Kathmandu, Nepal (AP) — The number of people killed in Nepal by flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall over the weekend reached 193 while recovery and rescue work stepped up on Monday.
Many of the deaths were in the capital, Kathmandu, which got heavy rainfall, and much of southern part of the city was flooded. Police said in a statement that 31 people were still reported missing and 96 people were injured across the Himalayan nation.
A landslide killed three dozen people on a blocked highway about 16 kilometers (10 miles) from Kathmandu. The landslide buried at least three buses and other vehicles where people were sleeping because the highway was blocked.
Kathmandu had remained cut off all weekend as the three highways out of the city were blocked by landslides. Workers were able to temporarily open up the key Prithvi highway, removing rocks, mud and trees that had been washed from the mountains.
The home minister announced temporary shelters would be built for people who lost their homes and monetary help would be available for the families of those killed and to the people who were injured by the flooding and landslides.
Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli was returning home Monday from attending the U.N. General Assembly meeting and has called an emergency meeting, his office said.
Earthmovers remove mangled automobile debris from a landslide caused by heavy rains in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Sujan Gurung)
Improved weather has allowed rescue and recovery work to be stepped up.
Residents in the southern part of Kathmandu, which was inundated on Saturday, were cleaning up houses as water levels began to recede. At least 34 people were killed in Kathmandu, which was the hardest hit by flooding.
Police and soldiers were assisting with rescue efforts, while heavy equipment was used to clear the landslides from the roads. The government announced it was closing schools and colleges across Nepal for the next three days.
The monsoon season began in June and usually ends by mid-September. Meanwhile, in northern Bangladesh, about 60,000 people were affected by flooding in low-lying areas because of rains and rising water from upstream India.
People have taken shelter on roads and flood protection embankments in Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts, the English-language Daily Star reported.
The River Teesta that crosses the border was overflowing at some points and the Dharala and Dudhkumar rivers in the Rangpur region were rising but remained below danger levels, the Dhaka-based Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said Monday. Waters could start receding in a day or two, it said.
Bangladesh is a low-lying delta nation crisscrossed by about 230 rivers, including more than 50 that cross borders.
Bangkok, Thailand (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google opens new tab said on Monday it would invest $1 billion in Thailand to build a data center and cloud region to meet growing cloud demand and support artificial intelligence adoption in Southeast Asia. The investment would create an average of 14,000 jobs annually until 2029, Google said, citing a study of the project by Deloitte.
In May, Microsoft opens new tab said it would launch its first regional data centre in Thailand as part of its efforts to boost cloud services.
“Google’s cloud and data centre infrastructure in Bangkok and Chonburi will help meet growing demand for Google Cloud capabilities and AI innovations, and the company’s popular digital services – such as Search, Maps, and Google Workspace,” the company said. Its data centre would be located in an industrial estate in Chonburi, while the Google cloud region, which consists of hardware and software dedicated to providing services to private and public sector entities, would be in the capital Bangkok.
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said Google’s investment was “perfectly aligned” with the country’s Cloud First Policy. (This story has been corrected to clarify that the cloud region provides services to organisations and not the data centre, in paragraph 5)
Valverde, Spain (EFE) — The bodies of nine migrants have been recovered by Spanish emergency services in El Hierro in the Canary Islands, officials said Saturday, while at least 50 are missing.
The migrants’ boat capsized on Friday night near the Spanish coast, emergency officials on El Hierro told EFE, adding that 27 people had been rescued.
The boat apparently capsized during the rescue operation, sources from the island’s emergency services told EFE, amid adverse weather conditions and wind gusts of around 37 kilometers per hour.
The officials also said that two of the 27 people who were rescued had been brought to hospital by helicopter. The remaining 25 have been transferred to La Restinga, on El Hierro.
All of the small boat’s occupants were male. One of the dead was an adolescent boy, aged between 12 to 15, officials said.
The boat had left Mauritania for the Canary Islands, a relative of one of the occupants told the NGO Caminando Fronteras (Spanish for ‘Walking Borders’).
The NGO, which was created in 2002 to defend migrants’ rights, were alerted on Friday night that several passengers aboard the small boat were calling their families to say that they could see the Spanish coast and that the engine of the boat had stopped.
According to the relative who called the NGO, there were at least four children between 7 and 11 years old aboard the boar, in addition to several teenagers.
