Category: NEWS

  • Earthquake measuring 6.2 shakes Istanbul and injures more than 150 people

    People walk in Eminonu district, as the New Mosque is seen in the background, following an earthquake, in Istanbul, Turkey, April 23, 2025. REUTERS

    ISTANBUL – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul and other areas Wednesday, prompting widespread panic and scores of injuries in the Turkish city of 16 million people, though there were no immediate reports of serious damage.

    More than 150 people were hospitalized with injuries sustained while trying to jump from buildings, said the governor’s office in Istanbul, where residents are on tenterhooks because the city is considered at high risk for a major quake.

    The earthquake had a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey, with its epicenter about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Istanbul, in the Sea of Marmara.

    It was felt in the neighboring provinces of Tekirdag, Yalova, Bursa and Balikesir and in the city of Izmir, some 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Istanbul. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the earthquake lasted 13 seconds and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks – the strongest measuring 5.9.

    The quake started at 12:49 p.m. during a public holiday when many children were out of school and celebrating in the streets of Istanbul. Panicked residents rushed from their homes and buildings into the streets. The disaster and emergency management agency urged people to stay away from buildings.

    MORE THAN 150 INJURED

    “Due to panic, 151 of our citizens were injured from jumping from heights,” the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement. “Their treatments are ongoing in hospitals, and they are not in life-threatening condition.”

    Many residents flocked to parks, school yards and other open areas to avoid being near buildings in case of collapse or subsequent earthquakes. Some people pitched tents in parks.

    “Thank God, there does not seem to be any problems for now,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an event marking the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day holiday. “May God protect our country and our people from all kinds of calamities, disasters, accidents and troubles.”

    Leyla Ucar, a personal trainer, said she was exercising with her student on the 20th floor of a building when they felt intense shaking.

    “We shook incredibly. It threw us around, we couldn’t understand what was happening, we didn’t think of an earthquake at first because of the shock of the event,” she said. “It was very scary.”

    Senol Sari, 51, told The Associated Press he was with his children in the living room of their third floor apartment when he heard a loud noise and the building started shaking. They fled to a nearby park. “We immediately protected ourselves from the earthquake and waited for it to pass,” Sari said. “Of course, we were scared.”

    They later were able to return home calmly, Sari said, but they remain worried that a bigger quake will some day strike the city. It’s “an expected earthquake, our concerns continue,” he said.

    ‘MY CHILDREN WERE A LITTLE SCARED’

    Cihan Boztepe, 40, was one of many who hurriedly fled to the streets with his family in order to avoid a potential collapse. Boztepe, standing next to his sobbing child, told AP that in 2023 he was living in Batman province, an area close to the southern part of Turkey where major quakes struck at the time, and that Wednesday’s tremor felt weaker and that he wasn’t as scared.

    “At first we were shaken, then it stopped, then we were shaken again. My children were a little scared, but I wasn’t. We quickly gathered our things and went down to a safe place. If it were up to me, we would have already returned home.”

    Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said authorities had not received reports of collapsed buildings. He told HaberTurk television that there had been reports of damage to buildings.

    The NTV broadcaster reported that a derelict and abandoned former residential building had collapsed in the historic Fatih district, which houses the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque.

    Education Minister Yusuf Tekin announced that schools would be closed on Thursday and Friday in Istanbul.

    “In line with the need for a safe space, our school gardens are open to the use of all our citizens,” Tekin said.

    URBAN RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

    Turkey is crossed by two major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent.

    A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Feb. 6, 2023, and a second powerful tremor hours later, destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces, leaving more than 53,000 people dead. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.

    Istanbul was not impacted by that earthquake, but the devastation heightened fears of a similar quake, with experts citing the city’s proximity to fault lines.

    In a bid to prevent damage from any future quake, the national government and local administrations started urban reconstruction projects to fortify buildings at risk and launched campaigns to demolish buildings at risk of collapse.

    On Wednesday, long queues formed at gas stations as residents, planning to leave Istanbul, rushed to fill up their vehicles. Among them was Emre Senkay who said he might leave in the event of a more severe earthquake later in the day.

    “My plan is to leave Istanbul if there is a more serious earthquake,” he said.

    AP

  • Israeli airstrikes kill 10 in school housing displaced families, hit children’s hospital, medics say

    CAIRO/GAZA – An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced families in northern Gaza killed at least 10 people on Wednesday, while another hit a children’s hospital, medics said, as three European leaders called on Israel to end its blockade on aid.

    Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza’s land.

    Israel has also imposed a blockade on all goods into Gaza, including fuel and electricity, since the beginning of March.
    On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain jointly called on Israel to adhere to international law and allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

    They also urged for the ceasefire to be restored and for remaining hostages held by militant group Hamas to be released.

    “Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change,” the ministers said in a statement.

    Medics said the airstrike on the Yaffa School in the Tuffah area of Gaza City set fire to tents and classrooms.

    There has been no Israeli comment on the school attack.

    Some furniture was still in flames several hours after the strike as people sifted through blackened classrooms and the schoolyard in search of their belongings.

    “We were sleeping and suddenly something exploded, we started looking and found the whole school on fire, the tents here and there were on fire, everything was on fire,” said eyewitness, Um Mohammed Al-Hwaiti.

    “People were shouting and men were carrying people, charred (people), charred children, and were walking and saying: ‘Dear God, dear God, we have no one but you.’ What can we say? Dear God, only,” she told Reuters.

    Medics said at least 36 people had been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday.

    REUTERS

  • Russian drone strike on bus kills 9 in Ukrainian city of Marhanets, Kyiv says

    A view shows a bus damaged by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Marhanets, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine April 23, 2025. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS

    A Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers in the Ukrainian city of Marhanets on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring close to 50, Kyiv officials said, in an attack President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said was a “deliberate war crime”.

    Zelenskiy said the Russian strike hit a bus that was transporting workers of a mining and processing plant.

    “An ordinary bus. Clearly a civilian object, a civilian target,” Zelenskiy said on X.

    “It was an egregiously brutal attack – and an absolutely deliberate war crime,” he added, calling for “an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire”.

    Russia fired a total of 134 attack drones at targets in Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said. There was no immediate comment from Russia.

    Ukrainian officials arrived in London on Wednesday, even as most other big power foreign ministers pulled out, to hold talks about ways to achieve a ceasefire as a first step towards peace.

    Marhanets, in south-central Ukraine, lies on the Ukrainian-controlled north bank of the Dnipro river’s dried-up reservoir that separates the warring sides.

    Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said nine people were killed in the attack and 49 were injured.

    Zelenskiy shared photographs of the aftermath of the attack on X, showing bodies lying in and next to the bus and being carried away by emergency workers.

    Zelenskiy added most of the injured were women.

    Elsewhere, an energy plant that provides electricity to the city of Kherson near southern front lines was destroyed in an artillery and drone attack, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

    Ukraine’s emergency service also reported a drone strike on the Synelnykivskyi district in the Dnipropetrovsk region that injured two people and sparked a fire at an agricultural enterprise.

    Russia further fired drones into the central region of Poltava, injuring at least six people, its governor said.

    A drone attack on civilian infrastructure in the suburbs of the Black Sea port city of Odesa injured two people and sparked several fires, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

    Russian drone salvoes also set off large-scale fires in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, in the northeast, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.

    Seven private houses, a storage building and an outbuilding were also damaged by drones hitting the Kyiv capital region, where a fire also broke out in a restaurant complex, its regional governor said.

    Both Russia and Ukraine are under pressure from the United States to demonstrate progress towards ending the war that began with Russia’s 2022 full-blown invasion amid warnings that U.S. President Donald Trump could walk away from peacemaking.

    REUTERS

  • An earthquake shakes Istanbul, with no immediate reports of serious damage

    ISTANBUL – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul and other areas on Wednesday, Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency said. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries in the metropolis of 16 million.

    The earthquake had a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey. Its epicenter was about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Istanbul in the Sea of Marmara.

    The quake was felt in several neighboring provinces and in the city of Izmir, some 550 kilometers (340 miles) south of Istanbul. There were several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3.

    Residents rushed out of homes and buildings in panic. The disaster and emergency management agency urged people to stay away from buildings.

    The quake struck at 12:49 p.m. during a public holiday when many children were out of school and celebrating in the streets. The quake forced authorities in Istanbul to cancel the events.

    AP

  • India troops beef up security in Kashmir following attack on tourists

    SRINAGAR, India – Security has been beefed up across Indian-controlled Kashmir a day after an attack killed at least 26 people, most of them tourists, as Indian forces launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of one of the deadliest attacks in the restive Himalayan region.

