SHENYANG – A devastating fire at a restaurant in the city of Liaoyang, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, has killed 22 people and injured three others, while the operator of the establishment has been detained by police, according to the city government.
The fatal blaze started at 12:25 p.m. on Tuesday, with a total of 22 fire trucks and 85 firefighters dispatched to the scene, where they swiftly extinguished the flames and conducted search-and-rescue operations.
XINHUA
BEIJING – A restaurant fire in northeastern China killed 22 people on Tuesday, the official news agency Xinhua said, in the latest in a series of similar deadly incidents around the country.
Xinhua did not identify the cause of the fire but said President Xi Jinping called it “a deeply sobering lesson” and urged local officials to quickly treat the injured, determine what triggered the blaze and hold those responsible to account.
The fire broke out at 12:25 p.m. (0425 GMT) in a restaurant in a residential area of Liaoning Province’s Liaoyang City, state broadcaster CCTV said. Three people were injured.
Footage circulating on social media including X and Chinese platform Douyin, unverified by Reuters, showed bright orange flames engulfing a storefront on street level alongside scores of parked vehicles. Smoke was seen billowing out as paramedics tended to people on stretchers.
Hao Peng, secretary of Liaoning’s provincial ruling party committee, said 22 fire trucks and 85 firefighters were deployed to the scene. Hao said the on-site rescue work had been completed and people had been evacuated.
It was the latest in a spate of similar incidents across the country in recent years. In April, 20 people were killed in a fire that broke out in an apartment for the elderly at a nursing home in the northern province of Hebei.
Gas leaks caused at least two high-profile explosions in residential areas last year, with a blast at a restaurant in Hebei province killing two people and injuring 26 in March, and an explosion in a highrise building in southern Shenzhen province in September killing one person.
REUTERS
DAMASCUS – Six people, including two members of the Syrian security forces, were killed on Tuesday in clashes involving members of the Druze community in the Jaramana area, east of the capital Damascus, according to local media reports and a war monitor.
Sham FM radio, citing a security source, reported that security forces were not directly involved in the clashes but had attempted to prevent further escalation between armed groups. Two security personnel were killed during the intervention, the report said.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that four people from the Druze community were killed and six others injured as a result of security forces’ shelling and the use of light and medium weapons in residential areas.
The clashes reportedly followed the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze individual, which contained remarks deemed religiously offensive. The incident sparked tension and provoked sectarian reactions in several parts of the country, the observatory said.
In early March, an outbreak of unrest between security forces and local gunmen in Jaramana resulted in one person killed and five others injured, according to local media reports.
XINHUA
ISLAMABAD – The Pakistan Army on Monday shot down an Indian quadcopter for violating the country’s airspace along the Line of Control (LoC), Pakistani military sources said.
The incident occurred in the Manawar section of Bhimber district of the Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, where the Indian quadcopter was engaged in surveillance activity, the sources told Xinhua.
The army took immediate action and successfully intercepted the unmanned aerial vehicle, the sources added.
No casualties or damage were reported on the Pakistani side, and the wreckage of the quadcopter was recovered for further examination.
Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors have remained high, with frequent reports of ceasefire violations and aerial surveillance attempts along the LoC.
XINHUA
QUETTA, Pakistan – A leaking oil tanker caught fire and exploded along a dusty road in southwestern Pakistan, killing two people and injuring 56 others, officials said Tuesday.
The explosion happened as firefighters were trying to put out the fire Monday in the Naushki district of Balochistan province, local police officer Atta Ullah said.
Firefighters and people in a crowd that had gathered at the scene were among the injured. The tanker driver and a bystander were killed.
Nearly a dozen of the injured were in critical condition and some were being airlifted to the southern city of Karachi, where better medical care is available, said Waseem Baig, a spokesman for Civil Hospital in Quetta.
Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti visited the Civil Hospital in Quetta, the capital of the province, and directed doctors to provide the best possible care to the victims.
Deadly incidents involving oil tankers are not uncommon in Pakistan.
In 2017, more than 200 people were killed in Ahmadpur East in Punjab province when a fuel tanker caught fire as residents attempted to collect leaking fuel.
AP
Russia’s overnight drone attack killed a 12-year-old girl in the Dnipropetrovsk region and injured her parents, Ukraine’s emergency service said on Tuesday.
Another child was rescued from underneath the rubble, the emergency service said in a post on social media.
REUTERS
SRINAGAR, India – More than half of the tourist destinations in India’s insurgency-torn Kashmir region have been closed to the public from Tuesday, according to a government order reviewed by Reuters, in a bid to tighten security after last week’s attack on holiday-makers.
The assailants segregated men, asked their names and targeted Hindus before shooting them at close range in the Pahalgam area, killing 26 people, officials and survivors said.
