JAKARTA: A landslide triggered by torrential rains crashed onto an unauthorized gold mining operation on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, killing at least 11 people, officials said Monday.
About 33 villagers were digging for grains of gold on Sunday in a pit at the small traditional gold mine in remote Bone Bolango in Gorontalo province when tons of mud plunged down the surrounding hills and buried them, said Afifuddin Ilahude, Gorontalo’s Search and Rescue Agency spokesperson.
He said rescuers saved two injured people on Sunday and had recovered 11 bodies by Monday. Rescuers are still searching for 20 others who were reported missing, he said.
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.
Landslide triggered by torrential rain kills 11 people at illegal gold mine in Indonesia; 20 missing
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Landslide triggered by torrential rain kills 11 people at illegal gold mine in Indonesia; 20 missing
- Officials say about 33 villagers were digging for grains of gold on Sunday in a pit at the small traditional gold mine in remote Bone Bolango in Gorontalo
Russia says Ukraine attacked again with US ATACMS, promises to respond
Moscow has said it will respond every time Ukraine fires ATACMS
MOSCOW: Ukraine launched an attack on Russia's Belgorod region with six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles on Thursday, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday.
It said that Russia would retaliate, but that all the missiles had been intercepted, resulting in no casualties or damage.
Moscow has said it will respond every time Ukraine fires ATACMS or British-supplies Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia.
Ukraine first used those weapons to strike at Russian territory in November after obtaining permission from Washington and London. Russia replied by firing a new intermediate-range hypersonic missile, the Oreshnik, and has said it may do so again.
The defence ministry said that over the past week, Russia shot down 12 ATACMS, eight Storm Shadows, 48 U.S. HIMARS rockets, seven French-made Hammer guided bombs and 747 drones. Reuters could not verify those figures.
It reported for the first time that Russian forces had captured the village of Slovianka in eastern Ukraine, one of eight Ukrainian settlements it said had been taken in the past week.
The statement said Russia had carried out eight major strikes in the past week on parts of Ukraine's gas and energy infrastructure that it said were supporting military facilities and the Ukrainian defence industry.
Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile attack killed at least four people and partially destroyed an educational facility in the city of Kryvyi Rih in southern-central Ukraine on Friday. At least seven others were hurt, some of them seriously, Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram.
GCC expects India free trade talks to start in 2025
- Secretary general was a key speaker at Kochi Dialogue in Kerala
- Forum is co-organized by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs
NEW DELHI: The Gulf Cooperation Council looks forward to starting free trade negotiations with India this year, its secretary general said, as he outlined the bloc’s cooperation efforts at the Kochi Dialogue diplomacy conclave this week.
Themed “India’s Look West Policy in Action: People, Prosperity and Progress,” the forum was hosted on Jan. 16-17 by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Centre for Public Policy Research think tank in Kochi, southern Kerala state.
The event brought together government officials and business leaders from India, as well as delegates from the GCC countries — Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — along with diplomats from Australia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.
GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi, who was one of the forum’s key speakers, highlighted the significance of India relations for the Gulf bloc and plans to move cooperation forward, including by engaging in long-awaited free trade agreement talks.
“Expanding free trade negotiations will pave the way for economic integration, removing trade barriers, expanding cooperation in digital economies, and transforming industries. I also hope that we hold our first round of FTA negotiation this year, 2025,” Al-Budaiwi told Kochi Dialogue participants.
Economic cooperation plays a crucial role in the GCC’s relations with India, with the value of annual trade exchanges reaching more than $160 billion last year.
Exports from GCC countries to India amount to about $90 billion, representing 71 percent of the bloc’s total exports.
“This underscores the significant importance of this cooperation,” the GCC secretary-general said.
“Trade between the two sides includes a diverse area of industrial and agricultural products, contributing to economic integration and creating opportunities for growth and market expansion.”
GCC investment in India exceeded $5.7 billion across various projects, which according to Al-Budaiwi reflected “promising opportunity” on both sides.
“These investments have enabled us to achieve significant economic benefits, including job creation and enhanced economic growth, making India, our friendly India, key trading partner for GCC countries,” he said.
So far, India has a free trade deal with only one GCC country, the UAE, with which it signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2022.
India has been pursuing a free trade pact with the whole bloc for the past two decades. A Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed in 2004 but two rounds of negotiations — in 2006 and 2008 — were inconclusive.
The agreement would give India access to a large and affluent market for its goods, as well as concessions on visas in a region that is a second home for about nine million Indian expat workers.
