ADEN, Yemen — Ferocious clashes erupted on Saturday between Houthi militants and pro-government forces in the country’s southern province of Lahj, a military official told Xinhua.
The local official, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that armed confrontations broke out when Houthi forces attempted to seize control of strategic mountainous positions along the administrative borders of Lahj and Taiz provinces.
The official confirmed that two soldiers were killed and five others left injured as a result of the Houthi offensive, and heavy weapons were used in the hours-long confrontations.
The Houthis failed to capture new territory, but they established military positions near the contact lines, according to the source.
Local media outlets reported that the intensification of hostilities prompted many families in affected areas to evacuate their homes, raising concerns about potential humanitarian consequences.
The recent outbreak of violence followed limited engagements between the two sides in the same area last week, which resulted in the killing of a number of people.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Houthi group seized several northern provinces, forcing the Yemeni internationally recognized government out of the capital Sanaa.
BUCHAREST — Galati County, Romania, is struggling to recover from the severe floods brought by Cyclone Boris on Saturday, which has claimed five lives and displaced over 250 residents.
The cyclone unleashed heavy rainfall, totaling 150 liters per square meter. It caused widespread flooding, leaving more than 25,000 homes without power and impacting over 5,000 households across 12 towns, according to local media reports.
In response to the disaster, the Romanian government has mobilized emergency resources.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu visited Slobozia Conachi, one of the hardest-hit towns.
“Our priority is saving lives. We have the logistics in place to respond quickly,” he said, promising temporary housing, food, and other essential supplies for displaced families.
Meanwhile, the National Committee for Emergency Situations approved emergency aid, which includes 400 tons of food, sleeping bags, mattresses, and modular housing units to provide temporary shelter for those affected.
The Ministry of National Defense deployed military personnel, rescue boats and trucks to assist in rescue operations.
Romanian Gendarmerie patrols have also been deployed to prevent looting and vandalism in the affected towns.
“The safety of the people remains our top priority,” a Gendarmerie spokesperson said, urging residents to follow safety instructions and avoid returning to dangerous areas until conditions stabilize.
As more severe weather is forecast, with a red alert for heavy rain issued for nearby Vaslui County, the Romanian government is closely monitoring the situation. Efforts are also underway to repair damaged infrastructure and restore normalcy for the thousands impacted by what has been described as the worst flooding in the region since 2016.
NEW DELHI — Around 10 people were trapped under the debris of a building that collapsed in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, a local official confirmed to media.
The mishap occurred in Zakir residential colony of Meerut area. Rescue work was underway.
Commissioner of Meerut division Selva Kumari said a building collapsed in Zakir colony, and eight to 10 people were trapped under it.
According to Kumari, police and firefighters carried out rescue operation.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A tanker truck carrying gasoline in Haiti on Saturday flipped and exploded, killing at least 15 people and seriously injuring 40 others, officials said.
Prime Minister Garry Conille provided the figures in an X post. Earlier, Radio Caraibes reported that 17 people had been killed.
Haiti’s hospitals are poorly equipped to treat victims of severe burns. The nation of 12 million people has also been struggling with fuel shortages, as fighting between gangs makes it more difficult to import goods into the country.
Saturday’s explosion happened in Miragoane, a city of 60,000 people that was hit by a strong earthquake three years ago.
In 2021, 75 people were killed in Haiti’s second largest city Cap Haitien, when another fuel truck overturned and unleashed a fireball that swept through several homes and businesses that were built closely next to each other. Some of those killed were onlookers who had rushed to the truck to try and scoop up fuel.
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Roadside explosions in the Somali capital killed five people and wounded eight others Saturday, according to a city official.
An explosive device had been planted at a spot in a street where many young people had gathered to take photos, Abdullahi Sheikh Abdirahman, district commissioner of Mogadishu’s Kahda district, told reporters.
“I saw several people lying on the street minutes after the first explosion, and when rescuers came to assist, another blast happeneed, causing most of the casualties,” witness Abdisamad Osman told The Associated Press.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack. But the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which opposes Somalia’s federal government, frequently carries out such assaults.
The attack comes just weeks after a similar explosion at a beach where more than 30 people were killed and over 60 others wounded. That attack, one of the deadliest in recent months, raised concern over the increasing frequency of violent attacks in Mogadishu.
RIYADH — Saudi authorities arrested 22,373 people in one week for breaching residency, work and border security regulations, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
According to an official report, a total of 14,216 people were arrested for violations of residency laws, while 4,943 were held over illegal border crossing attempts, and a further 3,214 for labor-related issues.
The report showed that among the 1,507 people arrested for trying to enter the Kingdom illegally, 53 percent were Ethiopian, 46 percent Yemeni, and 1 percent were of other nationalities.
A further 80 people were caught trying to cross into neighboring countries, and seven were held for involvement in transporting and harboring violators.
The Ministry of Interior said that anyone found to be facilitating illegal entry to the Kingdom, including providing transportation and shelter, could face imprisonment for a maximum of 15 years, a fine of up to SR1 million ($260,000), as well as confiscation of vehicles and property.
Suspected violations can be reported on the toll-free number 911 in the Makkah and Riyadh regions, and 999 or 996 in other regions of the Kingdom.
BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes targeted the Qasr-Hermel area in the far northeast of Lebanon on Saturday evening for the first time in weeks. No deaths were reported.
The warplanes hit the surroundings of the town of Hawsh Al-Sayyid Ali in Hermel, a border area between Lebanon and Syria. They also targeted the Sarein Plain in the Bekaa Valley, 21 km from the city of Baalbek.
Loud explosions were heard in most parts of Baalbek and central Bekaa, causing panic among residents.
Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have escalated, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that he “decided to expand the military operation against Hezbollah … on the border with Lebanon.”
Israel’s Channel 13 quoted him as saying: “We are in the process of a broad and powerful operation on the northern front, and the Israeli army is seeking a gradual escalation on the northern front with Lebanon.”
Hostilities have reached new areas over the past 24 hours on both sides of the border.
In the evening, Israel targeted the Sarafand area north of the Litani Line, while Hezbollah targeted settlements in the Safed, Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot areas in northern Israel.
The Israeli military announced in the evening that “two drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon towards the Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot settlements exploded, and they fell north of Kiryat Shmona.”
Crowds of people looking for wounded after the two trains collided in Zagazig on Saturday 14 September, 2024. Al-Ahram.
Three people were killed and 47 others were injured when two trains collided in the city of Zagazig in Sharkiya governorate in the Nile Delta on Saturday afternoon, according to Extra News.
According to Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA), a collision took place between passenger train No. 281, travelling from Zagazig to Ismailia, and passenger train No. 336, travelling from Mansoura to Zagazig, near Block 5 in the city of Zagazig.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health and Population said more than three dozen ambulances were dispatched to the site of the collision.
More than two dozen injured individuals were transported to Al-Ahrar and Zagazig University hospitals, added the health ministry.
Minister of Industry and Transport Kamel El-Wazir and senior ERA officials rushed to the site of the accident, according to the ERA.
Minister El-Wazir ordered the deployment of emergency equipment and cranes to carry out rescue operations.
El-Wazir also ordered the formation of a committee of railway specialists to investigate any technical causes behind the collision, added the ERA.
People surround two passenger trains which collided in Egypt’s Nile Delta city of Zagazig, the provincial capital of Sharqiya province, Saturday, Sept 14, 2024. (AP)
CAIRO — Two passenger trains collided in Egypt’s Nile Delta on Saturday, killing at least two people, authorities said.
The crash happened in the city of Zagazig, the capital of Sharqiya province, the country’s railway authority said in a statement. Egypt’s Health Ministry said the collision injured at least 29 others.
Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an aging railway system has also been plagued by mismanagement. In recent years, the government announced initiatives to improve its railways.
In 2018, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said some 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the North African country’s neglected rail network.
Video from the site of the crash showed a train car crumpled by the impact, surrounded by crowds. Men tried to lift the injured through the windows of a passenger car.
Last month, a train crashed into a truck crossing the train tracks in the Mediterranean province of Alexandria, killing two people.
Local residents wade through water with their cows in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Saturday, Sept 14, 2024. (AP)
BANGKOK — The death toll in Myanmar from flooding and landslides caused by Typhoon Yagi has reached at least 74, with 89 people missing, Myanmar’s state television said Saturday.
Difficulties in compiling information have raised fears that the number of casualties may be higher.
The new official death toll announced by the country’s military government was more than double the 33 reported on Friday. Typhoon Yagi earlier hit Vietnam, northern Thailand and Laos, killing more than 260 people and causing major damage.
The new totals were announced after state media reported that Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the ruling military council, said that Myanmar was requesting relief aid from foreign countries.
Nearly 240,000 people have been displaced, according to the reports. There were already 3.4 million displaced people in Myanmar at the beginning of September, according to the U.N. refugee agency, mostly because of war and unrest in recent years.
In Myanmar, low-lying areas in the central regions of Mandalay and Bago, as well as eastern Shan state and the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, have been inundated by water since Wednesday.
Min Aung Hlaing and other military officials inspected flooded areas and reviewed rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts in Naypyitaw on Friday, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported. Its report said that he instructed officials to contact foreign countries, as other countries affected by the storm did, to receive rescue and relief aid for the victims.
“It is necessary to manage rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures as quickly as possible,” he was quoted as saying.
The exact extent of the damage still wasn’t clear, but there were fears that the death toll may rise sharply. Local news outlets reported more than 100 people missing.
Efforts to tally casualties and damage and provide relief are complicated. Myanmar is in a state of civil war that began in 2021, after the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Independent analysts believe the military controls much less than half of the country’s territory.
Myanmar experiences extreme weather virtually every year during the monsoon season. In 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 people. In that case, the military government then in power delayed accepting international assistance, and when it finally relented, tightly controlled its distribution, with little or no oversight by aid donors.
Saturday evening’s state television news said that 24 bridges, 375 school buildings, one Buddhist monastery, five dams, four pagodas, 14 electrical transformers, 456 lampposts and more than 65,000 houses were damaged by floods in central and eastern parts of the country.
Naypyitaw is one of the areas that was hit hardest by the floods. Myanmar’s Eleven Media group reported on Friday that record rainfall had damaged several pagodas in Bagan, the country’s ancient capital that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The rain, said to be the heaviest in 60 years, collapsed walls at several centuries-old old temples, it said.