    As investigators began probing the attack, many shops and businesses in Kashmir closed to protest the killings following a call from the region’s religious and political parties.

    Tens of thousands of armed police and soldiers fanned out across the region and erected additional checkpoints. They searched cars and in some areas summoned former militants to police stations for questioning, reports said.

    Police called it a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

    Global condemnation for Tuesday’s rare attack on the tourists came swiftly, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to New Delhi early Wednesday.

    Officials said 24 of the people killed were Indian tourists, one was from Nepal and one was a local tourist guide. At least 17 others were injured.

    AP

  • Russia destroys energy facility in Ukraine’s Kherson, governor says

    Russian forces destroyed an energy facility in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson early on Wednesday, the regional governor said.

    Oleksandr Prokudin said the facility, which provided the city of Kherson with electricity, had come under Russian artillery and drone attacks for more than 24 hours.

    “Our military fought all night to repel the enemy attacks. However, in the morning, the Russians succeeded in destroying the energy facility,” Prokudin said on Telegram.

    The drone attacks are continuing and there could be emergency power cuts as energy workers are working to stabilise the situation, he added.

    REUTERS

  • 52 rescued, 103 bodies found after Mandalay condo collapse

    YANGON – As of Tuesday, 52 people have been rescued, and 103 bodies have been recovered from the collapsed Sky Villa condo in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Wednesday.

    The building collapsed after a powerful earthquake struck on March 28, the report said.

    The Myanmar Rescue Team, Mandalay Region Fire Services Department, and the Mandalay Region government personnel have been carrying out rescue and clearance operations since March 28 at the collapsed site of Sky Villa, it added.

    The earthquake has caused the deaths of 3,759 people and injuries to 5,107 others, with 114 individuals still reported missing nationwide as of Tuesday, according to Global New Light of Myanmar.

    XINHUA

  • Civilians killed and injured in Israeli bombings of several Gaza areas

    GAZA – Eight Palestinian civilians were killed on Wednesday, while others were injured, in Israeli bombing of several areas in the city of Gaza.

    WAFA correspondent said, quoting medical resources, that three slain people, and others wounded, were retrieved as a result of the occupation forces shelling a home for the Shabaan Family in the old Gaza street in Jabaliya Town, north of Gaza Strip.

    Five more citizens were killed, and others were injured after the Israeli forces bombed tents of displaced citizens in Jafa school in AlTuffah neighborhood north east of Gaza city.

    WAFA

  • Bridge collapses in Beijing but no casualties reported

    BEIJING – A bridge collapsed in Beijing’s northeastern Shunyi District, according to authorities and images circulating on social media.

    There were no casualties immediately reported, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport wrote on the social media platform Weibo.

    Parts of the bridge were damaged after a fire broke out Wednesday morning, the commission said. Traffic was stopped in both directions, and the fire was later put out. Authorities were investigating its cause.

    AP

  • Indian police say gunmen kill at least 26 tourists at a resort in disputed Kashmir

    Indian security patrol in armored vehicles near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists in Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. AP

    SRINAGAR, India – Gunmen shot and killed at least 26 tourists on Tuesday at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said in what appeared to be a major shift in a regional conflict in which tourists have largely been spared.

    Police said it was a “terror attack” and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. “This attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years,” Omar Abdullah, the region’s top elected official, wrote on social media.

    Two senior police officers said at least four gunmen, whom they described as militants, fired at dozens of tourists from close range. The officers said at least three dozen people were wounded, many of them reported to be in serious condition.

    Most of the killed tourists were Indian, the officers said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy. Officials collected at least 24 bodies in Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the disputed region’s resort town of Pahalgam. Two others died while being taken for medical treatment.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Police and soldiers were searching for the attackers.

    “We will come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences,” India’s home minister, Amit Shah, wrote on social media. He arrived in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and convened a meeting with top security officials.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was cutting short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returning to New Delhi early Wednesday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

    Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, a key resistance politician and Kashmir’s top religious cleric, condemned what he described as a “cowardly attack on tourists,” writing on social media that “such violence is unacceptable and against the ethos of Kashmir which welcomes visitors with love and warmth.”

    The gunfire coincided with the visit to India of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who called it a “devastating terrorist attack.” He added on social media: “Over the past few days, we have been overcome with the beauty of this country and its people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific attack.”

    U.S. President Donald Trump on social media noted “deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against terrorism.” Other global leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, condemned the attack.