India has identified two of the three attackers as “terrorists” from Pakistan waging a violent revolt in Muslim-majority Kashmir. Pakistan has denied any role and called for a neutral probe.
Hindu-majority India accuses Islamic Pakistan of funding and encouraging militancy in Kashmir, the Himalayan region both nations claim in full but rule in part. Islamabad says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to a Kashmiri demand for self-determination.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have increased since the attack, along with calls in India for action against Pakistan.
Delhi and Islamabad have taken a raft of measures against each other since the Kashmir attack. India has suspended the Indus Waters Treaty – an important river-sharing pact. Pakistan has closed its airspace to Indian airlines.
The government of India’s Jammu and Kashmir territory has decided to shut 48 of the 87 tourist destinations in Kashmir and enhanced security at the remaining ones, according to a government document reviewed by Reuters.
No time period was given. Government officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nestled in the Himalayas with lofty peaks, picturesque valleys and grand Mughal-era gardens, Kashmir has been emerging as India’s tourism hotspot as violence there has waned in recent years.
But the Pahalgam attack has left panic-stricken tourists seeking an early exit at the start of the busy summer season.
Firing has also increased along the 740-km (460-mile) de facto border separating the Indian and Pakistani areas of Kashmir.
On Tuesday, for the fifth consecutive day, the Indian army said it had responded to “unprovoked” small arms fire from multiple Pakistan army posts around midnight.
It gave no further details and reported no casualties. The Pakistani military did not respond to a request for comment.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Reuters on Monday that a military incursion by India was imminent and it had reinforced its forces in preparation.
REUTERS
CHICAGO – Four people were killed Monday when a car rammed through a building in Chatham, a village 4.5 km south of Springfield, the capital of the U.S. Midwestern state of Illinois.
Chatham Police Department Deputy Chief Scott Tarter said police responded at about 3:20 p.m. (2020 GMT) to calls about a vehicle hitting three people outside, driving into the building and hitting another person before exiting the other side.
Tarter said the driver was uninjured and was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
XINHUA
LIMA – At least two children were killed and five people remain missing after a river overflowed early Monday in the western Peruvian region of Ancash, local health authorities confirmed.
Ricardo Natividad, a regional health official, said the incident occurred in the district of Independencia, in Huaraz province, after a landslide caused the Casca River to overflow.
“The police are searching for survivors and victims. So far, they have reported five missing people and two deceased children,” Natividad said in a video shared on social media.
He added that health teams are providing mental health support to affected residents, many of whom are struggling with hunger.
According to Peru’s state news agency Andina, around 100 people were affected. Authorities also reported several homes damaged, three bridges destroyed, power outages, and the collapse of local roads.
XINHUA
FOREST PARK, Ga. – Two people were killed and at least two others wounded at a large gathering of motorcycle riders just south of Atlanta, police said.
The shooting happened around 5 p.m. Sunday in Forest Park, police said in a statement.
Numerous motorcyclists were speeding away when officers arrived, and police had to navigate a “large and chaotic crowd” of 100 to 150 people to reach the victims, Forest Park police said.
The two people wounded were hospitalized on Monday in critical condition, Forest Park Police Chief Brandon Criss said at a Monday news conference.
“We do know that there was a verbal altercation, and that’s all I can speak of as it relates to what transpired during the altercation,” Criss said.
Police are “very close on bringing those that are responsible for this crime to justice,” he said.
One of the men who died was from Philadelphia, the police chief said. Few other details about the victims were immediately released.
Criss said the gathering involved motorcycle clubs, but he did not identify which ones.
AP
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Gangs have attacked another town in Haiti ’s central region, killing at least four people, including an 11-year-old child, a human rights activist told The Associated Press on Monday.
At least 15 other people were injured by gunfire, and more than a dozen homes were burned in Petite Rivière, said Bertide Horace, spokesperson for the Commission for Dialogue, Reconciliation and Awareness to Save the Artibonite.
The attack began Thursday, but police were still battling gang members on Monday, she said in a phone interview.
Horace shared grisly videos that showed people receiving treatment for serious wounds at a local hospital.
Before she could provide further details, Horace warned that the town being attacked was without power. Her cellphone was then cut off.
A spokesperson for Haiti’s National Police did not immediately return a request for comment.
Petite Rivière is the latest community in the once peaceful Artibonite region that gangs have targeted.
In late March, gangs struck the city of Mirebalais and stormed a local prison, freeing more than 500 inmates. They also attacked the nearby town of Saut d’Eau, considered a sacred place that attracts thousands of Haitians annually for a Vodou-Catholic pilgrimage.
