HANOI, May 18 – Flooding caused by heavy rains has left three people dead in northern Vietnam’s Bac Kan province, Vietnam News Agency reported Sunday.
According to the report, all the victims were local residents.
Two suspension bridges, an electric pole, and several houses were swept away, while agricultural land also suffered severe flooding, the state-owned media outlet added.
Bac Kan has seen multiple rounds of heavy rain in recent days, with widespread downpours hitting the province from late Saturday night to early Sunday morning.
LOS ANGELES, May 17 – At least one person was killed and five others injured on Saturday in an explosion outside a fertility clinic in the desert resort city of Palm Springs, California, according to authorities.
The individual believed to be responsible for the explosion was killed at the scene, law enforcement sources said. The identity of the deceased has not been released.
Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said the explosion appears to be an intentional act of violence. The blast caused extensive damage, affecting multiple buildings over several blocks.
In a post on the social platform X, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi confirmed that federal agents are assisting local authorities in the investigation.
Authorities urged the public to avoid the area, which remains an active emergency scene as the investigation is underway.
CAIRO, May 18 – An Israeli airstrike killed at least 24 Palestinians in a tent encampment housing displaced families in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, local health authorities said on Sunday, as mediators hosted a new round of talks between Israel and Hamas.
Israel expanded its military offensive in the enclave and ramped up bombing that has killed hundreds of people over the past 72 hours.
Medics said the latest strike that also killed women and children, wounded dozens of other people and set several tents ablaze.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes in the past few days had killed hundreds of Palestinians despite a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to the region.
Hamas described the strike as a “new brutal crime” in a statement on Sunday and blamed the U.S. administration for the escalation.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the latest strikes but it said in an earlier statement that it was conducting extensive strikes in areas of Gaza as part of its plan to reach its war objectives.
Egypt and Qatar mediators, backed by the United States, began a new round of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas on Saturday, officials from both sides said.
Sources close to the negotiation told Reuters there has been no breakthrough reported in the talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, as each of the sides remained committed to its stance.
An ATV passes a police vehicle to enter the crash site near the Eura Airfield in Eura, Finland, on May 17, 2025. Lehtikuva/Petri Hakosalo via REUTERS
May 17 – Five people were killed on Saturday when two helicopters collided and crashed in a wooded area near Eura Airport in southwestern Finland, police said.
Police said the mid-air collision occurred shortly after noon near the town of Kauttua, with the wreckage falling some 700 metres (yards) from the Ohikulkutie road.
“Five people have died in a helicopter accident near Eura Airport on Saturday,” Detective Chief Inspector Johannes Siirilä of the National Bureau of Investigation said.
According to flight plans, there were two people aboard one helicopter and three in the other, police said, adding that both helicopters were registered outside Finland.
One helicopter was registered in Estonia, the other in Austria, according to an Estonian Public Broadcasting (ERR) report, citing Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat newspaper. Both belonged to Estonian companies. One was owned by NOBE and the other by Eleon, the report added.
The helicopters were reportedly en route to a hobby aviation event, according to the Pori Aviation Club, Yle News reported.
The National Bureau of Investigation is leading a joint probe with local police, and Finnish and Estonian authorities are cooperating.
ROME – Italy’s government on Saturday upped its exhortations to Israel to stop deadly military strikes in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying: “Enough with the attacks.”
“We no longer want to see the Palestinian people suffer,” Tajani said during a trip to Sicily, in remarks relayed by his spokesman.
“Let’s come to a ceasefire, let’s free the hostages, but let’s leave people who are victims of Hamas alone,” he was cited as saying.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators waves Palestinian flags and burn flares during a demonstration against Israel outside the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest’s grand final in Basel on May 17, 2025. (AFP)
BASEL, Switzerland – Pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with riot police in Basel as the Swiss city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest Saturday, AFP journalists at the scene witnessed.
Protesters demonstrating against Israel’s participation in the contest while it ramps up its war in Gaza clashed briefly with police in the center of the city shortly before Israel’s Eurovision entrant Yuval Raphael took to the stage at the St. Jakobshalle venue across town.
GAZA, May 17 – At least 64 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Civil Defense in Gaza said.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told Xinhua that seven young men were killed and several others wounded when Israeli artillery shelled a group of Palestinians trying to reach their homes in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Basal added that four people, including a woman and two children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the gate of Salah al-Din School, which houses displaced families in the west of Gaza City, while a fifth person was killed in an airstrike on a residential apartment north of the city.
