Kategori: NEWS

MANILA – Philippine rescuers on Wednesday found the wreckage of a fighter jet and the bodies of two crewmen sent to combat communist rebels in a mountainous region of the country’s south.

The FA-50 fighter jet had gone missing a day earlier while on a mission to provide air support for troops fighting guerrillas in northern Mindanao.

Lt. Gen. Luis Rex Bergante, commander of Eastern Mindanao Command, said the two crewmen had been found inside the wreckage.

“The bodies were found inside the aircraft. There was an attempt to open a parachute and eject,” he said.

“The aircraft was a total wreck. The aircraft smashed through the trees in the mountain.”

Lt. Col. Francisco Garello of the 4th Infantry Division said the wreckage of the missing jet was found on Mount Kalatungan.

Located in Mindanao’s Bukidnon province, the 2,880-meter Kalatungan is the fifth-tallest mountain in the Philippines.

Bergante said bringing the servicemen’s remains down the mountainside was now the top priority.

In a statement, the air force said it had temporarily “grounded its FA-50 fleet” and would “ensure a thorough investigation into the accident,” the cause of which remains unknown.

The crashed jet was one of a dozen FA-50s the Philippines purchased from South Korea in the past decade.

Garello said early Wednesday that the search had been suspended overnight due to the danger of “communist groups” believed to be operating in the area.

On Tuesday, he said his division had called in air support during a firefight with the New People’s Army, a long-running Maoist insurgency now believed to have fewer than 2,000 fighters.

The jets flew out of Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base, which shares a runway with the airport in Cebu, the Philippines’ second-largest city.

Air force spokeswoman Col. Consuelo Castillo told reporters Tuesday it was the “first major incident” involving its squadron of FA-50s, which have been used in exercises over the disputed South China Sea.

The FA-50s have been flown in joint air patrols with treaty ally the United States over contested areas of the South China Sea, where China and the Philippines have been involved in increasingly tense confrontations.

On Wednesday, Castillo said the air force hoped the investigation would be “done thoroughly but swift enough for us not to sacrifice our operational readiness” given the fighters’ key role in maritime patrols.

She also said the air force has proposed purchasing 12 more FA-50s, a request under consideration at the Department of National Defense.

There have been a number of deadly crashes involving Philippine military aircraft in recent years.

Two navy pilots were killed last April when their Robinson R22 helicopter crashed near a market south of the capital Manila during a training flight.

Two PAF pilots were killed in January 2023 when their Marchetti SF260 turboprop plane crashed into a rice field.

AN-AFP

DHAKA – A 5.6-magnitude moderate earthquake hit Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, and parts of the South Asian country Wednesday morning, rattling nerves and causing panic.

Rubayet Kabir, a meteorologist from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), told journalists that the quake hit at about 11:36 a.m. local time. The meteorologist said the epicenter was 449 kilometers northeast of Agargaon Seismic Center in the capital Dhaka.

People in parts of Bangladesh, including Dhaka, took to social media to report the jolt.

Fire service officials in Dhaka said they have so far not received any report of damage or casualties.

Bangladesh, which sits in the zone of earthquakes, is prone to tremors.

XINHUA

JOHANNESBURG – Ten people were killed and several others injured in a collision between two vehicles in South Africa’s central province of Free State on Wednesday morning.

According to a statement issued by the Free State Police, the accident occurred on the N6 road between Reddersburg and Smithfield in the province at about 4:20 a.m. local time when a bus carrying 35 passengers and a truck collided.

“Ten people – a two-year-old girl, six women, and three men – died at the scene. The drivers of both the truck and the bus survived the crash,” police said. “Five passengers with serious injuries were transported to hospitals in Bloemfontein, while 22 injured passengers received treatment at a hospital in Smithfield.”

“Preliminary reports indicate that the bus was traveling from the direction of Reddersburg toward Smithfield, while the truck was heading in the opposite direction. The collision was a sideswipe head-on impact,” police said.

XINHUA

MANNHEIM, Germany, March 3 – A car drove into a crowd in the western German city of Mannheim on Monday, killing at least two people and seriously injuring several others, overshadowing carnival celebrations in the region where police had been on alert for attacks.

Police detained the car’s driver and later said he had acted alone, with no broader threat seen for the public. The suspect is a 40-year-old German man from the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate who did not appear to be politically or religiously motivated, authorities said.

“At this time, we have no indications of an extremist or religious background regarding the specific motivation for the act,” Interior Minister of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg Thomas Strobl told reporters.

