wednesday, where he has been since police shot him and his gunman father at Bondi on Sunday. The 50-year-old father died at the scene, a police official said. The charges include one count of murder for each victim who died and one count of committing a terrorist act.

A magisterial inquiry committee has questioned original landowner Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar and Arpora-Nagoa sarpanch Roshan Redkar in connection with the devastating fire at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in North Goa. Amonkar was summoned at 3.30 pm on Saturday and questioned till 10.30 pm, his lawyer Prasenjeet Dhage said, adding that the panel wanted to know "why this incident happened". "My client had a warrant of appearance before the committee," he said. "It was a very intensive and vigorous inquiry," the lawyer added. The Goa government has constituted a committee headed by district magistrate Ankit Yadav to inquire into the December 6 fire incident which claimed 25 lives. Arpora-Nagoa panchayat sarpanch Roshan Redkar told reporters that he answered the committee's questions. He has already obtained pre-arrest bail from a local court in connection with the case. The Goa police have arrested five managers and staff members of the club. Gaurav Luthra and Saurabh Luthra, co

An airstrike by Myanmar's military destroyed a hospital in an area controlled by a leading rebel armed force, killing 34 patients and medical staff, according to a rescue worker and independent media reports on Thursday. About 80 other people were injured in the attack on Wednesday night on the general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine. The military, which took over Myanmar's government in 2021 and has been fighting ethnic militias and armed resistance forces since then, has not mentioned any attack in the area. Wai Hun Aung, a senior official for rescue services in Rakhine, told The Associated Press that a jet fighter dropped two bombs at 9.13 pm with one hitting the hospital's recovery ward and the other landing near the hospital's main building. He said he arrived at the hospital early on Thursday to provide assistance and recorded the deaths of 17 women and 17 men. He said that most of the hospital buildin

Gaurav and Saurabh Luthra, linked to Goa's Birch by Romeo Lane club, where a fire killed 25 people, have been detained in Thailand as India begins deportation efforts

After 25 people died in the December 6 fire at Goa's Birch by Romeo Lane, reports have put owners Gaurav and Saurabh Luthra in focus, alongside documents citing notices over illegal construction

At least 11 people, including three children, were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in a township near the South African administrative capital of Pretoria, police said on Saturday. Another 14 people were wounded and taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds, according to a statement from the South African Police Services. Police didn't give details on the ages of those who were injured. The shooting happened at an unlicensed bar in the Saulsville township west of Pretoria in the early hours of Saturday. The children killed were a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Police said they were searching for three suspects. South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 an average of more than 70 a day.

Indian envoy on Saturday met Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs Vijitha Herath and discussed cooperation in the reconstruction and rehabilitation process in the aftermath of cyclone Ditwah that wreaked havoc in the Island nation. At least 618 people have died, and 209 are missing as of Saturday evening 8 pm, due to the catastrophic floods and landslides caused by extreme weather conditions since November 16, according to Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre (DMC). India was the first country to respond to Sri Lanka's international appeal for assistance under its Operation Sagar Bandhu. High Commissioner Santosh Jha met Vijitha Herath and discussed the ongoing Indian assistance to Sri Lanka under #OperationSagarBandhu High Commission of India in Colombo posted on social media on Friday. He also discussed avenues of cooperation during the reconstruction and rehabilitation phases in the aftermath of #CycloneDitwah, it added. Jha also briefed Sri Lankan corporate leaders about N

Hong Kong's national security police arrested a man on Saturday in the first publicly confirmed arrest relating to criticism of authorities over a high-rise apartment blaze that killed at least 159 people. Police said he had been accused of posting information with seditious intention on social media. That mainly included (materials intending to) incite hatred among (others) toward the Hong Kong government and the central government, Steve Li, chief superintendent of the police National Security Department, told reporters. For example, he pointed to the Hong Kong and the central governments as instigators of exploiting the tragedy to cause chaos and turmoil, he said. That's something totally impossible. Local media reported other arrests earlier but authorities have not confirmed them. The fire, which broke out November 26 at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex, has prompted a debate about government accountability. Authorities have warned against attempts to use the fire to try t

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Saturday said his government has been able to restore public life to normalcy within a very short period after Cyclone Ditwah devastated the island nation and took over 600 lives. Dissanayake's claim came a day after he announced a massive relief package to all those affected by Cyclone Ditwah and requested the IMF for an additional USD 200 million to meet excess expenditure to cope up with the disaster. The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Colombo office on Saturday said the request would be considered at the global lender's executive board on December 15. The island nation has been grappling with widespread flooding, landslides and severe infrastructure collapse following Cyclone Ditwah, which has also acutely strained the country's disaster-response capacity. As many as 611 people had died and over 200 remained missing even as search operations for those buried under landslides continued a week after the cyclone struck the ...

