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News ID: 92582
Publish Date : 18 July 2021 - 21:58

News in Brief

MUMBAI (Reuters) – At least 30 people died in three Mumbai suburbs when several houses collapsed after landslides triggered by heavy rain, local officials said on Sunday. Rescuers were seen using their hands to dig up the ground and retrieve bodies, local television showed, and authorities said more victims could be trapped inside the debris. Rescuers were also shown carrying the injured through narrow lanes on makeshift stretchers. Within the last 24 hours authorities have so far reported 11 incidents of houses or walls collapsing in the Mumbai area, officials said. In one neighborhood about half a dozen shacks located at the base of a hill collapsed on top of each other, officials said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences in a tweet and announced aid for the victims. Several areas in the city were flooded after heavy rainfall over the last 24 hours and suburban train services were disrupted, crippling India’s financial capital. Mumbai and the coast of India’s industrial Maharashtra state are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall in the next four days, the weather department said on Sunday.

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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Four people were shot outside a baseball stadium crowded with thousands of spectators in the U.S. capital on Saturday, causing the game to be abruptly halted as fans were ushered out. Police said four people had been shot but there was “no ongoing threat,” without clarifying the condition of the gunshot victims. AFP journalists who were at the game said some spectators had rushed for the exits after hearing a dozen or more gunshots outside the stadium, while others remained in their seats at the announcer’s initial urging. Several bursts of automatic gunfire could be clearly heard in the stadium in footage of the game posted on social media. The United States has a long and painful history of deadly gun violence, in the form of a steady daily toll of shootings as well as high-profile mass killings that have targeted schools, work places and shopping centers. The lights of multiple police cars lit up the street and sirens could be heard as the crowd attending the game between the Washington Nationals and the San Diego Padres was then asked to leave the stadium.

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MALANGA (Al Jazeera) – Police said 13 people were killed and many others seriously burned when an overturned petrol tanker exploded in western Kenya as crowds thronged to collect the spilling fuel. The fuel truck collided with another vehicle and toppled over late on Saturday near Malanga, some 315km (195 miles) northwest of Nairobi, on the busy highway between Kisumu and the border with Uganda. Onlookers rushed to the scene with jerrycans but the cargo exploded, engulfing those around in a fireball. “It burst into flames as they scooped fuel that was flowing,” said Charles Chacha, a local police chief in Siaya County where the accident occurred, on Sunday. Fire crews arrived on the scene two hours later to douse the inferno while those injured in the blast were taken to hospital.

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TEXAS (AP) – A chemical leak at a Houston-area water park left dozens suffering from minor skin irritation and respiratory issues Saturday, authorities said. Twenty-nine people were taken to local hospitals following the incident at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown in Spring, the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office tweeted. Thirty-nine others refused ambulance care. The chemicals involved included hypochlorite solution and 35% sulfuric acid, officials said. Authorities are investigating the cause of the incident, which they said was contained to one attraction at the park.

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LONDON (AFP) – As England pushes ahead with a controversial decision to lift its remaining coronavirus restrictions on Monday – dubbed “Freedom Day” by the UK press – Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are self-isolating after meeting with Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who has since tested positive for Covid-19. “Please, please, please, be cautious,” Johnson said in a video from isolation on Sunday. The UK government was thrown into turmoil on Sunday by its own rules on Covid self-isolation just as it controversially prepares to ditch pandemic curbs in England. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and finance minister Rishi Sunak will be working remotely in the week ahead after they came into contact with a person infected with Covid, Downing Street said. Initially, a Downing Street spokesperson said both Johnson and Sunak were taking part in a government pilot that enables them to continue working from their offices, while self-isolating outside of work. Yet in an update after a storm of anger over the announcement, the spokesperson reversed position and said neither official was participating in the pilot, but would conduct business remotely.

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ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heads to Northern Cyprus to mark the anniversary of Turkey’s 1974 invasion, a visit that is bound to draw the ire of Greek Cypriots. Erdogan will embark on the two-day trip to the Turkish Cypriot-controlled northern territories on Monday. He is scheduled to meet with Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar to exchange views on the latest developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and bilateral relations. He will also address a special session of the Turkish Cypriot parliament and attend celebrations of July 20 Peace and Freedom Day. The visit marks the 47th anniversary of Turkey’s 1974 Peace Operation, which was launched to protect the island’s Turkish Cypriot community following a Greek-backed military coup to annex Cyprus. Cyprus has since been divided into Turkish Cypriot-controlled northern and Greek Cypriot-controlled southern territories. Greek Cypriots run the island’s internationally recognized government, while Turkish Cypriots have a breakaway state in the north and claim the offshore resources there.