DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM – The death toll from ongoing sectarian clashes in the southern suburbs of Damascus climbed to 39, including 16 security personnel, after ceasefire efforts collapsed and intense fighting resumed in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, officials and monitoring groups said Wednesday.

According to the Syrian interior authorities, armed groups launched coordinated attacks overnight on security checkpoints and patrols in agricultural zones surrounding the town, targeting both civilian and security vehicles.

Eleven officers from the General Security Directorate were killed in the initial assault, and another five fell during a renewed attack Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of fallen security personnel to 16.

The ministry confirmed that ceasefire attempts involving local elders and government representatives were violated when the armed groups reneged on their commitments and resumed attacks.

“Any assault on public security forces is an assault on national stability,” the interior authorities said, vowing a firm response.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 22 people have been killed in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya alone, including six local Druze fighters and 16 members of pro-government and security forces. The confrontations have involved light and medium weapons, and the situation on the ground remains volatile.

The recent violence stems from the leak of an audio recording attributed to a member of the Druze community containing comments deemed offensive to Islam.

The recording triggered widespread outrage and incitement on social media, setting off deadly clashes earlier this week in Jaramana, where 17 people were killed.

In total, at least 39 people have been killed in the latest wave of violence across Jaramana, Sahnaya, and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, including both government forces and local armed factions.

Local officials are continuing efforts to prevent further escalation, but as of Wednesday afternoon, fighting was ongoing, and fears persist that the unrest may drag on if not contained quickly.

Meanwhile, Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir ordered the army to prepare for possible strikes on Syrian government targets if violence against Druze communities continues, the military said.

The military said in a statement that the instruction followed a situational assessment.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli air force struck what, according to the military, were “operatives on the outskirts of Damascus who had attacked Druze civilians.”

The military said it was “monitoring developments in the region,” and its troops are “deployed and prepared for defense and developments in the area of Syria.”

XINHUA

PITTSBURGH – A powerful storm downed trees and power lines, leaving more than a half million customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and neighboring states in the dark on Wednesday morning, with local officials reporting at least three deaths.

More than 440,000 customers were without power in Pennsylvania and another 50,000 were in the dark in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks outages.

Neighboring states including Michigan, New York and West Virginia reported thousands of outages as well.

One man was electrocuted on Tuesday evening while trying to put out a mulch fire near a utility pole as severe weather hit the State College area, damaging many trees and utility lines, police said.

The 22-year-old man encountered an active electric current while trying to put out the fire and died at the scene, police said in a news release.

In Pittsburgh, first responders were called to the South Side Slopes area on Tuesday evening for reports of a person electrocuted by live wires and the person died on the scene, according to a Pittsburgh Public Safety Department social media post.

The department urged residents to use extreme caution when moving through the city as there were multiple hazards such as downed trees and possible live wires.

Allegheny County officials confirmed two storm-related deaths, including the one reported by Pittsburgh officials and a 67-year-old man killed by a fallen tree at a home in Ross Township, just outside Pittsburgh.

The city’s 911 system experienced some outages due to the extreme weather, but was later restored, the department said.

The National Weather Service’s Pittsburgh office said destructive wind damage was seen across its region Tuesday.

Straight-line winds gusted over 80 mph to 90 mph (129 kph to 145 kph), which is stronger than many EF0 and EF1 tornadoes typically seen in this region, but over a wider area, the weather service office said in a social media post.

The National Weather Service warned that heavy to excessive rainfall could produce additional flash flooding Wednesday across parts of the southern Plains with the greatest risk along the Red River Valley into western Arkansas.

Scattered severe thunderstorms were possible from north central Texas across the region and into Louisiana with possible hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.

AP

OSLO – Several people were hit by a car in Copenhagen on Wednesday, the Danish capital’s emergency service said in a social media post, with the police adding that an elderly man had lost control of his vehicle.

The police said five people were injured in the incident.

REUTERS

DAMASCUS – Clashes intensified late Tuesday and early Wednesday in the southern suburbs of Damascus amid rising sectarian unrest, according to a major monitoring group in Syria.

Renewed clashes involving light and medium weapons, including RPGs, were reported in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Gunfire and at least one explosion, believed to be caused by a mortar shell, were reported in Sahnaya and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, prompting the General Security Directorate to enforce night curfews in both towns.

SOHR reported that the death toll from the ongoing violence had risen to 18, including nine residents from the areas of Jaramana, Sahnaya, and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, and nine members of pro-government forces.

At least 15 others were wounded, with several in critical condition. The casualty figures are expected to rise due to continued instability.

The clashes followed earlier unrest in Jaramana, reportedly triggered by the online circulation of an audio recording deemed offensive to Islam, allegedly made by a member of the Druze community.

