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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
QUITO – At least five people died and six others were injured in an armed attack Sunday night in west Ecuador’s coastal city of Manta, local police said Monday.
The attack occurred around 11 p.m. Sunday local time when men armed with rifles and handguns fired at a home where a family gathering was taking place in Manta, in the western province of Manabi.
Jose Erazo, head of Manta police, told the local press that the deceased were four men and an eight-year-old girl.
“One of the dead was a Colombian national who had a criminal record in the neighboring country,” Erazo said.
Erazo said videos from security cameras showed that at least six attackers aboard two vehicles and a motorcycle entered the housing complex, and suggested that the attack could be due to a dispute between two criminal organizations.
Manabi is one of the most violent provinces in Ecuador, according to police, who attribute the violence to the presence of criminal gangs vying for control of territories for illicit activities.
XINHUA
CAIRO – Sudan’s notorious paramilitary group attacked a city in the western Darfur region, killing more than 30 people, an activist group said, in the latest deadly offensive on an area that is home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias launched an offensive on el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, on Sunday, the Resistance Committees in the city said. Dozens of other people were wounded in the attack, said the group, which tracks the war.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
El-Fasher, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of the capital, Khartoum, is under the control of the military, which has fought the RSF since Sudan descended into civil war more than two years ago, killing more than than 24,000 people, according to the United Nations, though activists say the number is likely far higher.
The RSF has been attempting to seize el-Fasher for a year to complete its control of the entire Darfur region. Since then, it has launched many attacks on the city and two major famine-hit camps for displaced people on its outskirts.
The city is now estimated to be home to more than 1 million people, many of whom have been displaced by the ongoing war and previous bouts of violence in Darfur. The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by then-president Omar al-Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur. The Janjaweed were accused of mass killings, rapes and other atrocities.
The attacks on el-Fasher have intensified in recent months as the RSF suffered battlefield setbacks in Khartoum and other urban areas in the county’s east and center.
Sunday’s attack came less than a week after a two-day attack by the RSF and its allied militias on the city and the Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps killed more than 400 people, according to the United Nations.
Last week’s attack forced up to 400,000 people to flee the Zamzam camp, Sudan’s largest, which has become inaccessible to aid workers, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
AP
KYIV, Ukraine – Russian attacks during the 30-hour Easter ceasefire unilaterally declared by President Vladimir Putin over the weekend killed three people in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, a regional official said Monday.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson’s administration, wrote on Telegram that the casualties occurred over the last 24 hours, adding that three others were wounded in the region, parts of which are occupied by Russia.
After Putin declared the move on Saturday, Ukraine responded by voicing readiness to reciprocate any genuine ceasefire but said the Russian attacks continued. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia violated the ceasefire more than 2,900 times.
Zelenskyy said that Russian forces carried out 96 assault operations along the front line, shelled Ukrainian positions more than 1,800 times and used hundreds of drones during the course of the ceasefire. “The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirror-like: we will respond to silence with silence, and our blows will be a defense against Russian blows. Actions always speak louder than words,” he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, listed 4,900 Ukrainian violations of the ceasefire. It charged that Moscow’s forces “strictly observed the ceasefire and remained at previously occupied lines and positions.”
Speaking Monday, Putin said that the fighting resumed after the ceasefire expired at midnight (2100 GMT). Commenting on Zelenskyy’s call for a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire or, at least, a halt on strikes on civilian facilities, the Russian leader noted that Kyiv was trying to “seize the initiative,” adding that “we must think about it, carefully assess everything and look at the results of the ceasefire.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Russia would inform “all the interested parties” about the Ukrainian violations of the ceasefire.
Peskov said that Russia “remains open to searching for a peaceful settlement and is continuing to work with the American side,” adding that “we certainly hope that this work will produce results.”
Overnight into Monday, the Russian forces fired three missiles at Ukraine’s southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, as well as 96 Shahed drones targeting other parts of the country, Ukraine’s Air Force reported. It said it downed 42 drones, while 47 others were jammed mid-flight.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian drones sparked a fire at an “outbuilding” and a “food enterprise,” regional administration head Serhii Lysak wrote on Telegram. No one was injured in the attack, he said. An unspecified infrastructure object was damaged in the Cherkasy region overnight, regional head Ihor Taburets said on Telegram.
Four civilians also sustained injuries in the partially occupied Donetsk region, according to regional head Vadym Filashkin, who said that the Russian forces shelled settlements in the region five times over the last 24 hours.
AP
SANAA – Yemen’s Houthi group said on Monday that it had launched fresh attacks at two Israeli targets and two U.S. aircraft carriers, using drones and cruise missiles.
“We launched a drone attack at a vital target in the city of Ashkelon and another drone attack at a military target in the city of Eilat,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in the statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
He didn’t identify the names of the targets in both cities in southern Israel.
