Category: English

TOKYO — Two people died after a fire broke out in a residential area near Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo on Tuesday evening, local media reported.

At around 5 p.m. local time (0800 GMT), the blaze was reported at a two-story house in a densely packed residential area in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, Kyodo News reported, citing the local fire department.

The fire spread within minutes to encompass at least eight buildings, including houses, amid strong winds, the report said.

The incident occurred close to Tokyo Skytree, Japan’s tallest broadcasting tower and a popular tourist spot.

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ISLAMABAD — At least eight persons were injured in a bomb blast that hit a police vehicle in Bannu district of Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, police said.

Local police said that a roadside bomb explosion hit the vehicle during its patrol in Sorangi area of the district, leaving eight people wounded.

Following the incident, police, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the injured to a nearby hospital.

Police added that one police officer and four constables were among the persons who sustained injuries in the blast.

According to the bomb disposal squad, an improvised explosive device was planted on the roadside, and it was detonated with a remote-controlled device.

Security forces and police had cordoned off the area and started searching for perpetrators.

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SANAA — Multiple airstrikes hit Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Tuesday afternoon, targeting military sites under Houthi control and rocking the whole city, according to local witnesses.

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LOS ANGELES — Four people were injured Monday night in two separate shootings within blocks of each other in downtown Los Angeles, local news outlet reported, citing police.

The first incident was reported just before 9 p.m. local time (0500 GMT Tuesday) at a shopping center, outside of a Target store, reported KABC-TV, the West Coast flagship station of the ABC television network.

When responding officers arrived, they found two people suffering from gunshot wounds. Police said one of the victims may be a security guard at a business in the area. Both victims were taken to a local hospital and one of them was in critical condition, according to the report.

A manhunt for the suspected gunman was reportedly underway.

Two people were injured in another shooting that happened about 1.6 km from the shopping mall, said the KABC, adding that a man and a woman were both rushed to the hospital in an unknown condition.

The report noted that it’s unclear if both incidents are connected.

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SOFIA — Four homeless people died and two others were hospitalized following a fire in a train car at the Central Railway Station in Sofia early Tuesday morning, authorities said.

Ivan Georgiev, head of the “Mass Events” department at the Sofia Metropolitan Directorate of Interior, told reporters the fire broke out around 2:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT). An investigation is underway, he added.

Pirogov University Multi-Profile Hospital for Active Treatment and Emergency Medicine said on its website that the two injured individuals were admitted to the Toxicology Clinic in serious condition.

“One is nearly 65 years old, and the other is over 35 years old,” the hospital said.

According to the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), the train car had been prepared shortly before midnight to service the morning train from Sofia to Petrich.

“Initial information indicates that a group of homeless people illegally entered the carriage,” BDZ stated.

Later, the Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office said all possible causes of the fire are being investigated, including intentional and accidental scenarios.

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TOKYO — Heavy snow blanketed northern Japan on Tuesday, forcing dozens of flight cancellations as many people were traveling for the New Year holidays.

Japan Airlines said it canceled 42 flights to and from the northernmost island of Hokkaido, affecting 6,398 passengers, while All Nippon Airways scrapped 14 flights, affecting 800 passengers.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), heavy snowfall fell in many places in central and northern Hokkaido on Tuesday due to a winter pressure pattern.

The JMA said that more than 20 cm of snow has fallen in some areas of Hokkaido since Monday, most of it on Tuesday morning, noting that snowfall was expected to continue on New Year’s Day.

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GENEVA — A United Nations report published Tuesday found that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip had left health care in the Palestinian territory on the verge of collapse.

The report by the UN human rights office said such strikes raised grave concerns about Israel’s compliance with international law.

“Israel’s pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the health care system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians’ access to health and medical care,” the UN human rights office said in a statement.

Its 23-page report, entitled “Attacks on hospitals during the escalation of hostilities in Gaza,” looked at the period from October 7, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

It said that during this time, there were at least 136 strikes on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, claiming significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics and other civilians and causing significant damage to, if not the complete destruction of, civilian infrastructure.

The report noted that medical personnel and hospitals are specifically protected under international humanitarian law, provided they do not commit, or are not used to commit, acts harmful to the enemy outside their humanitarian function.

It found that Israel’s repeated claims that Gaza hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian groups “vague.”

“Insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information,” the report said.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Gaza hospitals had become a “death trap.”

“As if the relentless bombing and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza were not enough, the one sanctuary where Palestinians should have felt safe in fact became a death trap,” he said.

“The protection of hospitals during warfare is paramount and must be respected by all sides, at all times.”

The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

That resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

The report concluded with a call for credible investigations into the incidents detailed, and said they had to be independent given the “limitations” of Israel’s justice system in respect of the conduct of its armed forces.

“It is essential that there be independent, thorough and transparent investigations of all of these incidents, and full accountability for all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law which have taken place,” said Turk.

“All medical workers arbitrarily detained must be immediately released.

