JAKARTA — Seven people reportedly went missing after a fire broke out on Wednesday evening in a shopping mall in the Indonesian city of Jakarta, police said on Thursday.
The incident occurred in Glodok Plaza at around 9:20 p.m. local time in the densely populated area of Tamansari sub-district. Many visitors were reportedly in the mall at the time of the fire.
The city’s fire department has deployed over 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters to combat the fire at the shopping mall. As of Thursday afternoon, embers remain in one of the buildings, despite the extinguishing efforts having entered the cooling stage.
The city’s police spokesperson, Ade Ary Syam Indradi, told local reporters that firefighters and police personnel are still at the location to investigate the main cause of the blaze.
NEW DELHI — India’s popular film actor Saif Ali Khan was stabbed at least six times with a knife by an intruder who had barged into his house with the motive of committing a burglary during the wee hours of Thursday, local police confirmed.
The incident happened inside Khan’s house at around 02:45 a.m. in the country’s financial capital Mumbai. The local police were yet to apprehend the attacker who fled from the spot after the assault.
One female staff of the film actor’s team was also injured during the scuffle, said the police.
Later, Khan was admitted to a local hospital where he received surgeries. His condition was said to be stable and out of danger. According to a statement issued by the hospital, Khan received two deep wounds with one near the spine.
Son of famous film actress Sharmila Tagore and India’s former cricket captain Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Saif Ali Khan made his career debut in the early 1990s and is married to film actress Kareena Kapoor.
TOKYO — A fire that engulfed two apartment buildings in Japan’s Kawasaki early Thursday has left three people dead and four others injured.
The fire, which started at around 4:20 a.m. local time in a two-story wooden apartment in Kawasaki’s Kawasaki Ward, spread to a neighboring building, completely destroying both structures.
The victims, all men in their 70s and 80s, were found in cardiac arrest at the scene and have been later confirmed dead. Four others sustained burns and injuries.
The accident took place in a densely packed residential area. Local authorities are working to determine the cause of the fire.
A dry weather advisory has been issued across the Kanagawa Prefecture and the wider Kanto region, with the Japan Meteorological Agency urging residents to exercise caution with fire.
SAO PAULO — At least three people were killed, and 12 others arrested Wednesday in a police operation targeting a criminal ring in a slum in northern Rio de Janeiro, local authorities said.
The Rio de Janeiro Public Security Secretariat said an operation was launched to combat extortion and money laundering linked to Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil’s most powerful criminal groups, sparking clashes with suspected members.
The exchange of fire left three suspected criminals dead while one police officer was injured, local media reported.
Residents said members of the criminal group blocked streets with barricades and spread oil on the pavement to stop the police, according to the reports.
The police operation forced the closure of two primary healthcare clinics in the area and caused several bus lines to be rerouted.
GAZA — At least 30 Palestinians were killed and many others injured in Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, hours after Qatar announced a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which takes effect on Sunday.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said Israeli warplanes had intensified raids across multiple areas of Gaza.
JOHANNESBURG — A total of 246 survivors and 78 bodies have been brought to the ground over three days of rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa, the police said Wednesday night.
In a statement issued at 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, the South African Police Service (SAPS) said that 246 illegal miners had been retrieved alive from underground and had been arrested since the rescue operation commenced on Monday at the Stilfontein mine in the North West Province. The number of bodies recovered stood at 78, the same as the previous update released at 4:00 p.m.
“We cannot say for sure that the operation has been called off at this stage,” SAPS national spokesperson Athlenda Mathe told Xinhua.
She made the remarks after volunteers involved in the rescue operation told the media that there were no more survivors or bodies underground.
Mathe said the Mine Rescue Service, which has been responsible for the operation in Stilfontein, would send a cage underground on Thursday morning “to see if any illegal miners resurface with the cage.”
“We will rely on the Mine Rescue Service to confirm this with their state-of-the-art equipment. That will hopefully be able to give us a picture of what is happening underground,” she clarified. “We have indicated that as the SAPS, we have to verify this.”
The spokesperson added that the police would provide further updates on the rescue operation Thursday morning.
The situation at the disused mine shafts in Stilfontein has been developing since August 2024, when small groups of illegal miners began emerging from the shafts. Since then, at least 1,576 illegal miners have come to the surface and been arrested, with the majority of them being foreign nationals from neighboring countries, according to earlier police statements.
Many gold mines in South Africa that were closed over the decades due to declining production have been taken over by illegal foreign miners who reopen them in search of gold.
Supporters of Israeli hostages, who were kidnapped during the deadly October 7 2023 attack by Hamas, hold torches as they attend a protest to demand a deal to bring every hostage home at once, amid Gaza ceasefire negotiations, in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 15. REUTERS
DOHA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Jan 15 — Negotiators reached a phased deal on Wednesday to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the U.S. and Qatar said, after 15 months of bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and inflamed the Middle East.
