Foreign News
Rescuers race to save men stuck in flooded rat-hole mine in Assam
Rescuers in India are racing against time to bring out miners trapped inside a flooded coal mine in the north-eastern state of Assam.
Three of the nine men inside were feared dead, Reuters reported, after the state government said rescue teams had spotted some bodies they have been unable to reach.
The men were trapped on Monday morning after water flooded the rat-hole mine, which is a narrow hole dug manually to extract coal.
Despite a ban on such mining in India since 2014, small illegal mines continue to be operational in Assam and other north-eastern states.
Divers, helicopters and engineers have been deployed to help rescue the trapped men and the state and national disaster response forces are also aiding efforts.
On Monday evening, Assam Director General of Police GP Singh had said that authorities were ascertaining the exact number of people trapped.
Reports said more than a dozen miners had managed to escape and initial reports suggested that the “numbers would be in single digits”.
The mine is located in the hilly area of Dima Hasao district.
Senior police official in the district, Mayank Kumar Jha, told Reuters that the area was very “remote” and “difficult to reach”.
Mine-related disasters are not uncommon in India’s northeast.
In December 2018, at least 15 men were trapped in an illegal mine in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya after water from a nearby river flooded it.
Five miners managed to escape but the rescue efforts for the others continued until the first week of March the following year. Only two bodies were recovered.
In January 2024, six workers were killed after a fire broke out in a rat-hole coal mine in Nagaland state.
[BBC]
At least two dozen people have been killed after gunmen opened fire on a group of domestic tourists visiting a popular beauty spot in Indian-administered Kashmir, authorities have told the BBC.
The attack took place in Pahalgam, a picturesque town in the Himalayas often described as the “Switzerland of India”.
The region’s chief minister, Omar Abdullah, said the attack was “much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years”. Reports suggest that there are a large number of wounded, with some in critical condition.
US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and EU chief Ursula Von der Leyen were among world leaders who condemned the attacks.
“Deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against Terrorism,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Von der Leyen called the Kashmir deaths a “vile terrorist attack”, while Putin expressed “sincere condolences” for the consequences of a “brutal crime”.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who cut short his trip to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the attack – said the perpetrators would “be brought to justice”.
“Our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakeable and it will get even stronger,” Modi wrote in a statement on X.
Tuesday’s attack is unusual in that, in three and a half decades of conflict, tourists have rarely been targeted – especially on such a scale.
Home Minister Amit Shah travelled to Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, on Tuesday to hold an emergency security meeting.
The region’s Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, said the army and police had been deployed to the scene.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. There has been a long-running insurgency in the Muslim-majority region since 1989, although violence has waned in recent years.
The attack took place in Baisaran, a mountain-top meadow three miles (5km) from Pahalgam.
Vehicles are unable to reach the area where the shooting occurred, Inspector General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Vidi Kumar Birdi told BBC Hindi.
A tourist from Gujarat, who was part of a group that was fired upon, said that chaos broke out after the sudden attack, and everybody started running, crying and shouting.
Video footage shared by Indian media outlets appears to show Indian troops running towards the scene of the attack, while in other footage victims can be heard saying that the gunmen had singled out non-Muslims.
Footage on social media, which has not been verified by the BBC, appears to show bodies lying on a meadow with people crying and pleading for help.
Police said multiple tourists had been taken to hospital with gunshot wounds. The area has been cordoned off and soldiers are stopping vehicles at checkpoints. A joint search operation by the Indian army and Jammu and Kashmir police is ongoing.
Several protests have been organised for Wednesday, according to Indian media.
Since the 1990s, an armed separatist insurgency against Indian rule in the region has claimed tens of thousands of lives, including those of civilians and security forces.
The Himalayan region was divided following India’s independence from Britain, partition and the creation of Pakistan in 1947.
The two uclear armed states both claim the region in its entirety and have fought two wars and a limited conflict over it in the decades since.
Some 500,000 Indian soldiers are permanently deployed in the territory. The government claims the security situation has improved and violence has come down since Modi revoked Kashmir’s partial autonomy in 2019, although there are still incidents of violence.
The last major attack on civilians occurred in June 2024 when nine people were killed and 33 injured after militants opened fire on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims. In 2019, a suicide bombing in Indian administered Kashmir killed at least 46 soldiers and prompted Indian airstrikes on targets in Pakistan.
Pahalgam is a popular tourist destination, both domestically and internationally, and in recent years the government has attempted to encourage further tourism to the region.
Around 3.5 million tourists visited Kashmir in 2024, according to official figures.
[BBC]
Police in Ecuador say they have arrested four people in connection with an attack by gunmen at a cockfighting ring in which 12 people died.
Weapons and replica police and army uniforms were seized during police raids in the north-western Manabí province on Friday – a day after the attack in the rural community of La Valencia.
Footage of the attack shared on social media showed gunmen entering the ring and opening fire, as terrified spectators dived for cover.
Reports in local media suggested the attackers in fake military gear were members of a criminal gang whose rivals were at the cockfight.
A criminal investigation has been launched by the provincial authorities.
As many as 20 criminal gangs are believed to be operating in the Latin American country, vying for control over major drug routes.
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has said that about 70% of the world’s cocaine now flows through Ecuador’s ports before being shipped to the US and Europe.
The drug is smuggled into Ecuador from neighbouring Colombia and Peru – the world’s two largest producers of cocaine.
This January saw 781 murders, making it the deadliest month in recent years. Many of them were related to the illegal drug trade.
[BBC]
Robots ran alongside humans at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday.
Twenty-one humanoid robots, designed by Chinese manufacturers, raced alongside thousands of runners over a 21km (13-mile) course that included slopes, turns and uneven surfaces.
Some robots completed the race, while others struggled from the beginning. One robot fell at the starting line and lay flat for several minutes before getting up and taking off.
While robots have made appearances at marathons in China in the past, this is the first time they have raced against humans over the course of a half-marathon.
[BBC]
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