The incident fueled sectarian tensions across several parts of Syria, including university cities like Aleppo and Homs, and now appears to be spreading further.

In a related development, unidentified gunmen reportedly targeted al-Thaala military airport in the countryside of the Druze-dominated Suwayda province with medium weapons and mortar shells, although no casualties have been confirmed so far. Syrian Ministry of Defense units are stationed at the base.

Aerial surveillance by Israeli reconnaissance aircraft was also reported over Sahnaya on Tuesday evening, according to local media, though there were no reports of strikes.

In anticipation of further violence, Interior Ministry forces were deployed along the edges of Jaramana, and residents began fleeing the area. Several families left the town, and three buses carrying Druze university students returned to their home provinces amid fears of reprisals, according to SOHR.

The latest wave of unrest has heightened concern about the potential for broader sectarian conflict, as local authorities and community leaders work to prevent the situation from spiraling further out of control.

Earlier on Tuesday, Syrian authorities and local community leaders in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana reached an agreement in a bid to restore calm after recent deadly clashes.

XINHUA

TAIYUAN – One person was killed while two others remain missing in a residential complex explosion on Wednesday afternoon in Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province, according to local authorities.

At present, 21 people are still receiving treatment in the hospital, including six with serious injuries and 15 with minor injuries.

The blast occurred in the Beiying neighborhood of Xiaodian District at around 1 p.m. As of 3 p.m., the fire triggered by the blast had been extinguished.

XINHUA

STOCKHOLM – Swedish police detained a 16-year-old early on Wednesday on suspicion of murdering three people in a hair salon in the city of Uppsala, prosecutors said.

The victims, aged 15-20, were shot dead late on Tuesday afternoon just as Uppsala, a university town 40 minutes north of Stockholm, was gearing up for Walpurgis Night, one of the busiest holidays in the city.

“An intensive investigation is underway. We are now gathering information and the police are conducting door-to-door inquiries and interviewing witnesses,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement.

REUTERS

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran executed Wednesday a man it said worked for Israel’s foreign intelligence agency and played a role in the 2022 killing of a Revolutionary Guard colonel in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The report identified the man as Mohsen Langarneshin and said he was hanged. It called him a “senior spy” for the Mossad who provided “technical support” in the assassination of Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, shot five times by gunmen on a motorbike outside his home in Tehran.

The agency said the Mossad recruited Langarneshin in 2020 and that he met with Israeli intelligence officers in Georgia and Nepal.

Langarneshin reportedly rented safe houses for operatives in several Iranian cities, including Isfahan, when, in January 2023, bomb-carrying drones targeted what Iran described as a military workshop. Iran has accused Israel of being behind the attack.

The report said Langerneshin confessed in Iran’s Revolutionary Court.

The court was established following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and is known for meting out harsh punishments to those who oppose Iran’s clerical rulers. It usually provides a court-appointed lawyer and doesn’t allow media access.

At the time of his assassination, local media identified Khodaei only as a “defender of the shrine,” a reference to Iranians who fight against the extremist Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s elite Quds force that oversees foreign operations.

AP

TAIYUAN – Seventeen people were injured in a residential complex explosion on Wednesday afternoon in Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province, with four in critical condition and three discharged after treatment, according to local authorities.

The blast occurred in the Beiying neighborhood of Xiaodian District at around 1 p.m. As of 3 p.m., the fire triggered by the blast had been extinguished.

Rescue teams are conducting door-to-door safety checks in the affected building, and an investigation into the cause of the blast is underway.

XINHUA

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar warned on Wednesday that India may be planning a military strike within the next 24 to 36 hours.

In a video statement, Tarar said Pakistan had received credible intelligence suggesting that India was preparing for military action based on what he described as “baseless and concocted allegations” relating to the recent incident in Pahalgam, located in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

He warned that any such move by India would be met with a “decisive” response.

“India’s self-assumed hubristic role of judge, jury and executioner in the region is reckless and vehemently rejected,” Tarar said.

The minister noted that Pakistan had offered an “open-hearted, credible, transparent and independent” investigation by a neutral commission of experts to establish the facts behind the Pahalgam incident.

However, he said, India had opted for “irrationality and confrontation” over reasoned inquiry.

XINHUA

BOGOTA – A Colombian Navy helicopter crashed during a supply mission in northern Colombia, killing one soldier onboard, the navy said Tuesday.

The Bell 412EP helicopter plunged into a body of water shortly after takeoff near the town of Malagana. Three other crew members were rescued and are receiving medical treatment, it added.

Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said an inspection team has been established to investigate the crash, with support from the Colombian Aerospace Force.

XINHUA

TAIYUAN – An explosion occurred Wednesday morning in a residential area of Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province, according to local firefighters.