While gangs control at least 85% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, they have launched attacks in the country’s central region in recent years.
On Monday, Chrisla, the powerful leader of the Ti Bois gang, announced a three-day strike in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Carrefour, which has been bereft of any government presence since gangs seized control of it in recent years.
He ordered public transportation and private businesses to close, saying only hospitals and firefighters were authorized to operate.
Chrisla also said he wanted a new Haiti “so that we can all sit at the same table to reconcile this nation.”
Haiti’s government leaders have repeatedly said they would not negotiate with gangs or include them in any discussions aimed at helping stabilize the troubled country.
A U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police that began last year to help Haitian police quell violence has struggled in its fight against gangs.
More than 5,600 people were killed across Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than one million people homeless.
AP
WASHINGTON – A U.S. Navy sailor suffered minor injuries when an F-18 fighter jet and its tow tractor fell overboard from an aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, the U.S. military said on Monday.
In a statement, the Navy said that all personnel were accounted for. The carrier, the Harry Truman, is aiding strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen.
REUTERS
NEW DELHI – India has signed a contract to purchase 26 Rafale fighter jets from France, New Delhi’s defense ministry said Monday, with the multi-billion-dollar deal to include both single and twin-seat planes.
When delivered, the jets would join 36 French-made Rafale fighters already acquired by New Delhi as part of its efforts to rapidly modernize its military hardware.
“The governments of India and France have signed an inter-governmental agreement for the procurement of 26 Rafale Aircraft,” the defense ministry said in a statement.
The jets made by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation are expected to operate from Indian-made aircraft carriers, replacing the Russian MiG-29K jets.
“It includes training, simulator, associated equipment, weapons and performance-based logistics” as well as 22 single-seater and four twin-seater jets, said India’s defense ministry.
“It also includes additional equipment for the existing Rafale fleet of the Indian Air Force (IAF).”
The Indian government announced its intention to procure 26 Rafales in 2023, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France for the Bastille Day celebrations.
Despite historical ties with Russia as its key supplier for military equipment, India has diversified in recent years with key purchases including from France as well as from the United States and Israel.
Dassault said that the jets will provide India with “state-of-the-art capabilities” and an “active role in guaranteeing national sovereignty and consolidating India’s role as a major international player.”
India’s navy is the first user outside France of the Rafale Marine jet, the company said.
Monday’s deal comes as India’s relations with arch-rival Pakistan plummet to fresh lows.
New Delhi has accused Pakistan of backing the deadliest attack on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir since 2000 — claims Islamabad denies.
The two countries have exchanged gunfire, diplomatic barbs, expelled each other’s citizens and shut border since the April 22 attack, in which 26 men were killed.
Analysts say there is also a serious risk of the crisis turning into a military escalation.
The earlier contract for 36 Rafale aircraft, agreed in 2016, was worth about $9.4 billion.
Many global arms suppliers see the world’s most populous nation — and fifth-largest economy — a key market.
India has become the world’s largest arms importer with purchases steadily rising to account for nearly 10 percent of all imports globally in 2019-23, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said last year.
India has also eyed with worry its northern neighbor China, especially since a deadly 2020 clash between their troops.
That sparked a wave of defense reforms in the country, with both a push for fresh contracts from foreign suppliers and simplified laws to push domestic manufacturing and co-production of critical military hardware.
This decade India has opened an expansive new helicopter factory, launched its first homemade aircraft carrier, and conducted a successful long-range hypersonic missile test.
That in turn has fostered a growing arms export market which saw sales last year worth $2.63 billion — still a tiny amount compared to established players, but a 30-fold increase in a decade.
India has deepened defense cooperation with Western countries in recent years, including the Quad alliance with the United States, Japan and Australia.
AN-AFP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iran finally extinguished a fire Monday at a southern port rocked by an explosion as the death toll in the blast rose to at least 70 people killed, authorities said.
Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press also showed the devastation of the explosion that injured more than 1,000 people. The photos from Planet Labs PBC came as local news reports from the site raised more questions about the cause of the blast Saturday at the Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas.
Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni announced the fire had been put out, while provincial emergency health official Mehrdad Hasanzadeh gave the death toll.
The port reportedly took in a chemical component needed for solid fuel for ballistic missiles — something denied by authorities though they’ve not explained the source of the power that caused such destruction.
AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press on Monday showed the devastation of an explosion that rocked one of Iran’s main ports as the death toll rose to 46 people with over 1,000 injured.
The photos from Planet Labs PBC came as local news reports from the site raised more questions about the cause of the blast Saturday at the Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas. The port reportedly took in a chemical component needed for solid fuel for ballistic missiles — something denied by authorities though they’ve not explained the source of the power that caused such destruction.