    “The United States stands with India,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X.

    Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in its entirety.

    Kashmir has seen a spate of targeted killings of Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, after New Delhi ended the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.

    Tensions have been simmering as India has intensified its counterinsurgency operations. But despite tourists flocking to Kashmir in huge numbers for its Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats, they have not been targeted.

    The region has drawn millions of visitors who enjoy a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers. New Delhi has vigorously pushed tourism and claimed it as a sign of normalcy returning.

    The meadow in Pahalgam is a popular destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day.

    Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, while condemning the attack, said Modi’s government should take accountability instead of making “hollow claims on the situation being normal” in the region.

    Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

    India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

    In March 2000, at least 35 civilians were shot and killed in a southern village in Kashmir while then-U.S. President Bill Clinton was visiting India. It was the region’s deadliest attack in the past couple of decades.

    Violence has ebbed in recent times in the Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion. Fighting between government forces and rebels has largely shifted to remote areas of Jammu region, including Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua, where Indian troops have faced deadly attacks.

    AP

  • At least 20 feared killed in militant attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir, security sources say

    SRINAGAR, India – At least 20 people were feared killed after suspected militants opened fire on tourists in India’s Jammu and Kashmir territory on Tuesday, three security sources said, the worst attack on civilians in the troubled Himalayan region for years.

    The attack occurred in Pahalgam, a popular destination in the scenic, mountainous region where mass tourism, especially during the summer months, has resurged as Islamist militant violence has eased in recent years.

    One security source put the death toll at 20, while the second put it at 24 and the third at 26. All three spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

    “The firing happened in front of us,” one witness told broadcaster India Today, without giving his name. “We thought someone was setting off firecrackers, but when we heard other people (screaming), we quickly got out of there…, saved our lives and ran.”
    “For four kilometers, we did not stop … I am shaking,” another witness told India Today.

    REUTERS

  • 5.7-magnitude quake hits Papua New Guinea, no tsunami warning

    SYDNEY – An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 jolted 137 km north of Lae, Papua New Guinea, at 1329 GMT on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

    The epicenter, with a depth of 202.1 km, was initially determined to be at 5.484 degrees south latitude and 147.006 degrees east longitude.

    Currently, there was no tsunami warning, according to the U.S. Tsunami Warning System.

    Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Center said that there was no tsunami currently affecting Australia.

    No immediate reports of casualties or damage were released by authorities.

    XINHUA

  • Suspected militant attack in Indian Kashmir kills five tourists, police source says; eight hurt

    SRINAGAR, India – Suspected militants opened fire in India’s Kashmir region on Tuesday, killing at least five tourists and wounding eight other people, a police source told Reuters, in the worst such attack in the territory in nearly a year.

    The attack took place in Pahalgam, a popular destination in the scenic Muslim-majority territory that has drawn thousands of summer visitors as militant violence has eased in recent years.

    The injured were sent to a local hospital, the source said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

    “The death toll is still being ascertained so I don’t want to get into those details,” Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah posted on X. “Needless to say this attack is much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years.”

    A little-known militant group called the “Kashmir Resistance” claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media message. It expressed discontent that over 85,000 “outsiders” had been settled in the region, spurring a “demographic change.”

    “Consequently, violence will be directed toward those attempting to settle illegally,” it said.

    Reuters could not independently verify the source of the message.

    The local government of Jammu and Kashmir, where Pahalgam is located, told the legislature this month that nearly 84,000 non-locals, from within India, were given domicile rights in the territory in the last two years.

    “Those behind this heinous act will be brought to justice…they will not be spared!” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X. “Their evil agenda will never succeed. Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakable and it will get even stronger.”

    TIES FRAY FURTHER

    The Himalayan region, claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, has been roiled by militant violence since the start of an anti-Indian insurgency in 1989. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, although violence has tapered off in recent years.

    India revoked Kashmir’s special status in 2019, splitting the state into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The move also allowed local authorities to issue domicile rights to outsiders, allowing them to get jobs and buy land in the territory.

    That led to a deterioration of ties with Pakistan, which also claims the region. The dispute has been at the root of bitter animosity and military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

    Attacks targeting tourists in Kashmir have been rare in recent years. The last major attack on visitors took place in June, when at least nine people were killed and 33 injured after a militant attack caused a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims to plunge into a deep gorge.