At least 11 others were killed in attacks on a Palestinian gathering, while nine others were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a warehouse for distributing humanitarian aid in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, according to Basal.
The Hamas-run Gaza government condemned the attack on the warehouse, considering it “a serious and ongoing escalation of the systematic starvation policy pursued by the occupation in the Gaza Strip.”
At least 13 others were killed in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while 19 others were killed in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, Basal said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement in the early morning of Saturday that over the past day, “the IDF has begun conducting extensive strikes and mobilizing troops to achieve operational control in areas of the Gaza Strip.”
Since Israel resumed its intensified military campaign on March 18, at least 3,131 Palestinians have been killed and 8,632 others injured, bringing the overall death toll in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 to 53,272, with a total of 120,673 people injured, according to health authorities in Gaza on Saturday.
A Palestinian man carries the body of a child killed in Israeli strikes, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip May 16, 2025. REUTERS
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, May 17 – Israel’s airforce killed at least 146 Palestinians in new attacks on Gaza over the past 24 hours and injured many more, local health authorities said on Saturday, as the country appeared set to press ahead with a new ground offensive.
Israeli strikes since Thursday have seen one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March. The latest strikes came as U.S. President Donald Trump ended his Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire.
“Since midnight, we have received 58 martyrs, while a large number of victims remain under the rubble. The situation inside the hospital is catastrophic,” said the director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, Marwan Al-Sultan.
Local health authorities said 459 people had been injured in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.
Israel’s military said on Saturday it was conducting extensive strikes and mobilizing troops as part of preparations to expand operations in the Gaza Strip and achieve “operational control” in areas of the Palestinian enclave.
The Gaza health system is barely operational with hospitals hit repeatedly by the Israeli military during the 19-month war and medical supplies drying up as Israel tightened its blockade since March.
The escalation, which includes the build-up of armoured forces along the border, is part of the initial stages of ‘Operation Gideon’s Wagons’, which Israel says is aimed at defeating Hamas and getting its hostages back.
An Israeli defence official said earlier this month the operation would not be launched before Trump concluded his visit to the Middle East.
“We are gradually increasing forces; Hamas remains defiant,” the military said on Saturday.
United Nations experts warn that famine looms in Gaza after Israel blocked aid deliveries to the strip 76 days ago, with UN aid chief Tom Fletcher asking the Security Council this week if it would act to “prevent genocide”.
Trump on Friday acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries, as international pressure grows on Israel to resume ceasefire talks and end its blockade of Gaza.
A U.S.-backed foundation aims to start distributing aid to Gazans by the end of May, using private U.S. security and logistics firms, but the U.N. has said it won’t work with the foundation because it is not impartial, neutral or independent.
An Israeli soldier stands on a tank near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel May 17, 2025. REUTERS
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 5 that Israel was planning an expanded, intensive offensive against Hamas as his security cabinet approved plans that could involve seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid.
On Friday Israel’s military ordered Gazans to move south after heavy strikes in the northern town of Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee camp. Residents, however, said tanks were advancing towards the southern city of Khan Younis.
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the elimination of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, which attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.
Its military campaign has devastated the tiny, crowded enclave, pushing nearly all its 2 million inhabitants from their homes and killing more than 53,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
NBC News reported on Friday, citing five people with knowledge of the matter, that the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate as many as one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
Palestinians, including Hamas, and the rival authority of President Mahmoud Abbas reject any displacement of people outside their land.
NEW DELHI, May 17 – At least 14 people were killed and several others injured due to lightning strikes in India’s eastern state of Odisha on Friday, officials said Saturday.
Heavy rains and thunderstorms accompanied by lightning strikes lashed the state Friday afternoon, affecting several districts, including Koraput, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj, Ganjam and Gajapati.
India Meteorological Department has issued an alert for inclement weather with rain, thunderstorms and lightning activities in the state.
Every year, with the onset of monsoon season, hundreds die in lightning incidents in India.
SANAA, May 16 – Israeli airstrikes on two Houthi-controlled ports in northwestern Yemen on Friday killed at least one person and wounded nine others, according to Houthi-run health authorities.