The complex accord outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and release of hostages taken by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
At a news conference in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the ceasefire would take effect on Sunday.
Negotiators are working with Israel and Hamas on steps implementing the deal, he said.
“This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in Washington.
Palestinians celebrated in streets of Gaza – where they have faced an acute humanitarian crisis with severe shortages of food, water and fuel.
“I am happy, yes, I am crying, but those are tears of joy,” said Ghada, a displaced mother of five.
Families of Israeli hostages and their friends rejoiced at news of the deal in Tel Aviv.
“We, the families of 98 hostages, welcome with overwhelming joy and relief the agreement to bring our loved ones home,” the hostage families’ group said in a statement.
The pact follows months of tortuous, on-off negotiations conducted by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and comes just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also welcomed the agreement in a post on X.
If successful, the planned phased ceasefire would halt fighting that has reduced much of heavily urbanised Gaza to ruin and displaced most of the tiny enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million. The death toll is still rising daily.
Phase one of the deal entails the release of 33 Israeli hostages, including all women, children and men over 50.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the accord was “a great gain.” The group, Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant power, told Reuters its delegation had handed mediators its approval for the ceasefire agreement and return of hostages.
Palestinians react to news on a ceasefire deal with Israel, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, January 15. REUTERS
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Hamas had dropped a last-minute demand and there were still a number of unresolved items in the deal. “We hope that the details will be closed tonight,” it said in a statement.
Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli border-area communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting over 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.
Israel’s air and ground war in Gaza has since killed over 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people struggling through the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters.
The charred remains of a trailer park along the beach are pictured, following the Palisades Fire at the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, U.S. January 15, 2025. REUTERS
Jan 15 — The threat of powerful wind gusts, combined with bone-dry humidity, in Los Angeles on Wednesday could test firefighters who have been battling to keep monstrous fires in Los Angeles in check since last week.
Some 6.5 million people in the Los Angeles area were under a critical fire threat as winds were forecast to be 20 to 40 miles (32-64 km) an hour with gusts up to 70 mph and humidity dropping into the single digits, the National Weather Service said.
The death toll from the fires rose by one on Tuesday to 25, according to the Los Angeles medical examiner’s office. The estimate of structures damaged or destroyed held steady at over 12,000, portending a Herculean rebuilding effort ahead.
Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, leaving smoldering ash and rubble. In many homes, only a chimney is left standing.
Winds were tamer than expected on Tuesday, letting firefighters extinguish or get control of some small brush fires that ignited while no major wildfires erupted in the area as feared.
During the day, the milder-than-expected conditions also allowed some 8,500 firefighters from at least seven states and two foreign countries to hold the line on the Palisades and Eaton fires for the second day running.
The Palisades Fire on the west edge of town held steady at 23,713 acres (96 square km) burned, and containment nudged up to 18% – a measurement of how much of the perimeter was under control.
The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the city stood at 14,117 acres (57 sq km) with containment at 35%. The fires have consumed an area the size of Washington, D.C.
A fleet of aircraft dropped water and retardant into the rugged hills while ground crews with hand tools and hoses have worked around the clock since the fires broke out on Jan. 7, with the aircraft occasionally grounded by high winds.
Southern California has lacked any appreciable rain since April, turning brush into tinder as Santa Ana winds originating from the deserts whipped over hilltops and rushed through canyons, sending embers flying up to 2 miles (3 km) ahead of the fires.
Despite losing his Altadena home, Aaron Lubeley, a 53-year-old lawyer, handed out food and water to his neighbors.
“When you stare at your front door that’s gone and you have the few moments to contemplate, what does this really mean to my life? I mean, I still don’t fully understand everything I have is gone,” he said as he stood in his front yard, distributing items.
“You have to decide, I have to make … I have to find some meaning in why this happened.”
PRICELESS ART DEEMED SAFE
Urban search and rescue teams worked from an Altadena grocery store parking lot, tracking progress on whiteboards and handing out assignments from inside a trailer.
A team of 50 firefighters and sheriff’s deputies conducted house-by-house searches, looking for any lingering fires and hazards such as lithium-ion batteries connected to solar panels.
The Palisades Fire also approached the priceless art collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum, which houses paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and Degas.
But the collection remained safely inside the Getty Center’s fortress of travertine stone, fire-protected steel and reinforced concrete.