“The motivation may rather be rooted in the perpetrator’s own personal circumstances. However, this is the subject of ongoing investigations.”

Broadcaster SWR reported that the suspect had experienced psychological issues.

People were seen lying on the ground at the scene and at least two were being resuscitated, a witness told Reuters.

There did not appear to be a connection to Germany’s carnival celebrations, Strobl said. Those festivities culminated on Rose Monday with a number of parades, although not in Mannheim, which held its main event on Sunday.

Security has been a key concern in Germany following a string of violent attacks in recent weeks, including deadly car rammings in Magdeburg in December and in Munich last month, as well as a stabbing in Mannheim in May 2024.

“The incident—like the terrible acts of the past months—serves as a stark reminder: we must do everything possible to prevent such acts,” said Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz, whose conservatives won a national election last month.

“Germany must once again become a safe country. We will work with full determination to achieve this.”

Police were on high alert for this year’s carnival parades after social media accounts linked to the Islamic State militant group called for attacks on the events in Cologne and Nuremberg.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser cancelled her attendance at the parade in Cologne on Monday, Germany’s biggest, due to the events in Mannheim.

It is a terrible act, as I have said—a horror in broad daylight,” Faeser told reporters, speaking alongside Strobl.

Messages of solidarity arrived from across Europe.

“To all the people of Mannheim, especially to all the relatives of the victims of the attack, to the German people. France is at your side,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on the social media platform X.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said “attempts to destabilize democratic nations will not prevail”.

Rose Monday, the culmination of the annual carnival season celebrated in Germany’s mainly Catholic western and southern regions, features parades of floats that often include comical or satirical references to current affairs.

This year’s carnival has included floats featuring U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, tech billionaire Elon Musk and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Dressed in traditional jester costumes and sporting colourful makeup, thousands of partygoers danced through the streets of Cologne, Dusseldorf and other cities in western and southern Germany ahead of the fasting season of Lent.

REUTERS

KABUL – Tensions were high at the main border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Monday after forces from both sides exchanged gunfire overnight, reportedly killing at least one person.

The Torkham border crossing, located in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar and Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been closed since Feb. 21 after Islamabad shut it down over concerns of Kabul’s construction of a border post.

The shootout started on Sunday night at the border and continued until 11 a.m., Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesperson from the Afghan Ministry of Interior, told Afghan broadcaster Tolo News.

The incident took place after the neighboring countries failed to reach an agreement to reopen the Torkham border crossing, leaving stranded thousands of trucks and vehicles carrying goods that include fruits and vegetables.

Qani said Pakistani forces were the first ones to shoot, and that the incident had killed at least one Taliban officer and injured two other people.

“The situation has been tense since last night. We are worried more firing can happen after the clashes,” Abdul Rahim, a Nangarhar resident who lives near the border crossing, told Arab News by telephone.

Cross-border fire and shootouts have occurred along the Afghan-Pakistan border for years. In the past, each side has closed Torkham and the Chaman border crossing in southwestern Pakistan for various reasons. For landlocked Afghanistan, the two crossings are vital for both trade and travel.

Thousands of people, mainly Afghans, use the crossing daily to seek medical treatment and work in Pakistan’s border areas.

As tensions rise between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the continued closure of Torkham is creating more uncertainties for Afghans at the border.

Hassan Khan, an Afghan student who studies in Pakistan, has been stuck in Nangarhar after renewing his documents.

“We thought we would spend a day or two with our families and then go back to our studies in Pakistan. But this incident happened, and it’s been two weeks that we are now stuck on this side of the border crossing,” Khan told Arab News.

“We want the gate to reopen soon so we can go to our studies. Many patients and their families spent nights at the crossing hoping for the gate to open.”

Ahmad Zia Rahimzai, a political analyst and an editor at the Gaheez Writers and Journalists’ Association, said that the initial border closure was a way for Pakistan “to maintain its pressure on Afghanistan” and impose its demands.

“From time to time, it finds excuses and closes the routes between the two countries … paving the way for military clashes on the border,” Rahimzai told Arab News.

“Pakistan’s goal is to force the Afghan rulers to accept their demands through such pressures.”

AN, 3 March 2025

JERUSALEM – Israel said Thursday that it will implement what it called “safety restrictions” at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins over the weekend.

During Ramadan, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians come to pray at Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam located in East Jerusalem — a sector of the Holy City occupied and annexed by Israel.

This year, Ramadan coincides with a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, which has largely halted fighting after a devastating war that left tens of thousands dead in the Palestinian territory.

“The usual restrictions for public safety will be in place as they have been every year,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said in an online briefing to journalists.