    Some major militant attacks during the height of the insurgency coincided with visits from high-profile foreign officials to India, in likely attempts to draw global attention to Kashmir, Indian security agencies have said.

    Tuesday’s attack came a day after U.S. Vice President JD Vance began a four-day, largely personal visit to India.

    REUTERS

  • Passenger truck falls into a ravine in southern Pakistan, killing at least 13

    MULTAN, Pakistan – A speeding truck carrying laborers, women and children fell into a ravine in southern Pakistan, killing at least 13 people and injuring 20 others, police said Tuesday.

    The road accident occurred overnight in Jamshoro district in southern Sindh province, city police chief Saddique Changra told reporters.

    Hospital officials said some of the injured were in critical condition.

    According to local media, the accident happened as dozens of laborers were returning to their homes in Sindh’s Badin district after harvesting wheat in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

    Road accidents are common in Pakistan, where highways and roads are poorly maintained and traffic laws are widely ignored.

    AP

  • Lone truck crash kills 5, injures 13 in north Nigeria

    ABUJA – An overspeeding truck crashed into a crowd of people holding an Easter procession early Monday, killing five and injuring 13 others after a brake failure in Nigeria’s northern state of Gombe, the traffic police said.

    Samson Kaura, sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps in Gombe state, told reporters that the truck, loaded with grains, lost control while overspeeding at Tashan Gona, a town in the Billiri local government area.

    After a preliminary investigation, the truck driver was arrested and turned over to the conventional police on charges bordering on “speed violation,” Kaura said.

    Deadly road accidents are frequently reported in Nigeria, often caused by overloading, poor road conditions and reckless driving.

    XINHUA

  • Nearly 600 children killed, 1,600 injured in renewed Israeli assault on Gaza: UN agency

    ISTANBUL – Nearly 600 children have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since last month, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.

    Citing figures released by the UN children’s agency (UNICEF), UNRWA said that over 1,600 other children have also been injured since Israel resumed its assaults on March 18.

    “The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is now likely at its worst point since October 2023,” it added.

    The Israeli army resumed its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18 and has since killed 1,864 people and injured nearly 4,900 others despite a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.

    More than 51,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

    Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

    Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

    ANADOLU, 21.4.2025

  • Six people drowned in boat accident in central China

    CHANGSHA – Six people drowned in a boat accident on Monday in Pingjiang County, central China’s Hunan Province, local authorities said.

    At around 5:30 p.m., a boat carrying six villagers capsized in the waters of Doutang Village, along the Changjiang River in Pingjiang.

    Local police rushed to the scene and coordinated with rescue forces to carry out search and rescue operations.

    As of 9:05 p.m., all six bodies had been recovered. The cause of the accident is currently under investigation.

    XINHUA

  • Harvard University sues Trump administration over funding freeze

    WASHINGTON – Harvard University said Monday that it has filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration’s funding freeze, calling the action “unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”

    In a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the university said that this case involves “the government’s efforts to use the withholding of federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision making at Harvard.”

    XINHUA

  • Universiti Harvard saman pentadbiran Trump kerana beku pembiayaan

    WASHINGTON – Universiti Harvard berkata pada Isnin, ia memfailkan saman persekutuan terhadap pembekuan pembiayaan pentadbiran Trump, menyifatkan tindakan itu “melanggar undang-undang dan di luar kuasa kerajaan”.

    Dalam tuntutan mahkamah yang difailkan di Mahkamah Daerah Amerika Syarikat untuk Daerah Massachusetts, universiti itu berkata bahawa kes ini melibatkan “usaha kerajaan untuk menggunakan penahanan pembiayaan persekutuan sebagai leverage untuk mendapatkan kawalan dalam membuat keputusan akademik di Harvard.”

    XINHUA

  • Death toll of suspected herders attacks in Nigeria rises to 72

    ABUJA – The death toll of recent attacks by suspected armed herders in Nigeria’s central state of Benue has risen to 72, local authorities said on Monday.

    The deadly attacks happened in communities in the Ukum local government area of the state between Thursday and Friday night.

    Local authorities said on Saturday that at least 56 people were killed during the attacks.

    More victims were confirmed on Monday, as local security agencies and volunteers continued to comb nearby bushes, Isaac Uzaan, a government spokesman, told the media.

    Hyacinth Alia, governor of Benue, has earlier called for urgent action to be taken to halt the horrendous attacks that have continued to plague local communities in the state.

    XINHUA