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Iran president helicopter in hard landing – state media
A helicopter carrying the Iranian president has been involved in an accident, state media is reporting.
State media says President Ebrahim Raisi was on board a helicopter that experienced a hard landing on Sunday. It was also said to be carrying Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.
The Interior Minister said rescuers were still trying to reach the site due to the difficult weather conditions. The condition of those on board the helicopter remains unknown for now, with reports that no contact has yet been made.
According to local media, President Raisi was heading to the city of Tabriz, in the north west of Iran, after returning the border with Azerbaijan, where he opened the Qiz Qalasi and Khodaafarin dams.
Heavy fog is making the search difficult at the site where it is thought that the helicopter may have landed, according to a reporter with Fars news agency. He said the visibility in the mountainous and wooded area was down to only about five meters.
The area is about 50km to the north of Tabriz.
Ahmad Alirezabeigi, Iranian MP for the city of Tabriz, has told reporters in Tehran that rescue workers have yet to find the location of the helicopter carrying the president and foreign minister. He added that the other two helicopters in the convoy landed safely.
Footage has emerged on state television showing worshippers praying for the president’s health in the holy city of Mashhad.
(BBC)
The Diyawadana Nilame of the Sri Dalada Maligawa, Pradeep Nilanga Dela, has announced the special exposition of the Sacred Tooth Relic will be held at the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy from 3.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. on April 18, and 12.00 noon to 5:30 p.m for 10 days thereafter from
At least 37 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a crash involving two buses in the western Potosi region of Bolivia, police and local authorities have said.
The accident happened on Saturday at 7am local time (11:00 GMT) on the route between the cities of Uyuni and Colchani, when one of the vehicles swerved into the oncoming lane.
Uyuni is the gateway to the Salar de Uyuni, a major tourist attraction and the world’s largest salt flat at more than 10,000sq km (3,900sq miles).
“As a result of this fatal accident we have 39 people injured in four hospitals in the town of Uyuni, and 37 people have lost their lives,” a spokesperson for the Departmental Police Command of Potosi told reporters.
Police personnel are working to identify people who were killed and those who were injured and hospitalised, the spokesperson added.
One of the buses was heading to Oruro, where one of the most important carnival celebrations in Latin America is currently taking place.
Police officers removed survivors from the steel wreckage, according to images shot by Radio Uyuni, which showed several bodies covered in blankets strewn across the high Andean flatlands.
A police spokesperson said one of the two drivers, who both survived the crash, was spotted by passengers consuming alcohol.
Bolivia’s mountainous, under-maintained and little-supervised roadways are some of the deadliest in the world, killing an average of 1,400 people every year.
[Aljazeera]
The Israeli government says it has blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza because the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas has expired.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas had so far refused to accept a temporary ceasefire extension under a proposal by US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.
A Hamas spokesman called the move “cheap blackmail” and a “coup” on the ceasefire agreement and urged mediators to get Israel to resume the supply of aid.
The Palestinian group wants phase two of the deal to go ahead as originally negotiated, with the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
On Friday night, Hamas said it would not agree to any extension of phase one without guarantees from US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators that phase two would eventually take place.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office said: “With the end of Phase 1 of the hostage deal, and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff outline for continuing talks – to which Israel agreed – Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease.
“Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences.”
The Hamas spokesman said: “Netanyahu’s decision to stop aid going into Gaza once again shows the ugly face of the Israeli occupation… The international community must apply pressure on the Israeli government to stop starving our people.”
Late last night, Netanyahu’s office said Israel had agreed to a US proposal for the ceasefire to continue for about six weeks during the Muslim Ramadan and Jewish Passover periods.
If, at the end of this period, negotiations reached a dead end, Israel would reserve the right to go back to war.
US envoy Witkoff has not made his proposal public. According to Israel, it would begin with the release of half of all the remaining living and dead hostages.
Netanyahu’s office said Israel would immediately start negotiations if Hamas changed its position on the six-week ceasefire extension.
The first phase of the ceasefire that came into force on 19 January expired on Saturday.
It halted 15 months of fighting between Hamas and the Israeli military, allowing the release of 33 Israeli and five Thai hostages for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
But negotiations on phase two, including the release of all remaining living hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, have barely begun.
There are believed to be 24 hostages alive, with another 39 presumed to be dead.
Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage.
Israel responded with an air and ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, during which at least 48,365 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
[BBC]
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