PHILADELPHIA – One person died and two others were injured after an explosion damaged several homes on Philadelphia’s north side early Sunday, according to authorities.

Firefighters responded to a report of an explosion just before 5 a.m., according to the Philadelphia Fire Department.

Daniel McCarty, the department’s executive officer, said there was extensive damage to about five homes, including collapsed structures. One person died and two others who were rescued were hospitalized. McCarty said one was reported stable while the other was in critical condition.

Crews were expected to continue search and rescue operations.

“The biggest thing is the stability of the surrounding houses, making sure that this hazard doesn’t spread,” McCarty said. “This will be an extensive, all-day operation for the Philadelphia Fire Department.”

Authorities had not determined the cause of the explosion.

AP

CAIRO – A gold mine partly collapsed in eastern Sudan, killing 11 miners, the state-run company in charge of the project said Sunday.

The collapse of the Kersh al-Feel mine happened over the weekend in the desert town of Houeid in the eastern Nile River province, the Sudanese Mineral Resources Limited Company said in a statement. Another seven workers were injured and transferred to a hospital, it said.

The company said it had stopped excavation and reiterated its warning to informal miners against working at the site.

Sudan is a major gold producer but mine collapses are common due to poor safety standards.

Similar incidents in recent years include a 2023 collapse that killed 14 miners and another in 2021 that claimed 38 lives.

AP

NEW DELHI – Three people were killed and more than a dozen hospitalized Sunday following a sudden crowd surge and stampede at a popular Hindu festival in eastern India, local authorities said.

“There was a sudden crowd surge of devotees for having a glimpse of the Hindu deities during which a few people either fainted, felt suffocated or complained of breathlessness,” said Siddharth Shankar Swain, the top government official in Puri.

Swain told The Associated Press that 15 people were rushed to a local government hospital, where three people were pronounced dead. Autopsies are planned to determine the exact causes of death. The other 12 people have been discharged.

Tens of thousands of devotees gathered in the coastal town early Sunday at Shree Gundicha Temple, near the famous Jagannatha Temple, to catch a glimpse of the deities onboard three chariots, Swain said.

AP

Azerbaijan has canceled all cultural events planned by Russian state and private institutions in protest over the deaths of two Azerbaijani citizens during police raids in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, Azerbaijani officials said Sunday.

Azerbaijan’s Culture Ministry wrote on X that concerts, exhibitions, festivals and performances were canceled on account of “the demonstrative targeted and extrajudicial killings and acts of violence committed by Russian law enforcement agencies against Azerbaijanis on ethnic grounds in Yekaterinburg.”

According to Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, Russian law enforcement raided homes of Azerbaijani residents in the industrial city in Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday. Two Azerbaijani citizens were killed, it said, along with several others seriously injured and nine detained.

The ministry on Saturday summoned the Russian Embassy’s chargé d’affaires in Baku, Pyotr Volokovykh, demanding a full investigation and prosecution of those responsible.

The victims were identified as Ziyaddin and Huseyn Safarov, both around 60 years old. Their brother, Sayfaddin Huseynli, told Azerbaijani public broadcaster ITV that the men were tortured to death “without any trial or investigation, despite their innocence.” He described the raids as “savagery,” claiming that others were beaten and subjected to electric shocks.

“The so-called Russian law enforcement agencies broke into houses in the middle of the night, beat and took people away like animals,” Huseynli said.

The Azerbaijani government also announced the cancellation of a planned visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk. “The government of Azerbaijan does not consider it appropriate under the current circumstances for Overchuk or any other official representative of Russia to visit the country,” state media reported.

In a statement, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said it expected “that the matter will be investigated and all perpetrators of violence brought to justice as soon as possible.“

Without commenting on the reported deaths, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday that the raids formed part of an investigation into previously committed crimes.

Tensions between the two countries have been strained for months. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declined an invitation to attend Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow in May. In contrast, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga visited Baku later that month, signaling closer ties between Baku and Kyiv.

Relations between Moscow and Baku cooled after an Azerbaijani airliner crashed in Kazakhstan in December, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. Aliyev said it was shot down over Russia, albeit unintentionally, and rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. He accused Russia of trying to “hush up” the incident for several days. Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility.

AP

A recent report by the Israeli financial daily Calcalist has revealed the extensive material losses suffered by the Israeli occupation following its war on Iran, with over 41,550 compensation claims filed so far by affected settlers.

The data shows that the majority of the damage resulted from direct hits to buildings, with 32,975 claims submitted for homes and other structures. An additional 4,456 claims were made for damages to household appliances and equipment, while 4,119 claims were related to vehicle damage.

Initial estimates place the total cost of direct damage at over 5 billion shekels (approximately $1.3 billion), though thousands of cases remain under review or are yet to be formally filed.