The strikes targeted the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and As-Salif in Hodeidah province, the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV reported. The statement indicated all casualties were port workers and cautioned that the death toll could rise.
The Israeli military confirmed its forces conducted the strikes, stating that 15 fighter jets were involved and deployed over 30 munitions against what it described as military targets used for weapons transfers.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the raids followed prior warnings aimed at minimizing civilian casualties.
The IDF noted this was its eighth strike against Houthi targets in Yemen, following previous operations targeting the same ports and Sanaa International Airport.
The Israeli action occurred a day after Israel intercepted a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis over its territory. On Thursday, the Houthis stated their missile attacks on Israel would continue until Israel halts its military operations in Gaza and lifts its blockade of the Palestinian enclave.
On May 6, Israeli airstrikes severely damaged Sanaa International Airport, destroying its runway, a passenger plane, and critical infrastructure, rendering the facility inoperable. Houthi authorities reported three people were killed and at least 39 wounded in those strikes, which hit the Yemeni capital and nearby Amran province.
The latest attack also followed an Oman-brokered ceasefire agreement between the Houthis and the United States. Under the terms of the reported agreement, the Houthis agreed to suspend attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea in exchange for a halt to American airstrikes on Houthi positions.
UNITED NATIONS, May 16 – Fighting between rebel groups in Colombia has forced more than 66,000 people from their homes in the first five months of this year, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the new displacements represent a 28 percent increase over the total number of people rendered homeless by the continuing violence in all of 2024.
“By the end of last year, more than 7.3 million people were internally displaced by violence and conflict, the third largest number in the world, behind Sudan and Syria,” OCHA said.
OCHA said the United Nations and its partners deliver aid through a 3.8-million-U.S.-dollar allocation from the UN Central Emergency Fund released in February. The aim is to help more than 56,000 affected people in Catatumbo, where fighting has been fierce in 2025.
Xinhua reported in January, citing local media, that more than 80 people were killed and 20 injured in a weekend of attacks by National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and clashes with dissidents of the disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the northeast Catatumbo region.
In late March, the Colombian military reported a soldier was killed in an explosive attack by the FARC dissidents in the southwestern department of Cauca. The Ministry of Defense said an escalation of violence in March left more than 80 people injured in the department.
The clashes between the ELN and FARC are seen as turf battles over control of territory.
OCHA said that despite the sharp rise in humanitarian needs, the aid community’s ability to respond is severely curtailed by funding shortfalls. Humanitarian partners have been able to respond to just 25 percent of identified needs, leaving tens of thousands without aid.
A 342-million-U.S.-dollar Colombia Humanitarian Appeal is only 14 percent funded.
LIMA, May 16 – At least eight people died due to the collision of a minibus with a truck on a road in the city of Azangaro, in the southern Peruvian department of Puno Thursday night, local media said Friday.
The accident occurred around 8 p.m. local time when the small passenger bus hit the rear of the truck that stopped without signs, said the state news agency Andina quoting information from the Serenazgo Municipal Public Surveillance Service.
The service added that the accident also left several injured people who were treated at the scene by its staff and were then transferred to the Carlos Cornejo Rosello Vizcardo Hospital and a private clinic.
The bus, which was covering the Juliaca-Azangaro route, was apparently speeding, so it did not realize that the truck had stopped, according to the service.
KATHMANDU, May 16 – An Indian climber and another from the Philippines became the first mountaineers to die on Mount Everest in the current March-May climbing season of the world’s highest peak, hiking officials said on Friday.
Subrata Ghosh, 45, from India, died on Thursday below the Hillary Step while returning after reaching the 8,849 metre (29,032 feet) peak.
“He refused to descend from below the Hillary Step,” said Bodhraj Bhandari of Nepal’s Snowy Horizon Treks and Expedition organising company.
No other details were available.
The Hillary Step is located in the ‘death zone’, an area between 8,000-metre (26,250 ft) high South Col and the summit where the level of natural oxygen is inadequate for survival.
“Efforts are underway to bring his body down to the base camp. The cause of his death will be known only after post mortem,” Bhandari said.
Philipp II Santiago, 45, from the Philippines, died late on Wednesday at the South Col while he was on his way up, said Himal Gautam, a tourism department official.