The blast in the Xiaodian District of Taiyuan was reported to the firefighting authorities at about 11 a.m. As of 3 p.m. fire triggered by the blast had been put out but casualties remained unknown.

XINHUA

NEW YORK – A man in a stolen Porsche trying to evade law enforcement was shot and killed by an officer Tuesday night in Brooklyn, according to the New York Police Department.

The 28-year-old was driving on the Belt Parkway just after 8 p.m. when officers flagged the vehicle as “suspicious,” NYPD Chief of Department John Chell said during a news conference. Officers checked the plate and discovered it was stolen out of Pennsylvania.

Officers tried to pull the car over, but the driver exited the parkway and then got back on it, Chell said. When they tried to intercept the car again, it quickly drove onto a service road where several officers had set up a road block.

The Porsche “came into close proximity” of one of the officers and nearly hit him, Chell said. An officer shot the driver and the car continued on and hit another department vehicle, he said.

A passenger in the car was apprehended and officers “performed lifesaving measures on the driver,” Chell said. The driver later died at a hospital.

The driver was on federal probation for interstate transport of stolen vehicles from Pennsylvania, Chell said.

No additional information about the driver was immediately provided.

AP

Swarms of Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Dnipro late on Tuesday, killing at least one person and injuring at least 46, officials said.

Kharkiv, which lies in the northeast near the Russian border and is Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been the target of regular Russian drone and missile attacks since Moscow began its full-scale invasion more than three years ago.

The attack on the city late on Tuesday injured at least 45 people, including two children and a pregnant woman, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

The attacks came as the United States, which had tried to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, said that it would step back as a mediator unless Moscow and Kyiv put forward concrete proposals.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire from May 8-10 to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for an immediate ceasefire lasting at least 30 days.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said several areas of the city, which has been devastated by successive attacks, had been targeted on Tuesday. About 1.2 million people live in Kharkiv, compared to nearly 2 million before Moscow’s February 2022 invasion.

“There have been 16 strikes on Kharkiv,” Terekhov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“A high-rise apartment block was hit as were private homes, a medical facility and civilian infrastructure.”

Public broadcaster Suspilne posted photos of firefighters tackling flames.

Suspilne said one drone struck the eighth floor of an apartment building. It said two medical facilities had been hit.

In Dnipro, in Ukraine’s southeast, drones triggered fires and killed a 53-year-old man and injured another person, Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram.

“A difficult night for Dnipro,” Lysak wrote. “Private homes have been damaged.”

He said that nine Russian drones were destroyed over the region overnight.

The full scale of the overnight attack on Ukraine was not clear. Both sides deny targeting civilians.

A mass Russian drone attack in Dnipro last month killed four people and sparked a large fire in a hotel and restaurant complex and other buildings.

REUTERS

BERLIN – The economic situation for Germany’s poor has deteriorated rapidly, with inflation hitting the country’s most vulnerable populations hardest, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The study by the German Parity Welfare Association found that 13 million people—nearly one in six Germans—are now living below the poverty line. The poverty rate climbed to 15.5% of the population in 2024, a 1.1 percentage point increase from the previous year.

“The figures confirm what many people on low incomes have long felt in their everyday lives: the poor are getting poorer,” said Joachim Rock, Managing Director of the German Parity Welfare Association, in a statement. “The loss of purchasing power in recent years worsened the already difficult financial situation of millions of affected people. The new government must make fighting poverty and social exclusion a top priority,” he stressed.

In Europe’s largest economy, poverty impacted single parents, young adults, and retirees most severely, with elderly women facing particular vulnerability, according to the report. The median monthly income for those below the poverty line dropped from €981 ($1,118) in 2020 to €921 ($1,049) in 2024, after adjusting for inflation. Nearly 5 million people in the country lacked sufficient income to heat their homes adequately or replace worn-out clothing.

The report identified rising rents and housing costs as a key driver of increasing poverty rates across Germany. Thirty-seven percent of poor households were overburdened, spending more than 40% of their income on housing. Even more concerning, twenty-five percent of poor households faced severe financial hardship, with over half their limited income going to rent, utilities, and heating—leaving them unable to afford basic needs like food, healthcare, and education.

ANADOLU – 29.04.2025

UPPSALA,Sweden/STOCKHOLM – Three people were killed in a shooting in the Swedish city of Uppsala on Tuesday and a murder investigation has been launched, police said.

Police said it was investigating the shooting as a homicide and that it had no information about the incident being a terror or hate crime at this point.

“We have information that a person left the scene on an electric scooter,” a police spokesperson told Reuters.
“Whether this person is a perpetrator or a witness, or someone who has some connection to the incident, it is unclear at this time.”

Police said the victims were yet to be identified and declined to speculate on the motive for the killings.