Last year, amid the Gaza war, Israeli authorities imposed restrictions on visitors coming to Al-Aqsa, particularly on those Palestinians coming from the occupied West Bank.

Only men aged 55 and older and women over 50 were allowed to enter the mosque compound “for security reasons,” while thousands of Israeli police officers were deployed across Jerusalem’s Old City.

Mencer indicated that precautions would be taken again this year.

“What we cannot, of course, and no country would countenance is people seeking to foment violence and attacks on anyone else,” he said, without detailing this year’s police deployment.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a symbol of Palestinian national identity.

By longstanding convention, Jews are allowed to visit but not pray in the compound, which they revere as the site of their second temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

In recent years, growing numbers of Jewish ultranationalists have defied the rules, including far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who publicly prayed there while serving as national security minister in 2023 and 2024.

The Israeli government has said repeatedly that it intends to uphold the status quo at the compound but Palestinian fears about its future have made it a flashpoint for violence.

Last year, Israel allowed Muslims to worship at Al-Aqsa in the same numbers as in previous year despite the war raging in Gaza.

AN-AFP, 27 Feb 2025

CAIRO – Hamas will not hold talks with Israel through mediators on any further steps in the fragile, phased ceasefire agreement unless Palestinian prisoners are released as agreed, group official Basem Naim told Reuters on Sunday.

Israel said on Sunday it was delaying the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners it had planned to free the day before until militant group Hamas met its conditions.

AN-REUTERS

JAKARTA – Six people were found dead, and nine others remain missing after a truck carrying 32 people, including several children, plunged into a river in Indonesia’s Riau province, a top rescuer said on Sunday.

The fatal accident occurred in a river in Pelalawan Regency late Saturday, according to Budi Cahyadi, head of the provincial search and rescue office.

“Three of the six casualties were discovered on Sunday, while the others were found on Saturday,” he said.

“The death toll stands at six, and nine people are still missing. 17 people survived the incident,” Cahyadi told Xinhua by phone. All survivors were taken to a health clinic for medical treatment, he added.

The search and rescue operation for the nine missing persons will resume on Monday, he said. A drowsy driver is suspected to have caused the fatal accident.

The truck was lifted from the river on Sunday, but no bodies were found inside the vehicle, he said.

XINHUA

The Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance has completed its preparations for this year’s holy month of Ramadan in Madinah.

Mosques, praying areas and their facilities have been prepared to receive worshippers, ensuring they perform their rituals in an atmosphere of tranquility and reverence.

Sheikh Osama bin Zaid Al-Madkhali, director general of the ministry’s branch in Madinah, said that the body’s efforts included intensifying regular maintenance rounds to ensure that mosques were free of any malfunctions or issues.

In addition, specialized field teams have been formed to handle emergency maintenance work around the clock, ensuring uninterrupted services.

Inspection tours of mosques have also been intensified to identify needs and ensure optimal preparation, in addition to following up on imams, preachers and muezzins to ensure their adherence to the ministry’s directives in serving worshippers.

AN-SPA/Feb 20, 2025

MARANA, Ariz. — A midair collision involving two small planes in southern Arizona killed at least two people Wednesday morning, authorities said.

Federal air-safety investigators said two people were on board each plane as they collided near Marana Regional Airport on the outskirts of Tucson.

One plane landed uneventfully with the other hit the ground near a runway and catching fire, the National Transportation Safety Board said, based on preliminary information before its investigators had arrived.

The Marana Police Department confirmed two deaths after responding to the crash. The Associated Press left a message with a police spokesperson seeking additional details.

Last week in Arizona, one of two pilots died on a private jet owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil after the aircraft veered off a runway in Scottsdale and hit a business jet.

Four major aviation disasters have occurred in North America in the last month. The most recent involved a Delta jet that flipped on its roof while landing in Toronto and the deadly crash of a commuter plane in Alaska.

In late January, 67 people aboard an American Airlines passenger were killed when an Army helicopter collided with it in Washington, D.C., marking the United States’ deadliest aviation disaster since 2001. Just a day later, a medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.

The airport in Marana has two intersecting runways but operates without an air traffic control tower.

A multimillion-dollar project was underway to build a tower but delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back construction. Tens of thousands of flights arrive and depart from the airport annually.

AP

BERLIN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that it was “wrong and dangerous” of US President Donald Trump to call Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator.”

“What is correct is that Volodymyr Zelensky is the elected head of state of Ukraine,” Scholz told the Spiegel news site.