18,000 settlers displaced amid widespread destruction

The report also noted that around 18,000 settlers were evacuated from various areas due to destruction caused by Iranian retaliatory strikes during the war.

Government and insurance agencies are still assessing the scale of destruction, and officials anticipate the number of claims to increase in the coming weeks as more damage assessments are completed and residents return to inspect their properties.

The publication of these figures underscores the domestic economic and logistical toll of the recent war, which drew heavy criticism from within the Israeli regime over preparedness, response capacity, and infrastructure resilience.

Israeli media acknowledges accuracy of Iranian strikes

Iranian missiles accurately hit strategic bases and facilities, including the Weizmann Institute, causing significant damage that has not yet been disclosed, “Israel’s” Channel 13 revealed on Sunday.

The outlet revealed that the Iranian missile strikes made direct impacts on many army bases and strategic facilities, but relevant information has not yet been disclosed.

The channel described the difficulty of grasping how precise the Iranians were and the extent of damage the Iranian missiles caused in many places.

Israeli censorship hindering assessment of damage from Iranian strikes

“Israel” has admitted to being struck by more than 50 missiles during its 12-day war on Iran, but the full scope of the damage may never be revealed due to strict press censorship.

Such media restrictions are long-standing in “Israel”, where any content, written or visual, considered potentially harmful to the vaguely defined notion of “national security” can be legally suppressed.

Recently, the Israeli regime has further tightened its grip on wartime reporting.

Last week, Israeli police cut off broadcasts by multiple foreign news agencies reporting from locations hit by Iranian missiles, while footage published by The Times of Israel showed an Israeli police officer demanding that a cameraman surrender his recording equipment.

Israeli police stormed the offices of foreign TV news teams following their coverage of missile strikes in the Haifa region, which reportedly hit sensitive military sites.

AL MAYADEEN, 29.6.2025

DAR ES SALAAM, June 29 – At least 38 people were killed and 28 others injured on Saturday evening when two buses collided head-on and burst into flames in Moshi district in Tanzania’s northern region of Kilimanjaro.

The Kilimanjaro regional commissioner, Nurdin Babu, told Xinhua in a phone interview on Sunday that the victims included members of the same family who were traveling to attend a wedding in the Moshi municipality.

Babu said the crash occurred around 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) after a front tire on one of the buses burst, triggering a fire that engulfed both vehicles, causing fatalities in both buses.

Babu added that 22 of the 28 injured passengers were treated and discharged from the hospital, while six remain under medical care.

XINHUA

DAR ES SALAAM, June 29 – At least 38 people were killed and 28 others injured on Saturday evening when two buses collided head-on and burst into flames in Moshi district in Tanzania’s northern region of Kilimanjaro.

The Kilimanjaro regional commissioner, Nurdin Babu, told Xinhua in a phone interview on Sunday that the victims included members of the same family who were traveling to attend a wedding in the Moshi municipality.

Babu said the crash occurred around 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) after a front tire on one of the buses burst, triggering a fire that engulfed both vehicles, causing fatalities in both buses.

Babu added that 22 of the 28 injured passengers were treated and discharged from the hospital, while six remain under medical care.

XINHUA

KYIV, June 29 – A Ukrainian pilot was killed and his F-16 fighter jet lost while repelling a large-scale Russian nighttime missile and drone attack, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday.

It was the third such loss of an F-16 of the war, the military said.

“The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,” the Air Force said on the Telegram messaging app.

It said the pilot did everything he could and flew the jet away from a settlement but did not have time to eject.

The military said Russia had launched 477 drones and 60 missiles of various types to Ukraine overnight and Ukrainian forces destroyed 211 drones and 38 missiles.

It said air strikes were recorded in six locations.

REUTERS

GAZA, June 29, 2025 – At least seven Palestinians were killed and several others injured early Sunday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting Gaza City and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to local medical sources, five people — including two women and a child — were killed when Israeli warplanes struck a tent sheltering displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis. Several others sustained injuries in the same attack.

In a separate airstrike, two children were killed and more civilians were wounded when Israeli forces targeted the home of the Azzam family near the Daloul petrol station in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to demolish residential buildings in central Khan Younis. Heavy artillery shelling was also reported in the Al-Mawasi area of Rafah, compounding the already dire humanitarian situation in southern Gaza.

WAFA

HANOI, June 29 – Four people were killed and three others injured in a fire that broke out at a waste recycling facility in northern Vietnam’s Hung Yen province on Saturday afternoon, local media Tuoi Tre (Youth) reported.

The blaze erupted at around 2:00 p.m. at the facility located in Van Lam district.

According to witnesses, the fire was believed to have started in the recycling area before engulfing other sections of the facility.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

XINHUA