Electric scooters have been used several times as a mode of escape after gang conflict shootings in Sweden. Uppsala, some 40 minutes north of the capital, Stockholm, by car, has seen many gang-related shootings in the past decade, but usually outside the city centre.

Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said the Justice Ministry was in close contact with the police and that it was closely monitoring developments in the case.

“A brutal act of violence has occurred in central Uppsala … This is at the same time as the whole of Uppsala has begun Walpurgis Night. What has happened is extremely serious,” Strommer said in a statement.

Police said earlier they had received calls from members of the public who heard gunshots in the city centre, and that emergency services had rushed to the scene.

“Three people are confirmed dead after a shooting … The police are investigating the incident as a homicide,” investigators said in a statement.

Witnesses told SVT they had heard five shots and had seen people in the area running to take cover. Several Swedish media, including TT, reported that the shooting took place near or in a hair salon.

Ten people were killed in February in the Swedish city of Orebro in the country’s deadliest ever mass shooting, in which a 35-year-old unemployed loner opened fire on students and teachers at an adult education centre.

Sweden has suffered from a wave of gang-related violence for more than a decade that has included an epidemic of gun violence.

The Nordic country’s right-wing minority government came to power in 2022 on a promise to tackle gang-related violence. It has tightened laws and given more powers to police, and after the Orebro shooting said it would seek to tighten gun laws.

REUTERS

MANILA – The killing of a veteran Filipino journalist in his home was a “heinous act” that was being investigated by police, the Philippines’ Presidential Task Force on Media Security said on Wednesday.

Juan “Johnny” Dayang, 89, who served as president emeritus of the Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc, was shot by an unidentified assailant in his home in the central province of Aklan on Tuesday night, and died before reaching the hospital, the task force said.

“We are closely coordinating with all concerned agencies to ensure the immediate resolution of this case,” Jose Torres Jr., the task force’s executive director, said in a statement.

“We stand in solidarity with the media community as we mourn the passing of Dayang, a figure regarded as a pillar of Philippine journalism whose contributions greatly enriched our democratic discourse,” Torres added.

Despite a media environment that ranks as one of the most liberal in Asia, the Philippines is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists, particularly in its provinces.

More than 200 journalists have been killed in the country since democracy was restored in 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, including 32 in a single incident in 2009.

“The death of Dayang represents a significant loss to the Philippine media and political landscape,” the Publishers Association said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Dayang served as mayor of Kalibo, his hometown, from 1986 to 1987.

REUTERS

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A 6.2-magnitude earthquake has hit off the west coast of New Zealand. There is no tsunami warning.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake occurred shortly after 1 a.m. local time. It was 187 miles (300 kilometers) southwest of Invercargill, New Zealand, and six miles (10 kilometers) under the sea.

Monitors in New Zealand described the quake as moderate. There were no immediate reports of damage.

New Zealand, which is home to 5 million people, sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.

AP

TEHRAN – Two people were killed and another injured on Tuesday in an explosion at an industrial facility belonging to a chemical company in the central Iranian province of Isfahan, the official news agency IRNA reported.

The blast occurred at 10:30 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) in a plant in Shahinshahr County, IRNA reported, citing Mansour Shishehforoush, director general of the provincial crisis management department.

He said the injured person had severe burns and was transferred by helicopter to a hospital, noting that the cause of the incident would be announced after the investigations are complete.

According to IRNA, the company was involved in the production of fireworks.

XINHUA

ABUJA – Dozens of people were reportedly killed after a truck carrying food items and passengers hit an explosive device in a town in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, security sources said Tuesday.

The incident occurred on Monday when the truck traveling along Gamboru Ngala, a town linking Nigeria with neighboring Cameroon and Chad, hit an improvised explosive device planted along the road, resulting in casualties, including children, a senior security officer, who asked to be anonymous due to not being authorized to speak on the development, told Xinhua over the phone.

“More than 26 people were killed, and at least five were injured. Some of them were seriously burned in the blast,” the security source said, noting that the casualties, mainly passengers, passersby, and residents, were trapped in a fire that erupted following the blast.

Neither the government nor security agencies have commented officially on the incident, but a senior police officer told Xinhua that an investigation is underway.

XINHUA

ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani army said on Tuesday that three terrorists were killed in an operation in Kech district of the country’s southwestern Balochistan province.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement that security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in Turbat area of Kech on Tuesday.

The military added that weapons, ammunition and explosives were also recovered from the killed terrorists, who were involved in multiple terrorist activities against the law enforcement agencies and civilians.

The ISPR said that clearance operations have been launched to eliminate any remaining terrorists in the area, adding that the security forces of Pakistan remain determined to thwart attempts to sabotage peace, stability, and progress in Balochistan.

XINHUA