Foreign News
At least 17 people killed in explosion at Thai fireworks factory

At least 17 people have been killed in an explosion at a fireworks factory in central Thailand.
The blast took place at about 3pm (08:00 GMT) in a remote area in the province of Suphan Buri, about 120km (74 miles) north of the capital, Bangkok, police said, according to a video shared with media of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin being briefed by telephone.The Prime Minister who is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, expressed his condolences and called for a swift investigation.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
Photos posted online by local rescue workers in Suphan Buri showed the site, in an otherwise unoccupied rice field, levelled flat aside from debris and body parts, with a huge plume of black smoke rising above.
The explosion came less than a month before Chinese New Year, which falls on February 10, when demand for fireworks is strong.
The provincial governor told the Reuters news agency that no survivors had yet been found. “There were deaths, we are checking how many people died,” police colonel Theerapoj Rawangban told the AFP news agency. “We do not see more damage toward other houses or people who live in the nearby community,” he added.
“The prime minister ordered an inspection of the plant to see if it was operating legally and if the explosion was caused by negligence. The law must be enforced to the fullest extent because there are innocent deaths and injuries,” his office said.
One worker was killed in an accident at the factory in November 2022.
In July 2023, a large explosion at a fireworks warehouse in southern Thailand killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 100, according to officials.
(Aljazeera)
Foreign News
Myanmar military announces temporary truce as quake death toll passes 3,000

Myanmar’s governing military has declared a unilateral, temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil war to facilitate rescue efforts after last week’s powerful earthquake, as state television reported the death toll from the disaster had surpassed 3,000.
MRTV said that the truce would last from Wednesday until April 22 and was aimed at making quake relief efforts easier.
The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule. Those groups must refrain from attacking the state, or regrouping, or else the military will take “necessary” measures, the army said in a statement.
The death toll from the earthquake in Myanmar rose to 3,003, and more than 4,500 were injured, MRTV reported late on Wednesday.
In neighbouring Thailand, the death toll from the quake rose to 22, with hundreds of buildings damaged and 72 people missing.
In an incident underlining the challenge of delivering relief at a time of civil war in Myanmar, the military said its troops fired warning shots after a Chinese Red Cross convoy failed to pull over as it travelled in a conflict zone.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the media that its rescue team and supplies were safe after the incident on Tuesday.
Guo Jiakun, a ministry spokesperson, said at a news conference that Beijing hoped “all factions and parties in Myanmar will prioritise earthquake relief efforts, ensuring the safety of rescue personnel and supplies from China and other countries”.
“It’s necessary to keep transportation routes for relief efforts open and unobstructed,” Guo said.

Military government spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said the Chinese Red Cross had not informed authorities it was in a conflict zone on Tuesday night, and a security team fired shots in the air after the convoy, which included local vehicles, failed to stop.
The military has struggled to run Myanmar following its coup against the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, reducing the economy and basic services, including healthcare, to tatters after civil war broke out.
The United Nations said more than 28 million people in the six regions were affected by the earthquake and that it put in place $12m in emergency funding for food, shelter, water, sanitation, mental health support and other services.
As hopes of finding more survivors were fading on Wednesday, rescuers pulled two men alive from the ruins of a hotel in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, and a third from a guesthouse in another city – five days after the magnitude 7.7 quake. But most teams were finding only bodies.
The rural parts of the hard-hit Sagaing region, mostly under the control of armed resistance groups fighting the military government, are among the most challenging for aid agencies to reach.
Earlier, Human Rights Watch urged the military government to allow unfettered access for humanitarian aid and lift curbs impeding aid agencies, saying donors should channel aid through independent groups rather than only the authorities.
“Myanmar’s junta cannot be trusted to respond to a disaster of this scale,” Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report. “Concerned governments and international agencies need to press the junta to allow full and immediate access to survivors, wherever they are.”
[Aljazeera]
Foreign News
Death sentence for three Americans over DR Congo coup attempt overturned

Three Americans convicted for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo last year have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the presidency has said.
They were among 37 people sentenced to death last September by a military court.
The three were accused of leading an attack on both the presidential palace and the home of an ally of President Félix Tshisekedi last May.
The overturning of the sentences comes ahead of a visit to DR Congo by the newly appointed US senior advisor for Africa, Massad Boulos.
Boulos, father-in-law to President Donald Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, is expected to arrive in Kinshasa on Thursday on a trip that will also take him to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.
The US has not declared the three Americans to be wrongfully jailed in DR Congo but the State Department said previously there have been talks between the countries over the matter.
The three were convicted of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, which they denied.
[BBC]
Foreign News
Netanyahu nominates new Israeli spy chief despite court order

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a former Navy commander to head the country’s domestic security services, despite the courts having blocked his bid to fire the previous head of Shin Bet.
Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday that he had nominated Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit to lead the agency, which surveils attacks from abroad and at home, including by armed groups based in Palestine and Lebanon. However, a halt to the sacking of Ronen Bar as head of Shin Bet, ordered by the Supreme Court, remains in place.
[Aljazeera]
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