BJP leader Colonel (retired) Ajay Kothiyal has expressed regret that even four months after the cloudburst in Dharali of Uttarkashi district, the bodies of 147 people buried under the debris could not be recovered. "If the Army rescued seven out of 10 soldiers buried under the debris in Harshil, then why can't we rescue the 147 people buried in Dharali?" he asked, while participating in a discussion at the 'World Summit on Disaster Management' organised in Dehradun by Uttarakhand State Council for Science and Technology two days ago. Kothiyal alleged that nearly four months after the natural calamity, Dharali is still in tatters. Instead of finding proper ways for rehabilitation of the people there, disaster management officials, geologists, scientists and environmental experts are finding excuses to avoid the challenges, he alleged. On August 5 this year, a massive cloudburst over Dharali village in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand resulted in devastating floods and mudslides, .

Emergency crews raced to reach survivors and recover more bodies Tuesday after the death toll from last week's catastrophic floods and landslides surged past 1,200 in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, with more than 800 people missing. Days of heavy monsoon rains inundated vast areas, leaving thousands stranded and many clinging to rooftops waiting for help. The flooding and landslides killed at least 1,230 people, with 659 people confirmed dead in Indonesia, 390 in Sri Lanka and 181 in Thailand, authorities said Tuesday. In Indonesia, the hardest-hit nation, rescuers are struggling to access villages in Sumatra island, where roads have been washed out and bridges have collapsed. At least 475 people remain missing, according to the country's National Disaster Management Agency. Helicopters and boats have been deployed, but officials warn that worsening weather and damaged infrastructure are slowing operations. Military-led rescue teams in Sri Lanka continue to scour devastated ar

Hong Kong will set up an independent commission of inquiry headed by a judge to determine the cause of a deadly apartment block fire that shocked the city and make recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again, its leader said Tuesday. John Lee, the chief executive of the Chinese region, pledged to overcome vested interests and pursue accountability for a fire that killed at least 151 people. We must uncover the truth, ensure that justice is served, let the deceased rest in peace and provide comfort to the living, he told the media at a 30-minute weekly appearance completely dominated by last week's blaze. The fire started in scaffolding that had been set up around the Wang Fuk Court complex for maintenance work and spread to seven of the eight towers. They were home to more than 4,600 people and many have been left homeless. The initial investigation has focused on why the fire expanded so rapidly, overwhelming firefighting efforts. Authorities have cited both

A steady stream of people placed bouquets of white roses, carnations, lilies and other flowers Sunday at a makeshift memorial outside the blackened buildings of a Hong Kong apartment complex that went up in flames, killing at least 128 people in one of the city's deadliest blazes. Many bowed toward the scene of the fire and said short prayers, or left handwritten notes among the flowers. There has been an outpouring of support and sympathy, with thousands of city residents visiting the site of the fire to pay tribute to the dead and donate supplies to those who lost everything in the blaze, which started Wednesday and took until Friday to fully extinguish. The eight buildings of the Wang Fuk Court complex in the suburb of Tai Po had all been clad in bamboo scaffolding draped with nylon netting for renovations, with windows covered by polystyrene panels, and authorities are now investigating whether fire codes were violated. Hong Kong officials announced late Saturday they had order

Multiple written warnings were issued to the contractor about the need to adopt appropriate fire safety measures at the estate then home to 4,600 people

Hundreds of residents were evacuated as the fire spread across seven of the eight high-rise apartment buildings in a housing complex in Tai Po district, a suburb in the New Territories

Following the crash, railways and local government authorities immediately activated their emergency response to manage rescue efforts

This comes as floods and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall in Indonesia's North Sumatra province had claimed at least 28 lives by Thursday

Three subsequent jolts after a relatively major earthquake claimed at least 10 lives within a span of 32 hours panicked Bangladesh amid experts warning of a major earthquake, calling the four ones as foreshocks. A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck on Friday morning causing at least 10 deaths and significant damage to buildings mostly in central parts of the country, including the capital Dhaka, while a subsequent tremor rocked the country at around the same time on Saturday morning. The Bangladesh capital and adjoining administrative districts, including Narsingdi, the epicentre of the 5.7 magnitude quake, were jolted by two back to back jolts on Saturday evening. The Bangladesh Meteorology Department (BMD) said the epicentre of the one of the subsequent three jolts was located beneath the surface of crowded Badda area in the capital city with rest being in Narsingdi. Met office spokesman and meteorologist Tariful Newaz Kabir said two earthquakes struck on Saturday evening near ...

The cause of the blast, which was heard as far as six kilometers away, was not immediately known