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A 50-year-old man was killed and his three family members injured in an explosion at an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit in Bihar's Siwan district on Thursday, police said. The explosion took place in the house of Murtazza Ansari in Bargam village in Hussain Ganj block, where firecrackers were being illegally manufactured, they said. "After receiving information about the blast, the police immediately reached the spot. Ansari was found dead, and his three family members were injured," an officer said. "All the injured were taken to the nearest government hospital. Ansari's body has been sent for the post-mortem examination," he said. Ansari was arrested by the police a few years ago for illegally making firecrackers at his house, he added. The incident took place on the day Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was in Hussain Ganj for his Samriddhi Yatra. However, the site of the blast was around 5 km away from the venue of the CM's programme.
At least six workers were killed and several others injured in a blast at a sponge iron factory in Chhattisgarh's Balodabazar- Bhatapara district on Thursday, officials said. The incident occurred at the Real Ispat Sponge Iron Factory located in Bakulahi village in the Bhatapara rural area, a police official said. After being alerted, police and senior administrative officials rushed to the spot and initiated relief and rescue operations, he said.
The Goa government has told the legislative assembly that the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, where 25 persons died in a fire last month, had been flagged for illegal construction by revenue officials in 2024. Twenty-five persons were killed last month in a fire at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, located at Arpora in North Goa. State Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserratte, in a written reply to the House on Friday, attached documents that show the club was constructed by demolishing the traditional sluice gate inside the salt pan by illegally converting the land. The original owners of the property, Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar and Sunil Divkar, had filed a complaint before the Bardez taluka mamlatdar (revenue officer) on December 21, 2023. The complaint was filed against the then Maizon Lake View Resort (later named as the Birch by Romeo Lane after it was leased out to brothers Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra). The complainants had signed an agreement for sale with Surinder Khosla, the ...
A crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed at least 544 people and even more are feared dead, activists have said, while Tehran warned that the US military and Israel would be legitimate targets if America uses force to protect demonstrators. Another over 10,600 people have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Sunday, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces. With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran's government has not offered overall casualty figures. Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran's security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the
About 40 people were killed and another 115 injured, most of them seriously, after a fire ripped through a bar's New Year celebration in a Swiss Alpine resort less than two hours after midnight Thursday, police said. Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased. The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue, and overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of potentially one of Switzerland's worst tragedies. Valais Canton police commander Frederic Gisler said during a news conference that work is underway to identify the victims and inform their families, adding that the community is devastated. Beatrice Pilloud, Valais Canton attorney general, said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire. Experts have not yet been able to go inside the wreckage. At no moment is there a question of any kind of attack, Pilloud said. Axel Clavier, a 16-year-old from Paris who survived the
A knife attack outside Suriname's capital of Paramaribo killed at least nine people, including five children, police said Sunday. Officials said the victims included four of the attacker's children and neighbours who came to their aid. A neighbour's child was also killed. Local media reported the victims were located at multiple homes. The attack took place in Richelieu in the Commewijne district about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Paramaribo. In a statement Sunday, Suriname's Police Corps said the male suspect attempted to attack police officers who arrived on the scene and he was injured during his arrest. He is now recovering in a hospital. Police said a sixth child and another adult were seriously injured in the attack and were being treated at a hospital in Paramaribo. On her Facebook page, Surinamese President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons reacted to the news, saying the attacker took the life of his children and his neighbours. I wish all the bereaved much strength, resilie
Clashes broke out on Syria's coast between protesters from the Alawite religious minority and counterdemonstrators on Sunday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens of others, health officials said. The clashes came two days after a bombing at an Alawite mosque in the city of Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 others during prayers. Thousands of protesters gathered in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, and elsewhere. Officials have said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque in Homs, but authorities have not publicly identified a suspect in Friday's bombing. Funerals for the dead were held on Saturday. A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be ...
Two helicopters crashed midair in New Jersey on Sunday, killing one person and critically injuring another, authorities say. Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash at about 11:25 am. Video from the scene shows a helicopter spinning rapidly to the ground. Police and fire crews subsequently extinguished flames that engulfed one of the helicopters. The Federal Aviation Administration described the crash as a midair collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and Enstrom 280C helicopter over Hammonton Municipal Airport. Only the pilots were on board each aircraft. One was killed, and the other was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. Sal Silipino, owner of a cafe near the crash site, said the pilots were regulars at the restaurant and would often have breakfast together. He said he and other customers watched the helicopters take off before one began spiralling downward, followed by the other. "It was shocking,
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
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, .