Category: World

The United States and Cuba are close to a deal on restoring regularly scheduled commercial flights, Cuban and American officials said Wednesday on the eve of …

President Juan Manual Santos on Saturday hailed the discovery of a Spanish galleon that went down off the South American nation’s coast more than 300 …

The first time the men and women set out to dig for their missing relatives in Iguala, they didn’t know how. Leaders of the expedition told them to look …

A dam burst at an iron ore mine in southeastern Brazil on Thursday, submerging nearby homes and vehicles. Authorities confirmed at least one death — and said an unknown number of other people were missing.

Rescue teams were searching for survivors or bodies, and residents living in an area downhill from the dam were told to evacuate to higher ground.

The Civil Defense agency of Minas Gerais state said one body had been recovered but officials had yet to determine how many people were missing.

Police, firefighters and local officials said they could not confirm any reported death tolls or victims.

Images from Globo TV showed the area of the operation overrun with water and clay-red mud, with large vehicles tossed on their sides.

A small cluster of homes and about 400 people live in the small town of Bento Rodrigues, about 7 kilometers (just over 4 miles) beneath the dam that burst. Images showed the town flooded with mud and water.

Authorities said the dam was built to hold back water and residue from mining operations, a mixture that can often be toxic.

The Samarco mining company said in a statement on its website that it was making “every effort to prioritize care to people and mitigate damage to the environment.”

“It is not possible at this moment to confirm a cause … nor if there are victims,” it added.

Samarco is jointly owned by Brazilian mining company Vale and Australia’s BHP Billiton.

A statement from the city hall of Mariana, a city of about 40,000 people 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, said the dam ruptured at 4:20 p.m. in an area roughly 20 kilometers (over 12 miles) from the city center.

Source:- abcnews

The leaders of South Korea, China and Japan met Sunday in their first summit talks in more than three years, as the Northeast Asian powers struggle to find …

A pre-dawn fire in the southern Philippines raced through public market stalls, killing 15 vendors, including six children, who were sleeping there to be up early for the weekend crowds, police said.

Thirteen other vendors were injured in the three-hour blaze in Zamboanga city, a major port about 860 kilometers (540 miles) south of Manila, the capital. It apparently started when sparks from low-slung electric post cables set fire to sidewalk stall umbrellas then ignited stacks of used clothing being sold at the city market, said Senior Superintendent Angelito Casimiro.

The victims were clothes vendors who slept at their stalls, including at least six children, so they could be up early for the weekend market that usually draws sizable crowds, said police investigator Rafael Salcedo.

“One vendor saw the electrical sparks set a stall umbrella on fire, but many were asleep and the others thought somebody was just playing a prank until the fire started to spread,” Salcedo said by telephone.

The victims’ bodies were taken to a nearby Muslim mosque prior to burial, he said.

Firefighters, who have been on alert along with police for All Saints’ Day ceremonies in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation, prevented the blaze from spreading to nearby commercial buildings.

Salcedo said that daily blackouts might have caused power fluctuations, but Bureau of Fire investigators would determine whether officers in charge of fire safety could be criminally liable.

Dilapidated buildings, a lack of adequate fire safety systems and inspectors and weak enforcement of fire safety regulations have contributed to many fires in the Philippines.

In 1996, a disco fire left 162 people dead, mostly students celebrating the ends of the school year in one of the deadliest nightclub fires in the world.

Source:- abcnews

Officials say rescuers are struggling to reach quake-stricken regions inPakistan and Afghanistan as the combined death toll from the previous day’s …

For the first time in history, researchers in Japan have captured three young giant squid.

All three were caught off the southwestern coast of Japan in 2013 and are genetically identical to their gigantic parents, though each weighs less than one pound, according to the Museum of Nature and Human Activities in Hyogo. The discovery was published last week in the journal Marine Biodiversity Records.

Two of the squid were captured together while the other was captured alive.

Giant squid are the world’s largest invertebrate and can grow to be more than 33 feet long. They are rarely seen alive in their natural habitat.

Sixteen Syrian refugees, including an 18-month-old boy, were rescued by Turkish fishermen on Friday after their boat capsized and sank in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Kusadasi near Izmir in Turkey.

Fisherman Cenal Gurman, 48, told a Turkish media outlet that he nearly missed the 18-month-old baby — later identified as Muhammed — had he not gone back to check if there were any more survivors after sighting and rescuing the 15 other refugees in life jackets.

He said that when he went back out to check and also collect other life jackets littering the sea, he saw the toddler.

“It must have been in the water for a long time,” Gurman said. “I got to it and pulled it out. It was a boy, and he was suffering from hypothermia.”

Video of the dramatic rescue shows baby Muhammed unresponsive as Gurman flips him upside down to “get rid of the water in his lungs and stomach,” he said.

The 18-month-old survived, and Gurman covered him in a blanket before handing him over to the Turkish Coast Guard, who came to assist with the refugees.

Muhammed was immediately taken to the hospital and was discharged in a few hours.

“I am so happy we saved 16 lives,” Gurman said. “We hope this never happens again.”

Turkish media also caught Muhammed’s reunion with his family on the boat, including his mother, Lorin Halef.

Halef, 23, told reporters the family was from Kobane, Syria, and they plan to return there after this experience, adding that she would never again try to go back to Europe.

The boat that sank reportedly also carried 15 other passengers, but they were not found.