Connect with us

Foreign News

At least 20 dead as tornadoes tear through southern US

Published

on

[pic BBC]

At least 20 people have died in the US – including 12 in Missouri alone – after deadly tornadoes tore through several south-eastern states, flipping cars and flattening homes.

Three people were killed in a car crash during a fierce dust storm in Texas, while deaths have also occurred in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

More than 240,000 properties were without power across six states – including Texas, Missouri and Illinois – on Saturday afternoon, according to tracker PowerOutage.

Further severe weather is expected for the region, with tornado watches issued in central Mississippi, eastern Louisiana and western Tennessee.

Flash flooding and flood warnings have also been issued in the same three states, as well as parts of Alabama and Arkansas, as severe weather continues to track across the south-east.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has said these flash floods could prove deadly.

A tornado warning – the highest level of alert – was also issued in central Mississippi on Saturday morning.

The NWS warned of “multiple intense to violent long-track tornadoes” in those areas, describing the situation as “particularly dangerous”.

The meteorological agency said: “If you live in these areas, get to the sturdiest structure you have access to and remain in place until the storms pass.”

Mike Kehoe, governor of Missouri, said the state had been “devastated by severe storms and tornadoes, leaving homes destroyed and lives lost”.

Missouri’s emergency management agency said initial reports indicated 19 tornadoes had struck 25 counties so far.

Arkansas has seen three deaths and 29 injuries – prompting Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to declare a state of emergency.

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, also declared a state of emergency ahead of a predicted severe weather pattern hitting his state.

The NWS expects the threat of tornadoes to spread into Alabama, Florida and Georgia into Sunday.

Meanwhile, one person died on the road in Oklahoma, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reported, citing officials.

The same dust storm that caused three deaths in Texas on Friday night caused a pile-up of an estimated 38 cars.

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” Sgt Cindy Barkley, of the state’s department of public safety, told reporters.

“We couldn’t tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.”

A further death has since been reported in Texas.

In Texas and Oklahoma, the destructive storms fuelled more than 100 wildfires and overturned several semi-trailer trucks, CBS reports.

One of those fires, known as the 840 Road Fire, has already burned 27,500 acres and remains 0% contained, according to the Oklahoma Forestry Service. The agency has issued a “red flag” warning for the state’s panhandle area, signalling a severe fire danger.

Tornadoes form when moist, warm air rises, mixing with cold air above to form thunderclouds. Winds blowing from different directions cause the air to rotate, creating a vortex of air moving upwards.

The four states where tornado-related deaths have been confirmed in the past day lie within a path frequently hit by the weather phenomenon.

It has earned this stretch of the US the unofficial name Tornado Alley, because its geography is ideal for tornado formation.

In 2024, 54 people were killed in tornado-related incidents, according to Noaa,  Nine people died in Texas. There were eight in Oklahoma, five in Arkansas and one in Missouri.

Peak tornado season in Tornado Alley is from May to June – but meteorologists caution that tornadoes can occur at any time of year.

[BBC]



Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Foreign News

Rare pink diamond goes on display in France 100 years after amateur heist

Published

on

By

The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone was one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution (BBC)

A rare pink diamond is going on display in France for the first time since it was stolen almost 100 years ago to the day – the last time it was shown to the public.

The nine-carat, pear-shaped gemstone known as the “Grand Condé” was pilfered in an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly in October 1926 and concealed in a hollowed-out apple.

The diamond – one of few royal jewels to survive the French Revolution – was recovered a few weeks later when a hungry maid at the hotel in which the thieves were staying took a bite of the apple.

It will once again be on display in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly until 3 January.

The museum’s director Mathieu Deldicque said that while the apple story may sounds far-fetched, it was widely covered by newspapers at the time.

Deldicque has faced questions about whether the exhibition may be tempting fate, especially given the string of heists on European cultural institutions in the past 12 months, including the daring daylight robbery of jewellery from the Louvre museum in Paris.

While he declined to reveal to CNN how much the diamond was insured for, he noted that extensive academic study into the properties of the diamond had taken place to make it uniquely identifiable.

The results of this analysis, as well as previously unseen archive material about the gem’s history and theft, form part of the exhibition, according to the museum.

Naturally occurring pink diamonds are exceptionally rare and often sell for tens of millions of dollars. The highest price ever fetched for one at auction was $71.2m (£53.6m) in 2017, according to Sotheby’s.

The exact origins of the Grand Condé remain a mystery.

It was first mentioned in 1740 in an inventory of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, drawn up following his death, the Château de Chantilly said.

It then became part of the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, the wife of French King Louis Philippe I, and then her son, Prince Henri of Orléans, the Duke of Aumale.

He bequeathed it to the Institut de France, which now owns the Château de Chantilly, 50km (31 miles) north of Paris, along with thousands of artworks and manuscripts which became the Musée Condé collection.