“As part of confronting the American aggression … we targeted the aircraft carrier Truman and its escorting warships in the northern Red Sea, using two cruise missiles and two drones,” Sarea said, referring to the USS S. Harry Truman.
“We also targeted the aircraft carrier Vinson (the USS Carl Vinson) and its escorting warships in the Arabian Sea, using three cruise missiles and four drones,” he said.
Sarea reaffirmed that the group’s attacks “will continue” against Israel and the U.S. naval forces in the region.
According to the Houthi television, the attacks against Israel and the U.S. warships were carried out in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli defense forces have yet to comment on the Houthi claim, nor the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, the U.S. airstrikes in Yemen have been continuing. Early in the day, the Houthi television said the death toll from U.S. airstrikes on Sunday night against a popular market in the Shu’ub neighborhood in central Yemen’s capital Sanaa rose to 12, with 30 other “civilians” wounded.
Also on Sunday night, the Houthi television reported other U.S. airstrikes on several Houthi locations in the northern provinces of Al-Mahwit, Saada, and Marib.
Tensions between the Houthi group and the U.S. military have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 to deter the group from targeting Israel and U.S. warships.
XINHUA
JERUSALEM – Israel’s military said on Monday that it carried out more than 200 airstrikes across the Gaza Strip over the past three days, killing a member of the Islamic Jihad movement.
The military said the strikes targeted militant infrastructure, militant cells, rocket launch and sniper positions, weapons depots and command centers.
It identified the killed fighter as Ahmad Mansour, who it said participated in the Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and later directed rocket fire during the ongoing war.
In Rafah’s Shabura and Tel al-Sultan neighborhoods, Israeli troops dismantled “terrorist infrastructure” and uncovered a cache of grenades, ammunition and other military gear.
Along the recently constructed Morag Corridor, which bisects Rafah from Khan Younis and the rest of Gaza, troops located weapons, destroyed Hamas infrastructure and killed several militants, the military said.
In northern Gaza, soldiers launched an airstrike on a building containing what was described as underground infrastructure and detected multiple militants. The army also reported dismantling Hamas sniper posts that had threatened its ground forces.
At least eight people were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday and dozens wounded, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
XINHUA
WARSAW – A major wildfire has engulfed approximately 400 hectares of Biebrza National Park in northeastern Poland, local authorities confirmed Monday morning.
The fire, which began Sunday afternoon at the border of Augustow and Monki counties in Podlaskie province, has spread rapidly despite ongoing firefighting efforts.
Justyna Klusewicz, spokesperson for the Podlaskie Provincial Command of the State Fire Service, told the Polish Press Agency on Monday that roughly 180 firefighters, supported by forest services, park rangers and soldiers, are currently battling the blaze.
Overnight, drones were deployed to monitor the situation, and on Monday, additional firefighting aircraft, including helicopters, resumed operations to tackle the fire in the remote and hard-to-reach areas.
The Government Center for Security has issued emergency alerts for residents of the Augustow, Grajewo and Monki regions, advising them to stay clear of the affected areas and follow the guidance of emergency services.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. No casualties have been reported.
Biebrza National Park, renowned for its vast marshes and unique biodiversity, is one of Poland’s most ecologically significant protected areas.
XINHUA
ROME – Pope Francis, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, died Monday at the age of 88, said the Vatican in a statement.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Francis was head of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013.
His death came weeks after returning home from a 38-day stay in intensive care, and followed an intense Holy Week schedule that included public appearances.
After a period of mourning, the Vatican will turn toward preparations for a gathering of the College of Cardinals to select Francis’ successor.
XINHUA
Three people died and a fourth was critically injured early Easter Sunday when a fire tore through an overcrowded home in Queens, that had no evidence of a working smoke detector and had blocked stairs and exits, fire officials said.
Makeshift walls had been erected in the Jamaica Estates home, including through the middle of the kitchen, New York Fire Department Chief John Esposito said at a news conference.
Officials also said extension cords were found throughout the two story home. The cords can overheat, especially when overloaded or improperly used, leading to fires, according to Electrical Safety Foundation International. The fire department is still determining the fire’s origin.
Firefighters arrived in less than four minutes, but the blaze in the early morning hours spread quickly to the upper floors of the house. There were reports of people jumping out of the attic window, Esposito said.
People lived on both floors of the house, as well as its cellar and attic, Esposito said.
“We are not encouraging, we’re begging all New Yorkers to have a working smoke alarm in their home, and, you know, if possible a CO2 detector as well,” New York City Fire Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said during a Sunday press conference.
About 10 to 15 people reside in the home, including its landlord, second floor resident Adham Ammar told ABC7 Eyewitness News. Ammar was not in the home when the fire happened, he said.
“Part of this, it’s because of the negligence of the landlord,” he said. Attempts by the AP to reach the landlord were unsuccessful.
Three firefighters suffered minor injuries.
AP