Santiago was tired when he reached the fourth high camp and died while resting in his tent, Gautam added.
Santiago and Ghose were both members of an international expedition organised by Bhandari.
Nepal has issued 459 permits to climb Everest during the current season that ends in May.
Nearly 100 climbers and their guides have already reached the summit this week.
Mountain climbing, trekking and tourism is a source of income and employment for Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
At least 345 people have died on Everest in more than 100 years since summiting expeditions were known to have started, according to the Himalayan data base and hiking officials.
BARCELONA, May 15 – At least 13 people were hurt when a driver lost control and plowed into a crowd gathered outside a soccer match between RCD Espanyol and city rivals FC Barcelona, police said on Thursday.
Police said people were hurt when the vehicle rammed into the crowd outside RCD Españyol soccer stadium in Barcelona at the start of the game.
Police added in a statement on social media site X that the incident did not present any danger to the crowd inside the stadium.
Salvador Illa, the Catalan regional president, said on Thursday all the injuries were “minor” and ruled out any deliberate attack.
The driver has been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and causing injury.
MEXICO CITY, May 14 – At least 21 people have been killed Wednesday in a major highway accident in Mexico’s central-eastern state of Puebla, local authorities said.
The tragedy involved three vehicles, and an unspecified number of other people were being treated for injuries, Puebla Interior Minister Samuel Aguilar said in a post on the social platform X.
The crash occurred on Wednesday morning at kilometer 31 of the Cuacnopalan-Oaxaca highway. Ambulances and other emergency services are working at the scene.
Local media reported that a fatal collision occurred when a truck attempted to overtake another vehicle before crossing into the opposite lane and hitting a bus, then crashing head-on into a transport van.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 14, 2025. REUTERS
CAIRO, May 14 – Israeli military strikes killed at least 80 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health authorities said, in an intensification of the bombardment as U.S. President Donald Trump visits the Middle East.
Medics said most of the dead, including women and children, were killed in a barrage of Israeli airstrikes on houses in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.
Later on Wednesday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to people in several districts in Gaza City, forcing thousands of Palestinians to leave their shelters.
The areas threatened by the evacuation warnings included several schools and the largest Shifa Hospital, according to a map published by the Israeli army.
Witnesses and medics said shortly after the evacuation orders Israeli planes carried several airstrikes against targets within Gaza City.
“Some victims are still on the road and under the rubble where rescue and civil emergency teams can’t reach (them),” the health ministry statement said.
Israel’s military had no immediate comment. It said it was trying to verify the reports.
Reuters television footage showed residents returning to the ruins of their homes. Some sifted through the remains of walls and furniture, looking for documents and belongings.
“They fired two rockets, they told us the house of Moqbel (had been hit),” said Hadi Moqbel, who lost relatives in the attack in Jabalia.
“We came running, we saw body parts on the ground, children killed, the woman killed and a baby killed – his head was exploded like a flower. He was two months old.”
Israeli press reports on Wednesday cited security officials as saying they believed Hamas military leader Mohammad Sinwar and other senior officials had been killed in a strike on Tuesday on what the Israeli military described as a command and control bunker under the European Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
There was no confirmation by the Israeli military or Hamas. On Wednesday, witnesses and medics said an Israeli airstrike hit a bulldozer that approached the area of the strike at the European Hospital, wounding several people.
Late on Tuesday, Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group allied with Hamas, fired rockets from Gaza towards Israel. Shortly before Israel hit back, its military issued evacuation orders to residents in the area of Jabalia and nearby Beit Lahiya.
TRUMP VISIT
Palestinians hope Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will provide pressure for a reduction of violence. Hamas on Monday released Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage it had been holding.
Trump said in Riyadh on Tuesday that more hostages would follow Alexander and that the people of Gaza deserved a better future. He is not visiting Israel during his Middle East trip.
Ceasefire efforts have faltered. Hamas talked to the United States and Egyptian and Qatari mediators to arrange Alexander’s release, and Israel has sent a team to Doha to begin a new round of talks.
On Tuesday, Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler met hostage families in Tel Aviv and said they saw a better chance of an agreement for the hostages’ release following the deal over Alexander.
Hamas said on Wednesday the continued attacks indicated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to “escalate the aggression and massacres against civilians to undermine those (ceasefire) efforts”. Israel has blamed Hamas for the continuing war.