“It would be extremely foolish to try to remove artwork” from its safe harbor, Getty Trust President Katherine E. Fleming said.In Washington, a battle over emergency aid broke out between Republicans and Democrats over what is already the costliest wildfire in terms of insured losses.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimates total damage and economic loss between $250 billion and $275 billion, which would make it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Palestinians walk on a street market amid ceasefire negotiations, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip January 15, 2025. REUTERS
DOHA/JERUSALEM, Jan 15 — Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East.
The agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, with the backing of the United States, and came just ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting more than 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and left the narrow coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble, with hundreds of thousands surviving the winter cold in tents and makeshift shelters.
As his inauguration approached, Trump repeated his demand that a deal be done swiftly, warning repeatedly that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released. His Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff worked with President Joe Biden’s team to push the deal over the line.
In Israel, the return of the hostages may ease some of the public anger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government over the Oct. 7 security failure that led to the deadliest single day in the country’s history.
The conflict spread across the Middle East, with Iran-backed proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The deal comes after Israel killed the top leaders of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in assassinations which gave it the upper hand.
Security forces reporting to Syria’s transitional government patrol the streets of Dummar, a suburb of the Syrian captial Damascus, during an operation to seize weapons and hunt down armed supporters of the ousted Assad leadership on January 15, 2025. (AFP)
DAMASCUS — An Israeli air strike hit a military target belonging to Syria’s new authorities for the first time on Wednesday, killing three people, a war monitor and a medical source said.
“An Israeli drone launched an attack targeting a military convoy… killing two members of the Military Operations Department” and one civilian, in southern Syria’s Quneitra region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A medical source told AFP a local official from the Ghadir Al-Bustan area was among the three killed in the strike.
“This is the first Israeli strike targeting the security forces of the new authorities,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the British-based Observatory with a network of sources inside Syria.
Security forces had been conducting a sweep in the area to search for weapons in civilian homes, the Observatory said.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on targets belonging to Syria’s now-defunct army since militant-led forces ousted President Bashar Assad on December 8, destroying most of the military’s arsenal, the Observatory has said.
The same day Assad was toppled, Israel also announced that its troops were crossing the armistice line and occupying a UN-patrolled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the territory in a move largely unrecognized by the international community.
TEHRAN — A light trainer aircraft belonging to Iran’s Law Enforcement Command crashed on Wednesday in the northern province of Gilan, killing the pilot, copilot and flight engineer on board, the country’s IRIB news agency reported.
The incident, which was reported at 10:18 a.m. local time (0648 GMT), occurred near Kuchesfahan District in the provincial capital of Rasht, IRIB quoted Jamshid Mohammadi, head of Gilan’s emergency medical services organization, as saying.
Emergency medical teams were immediately sent to the scene following the incident, said Mohammadi, stressing that all three people on board the aircraft had died from their severe injuries when the teams arrived.
According to Gilan’s Police Chief Azizollah Maleki, the crash was caused by a technical defect.
Maleki noted that the plane was en route from Sardar Jangal Rasht International Airport to Mehrabad International Airport in the Iranian capital Tehran when it crashed.
ISTANBUL — The death toll from bootleg alcohol in Istanbul has risen to 19 in the past two days, up from 11 reported on Tuesday, with 43 people still hospitalized as of Wednesday, according to Turkish broadcaster NTV.
A total of 65 people have sought medical treatment for suspected alcohol poisoning, NTV added.
Istanbul Governor Davut Gul announced on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that authorities had shut down 63 businesses suspected of selling illicit alcohol, revoking their licenses. Gul added that officials are working to identify and prosecute those responsible for the fatalities.
The Istanbul governor’s office reported on Tuesday that 48 people died from alcohol poisoning in 2024. In response, the city has pledged to implement stricter measures to combat the sale and consumption of illegal or counterfeit alcohol.
MANILA — Three girls aged five, 11, and 16 were killed after being trapped inside a burning two-story house in the Philippine capital, police said Wednesday.
Police officer Alejandro Ramos said the victims were asleep on the second floor when the fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon.
Ramos said their mother failed to save them as she was busy giving another child a bath on the ground floor.
Ramos said thick smoke and narrow alleyways prevented neighbors and firefighters from entering the house to extinguish the fire. It took firefighters an hour to put out the blaze.
The cause of the fire has been under investigation, police said.
SEOUL — An unidentified person burned self to death Wednesday in a parking lot near South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), according to Yonhap news agency.
JERUSALEM/GAZA — Israeli forces intensified their assault on Gaza, striking approximately 50 sites since early Wednesday, Israeli authorities said.
In a joint statement, the Israeli Shin Bet domestic security agency and the military reported that the airstrikes targeted militants, weapons storage facilities, underground infrastructure, anti-tank fire positions, and Hamas military structures.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense Authority in Gaza, reported that the authority had retrieved the bodies of seven people and rescued dozens of wounded individuals after Israeli aircraft targeted the Al-Farabi School with at least one missile. The school, located in the Yarmouk area west of Gaza City, was housing displaced people.