South Korea plane crash investigators find feathers in engines
- Jeju Air crash was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil
- South Korean and US investigators are still probing the cause of the crash
SEOUL: Investigators probing the Jeju Air crash that killed 179 people last month have found feathers in both engines, according to South Korean media reports, with a bird strike being examined as one possible cause.
The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan, South Korea, on December 29 carrying 181 passengers and crew when it belly-landed at Muan airport and exploded in a fireball after slamming into a concrete barrier.
It was the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.
“Feathers were found in both engines,” the government-linked National Institute of Biological Resources told South Korean broadcaster MBN, without specifying who gave them the information.
“We have completed the analysis of a total of 17 samples, including feathers and blood,” it said.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport declined to confirm the report when asked by AFP.
South Korean and US investigators are still probing the cause of the crash, which prompted a national outpouring of mourning with memorials set up across the country.
Investigators have pointed to a bird strike, faulty landing gear and the runway barrier as possible issues.
The pilot warned of a bird strike before pulling out of a first landing attempt. The plane crashed on its second attempt when the landing gear did not emerge.
Lead investigator Lee Seung-yeol told reporters last week that “feathers were found” in one of the plane’s recovered engines but cautioned that a bird strike does not lead to an immediate engine failure.
“We need to investigate whether it affected both engines. It is certain that one engine has definitely experienced a bird strike,” he said.
The investigation was further clouded on Saturday when the transport ministry said the black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the crashed flight had stopped recording four minutes before the disaster.
Authorities have raided offices at Muan airport, a regional aviation office in the southwestern county, and Jeju Air’s office in the capital Seoul as part of the investigation.
The land ministry has extended Muan airport’s closure until January 19.
Police detain suspect in stabbing of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan
- Police were seen escorting a man wearing a white T-shirt, whom the media identified as the suspect
- Khan, one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, was taken to hospital Thursday in blood-soaked clothes
MUMBAI: Indian television channels said on Friday police in the financial capital of Mumbai had detained, and were questioning, a suspect in a late-night stabbing attack on Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, but police did not confirm any detention. Khan, 54, was stabbed six times during a burglary attempt at his home in an upscale neighborhood early on Thursday. Doctors who operated on him for wounds to his spine, neck and hands have said he was out of danger.
The India Today channel, among others, showed police escorting a man wearing a white T-shirt into a police-station and identified him as the suspect.
However police officer Dikshit Gedam did not confirm the detention, saying instead there had been no major development.
“There’s no update from yesterday regarding what we said,” Gedam, the senior investigating officer, told Reuters.
The previous day police said they had identified the perpetrator of the apparent robbery attempt, and launched a search for him.
Khan, 54, one of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, who has appeared in many films and television series, had walked into the hospital in blood-soaked clothes, accompanied by his six-year old son, Taimur.
“If the knife had penetrated any further, there would have been an injury to the spine,” Niraj Uttamnani, one of the doctors who treated Khan, told reporters, adding that the actor had escaped by a distance of just 2 mm (0.08 inch).
“He is very fortunate.”
Another doctor, Nitin Dange, added, “He is able to walk, and he is stable.” The attack on Khan, who is the son of India’s former cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore, shocked the film industry and residents of the city, many of whom called for better policing and security.
In a statement on social media, Khan’s wife, Kareena Kapoor Khan, asked media to stop speculating about the case.
“It has been an incredibly challenging day ... and we are still trying to process the events,” the 44-year-old actor said on her Instagram profile.
The couple have two boys, in addition to Khan’s two children from a previous marriage.
Kyiv says Ukraine missiles hit army radars in Russia
- Kyiv has stepped up its cross border drone and missile attacks on Russian territory
- Moscow in turn has been targeting Ukrainian energy facilities
KYIV: Ukraine said Friday it had launched a missile strike one day earlier on the western Belgorod region targeting air defense systems and damaging military radars.
Kyiv has stepped up its cross border drone and missile attacks on Russian territory and said this week it had launched its largest barrage of the war on military sites and energy installations over the border.
The Ukrainian General Staff wrote on social media that missile units had carried out “precision strikes” on Russian military targets in Belgorod, which borders Ukraine.
It said it had attacked air defense systems under the 568th anti-aircraft missile regiment and claimed that an S-400 radar had been damaged alongside equipment linked to another brigade.
There was no immediate response from Moscow to the claims, which could not be verified by AFP.
Moscow in turn has been targeting Ukrainian energy facilities and this week launched dozens of missiles and drones at sites mainly in western Ukraine near the border with Poland.
Kyiv said Friday that its air defense systems had shot down 33 Russian drones over 11 Ukrainian region at night.