(BBC)

Continue Reading

Foreign News

Nursery owner in China jailed for life after hundreds of children poisoned

Published

on

By

Kitchen staff was instructed to use inedible paint to enhance the look of meals to attract more students, the court found (BBC)

A nursery owner and five members of her staff have been jailed after they were found to have poisoned more than 200 children with lead-tainted food.

Li Huifang, who operated the Heshi Peixin Kindergarten in Tianshui, in the Gansu province, was sentenced to life in prison for producing and selling toxic and harmful food, according to Chinese state media.

In July 2025, 247 pupils and staff at the nursery were found to have abnormally high blood lead levels after children began falling ill.

A report into the incident found that chefs at Heshi Peixin had used inedible paint to “enhance the look” of its meals to attract more students – despite the paint being being clearly marked as such.

In addition to the sentence, the Lanzhou Intermediate People’s Court also ordered the confiscation of 500,000 yuan (£56,200; $74,700) of Li’s personal assets, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Nursery executive principal Zhi Jinglin was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan.

Four other members of staff who worked in the nursery’s kitchen received sentences of between six to eight years, according to state media.

The court found the four had been instructed by Li and Zhi to add toxic and harmful ingredients to food served to children and staff.

Food samples were later found to contain lead 2,000 times in excess of China’s national safety limit.

The investigation into the poisoning began after 235 children from Heshi Peixin nursery had to be treated for lead poisoning after eating steamed red date cakes and sausage corn buns.

Investigators found that the red date cake and the corn sausage rolls had lead levels of 1052mg/kg and 1340mg/kg respectively, both of which far exceed the national food safety standard limit of 0.5mg/kg.

Lead poisoning is “particularly harmful to young children” and can “severely damage the brain and central nervous system”, according to the World Health Organization.

Officials later found that dozens of provincial officials and hospital staff attempted to cover up the incident by tampering with blood tests and accepting bribes from a nursery investor.

China has since published a set of national guidelines for the provision of meals on campuses. Among the measures is the requirement for every new batch of food to be tested, and for flour, rice and cooking oil to be purchased from centralised procurement points only.

(BBC)

Continue Reading

Foreign News

Houthi missile attack on Yemeni presidential palace kills five, minister says

Published

on

By

Verified video footage showed smoke above the presidential palace in Aden (BBC)

Five people have been killed and 16 injured in a Houthi missile attack targeting the presidential palace in the port city of Aden in southern Yemen, which is the seat of the internationally-recognised government, officials say.

Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told the BBC that the prime minister and other ministers were unhurt when five ballistic missiles hit al-Maashiq Palace.

The Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said they struck “the Saudi enemy’s military operations headquarters in Aden”.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia backs the government and is providing air support for an offensive by pro-government forces against the Iran-backed Houthis.

Yemeni health minister Qasim Buhaibeh said the casualties included “those working to guard the site and civilian employees”.

The country’s Prime Minister Shaya Zindani condemned the Houthis’ attack on Aden, calling it “cowardly” and a “continuation of their criminal behaviour”.

He said the government continued to carry out its duties and vowed that it would not weaken the resolve of its forces to continue operations against the Houthis on Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and other front lines.

Earlier, the Houthis denied that they had attacked Saudi Arabia on Thursday, after the coalition said its forces had intercepted a cruise missile in the Medina region, home to one of Islam’s holiest shrines.

Maps of Yemen and Saudi Arabia, showing Houthi control of territory and recent advances by pro-government forces (11 October 2026)

The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at airports, oil and gas facilities, and military bases in Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the strikes on the territory that they control in western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

On Saturday, a Houthi missile strike killed 13 people at Riyadh’s international airport, which was the deadliest attack in Saudi Arabia in more than a decade.

Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister accused Iran of encouraging the Houthis to escalate their conflict with the kingdom.

“Iran continues to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” Rayed Krimly told reporters, according to AFP news agency.

“We think that the escalation by the Houthis at this latest stage of the conflict is encouraged by Iran,” he added.

There was no immediate response from Iran’s government. However, it has previously denied supplying weapons to the Houthis and said it only supports them politically.

Iran’s foreign minister has also said it is ready to provide “any assistance necessary to facilitate the start of talks” between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally-recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition of Arab states intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.

A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom.

The conflict escalated in September after the Houthis seized part of Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for global shipping. Their advance contributed to a rise in oil prices following six months of war between the US, Israel and Iran.

Last week, pro-government forces said they had regained control of territory overlooking Bab al-Mandab after launching a major counter-offensive with the support of Saudi air strikes.

At least 1,282 people have been killed and 5,890 injured in the fighting in Yemen since 6 August, according to the government’s health ministry.

The UN says another 201,000 people have been displaced and that there has been an alarming surge in suspected cholera cases.

(BBC)

Continue Reading

Trending