The Israeli statement confirmed the strike, stating that it targeted a militant “holding a central position” who was hiding in the building, which they described as “a command and control center” for attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza.
Hussam Al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Hospital, said 15 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting two houses in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Three Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential house in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Al-Daqran added.
Meanwhile, Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp reported in a press release that six people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the camp.
In the southern Gazan city of Rafah, Israeli aircraft targeted a house and two gatherings, according to local sources. Paramedics told Xinhua that medical teams recovered nine bodies, including a fetus and children, while several wounded individuals were transferred to a local hospital for treatment.
The airstrikes occurred as Qatari, Egyptian, and American mediators held talks with Israeli and Hamas officials in Doha to finalize a ceasefire-for-hostage agreement. The proposed deal aims to end more than 15 months of a deadly Israeli onslaught that has killed over 46,700 Palestinians and devastated Gaza, while securing the release of approximately 100 hostages held in the enclave.
SEOUL — South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said Wednesday that during the investigation conducted from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. local time, the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol consistently refused to make any statements and declined to allow the questioning process to be recorded or videotaped.
Local media quoted the CIO as saying that it is currently negotiating with the presidential security service on whether to transfer Yoon to the Seoul Detention Center for custody. Additionally, it is considering applying for a detention warrant from the Seoul Western District Court, which issued the arrest warrant against Yoon.
If approved, the detention period could be extended to a maximum of 20 days. The CIO plans to transfer Yoon to the prosecution after 10 days of detention.
In response, Yoon’s legal team issued a statement emphasizing that the CIO does not have the authority to investigate the president and the arrest warrant is “illegal.”
The team vowed to hold the CIO and the police legally accountable for the unlawful execution of the arrest warrant, according to the statement.
KIEV — Russia launched cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine on Wednesday morning in a new massive attack, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
A series of explosions were heard in the eastern city of Kharkiv, while air defense systems were active near the city of Cherkasy in central Ukraine, public broadcaster Suspilne reported.
The missile attack followed overnight drone strikes by Ukraine.
KIEV/MOSCOW — The Ukrainian army carried out its “largest strike” on Russian military targets, 200 to 1,100 kilometers deep into the Russian territory, early Tuesday morning, General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed on Facebook.
Targets of the strike included oil storage facilities, military plants and other locations in such areas as Bryansk, Saratov, Tula regions and the Republic of Tatarstan, according to a statement.
Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the attack on Tuesday, accusing Ukraine of using U.S.- and British-made long-range missiles and drones.
The Ukranian actions “supported by Western handlers will trigger retaliation,” the ministry said in a statement.
Dozens of drones were shot down overnight across multiple regions in Russia, with damage reported at industrial plants and residential buildings, TASS news agency reported, citing local officials.
Dense fog and cold weather delayed train and flight departures in several parts of northern India, including its capital New Delhi, on Wednesday.
India’s weather office issued an orange alert for Delhi, the second highest warning level, forecasting dense to very dense fog in many areas.
Visibility at Delhi’s main airport was between zero to 100 meters (328.08 ft), the weather office said, and more than 40 trains across northern India were delayed because of fog, local media reported.
Some aircraft departures from Delhi were delayed, airport authorities said on social media platform X, warning that flights lacking the CAT III navigation system that enables landing despite low visibility would face difficulties. Delhi’s main airport handles about 1,400 flights every day.
“Low visibility and fog over Delhi may lead to some delays,” the country’s largest airline IndiGo said in a social media post.
Local media showed images of vehicles crawling along highways through the fog, and people huddled indoors as the temperature dipped to 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
LIMA — At least five people, including three children, lost their lives in a large fire that broke out Monday night in a community in the southern Peruvian region of Arequipa, local authorities said Tuesday.
The fire started around 11:00 p.m. local time Monday (0400 GMT Tuesday) in the Carlos Portocarrero Dongo settlement in Secocha, Camana province. It was brought under control by early Tuesday morning, leaving at least 10 homes damaged and over 100 people homeless.
Jose Barrezueta, head of the Regional Emergency Operations Center of Arequipa, told the private broadcaster Radio Programas del Peru that five fatalities had been confirmed so far.
“Another person injured in the fire is being treated at a local hospital,” according to the National Emergency Operations Center.
According to La Republica newspaper, initial investigations indicate the fire was caused by a short circuit in a prefabricated house, triggering the explosion of domestic gas tanks, which intensified the blaze.
“The flames spread rapidly, consuming multiple homes and leaving families with no time to react,” the outlet reported.
