Foreign News
Cars plunge into river as super typhoon destroys Vietnam bridge
A busy bridge in northern Vietnam collapsed after being hit by Super Typhoon Yagi, which has killed more than 60 people since making landfall on Saturday.
Dashcam footage showed the moment the Phong Chau bridge in Phu Tho province gave way on Monday, plunging several vehicles into the water below. Searches were under way for 13 people.
Vietnam’s most powerful storm in 30 years has wreaked havoc across the north of the country, leaving 1.5 million people without power.
Although it has now weakened into a tropical depression, authorities have warned Yagi will create more disruption as it moves westwards.
More than 240 people have been injured by the typhoon, which brought winds of up to 203 km/h (126 mph) and is Asia’s most powerful storm so far this year.
Ten cars and two scooters fell into the Red River following the collapse of the Phong Chau bridge, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc said.
The moment a lorry plummeted into the water as the bridge decking ahead fell away before the driver had time to stop was captured on camera.
At least three people have been rescued from the river so far.
Nguyen Minh Hai said he was riding across the bridge on his motorcycle when it collapsed.
“I was so scared when I fell down,” he said, speaking from hospital.
“I feel like I’ve just escaped death. I can’t swim and I thought I would have died.”
Part of the 375-m (1230-ft) structure is still standing, and the military has been instructed to build a pontoon bridge across the gap as soon as possible.
At least 44 of those who died in Vietnam were killed in landslides and flash floods, according to the ministry of agriculture and rural development.
Among them were a 68-year-old woman, a one-year-old boy, and a newborn baby.
The typhoon tore roofs from buildings, uprooted trees, and left widespread damage to infrastructure and factories in the north. Photos by Reuters news agency show that the walls of an LG Electronics factory in Hai Phong city have collapsed.
In the Yen Bai province, flood waters reached a metre high on Monday, with 2,400 families evacuated to higher ground as levels rose, AFP news agency reported.
Nearly 50,000 people have been evacuated from coastal towns in Vietnam, with authorities issuing a warning to remain indoors.
Schools were temporarily closed in 12 northern provinces, including Hanoi.
Nguyen Thi Thom, who owns a restaurant in Ha Long Bay on the north-east coast, said she and many other people had lost everything in the storm.
“There is nothing left. When I look around, people have also lost all they had, just like me,” she said.
“I can only try to recover from this.”
Before hitting Vietnam, Yagi left 24 people dead across southern China and the Philippines.
As the world warms, typhoons can bring higher wind speeds and more intense rainfall, although the influence of climate change on individual storms is complicated.
[BBC]
Prosecutors in Norway have charged the son of Norway’s crown princess with reckless behaviour and violating a restraining order a month after he went on trial for rape and dozens of other alleged offences.
Marius Borg Høiby was arrested the day before his trial began at the start of February, on suspicion of threats and violence against a woman in his flat in Oslo. Police remanded him in custody for the first four weeks of the trial.
Although allegations of bodily harm and knife threats have been dropped, prosecutors say the 29-year-old has admitted reckless behaviour and violating a restraining order.
He now faces a total of 40 charges and denies the most serious allegations.
Marius Borg Høiby is the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and grew up in the royal family, but he is not a member of Norway’s royal house. He was four when his mother married Crown-Prince Haakon in 2001.
He has admitted some of the 40 charges against him, but denies four counts of rape which all involve a woman who was either asleep or incapacitated after they had had intercourse.
The latest charges against him relate to a woman from the upmarket Frogner area of Oslo, who he was banned from contacting at the time.
He already admitted violating a restraining order relating to the same woman at the start of the trial and partially admits other allegations that date back to 2024.
Marius Borg Høiby was first arrested after a violent incident at the woman’s Frogner flat, and spoke at the time of suffering from mental issues for years.
Although it is unusual for further charges to be added during a trial, state prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø explained that this was possible if the defendant admitted the offences. Reckless behaviour can command a jail term of up to two years in prison.
By Tuesday the trial at Oslo District Court was 17 days into the 28 days allocated for the case, which is taking place amid tight restrictions requiring no images of either the defendant or the four women he is alleged to have raped.
The only woman who can be identified is a former girlfriend, Nora Haukland, who he denies abusing. She has already given evidence to the court that he kicked, punched and choked her during their relationship between 2022-23.
Last week an audio recording was played to the court of an argument in which Marius Borg Høiby could be heard hurling abuse at Ms Haukland, a Norwegian influencer with more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
He denies being violent and his defence counsel says his ex-girlfriend did not in any way “live in a regime of fear”.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, the court heard from Nora Haukland’s former boyfriends, including one who spoke of their “peaceful break-up” and his respect for her, and another who described their relationship as turbulent.
If found guilty of the more serious charges he could spend at least 10 years in jail.
