Author: Disha Mishra

(Forelines) – Six people lost their lives in a restaurant fire caused by a propane-butane cylinder explosion in the northwest Czech city of Most, according to emergency services on Sunday, quoted by Reuters. Eight people were injured in a powerful explosion late Saturday evening, prompting the evacuation of 30 individuals from a restaurant and nearby buildings, according to the Czech fire rescue service on the social media platform X. “According to initial information from witnesses, a heater overturned, causing a fire,” the fire brigade stated, as per Reuters.. According to Reuters report, the fire brigade stated that they rescued a…

(Reuters) – The foreign ministers of Japan and the United States said their countries’ ties were stronger than ever on Tuesday, even after Japan’s prime minister called U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel “perplexing.” Biden’s move last Friday was a jolt to U.S. efforts to boost ties just as neighboring South Korea’s political crisis potentially complicates a deepening trilateral relationship between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo formed to counter China’s growing military power. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed confusion over Biden’s decision, but after meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday,…

Four members of the Islamic State, including two senior leaders, were killed in an airstrike carried out by Iraqi aircraft in the Hamrin Mountains in eastern Iraq, security officials said on Saturday. The Iraqi Security Media Cell, an official body responsible for disseminating security information, said in a statement four bodies of Islamic State (IS) militants were found in the area where Iraqi F-16 fighter jets carried out the strike on Friday. alib Al-Mousawi, an official at Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) – a grouping of armed factions originally set up to fight Islamic State in 2014 that was subsequently…

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Jan 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday following his visit to Doha, an Israeli official said, amid efforts to secure a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza. A second Israeli official said some progress had been made in the indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to reach a deal in Gaza. The mediators are making new efforts to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining Israeli…

MOSCOW, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday denounced new U.S. sanctions against Moscow’s energy sector as an attempt to harm Russia’s economy at the risk of destabilising global markets and said the country would press on with large oil and gas projects. A ministry statement also said that Russia would respond to Washington’s “hostile” actions, announced on Friday, while drawing up its foreign policy strategy. The statement said the measures amounted to “an attempt to inflict at least some damage to the Russian economy, even at the cost of the risk of destabilising world markets as the…

(Forelines) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated on Saturday that two North Korean soldiers were captured in Russia’s Kursk region, first time Ukraine has reported the capture of North Korean troops alive since they entered the conflict last autumn, reported by Reuters. According to Kyiv and its western allies have reported that North Korean regular troops joined the conflict on Russia’s side in October, with initial estimates suggesting their numbers exceeded 10,000, cited by Reuters. Ukrainian troops have captured North Korean military personnel in the Kursk region. Two soldiers, though injured, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are…

(Forelines) – Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced on Saturday in Damascus that Lebanon and Syria will collaborate to secure their shared land borders, as well as to define both land and maritime boundaries, reported by Reuters. In the first visit by a Lebanese prime minister to Syria in 15 years, Najib Mikati held a joint press conference in Damascus with Syria’s acting leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, as per Reuters report. According to Reuters, Ahmed Al-Sharaa stated that they had discussed issues such as smuggling between the two nations, border-related challenges, and Syrian deposits in Lebanese banks. Both parties agreed…

LOS ANGELES, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Fierce winds that have supercharged wildfires sweeping parts of Los Angeles finally eased on Friday night, bringing some relief to weary firefighters, but the largest blaze was reported to have shifted direction, triggering new evacuation orders. Six simultaneous wildfires have devastated Los Angeles County neighborhoods since Tuesday, killed at least 11 people and damaged or destroyed 10,000 structures. Those tolls were expected to grow once it was safe enough for firefighters to conduct house-to-house searches. On Friday night, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Palisades Fire on the city’s western edge was heading…

Jan 11 (Reuters) – Syria’s Intelligence Directorate foiled an attack by the Islamic State group on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in a Damascus suburb, a site of mass pilgrimage for Shi’ites, state news agency Sana reported on Saturday. It said members of the cell were arrested before they could detonate an explosion inside the shrine. The foiled attack will stoke fears that Islamic State is hoping to stage a comeback in Syria following the fall last month of President Bashar al-Assad. Some Syrians and foreign powers have worried that the country’s new leaders, who are from the Sunni Islamist Hayat…

ALTADENA, California, Jan 11 (Reuters) – As Los Angeles construction worker Ivan De La Torre surveyed a landscape of smoking wreckage in fire-ravaged Altadena, a question nagged at him: how would insurance companies cover the cost of rebuilding an entire neighborhood? As hundreds of Los Angeles residents return to find homes reduced to ashes due to a devastating wave of wildfires, many are fearful that their insurance policies may not cover the rebuild cost and that future premiums will be astronomical. “My concern is that the insurance companies won’t be able to handle all the claims and file for bankruptcy…