Spain’s Civil Guard and Coast Guard were searching the area around Las Playas for more bodies.
Three boats arrived at El Hierro on Friday night, including the one that capsized. A search for a fourth boat is ongoing.
The first boat was carrying 131 people – 107 men and 15 women, as well as five children and four babies – El Hierro emergency workers said. The second boat was the one that capsized, while the third arrived on Saturday morning with 20 people aboard.
The Atlantic route from the west coast of Africa to the Canary Islands is considered by the United Nations to be the most dangerous in the world; 702 people died attempting the crossing in the first seven months of 2024. EFE
Beirut, Lebanon (DT/AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed on Saturday that its leader and one of its founding members, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut.
The killing of the powerful militant group’s longtime leader sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a dominant political and military figure for more than three decades.
Nasrallah, linked by Israel to numerous deadly attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets, has been on Israel’s kill list for decades. His assassination is by far the biggest and most consequential of Israel’s targeted killings in years, and significantly escalates the war in the Middle East. The Israeli military said it carried out a precise airstrike on Friday while Hezbollah leaders were meeting at their headquarters in Dahiyeh, south of Beirut.
Immediately after the confirmation from Hezbollah, people starting firing in the air in Beirut and across Lebanon to mourn Nasrallah’s death.
“Wish it was our kids, not you, Sayyid!” said one woman, using an honorific title for Nasrallah, as she clutched her baby in the western city of Baabda.
“We don’t believe he is killed,” a woman draped in black tearfully told al-Manar TV in Bekaa, western Lebanon. “We don’t. We left our homes and came here for him and for the resistance.”
In his first public remarks since the killing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s targeting of Nasrallah was “an essential condition to achieving the goals we set.”
“He wasn’t another terrorist. He was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said Nasrallah’s killing would help bring displaced Israelis back to their homes in the north and would pressure Hamas to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza. But with the threat of retaliation high, he warned the coming days would bring “significant challenges” and warned Iran against trying to strike.
“There is no place in Iran or in the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach. And today you know how much that is true,” he said.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people were killed and 91 injured in the strikes Friday that leveled six apartment buildings. Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, and other commanders were also killed, the Israeli military said.
A statement from Hezbollah said Nasrallah — who led the group for more than three decades — “has joined his fellow martyrs.” The group vowed to “continue the holy war against the enemy and in support of Palestine.”
Cross-border aggression
Hezbollah started firing rockets on Israel in support of Gaza on Oct. 8, a day after Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducting another 250. Since then, the two sides have been engaged in escalating cross-border strikes.
Israel has vowed to step up pressure on Hezbollah until it halts its attacks that have displaced tens of thousands of Israelis from communities near the Lebanese border. The recent fighting has also displaced more than 200,000 Lebanese in the past week, according to the United Nations.
Hezbollah’s allies mourn
The Palestinian militant group Hamas sent condolences to its ally, Hezbollah, and said “assassinations will only increase the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine in determination and resolve.”
Iran’s supreme leader announced five days of public mourning and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Nasrallah “the flag-bearer of resistance” in the region.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tehran, waving Hezbollah flags and chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to Netanyahu the murderer.”
Thomas Juneau, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said Iran will be under significant pressure to respond to Nasrallah’s killing without escalating violence in the region.
“Iran understands that its military options are limited, given the conventional military superiority of Israel and the U.S.” Juneau told The Associated Press.
Israel vows to keep up attacks on Hezbollah
Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that the killing of Nasrallah was “not the end of our toolbox,” indicating that more strikes were planned. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called it “the most important targeted strike since the founding of the State of Israel.” Late Saturday, Gallant’s office said he was meeting with top army commanders to discuss the expansion of military activities along Israel’s northern front.
Continuing strikes on both sides of the border
On Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, including targeting a storage facility for anti-ship missiles in Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Israel said the missiles were stored beneath civilian apartment buildings. Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and deep into the Israel-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern town of Safed.
The Israeli army again warned Lebanese residents to stay away from Hezbollah combat equipment and facilities, including in the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon. The U.S. State Department issued an alert urging American citizens to leave the country.
A total of 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon in less than two weeks, the country’s health minister said Saturday.