[BBC]
A long lost painting by Rembrandt has been rediscovered and authenticated by experts, after its whereabouts were unknown for decades.
Rembrandt’s Vision of Zacharias in the Temple, from 1633, was excluded from a list of the Dutch master’s works in 1960, and disappeared after being sold to a private collector the following year.
But it resurfaced when its owners presented it for tests at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which undertook a two-year examination.
“When I saw it in our studio when it was restored, I was immediately struck by the incredible power it has,” Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits said.
The Rijksmuseum receives many emails from people asking for information about paintings they have inherited or bought, Dibbits said. In this case, they knew it could be something special.
“It came to us via email and one of our curators thought, this is really an interesting image, we’ve known about the painting for over 100 years but we’ve never seen it.”
The museum confirmed the authenticity after studying the paints, which fit with those used by Rembrandt during that period, and the painting technique and build-up of layers, which are also comparable with his other early works.
The signature is original and the wooden panel dates from the correct period, the researchers said.
“Materials analysis, stylistic and thematic similarities, alterations made by Rembrandt, and the overall quality of the painting all support the conclusion that this painting is a genuine work,” the gallery said.
The painting has all the hallmarks of Rembrandt at the “peak” of the early part of his career, Dibbits said.
“It’s very high quality. Sometimes with Rembrandt’s portraits you feel that he’s producing in quantity, but with this painting you really feel that he dedicated his soul to it.”
The museum will put the painting on public view from Wednesday.
Its value is not known, but the world record auction price for a Rembrandt painting is £20m, set in 2009.
Other Rembrandt paintings to be sold in recent years include one for £8.6m in 2019, a self-portrait for £12.6m in 2020, and another once-lost Rembrandt work for £11m in 2023.
In 2015, a Rembrandt painting was given a price tag of £35m by the UK government after being sold privately.
Last month, a drawing of a lion by the artist sold for $18m (£13m).
[BBC]
Rembrandt was 27 when he created the painting, which depicts the Biblical scene when priest Zacharias is told by the Archangel Gabriel that despite their age, he and his wife will have a son, John the Baptist.
The museum said Rembrandt had given the Biblical story an innovative twist. Instead of depicting the Archangel Gabriel visibly, he only suggested his presence. In doing so, he departed from established visual traditions and introduced a new way of representing this subject.
Rembrandt deliberately chose the decisive moment, just before Gabriel reveals his true identity.
It is one of the few history paintings Rembrandt created during this period. At the time, he was primarily producing portraits, which were highly lucrative.
[BBC]
Tributes have been paid to the war photographer Paul Conroy who has died at the age of 61.
He covered conflicts around the world and was wounded in the Syrian army’s bombardment of Homs, which killed his Sunday Times colleague Marie Colvin in 2012.
Their fateful assignment was depicted in the 2018 movie A Private War, with the actor Jamie Dornan playing Conroy.
The Liverpool-born photographer died from a heart attack on Saturday in Devon, where he had lived, his brother Alan told the BBC.
“He did all his life what he wanted to do to make a difference – he found great pleasure in exposing wrongs,” Alan added.
BBC newsreader Clive Myrie posted that he was “utterly devastated” by the news, describing Conroy as “a wonderful photojournalist and a wonderful human being”.
“I counted him as a friend and a decent, principled and kind man. My brutha you will be sorely missed. RIP”
Lindsey Hilsum, international editor at Channel 4, added: “All of us who knew and loved him are devastated.”
Conroy also spent seven years with the Royal Artillery as a soldier before becoming a professional photographer and was a trustee of the Frontline Club for media professionals, diplomats and aid workers.
Its founder Vaughan Smith, who was also in the Army, said: “He was one of the characters – those people who stand out because everybody adores them and they make you feel better.”
The 2018 documentary Under the Wire was made about Conroy’s escape from the 2012 bombardment of a makeshift media centre in Homs, where his colleagues Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik were killed.
Referring to the Syrians who were killed in the area, he said: “These beautiful people who were being slaughtered, I wanted to tell their story.”
He only realised how badly injured he was when he returned to the UK.
“Obviously I knew I had a huge hole in the back of my leg,” he said.
“But in London I found out I also had a great big piece of shrapnel wedged under my kidneys. I had 23 operations on my leg and others on my abdomen and back. I was in hospital for five months.”
Conroy worked in Libya and Ukraine and had recently returned from an assignment in Cuba.
He also took photos for the British singer Joss Stone and wrote music with her.
She said she was “so grateful to have known him and honoured to call him my friend”.
“I wouldn’t be the person I am today without Paul. Paul Conroy was a legend. A wonderful person through and through. Always standing up for what was right. Always there for those in need.”
He leaves behind a wife, three sons and grandchildren.
[BBC]
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