The blast Saturday disintegrated a building next to the blast site, which appeared to be in a row where other containers once stood, the satellite photos showed. It also shredded the majority of another building just to the west.
The force of the blast also could be seen, with what appeared to be two craters measure some 50 meters (165 feet) across. Other containers nearby appeared smashed and distended by the explosion and the intense fire that followed.
The fire still burned at the site Monday, some two days after the initial explosion that happened just as Iran began a third round of negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
AP
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories – Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes on Monday killed at least 16 people across the Palestinian territory, which has been under an Israeli aid blockade for more than 50 days.
Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18. A ceasefire agreement that had largely halted the fighting for two months before that collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose 2023 attack triggered the war.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Monday that eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on the Abu Mahadi family home in Jabalia, in the north of the territory.
“They were sleeping in their homes, feeling safe, when missiles hit… this scene makes the body shiver,” said Abdul Majeed Abu Mahadi, 67, who added that his brother was killed in the attack.
“If a person looked at this scene, they would have seen children, women and elderly men cut into pieces, it makes the heart ache, but what can we do?”
The civil defense agency also reported that an Israeli strike on the Al-Agha family home killed five people in an area of Khan Yunis in the south.
It added that two people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a tent sheltering displaced people in the Al-Shafii camp, west of Khan Yunis.
One more was killed when an Israeli air strike targeted the Abu Mazen roundabout area west of Gaza City, it said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
AN-AFP
MADRID/LISBON – Spain and Portugal were hit by a widespread power outage on Monday that paralysed public transport, caused large traffic jams and delayed flights.
Utility operators sought to restore the grid but Spanish electricity transmission operator Red Eléctrica said the outage, the cause of which was not immediately known, could last from six to 10 hours. Officials said the possibility that it was caused by a cyber attack had not been ruled out.
The outage caused chaos in parts of Portugal and Spain as traffic lights stopped working, causing gridlock. Transport networks were halted, hospitals were left without power and people were trapped in the metro and in elevators.
In Madrid, hundreds of people stood in the streets outside office buildings and there was a heavy police presence around some important buildings, with officers directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights.
The Spanish and Portuguese governments met to discuss the outage, which also briefly affected parts of France, and a crisis committee was set up in Spain, sources familiar with the situation said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited electricity transmission operator Red Eléctrica’s control centre.
“The government is working to determine the origin and impact of this incident and is dedicating all resources to resolve it as soon as possible,” the Spanish government said.
Red Electrica said it was working with regional energy companies to restore power. Portuguese utility REN said it had activated plans for the phased restoration of the electricity supply.
Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.
The European Commission said it was in contact with the authorities in Spain and Portugal and the European network of transmission system operators ENTSO-E to try to establish the cause of the outage.
REUTERS
TUNIS – Tunisia’s coast guard on Monday recovered the bodies of eight African migrants after their boat sank off the country’s coast as it sailed towards Europe, a security official told Reuters, adding that 29 other people were rescued.
The boat sank in waters off the city of Abwabed near Sfax, a departure point often used by African migrants.
Search operations were underway for possible missing persons, said Houssem Eddine Jebabli, an official in the national guard.
Tunisia is grappling with an unprecedented migration crisis and has replaced Libya as a major departure point for both Tunisians and others in Africa seeking a better life in Europe.
REUTERS
ISLAMABAD – At least seven people were killed and 17 others injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Monday, police said.
The explosion occurred at the office of a local peace committee leader in the Wana Bazaar area of South Waziristan district, local police told Xinhua.
The explosive device was planted and remotely detonated, the police said, adding that the blast caused the office to collapse, trapping several individuals, including a local leader, under the debris.
The injured were immediately shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital in Wana for medical treatment, the spokesperson said.
Rescue operations were underway at the scene, while security forces had cordoned off the area and launched an investigation into the incident, police added.
XINHUA
DHAKA – A series of lightning strikes in parts of Bangladesh killed nine people on Monday.
Four deaths were reported in different areas of Cumilla district, three in Kishorganj district and one each in Sunamganj and Netrokona districts from dawn until noon on Monday amid heavy rain.
The majority of the lightning fatalities occurred in rural areas where people were working on their farmlands.
Death due to lightning strikes is common in the densely populated South Asian country during this time of a year, as the weather changes from the dry season to the rainy summer season. The Bangladeshi government in 2016 declared it as a national disaster.
A total of 297 people including 242 men and 55 women died due to lightning strikes during the February-September period in 2024, Save the Society and Thunderstorm Awareness Forum (SSTF), a local organization, announced the death toll last October.
Experts claim that the surge in lightning strike deaths is attributable to climate change, which made the country more vulnerable to the impacts.
XINHUA