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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell, Kareem Chehayeb and Ahmad Mousa in Beirut; Lujain Jo in Baabda, Lebanon; Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv; Nasser Karimi and Mehdi Fattahi in Tehran, Iran; Eleanor H. Reich in Washington; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
Tokyo, Japan (DT/KN) — New ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba, set to soon become Japan’s next prime minister, is considering naming former Chief Cabinet Secretary and health minister Katsunobu Kato as finance minister, sources close to the matter said Saturday.
Former Defense Minister Ishiba, the winner of the LDP’s presidential race on Friday, also plans to appoint former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi as its election campaign chief, the sources said, as lawmakers brace for the possibility of a general election by the end of this year.
Ishiba, meanwhile, has decided to retain Yoshimasa Hayashi, known as a right-hand man to outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, as chief Cabinet secretary and the top government spokesperson. Hayashi previously served as foreign minister.
But economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, who lost in the runoff of the presidential election, declined his offer to become LDP general council chief, the sources said, indicating the difficulties Ishiba faces in achieving postrace party unity.
Kato, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, Koizumi and Hayashi were also among the record nine candidates in the leadership race to choose the successor to Kishida, who did not seek reelection following a slush fund scandal that has hit the party.
Ishiba plans to launch the new LDP leadership on Monday. He is expected to become prime minister on Tuesday, as both houses of parliament are controlled by the LDP and its coalition partner, the Komeito party. He will then form a Cabinet on Tuesday.
The new president has decided to appoint Hiroshi Moriyama, the head of the LDP’s decision-making general council, as its secretary general, the party’s No. 2 position, while tapping former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera as its policy chief, the sources said.
In another development, Ishiba, who is believed to have been backed by former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in the runoff, is eager to sound him out about becoming LDP vice president, the sources said.
In his fifth presidential bid, Ishiba, who also served as the party’s secretary general, won 215 of the 409 valid votes cast by LDP lawmakers and rank-and-file members in a runoff vote on Friday, while Takaichi secured 194.
Regarding the Cabinet lineup, senior vice finance minister Ryosei Akazawa, a close aide to Ishiba, is set to be given a ministerial post and transport minister Tetsuo Saito, a lawmaker of Komeito, is certain to be retained, the sources said.
Ishiba said at a press conference after he was elected LDP chief, “I will ask each of them (the other leadership candidates) to take the position that suits them best.” But Takaichi, who was narrowly defeated by 21 votes in the runoff, said, “I will support” Ishiba “as a member of parliament.”
Amid mounting speculation that Ishiba may dissolve the House of Representatives for a snap election in the near future, he apparently accelerated preparations on Saturday by having photos taken for campaign posters.
Johannesburg, South Africa (EFE.) — Police in South Africa were searching Saturday for the perpetrators of two shootings that killed at least 17 people.
The shootings on Friday night in the southeastern city of Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape province, also left one person injured who was in critical condition, police said.
“In one house 13 people were killed, which include 12 women and one man. In another homestead, four people were also killed,” South Africa Police said on X. Fifteen of the victims were women.
A “manhunt (…) has been launched to apprehend those behind these heinous killings,” the statement added.
Violent crime is a serious problem in South Africa, where nearly 6,200 people were killed between April and June.
In its latest crime report on September 12, the South African Police announced the arrest of 85,000 suspected criminals and the seizure of 824 illegal and unlicensed weapons in just four weeks. EFE
Kathmandu, Nepal (AP) — Flooding and landslides caused by continuous rainfall has killed at least 66 people in Nepal, and a further 69 are missing, officials said Saturday.
Rain has been pouring down since Friday night and is expected to continue over the weekend.
Home Ministry spokesperson Rishiram Tiwari told reporters there were 66 people reported dead across the country, of whom 34 were in the capital, Kathmandu.
Sixty people were injured and 3,010 rescued across the Himalayan nation, he added.
He said all divisions of security forces in the country including the army have been ordered to help in the rescue efforts.
Several roads were blocked by landslides triggered by the rainfall.
A man walks on the shore of the flooded Bagmati River after heavy rains in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gopen Rai)
Three highways, including the key Prithvi highway, connecting Kathmandu to the rest of the country have been blocked by landslides, and heavy equipment is being used to try open the routes, said Tiwari.
The government had issued flood warnings across the Himalayan nation warning of massive rainfall.
Buses were banned from traveling at night on highways and cars were discouraged. Security forces were ordered to high alert.
Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak told reporters that officials are still collecting information on the effects of the flooding.
“The government’s priority right now is to rescue the people and help those who have been affected,” Lekhak said.
Parts of Kathmandu were inundated by swollen rivers with many houses flooded and residents forced to move to top floors. A huge area on the southern side of the city was mostly flooded. An army helicopter was used to pick up four people who were unable to leave their houses.
Most of Kathmandu was without power and internet for a period of time.
The monsoon season that bring heavy rainfall began in June and usually ends by mid-September.
Tokyo, Japan (DT/KN) — Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is set to become Japan’s next prime minister after winning the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election on Friday in a runoff vote, defeating economic security minister Sanae Takaichi.
In his fifth presidential bid, Ishiba, who also served as the party’s secretary general, won 215 of the 409 valid votes cast by LDP lawmakers and rank-and-file members, while Takaichi secured 194, in a closely competitive race with a record nine contenders.
Ishiba, a 67-year-old policy expert well-versed in defense, agriculture and regional revitalization, is set to be named prime minister in parliament next Tuesday, replacing Fumio Kishida. The new leader will then form a Cabinet.
Both ruling and opposition lawmakers are bracing for the possibility of a general election before the end of this year, although Ishiba has not hinted at the exact timing.
Emerging victorious, Ishiba urged LDP members to unite after the presidential election, noting that the party, hit by a political funds scandal, faces strong headwinds.
Shigeru Ishiba, center, celebrates after he was elected as new head of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) during the party’s leadership election Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, Pool)
“I will select people who can appropriately exercise their responsibility within our party, the Cabinet and in parliament to navigate this severe situation,” Ishiba said at a press conference after the leadership election.
Asked when he intends to dissolve the House of Representatives for a snap election, Ishiba said he is aware of the need to seek a public mandate “as soon as possible,” while stressing the importance of debating with opposition parties in parliament.
Later in the day, however, Ishiba said in a TV program that it is “difficult to imagine” that the dissolution of the lower house would “happen beyond this year.”
The LDP’s junior coalition partner Komeito party will get a new leader on Saturday and the country’s main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan elected former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as its chief earlier this week.
Noda, who led Japan for more than a year from 2011 when the CDPJ’s predecessor was in power, voiced hope for substantive debates with Ishiba, describing him as someone who will not “shy away.”
In Friday’s election, none of the candidates secured an outright majority of the 735 valid votes cast by LDP lawmakers and rank-and-file members in the first round.
Takaichi came out on top with 181 votes, followed by 154 for Ishiba. Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, the youngest candidate whose father was a popular reform-minded prime minister, ranked third with 136 votes.
Shigeru Ishiba, the newly elected leader of Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) poses in the party leader’s office after the LDP leadership election, in Tokyo Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool Photo via AP)
Party renewal is seen as a priority as a slush funds scandal at intraparty factions damaged public confidence in the LDP.
Ishiba’s leadership skills will be put to the test as economic growth remains shaky against a backdrop of rising costs affecting households, while provocative actions by China, North Korea and Russia continue to pose security threats to Japan.
After Ishiba was elected, China called on Japan to adopt a “positive and rational” policy stance, while South Korea expressed hope to maintain close communication and continue improving ties with Tokyo, building on the momentum established under Kishida.
Ishiba envisions the creation of an Asian version of the NATO collective security framework in the region, where tensions remain high between China and Taiwan, drawing a parallel to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While he emphasizes the need for the Japan-U.S. bilateral alliance to be solid, he has also said that as premier, he would seek to review the agreement defining the status of U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
He wants to revise the war-renouncing Constitution to specifically mention the country’s Self-Defense Forces, which aligns with the LDP’s long-held goal of ending the domestic debate over the constitutionality of the armed organization.
Uncertainty remains over how he will steer the economy, with news of his victory sending the Japanese yen sharply higher against the dollar. He has floated the idea of imposing a higher tax on financial income.
He has taken a positive stance on allowing married couples to use different surnames, a contentious issue that has met resistance from conservative members like Takaichi, who value traditional family structures.
Backed by conservatives aligned with the late premier Shinzo Abe, known for his hawkish views, Takaichi, 63, aspired to become Japan’s first-ever female prime minister in her second bid.
The other contenders were former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 49, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, 71, former health minister Katsunobu Kato, 68, Digital Minister Taro Kono, 61, and LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, 68.