Earlier on Wednesday Trump called Zelensky “a dictator without elections.”

Zelensky’s five-year term ended last year but Ukrainian law does not require elections during wartime.

Scholz condemned any attempt “to deny President Zelensky democratic legitimacy.”

“The fact that proper elections can’t be held in the middle of the war is reflected in the Ukrainian constitution and electoral law,” he said.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also hit back at Trump’s comments, branding them “absurd.”

“If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus,” Baerbock told broadcaster ZDF.

Earlier Berlin had also pushed back against Trump’s claim that Kyiv had “started” the fighting.

“No one but Putin started or wanted this war in the heart of Europe,” Baerbock said in a statement, adding that “we are working with all our might to further strengthen Ukraine.”

She said “we are at an existential waypoint for security and peace in Europe” and that the goal was “achieving lasting peace for Ukraine — safe and protected from future Russian aggression.”

Baerbock said that any “false peace … would only give Russia a respite for new military campaigns.”

Regarding the fast-moving events since Trump spoke directly with Putin about ending the conflict, she said that “we must not allow ourselves to be confused” and “keep a cool head.”

Downplaying Europe’s role on Ukraine “only plays into the hands” of Russia, she said.

“I therefore advocate acting confidently toward the US administration.”

AN-AFP

Sweden’s police have declared that the shooting at the Risbergska School in Orebro, located about 200 kilometers west of Stockholm, has claimed the lives of 11 people.

In an earlier report, five people were announced to have been shot and wounded.

The tragic event occurred at 12:33 p.m. local time (11:44 GMT). The gunman, who had no known connections to gangs or terrorism, is believed to be among those killed.

The reasons behind this crime remain a mystery, and details about the injured individuals are still unclear, local police chief Roberto Eid Forest said.

Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson expressed deep sorrow, saying that this incident is the worst mass shooting in the country’s history.

The Risbergska School is a center where adults, many immigrants trying to enhance their education and job prospects, come to learn and rebuild their futures.

The tragedy highlights the broader challenges Sweden faces with violence, which has resulted in the highest rate of gun violence per capita in the European Union.

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention announced that between 2010 and 2022, 10 people were killed in seven separate violent incidents in Sweden’s schools.

While many Swedes own guns for hunting, the rise of illegal firearms linked to gang activity poses a significant threat.

Previous incidents, like the 2015 murder of a teaching assistant and the 2017 truck attack in Stockholm, serve as reminders of the unending threats to public safety.

IRNA

WASHINGTON – The remains of all 67 individuals who died in the helicopter and passenger plane midair collision in Washington, D.C. last week have been recovered by rescue teams, U.S. media reported Tuesday.

Sixty-six of the remains have been positively identified, the ABC News cited the Unified Command as saying.

The Unified Command said its crews are still working to clear wreckage, including large pieces of the plane, from the Potomac River, and large lifts will continue through Tuesday evening. Unloading is expected when “environmental and tidal conditions allow” on Wednesday.

It added that operations will then shift to recovering wreckage from the Black Hawk helicopter.

A passenger jet carrying 64 on board collided Wednesday night with an Army helicopter while landing at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, with both aircraft falling into the freezing Potomac River. Three U.S. Army soldiers were onboard the helicopter.

This is the deadliest air accident in Washington, D.C. since 1982.

An investigation into the accident is underway, led by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

XINHUA

OREBRO, Sweden – Around 10 people were killed in a shooting at an adult education centre on Tuesday, Swedish police said, marking the country’s deadliest gun attack in what the prime minister called a “painful day.”

Police said the gunman was believed to be among those killed and a search for other possible victims was continuing at the school, located in the city of Orebro. The gunman’s motive was not immediately known.

“We know that 10 or so people have been killed here today. The reason that we can’t be more exact currently is that the extent of the incident is so large,” local police chief Roberto Eid Forest told a news conference.

Forest said police believed the gunman had acted alone and that terrorism was not currently suspected as a motive, though he cautioned that much remained unknown. He said the suspected gunman had not previously been known to police.

“We have a big crime scene, we have to complete the searches we are conducting in the school.
There are a number of investigative steps we are taking: a profile of the perpetrator, witness interviews,” Forest said.

The shooting took place in Orebro, some 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm, at the Risbergska school for adults who did not complete their formal education or failed to get the grades to continue to higher education. It is located on a campus that also houses schools for children.

Ali Elmokad was outside the Orebro University Hospital, looking for his relative, not yet knowing if he was among the injured or the dead.

“We’ve been trying to get hold of him all day, we haven’t been successful,” he said, adding that he had a friend who also attended the school.

