Foreign News
Floods kill 50 people in northern Afghanistan’s Baghlan province
At least 50 people have died in Afghanistan in flooding following heavy rain in the northern province of Baghlan, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said, adding that the death toll may rise.
Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qaniee told the Reuters news agency that there had been flooding in more than five districts in Baghlan after heavy rains, and that some families were stuck and in need of urgent help.
He added that two heavy storms had been predicted for Friday night. “The Ministry of Interior has sent teams and helicopters to the area, but due to a shortage of night vision lights in helicopters, the operation may not be successful,” he said.
The toll was confirmed by local official Hedayatullah Hamdard, the head of the provincial natural disaster management department, who also told AFP that the death toll could rise. Hamdard explained that heavy seasonal rains caused the flooding, and residents were unprepared for the sudden rush of water.
Since mid-April, flash flooding and other floods have left about 100 people dead in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, with no region entirely spared, according to authorities.
Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80 percent of the more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive.
Afghanistan – which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall – is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming.
Afghanistan, which is responsible for only 0.06 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, ranks sixth on the list of countries most at risk from climate change, experts have said.
(Aljazeera)
Egyptian authorities say 17 people are missing and 28 have been rescued after a tourist boat sank in the Red Sea.
A distress signal was received at 05:30 local time (03:30 GMT) from the Sea Story, which left port near Marsa Alam on Saturday for a five-day diving trip with 31 tourists and 14 crew, according to the governor of Red Sea province.
Maj-Gen Amr Hanafi said the survivors were found in the Wadi el-Gemal area, which is south of Marsa Alam, and that they were receiving the necessary medical care.
He added that the Egyptian Navy warship El Fateh and military aircraft were intensifying their efforts to locate the missing.
Marsa Alam is a popular destination for tourists on Egypt’s southern Red Sea coast and is surrounded by diving spots, including renowned coral reefs.
There was no immediate comment from Sea Story’s Egypt-based owner and operator, Dive Pro Liveaboard.
But its website says the vessel was built in 2022 and is 44m (144ft) long. It has four decks and 18 cabins that can accommodate up to 36 passengers.
[BBC]
Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, is under lockdown for a second day as thousands of protesters demanding the release of former prime minister Imran Khan from jail converge on the city.
His supporters are also calling for the overturning of election results they say were rigged – a claim disputed by the government.
The former PM has been detained for more than a year on various charges, but remains hugely popular despite his legal troubles and his supporters have been protesting for months.
His wife, Bushra Bibi, told supporters on Monday that the march would continue until her husband was free.
The latest rally came after Khan issued a “final call” to supporters, calling on them to stay in the capital until their demands are met.
There have been clashes between his supporters and police. The authorities have banned the protest, blocking streets with shipping containers and suspending some internet services. Schools and colleges have shut because of fears of violence.
Members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party say they’ve been repeatedly tear gassed by the police.
The police say their officers have been injured by stones thrown by protesters. Police told the BBC that 139 people had been arrested and 14 policemen injured.
Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi is one of the leaders of the main convoy. “Until Khan comes to us, we will not end this march,” she told crowds as the rally neared the capital earlier on Monday. “I will stand till my last breath and you have to support me. This is not just about my husband but about this country and its leader,” she said.
Bushra Bibi was sentenced alongside Khan in January, but released on bail in late October.
Although Khan has now been behind bars for more than a year, he is still the dominant force of Pakistan’s opposition politics. He was voted out of power by parliament in 2022 amid reports that he had fallen out with the country’s powerful military. He denies all the charges against him, which range from corruption to instigating violence to getting married to Bushra Bibi illegally.
In February’s general election, his party was banned from standing. Independent candidates backed by the PTI unexpectedly won the most seats – but not enough to form a government.
Khan accused the two parties now in government – the PML-N and PPP – of stealing the election. The authorities deny accusations of vote tampering.
[BBC]
At least one person has died and three others have been injured after a cargo plane crashed near Vilnius airport in Lithuania in the early hours of Monday.
The Boeing 737, operated for DHL by the Spanish cargo airline Swiftair, crashed near a house as it was on its final approach for landing, local authorities said.
All 12 people have been safely evacuated from a property close to the crash site, police said.
Rescue services said all those who were on the flight from Leipzig, Germany, have been accounted for.
The aircraft departed from DHL’s hub at Leipzig Airport just after 03:00 local time (02:00 GMT) and crashed around an hour and a half later, according to data from flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
Flight operations are continuing at Vilnius airport as authorities respond to the crash, Flightradar24 said on X.
Firefighters were seen tackling smoke coming from a building 1.3 km (0.8 mile) north of the airport runway, Reuters news agency reported.
The cause of the crash is unknown and Lithuanian authorities have started an investigation.
Authorities said they do not have any data at the moment that suggests there was an explosion before the crash.
The head of Lithuania’s firefighting and emergency services unit, Renatas Pozela, said the plane was due to land at Vilnius airport and “crashed a few kilometres away”.
One person in the four-member crew died, he added.
Mr Pozela said a nearby house was “slightly damaged” and infrastructure near it caught on fire, but all residents were safely evacuated.
The plane was a Boeing 737-400, an airport spokesperson said.
Reported weather before the crash was a temperature of 0C (32F), with clouds before sunrise and winds around 30 km/h (19mph), the Associated Press reported.
The aircraft was 31 years old, AP added.
[BBC]
Seventeen missing after Red Sea tourist boat sinks
Thousands of Imran Khan supporters converge on Pakistan capital
“The disapproval of Parliament in recent years can only be reversed if we collectively work to meet the people’s expectations and uphold their aspirations” – Prime Minister
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