WEST FORK, Ark. – Two people were found dead along a walking trail in a state park in Arkansas, authorities said Sunday.
A 43-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman were found dead at Devil’s Den State Park in Washington County, according to the Arkansas State Police. Its criminal investigation unit is handling what it calls a “suspected homicide.”
The suspect is a white male wearing dark shorts, a dark tank top and weight-lifting type gloves. He was seen driving toward a park exit in a black, four-door sedan whose license plate may have been covered by electrical or duct tape.
The vehicle may have been traveling on State Highway 170 or State Highway 220 near the park, police said.
The victims’ bodies were being taken to the Arkansas State Crime Lab, where the manner and cause of death will be determined.
ISTANBUL, July 27 – One firefighter died on Sunday as a forest fire in Türkiye’s northwestern Bursa province continued to spread due to extreme weather conditions, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said.
According to Uraloglu, the firefighter had a heart attack while battling against the fire and then died at the hospital.
Meanwhile, according to Sozcu Daily, two forest officers suffered carbon monoxide poisoning during the blaze.
The fire, which broke out in two locations in Bursa on Saturday, rapidly expanded to three districts overnight due to extreme heat and strong winds. Temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius in Bursa on Sunday, with forecasts predicting a rise to 39 degrees on Monday.
The Bursa Governor’s Office announced that a total of 480 households and 1,765 residents had been safely evacuated. Media reports said more than 100 hectares of land had been scorched.
Forest fires have broken out in various provinces since June 26. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said the public prosecutor has launched investigations into the incidents. “So far, 21 of the suspects taken into custody have been arrested, while judicial control measures have been imposed on 47 others,” he said on social media platform X
GAZA, July 27, 2025 – At least 88 Palestinians were killed and 374 others were injured in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours as a result of the ongoing Israeli genocide in the region, according to medical sources.
Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 2023 has risen to 59,821 fatalities, with an additional 144,851 people sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.
According to the same sources, the death toll since Israel’s resumption of the genocide on March 18 after a two-month truce has also climbed to 8,657, in addition to 32,810 others injured.
GAZA, July 27, 2025 – In the past 24 hours, hospitals in the Gaza Strip have reported six new deaths caused by starvation and severe malnutrition, including two children. This tragic development brings the total number of deaths from hunger-related conditions to 133, with 87 of those being children.
The humanitarian situation in the region remains critical as malnutrition cases continue to flood Gaza’s medical facilities, due to the Israeli policy of starvation imposed on the enclave.
An estimated 900,000 children in Gaza are currently suffering from hunger, with around 70,000 having reached critical levels of malnutrition.
ISLAMABAD, July 27 – At least eight people were killed and 18 others injured when a passenger bus overturned on a motorway in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province early Sunday, officials said.
The accident occurred when a Lahore-bound bus traveling from Islamabad, with 40 passengers on board, suffered a front-left tire burst, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle, Deeba Shahnaz, chief public information officer at Rescue 1122, told Xinhua.
Six people died on the spot, while two others succumbed to injuries at a hospital.
Rescue teams and motorway officials reached the scene promptly. Seven of the injured sustained critical injuries and were shifted to local hospitals, the official said.
KUNMING, July 27 – Five people in an automobile vehicle were trapped in a landslide Sunday in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, local authorities said.
The landslide hit a road connecting Lancang County with Ximeng County in the city of Pu’er, burying a vehicle with five people on board, the Pu’er municipal government information office said.
A rescue operation is currently in progress. Further details are not yet available.
JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL – At least 18,500 Israeli soldiers and police forces have been injured since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, local media said Sunday.
The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that the Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Division received 18,500 soldiers and other security forces wounded with varying severity.
However, official Israeli military figures widely differed, saying that only 6,145 soldiers have been injured and 895 others killed.
According to the daily, more than 10,000 Israeli soldiers have suffered from mental health ailments, including 3,679 diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The newspaper said that 9,000 soldiers submitted requests to have psychological injuries recognized, including anxiety, adjustment disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression in 2024 alone.
ABUJA, Nigeria/ISTANBUL – At least 25 people were killed when a passenger boat capsized on a river in the Niger state of Nigeria, media reports said Sunday.
The boat was carrying marketgoers from the Munya region and sank in the Shiroro area, leaving dozens missing, according to initial reports.
Authorities said search and rescue operations are ongoing, but warned that the number of casualties could increase.
Efforts are being made to locate and rescue the missing passengers, said an official, who did not provide the number onboard to reporters.
Boat accidents are frequent in Nigeria during the rainy season, particularly on rivers and lakes used for transport.
KINSHASA, Congo – At least 21 people were killed on Sunday in an attack on church premises in eastern Congo by Islamic State-backed rebels, according to a civil society leader.
The attack was carried out by members of the Allied Democratic Force (ADF) around 1 a.m. inside the premises of a Catholic church in eastern Congo’s Komanda. Several houses and shops were also burnt.
“More than 21 people were shot dead inside and outside and we have recorded at least three charred bodies and several houses burned. But the search is continuing,” Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, told The Associated Press.
This photo provided by Philippine Army 2nd Infantry Battalion shows assault rifles and grenade launchers recovered by troops after a brief gun battle with communist guerrillas in Masbate province, Philippines Sunday, July 27, 2025. Philippine Army 2nd Infantry Battalion via AP
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine troops killed seven communist guerrillas in an offensive Sunday in a central province and were pursuing several others in the latest flare-up of the decades-long insurgency that the military says is on the brink of collapse.
Army forces killed two New People’s Army guerrillas in a clash last week in Masbate province and then caught up with the fleeing insurgents early Sunday in the hinterlands of Uson town, where they killed seven of them in a 30-minute gunbattle, Maj. Frank Roldan of the army’s 9th Infantry Division said.
Seven assault rifles and two grenade launchers were recovered by troops at the scene of the battle. At least eight rebels managed to flee in different directions and were being pursued, Roldan said.
“We’re in the final push,” Roldan told The Associated Press by telephone, saying a few dozen armed guerrillas remain in the island province, a poverty-stricken agricultural region of more than 900,000 people.
“This successful operation delivers a major blow to the already weakening insurgency,” Roldan said, and asked the remaining rebels to surrender and support the government’s peace efforts.
Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said last week that less than 900 rebels remain, mostly in eastern rural regions, from the estimated 25,000 insurgent force at the peak of the 56-year insurgency, one of Asia’s longest-running rebellions.
Saddled by battle defeats, surrenders and factionalism, the guerrilla forces “are on the brink of collapse,” said Brig. Gen. Medel Aguilar, deputy commander of the military’s Civil Relations Service.
Peace talks brokered by Norway collapsed under previous President Rodrigo Duterte after both sides accused the other of continuing deadly attacks despite the negotiations.