“It must also be a priority for Israel, as the occupying power, to ensure and facilitate access to adequate health care for the Palestinian population, and for future recovery and reconstruction efforts to prioritize the restoration of the medical capacity which has been destroyed over the last 14 months of intense conflict.”

AN-AFP

GENEVA — UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Tuesday that Afghanistan’s governing Taliban authorities must reverse their ban on Afghan women working for NGOs.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, women have been progressively erased from public spaces, prompting the United Nations to denounce the “gender apartheid” the administration has established.

“I am deeply alarmed at the recent announcement by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan that non-governmental organizations’ licenses will be revoked if they continue to employ Afghan women. This is absolutely the wrong path being taken,” Turk said in a statement.

He said that in a letter dated Thursday, the Taliban’s economy ministry ordered national and international NGOs to comply with a decree issued two years ago which bars them from employing Afghan women.

“The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan remains dire, with more than half the population living in poverty. NGOs play a vital role in providing critical life-saving assistance — to Afghan women, men, girls and boys — and this measure will directly impact the ability of the population to receive humanitarian aid,” said Turk.

“I once again urge the de facto authorities in Afghanistan to revoke this deeply discriminatory decree, and all other measures which seek to eradicate women and girls’ access to education, work and public services, including health care, and that restrict their freedom of movement.

“No country can progress — politically, economically or socially — while excluding half of its population from public life.

“For the future of Afghanistan, the de facto authorities must change course.”

Since the Taliban’s return to power, women have been progressively erased from public spaces, prompting the United Nations to denounce the “gender apartheid” the administration has established.

Taliban authorities have banned post-primary education for girls and women, restricted employment and blocked access to parks and other public places.

A recent law prohibits women from singing or reciting poetry in public under the Taliban government’s ultra-strict application of Islamic law. It also encourages them to “veil” their voices and bodies outside the home.

Some local radio and television stations have also stopped broadcasting female voices.

The Taliban administration claims that Islamic law “guarantees” the rights of Afghan men and women.

AN-AFP

KYIV — Russia launched an aerial attack on Ukraine on Tuesday, striking the capital and other regions with multiple missiles and drones.

Ukraine’s air force reported a ballistic missile threat at 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT), with at least two explosions heard in Kyiv minutes later. Another missile alert was issued at 8:00 a.m. followed by at least one explosion in the city. Missile debris fell in the Darnytskyi district of the capital with no reports of casualties or damage, the local administration said.

Authorities in the northeastern Sumy region reported strikes near the city of Shostka, where the mayor, Mykola Noha, said 12 residential buildings had been damaged as well as two educational facilities. He said some “social infrastructure objects” were destroyed, without providing detail.

The air force also reported missiles and drones targeting several other regions of Ukraine.

Around half of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed during the war, and rolling electricity blackouts are common and widespread.

Kyiv’s Western allies have provided air defense systems to help Ukraine protect critical infrastructure, but Russia has sought to overwhelm its air defenses with combined strikes involving large numbers of missiles and drones.

Russian attacks come as uncertainty looms over the course of the nearly three-year conflict.

US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has vowed to end the war and has thrown into doubt whether vital US military support for Kyiv will continue.

On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that the United States will send an additional $2.5 billion in weapons to Ukraine as his administration works quickly to spend all the money it has available to help Kyiv fight off Russia before Trump takes office.

AN-AP

SYDNEY — A man has died while hiking in the southeast Australian island state of Tasmania, marking the third death of a hiker in the state in one week.

Tasmania Police said in a statement on Tuesday that the man aged in his 30s from the mainland state of Victoria died after falling from height while hiking in the Southwest National Park on Monday.

The man fell while attempting to summit the 1,225 meter-high Federation Peak at about 11 a.m. local time on Monday, Tasmania Police Inspector Colin Riley told reporters on Tuesday.

His two female companions raised the alarm, and a search and rescue operation was launched on Monday afternoon before being suspended overnight. Aerial and ground crews resumed the search on Tuesday and the man’s body was located at 9 a.m. local time.

“The deceased man was then retrieved by the helicopter. The two other walkers have also been airlifted out,” Tasmania Police said.

It was the third death of a hiker in Tasmania over the holiday period.

A bushwalker in his 60s was found dead in Cradle Mountain National Park in northwestern Tasmania on Christmas Day and the body of a 54-year-old was found by a fellow hiker in the Southwest National Park on Saturday.

Police believed both deaths were caused by a medical episode.

Another two men aged in their 20s were rescued on Christmas Eve after encountering trouble while hiking near Federation Peak on Dec. 23.

Riley said on Tuesday that the Eastern Arthur Range Traverse, which includes Federation Peak, was one of Tasmania’s most challenging walks.

“It is very dangerous, it is steep and it’s slippery, and the weather conditions can change extremely rapidly,” he said.

In the mainland state of New South Wales, a search for a hiker missing in the Kosciuszko National Park, over 350 km southwest of Sydney, has entered its fifth day.

The search for 23-year-old Hadi Nazari from Melbourne began when he failed to meet with friends as planned at a campground in the national park on Dec. 26.

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