“What she saw was so terrible. She only saw people lying on the floor, injured and blood everywhere.”

Police said it was still going through the crime scene and had searched several addresses in Orebro after the attack.

Late on Tuesday, police vans and personnel were still outside an apartment building in central Orebro that had been raided earlier.

“We saw a lot of police with drawn weapons,” said Lingam Tuohmaki, 42, who lives in the same building. “We were at home and heard a commotion outside.”

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said it was the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.

“It is hard to take in the full extent of what has happened today — the darkness that now lowers itself across Sweden tonight,” he told a news conference.

King Carl XVI Gustav conveyed his condolences. “It is with deep sadness and dismay that my family and I received the news about the terrible atrocity in Orebro,” he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her sympathy on X, saying: “In this dark hour, we stand with the people of Sweden.”

‘WE STARTED RUNNING’

Maria Pegado, 54, a teacher at the school, said someone threw open the door to her classroom just after lunch break and shouted to everyone to get out.

“I took all my 15 students out into the hallway and we started running,” she told Reuters by phone.

“Then I heard two shots but we made it out. We were close to the school entrance.

“I saw people dragging injured out, first one, then another. I realised it was very serious,” she said.

Many students in Sweden’s adult school system are immigrants seeking to improve basic education and gain degrees to help them find jobs in the Nordic country while also learning Swedish.

Sweden has been struggling with a wave of shootings and bombings caused by an endemic gang crime problem that has seen the country of 10 million people record by far the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU in recent years.
However, fatal attacks at schools are rare.

Ten people were killed in seven incidents of deadly violence at schools between 2010 and 2022, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.

Sweden has a high level of gun ownership by European standards, mainly linked to hunting, though it is much lower than in the United States, while the gang crime wave has highlighted the high incidence of illegal weapons.

In one of the highest-profile crimes of the past decade, a 21-year-old masked assailant driven by racist motives killed a teaching assistant and a boy and wounded two others in 2015.

In 2017, a man driving a truck mowed down shoppers on a busy street in central Stockholm before crashing into a department store. Five people died in that attack.

REUTERS

STOCKHOLM – Swedish police said on Tuesday five people were shot in an attack at a school in the city of Orebro some 200 km (125 miles) west of Stockholm, triggering a massive response by rescue services.

“Five persons are confirmed shot,” police said in a statement.

“This is currently seen as attempted murder, arson and aggravated weapons offence.”

Ambulances, rescue services and police are onsite, a spokesperson for local rescue services said.

A police spokesperson declined to comment further when reached by Reuters.

REUTERS

COLOMBO – Two people died and 35 others were injured when a privately owned bus collided with a van at Habarana in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province on Saturday, said police.

The injured have been taken to two regional hospitals for treatment, with the bus driver being arrested, the police said.

Local media reported that roughly 50 passengers were on board of the bus at the time of the accident.

Road accidents are common in Sri Lanka, with many involving buses, official data shows. In response to the increasing number of bus accidents, Sri Lankan authorities have been intensifying legal actions against individuals who violate traffic regulations on buses.

XINHUA

NEW DELHI – One person was killed and 11 others went missing after a vehicle fell into the Bhakra canal in the northern Indian state of Haryana, police said Saturday.

The accident took place Friday night near Sardarewala village in Fatehabad district, about 201 km west of Chandigarh, the capital city of Haryana.

According to police, there were 14 people aboard the vehicle, out of which a driver and an 11-year-old boy managed to get out. However, 12 were swept away by strong water currents.

Immediately after the accident, rescuers were rushed to the spot to trace the missing. So far, one body has been recovered from the canal.

XINHUA

ISLAMABAD – Eighteen Pakistani security personnel and 12 terrorists were killed in an in operations in the country’s southwest Balochistan province, the Pakistan army said on Saturday.

XINHUA

KABUL – Two commuters lost their lives and five others were injured due to a road accident in eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province late Friday, a local official reported on Saturday.

The incident took place on a road in the province’s Moqar district along the highway linking the capital of Kabul to southern Kandahar province when two passenger vehicles collided, leaving two dead, including a child, on the spot and five others injured, state-run Bakhtar news agency quoted Khalid Sarhadi, provincial police spokesman, as saying.

On Thursday night, a road accident in the eastern Laghman province led to the death of one person and injuries to three others.

Road accidents resulting in fatalities are prevalent in Afghanistan due to substandard road conditions, careless driving, difficult terrains, overloading of vehicles, overtaking and overspeeding.

XINHUA