The U.S. has presented a plan to reopen humanitarian aid deliveries in Gaza using private contractors. Israel, which imposed a total blockade of supplies going into Gaza from March 2, has endorsed the plan but it has been rejected by the United Nations and international aid agencies.
Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 52,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials. It has left Gaza on the brink of famine, aid groups and international agencies say.
ROME – Israel must respect international law in its military operation in Gaza, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday, calling the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave increasingly “dramatic and unjustifiable.”
Israel invaded Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, and has recently announced plans for an expanded offensive to defeat militant group Hamas.
“Over the past months I have spoken with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu on several occasions, and the conversations have often been difficult,” Meloni told a question time session in the Italian lower house of parliament.
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities. The military campaign has left Gaza on the brink of famine, aid groups and international agencies say.
“I have always recalled the urgency of finding a way to end the hostilities and respect international law and international humanitarian law. A request that I renew today,” Meloni said.
Israeli strikes intensified this week, killing dozens in northern Gaza, locals have said.
French President Emmanuel Macron this week also criticized Netanyahu’s policy in Gaza, calling it shameful. The Israeli leader struck back accusing Macron of siding with Hamas. Meloni’s government has been one of Israel’s most vocal supporters within Europe, but there has been growing unease within parts of her coalition over Israel’s relentless and long-running military campaign.
ISLAMABAD, May 14 – At least one person was killed and 12 others injured in a hand grenade attack on Wednesday evening in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, local police said.
According to police, unknown assailants hurled two hand grenades at a political rally near Munir Mengal Road of the city. The rally was led by Ali Madad Jattak, a Member of the Balochistan Assembly and a leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Police, security forces, and rescue teams swiftly responded to the scene and transported the deceased and injured to a nearby hospital. The attack caused partial damage to a vehicle and a rickshaw.
Security forces cordoned off the area and initiated a forensic investigation to trace the perpetrators.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
MEXICO CITY, May 14 – A young Mexican social media influencer, known for her videos about beauty and makeup, was brazenly shot to death during a TikTok livestream, in an incident that sent shockwaves through a country that faces high levels of gender-based violence.
The death of Valeria Marquez, 23, is being investigated according to protocols for femicide – the killing of women or girls for reasons of gender – the Jalisco state prosecutor said in a statement released on Tuesday evening.
Femicide can involve degrading violence, sexual abuse, a relationship with the murderer, or the victim’s body being exposed in a public space, according to Mexican authorities.
Marquez was killed on Tuesday in the beauty salon where she worked in the city of Zapopan by a man who entered and shot her, the statement said. The prosecutor’s office did not name a suspect.
Seconds before the incident, Marquez was seen on her TikTok livestream seated at a table clutching a stuffed toy. She was heard saying, “they’re coming,” before a voice in the background asked “Hey, Vale?”
“Yes,” Marquez replied, just before muting the sound on the livestream.
Moments later, she was shot to death. A person appeared to pick up her phone, with their face briefly showing on the livestream before the video ended.
Marquez, who had nearly 200,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok, had said earlier on the livestream that someone came to the salon when she was not there with an “expensive gift” to deliver to her. Marquez, who appeared concerned, said she was not planning to wait for the person to come back.
Mexico is tied with Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia as the countries with the fourth-highest rates of femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the latest data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, at 1.3 such deaths for every 100,000 women in 2023.
Jalisco is ranked sixth out of Mexico’s 32 states, including Mexico City, for homicides, with 906 recorded there since the beginning of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s term in October 2024, according to data consultancy TResearch.
TOKYO, May 14 – A Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) T-4 trainer jet crashed into a pond in Aichi Prefecture on Wednesday, leaving two crew members missing.
The T-4 took off from Komaki Air Base at 3:06 p.m. local time and disappeared from radar around 3:08 p.m., northeast of the base, national broadcaster NHK reported.
Local fire departments reported receiving emergency calls stating that an aircraft-like object had crashed into a pond in the area.
Parts of the aircraft were found around Iruka Pond, but as of 8:00 p.m., the two crew members on board had not been located. No injuries have been reported in the surrounding area.
An oil slick has been observed on the northern side of Iruka Pond, and the Self-Defense Forces and police are continuing their search for the two crew members while investigating the details of the incident.