During the 15-day campaign, the longest on record, the nine candidates ramped up calls for party renewal and presented their visions for Japan, a rapidly aging nation with low growth potential and a key U.S. ally in Asia.
The wide field of candidates emerged as most of the party’s factions disbanded. The groups had previously demanded unity among members and influenced their voting behavior.
Some candidates, including Ishiba, approached heavyweights like former Prime Minister Taro Aso, who leads the only faction that has decided not to disband, in apparent last-minute bids to secure behind-the-scenes support.
Padang, Indonesia (DT/AP) — A landslide triggered by torrential rains struck an unauthorized gold mining operation on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, killing at least 15 people, officials said Friday. Dozens others were reported missing.
Villagers were digging Thursday for grains of gold in the remote Solok district of West Sumatra province when mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried them, said Irwan Effendi, head of the local disaster mitigation agency office.
He said at least 25 people were still buried, and that three people were pulled out alive with injuries by rescuers.
Search efforts in the worst-affected area, near Nagari Sungai Abu village, were hampered by mudslides that covered much of the area, blackouts and lack of telecommunications.
“The devastated mining area can only be reached by walking for four hours from the nearest settlement,” said Ilham Wahab, the agency’s spokesperson.
Informal mining operations are common in Indonesia, providing a tenuous livelihood to thousands who labor in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death.
Landslides, flooding and collapses of tunnels are just some of the hazards facing miners. Much of gold ore processing involves highly toxic mercury and cyanide and workers frequently use little or no protection.
The country’s last major mining-related accident occurred in July when a landslide crashed onto an illegal traditional gold mine in Gorontalo province on Sulawesi island, killing at least 23 people.
In April 2022 a landslide hit another gold mine in North Sumatra’s Mandailing Natal district, killing 12 women.
In February 2019, a makeshift wooden structure in an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi province collapsed partly due to shifting soil. More than 40 people were buried.
Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
Beirut, Lebanon (DT/AP) — Hezbollah on Tuesday confirmed the death of one of its top commanders, Ibrahim Kobeisi, who was killed in an Israeli strike in a southern Beirut suburb.
The strike hit three floors of a six-story building. It was Israel’s third strike over Beirut in less than a week.
Kobeissi is the first member of the militant group pronounced dead since Israel and Hezbollah entered a more intense phase of the ongoing conflict.
Israel said Kobeisi was a top Hezbollah commander with the group’s rocket and missile unit. Israeli military officials said Kobeisi was responsible for launches towards Israel and planned a 2000 attack in which three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped and killed.
It was the latest in a string of assassinations and setbacks for Hezbollah, the strongest political and military actor in Lebanon and widely considered the top paramilitary force in the Arab world.
The Israeli military said it killed a top Hezbollah commander Tuesday as part of a two-day aerial barrage that has left more than 560 people dead and prompted thousands in southern Lebanon to seek refuge from the widening conflict.
With the two sides on the brink of all-out war, Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into Israel, targeting an explosives factory and sending families into bomb shelters.
Families that fled southern Lebanon flocked to Beirut and the coastal city of Sidon, sleeping in schools turned into shelters, as well as in cars, parks and along the beach. Some sought to leave the country, causing a traffic jam at the border with Syria.
Issa Baydoun fled the village of Shihine when it was bombed and drove to Beirut with his extended family. They slept in vehicles on the side of the road because the shelters were full.
“We struggled a lot on the road just to get here,” said Baydoun, who rejected Israel’s contention that it hit only military targets. “We evacuated our homes because Israel is targeting civilians and attacking them.”
The Israeli military says it has no immediate plans for a ground invasion but is prepared for one. It has moved thousands of troops who had been serving in Gaza to the northern border. It says Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including some capable of striking anywhere in Israel, and that the group has fired some 9,000 rockets and drones since last October.
Israel said its warplanes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets Monday, destroying cruise missiles, long- and short-range rockets and attack drones, including weapons concealed in private homes.
Monday’s escalation came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire Sunday, when Hezbollah launched around 150 rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel.
Last week, thousands of communications devices used mainly by Hezbollah members exploded in different parts of Lebanon, killing 39 people and wounding nearly 3,000, many of them civilians. Lebanon blamed Israel, but Israel did not confirm or deny responsibility.
