News in Brief

Date: 31 May 2025 - 22:17

News ID: ۱۴۰۱۷۲

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) – The death toll from devastating flooding in a market town in Nigeria’s north-central state of Niger rose to at least 151 on Saturday, the local emergency service said, amid efforts to find more victims. Torrents of predawn rainfall early Thursday unleashed the devastating flood on Mokwa, nearly 380 kilometers (236 miles) west of Abuja and a major trading and transportation hub where northern Nigerian farmers sell beans, onions and other food to traders from the south. The spokesperson for the Niger State emergency service, Ibrahim Audu Husseini, confirmed the updated fatality count to The Associated Press on Saturday. In addition to the rising death toll, 11 people were injured and more than 3,000 people were displaced, the official added. At least 500 households across three communities were affected by the sudden and intense flood that built rapidly in about five hours, leaving roofs barely visible and surviving residents waist-deep in water, trying to salvage what they could and rescue others.

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PYONGYANG (Dispatches) – North Korea’s state security minister has said that the U.S.’s unilateral and militaristic approach to foreign policy threatens global stability, vowing a response of “powerful might” should the US continue its current course. Ri Chang-dae made the remarks during a speech at a high-level security officials’ meeting held in Moscow from Tuesday to Thursday, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. “Due to the arbitrariness and abuse of power by certain forces on the international stage, the internationally recognized principles of international relations are openly being ignored,” the KCNA quoted Ri as saying. He harshly criticized the U.S. for posing a continuing threat to the foundation of global peace and security through its “unilateral and militaristic hegemonic” policies and pursuing its own power and interests against the wishes of the international community. “We will never stay silent to any kinds of hostile acts that threaten the country’s autonomy and dignity and the people’s wellbeing,” Ri also said, adding that his country will “respond with powerful might.”

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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major victory in his immigration crackdown, giving his administration the green light to revoke the legal status of half a million migrants from four Caribbean and Latin American countries. The decision puts 532,000 people who came from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the United States under a two-year humanitarian “parole” program launched by former president Joe Biden at risk of deportation. And it marked the second time the highest U.S. court has sided with Trump in his aggressive push to deliver on his election pledge to deport millions of non-citizens, through a series of policy moves that have prompted a flurry of lawsuits. On Calle Ocho, a historic street in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, Johnny Cardona, 63, was saddened by the Supreme Court’s decision. The ruling sparked a scathing dissent from two justices in the liberal minority who said the six conservatives on the bench had “plainly botched” the decision and undervalued the “devastating consequences” to those potentially affected. The revoked program had allowed entry into the United States for two years for up to 30,000 migrants a month from the four countries.

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SEOUL (AFP) – Thousands of supporters of South Korea’s two leading presidential candidates rallied on Saturday in Seoul, days before a vote triggered by the ex-leader’s disastrous declaration of martial law. Tuesday’s election caps months of political turmoil sparked by Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief suspension of civilian rule in December, for which he was impeached and removed from office. All major polls have placed liberal Lee Jae-myung well ahead in the presidential race, with a recent Gallup survey showing 49 percent of respondents viewed him as the best candidate. Kim Moon-soo, from the conservative People Power Party (PPP) that Yoon left this month, trailed behind at 35 percent. Organizers from both camps told police they expected tens of thousands of supporters to rally in Seoul on Saturday. In Seocho, in the south of the capital, Lee supporters gathered holding signs condemning Yoon’s “insurrection.”

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CHICAGO (NBC News) – A manhunt has been launched after seven teenagers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in the early hours of Saturday morning, police in Chicago said. The shooting happened in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood and across the street from Chicago’s St. Sabina Church and school. “An unknown vehicle drove by, and began firing shots at the crowd striking several victims,” as officers were “trying to disperse a large gathering of people,” in the city’s southeastern 6th District, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement.

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WEST JAVA (Reuters) – At least 19 people have been killed after a stone quarry collapsed in Indonesia’s West Java province, with the country’s disaster agency saying search efforts are ongoing to find missing people buried beneath the rubble. The collapse took place at Gunung Kuda mining site in Cirebon, West Java. Footage from the scene of the accident shows excavators moving large rocks and emergency workers placing victims in body bags in an ambulance. Footage circulating online showed rescuers struggling to retrieve a body from the devastated area. Another showed people scrambling for safety as thick dust rose from a pile of rocks and soil that had collapsed. Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) said at least 19 people had been killed, but gave no estimate on the number of people missing. It said heavy machinery – including three excavators – were buried and rescue operations would continue.