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A crane at a China-backed high-speed rail project in Thailand collapsed onto a passenger train Wednesday and caused it to derail, killing at least 32 people, authorities said.The massive crane was left resting on giant concrete pillars while dozens of rescuers worked searched for missing people in mangled train carriages in Nakhon Ratchasima province, northeast of the capital Bangkok.The company contracted to build the section of the high-speed rail where the crane fell, Italian-Thai Development - one of the Thailand's biggest construction firms - has seen several deadly accidents at its sites in recent years.The firm expressed condolences for those killed and the dozens injured, saying in a statement it would "take responsibility for compensating the victims' families and covering medical expenses".From a hospital bed in Nakhon Ratchasima, survivor Taew Eimertenbrink, 63, said her German husband "was killed instantly" in the derailment."I was sleeping. He was sleeping. A metal bar was on him," she told reporters. The couple was visiting from Germany and travelling to Taew's hometown in Surin province, she said. "I thought travel by train was the best way, but... this happened."The Thai health ministry said 32 people were confirmed dead, three were missing and 64 were hospitalised including seven in serious condition.Resident Mitr Intrpanya said he went to the scene after hearing two loud explosions and found the fallen crane sitting on a train with three carriages."The metal from the crane appeared to strike the middle of the second carriage, slicing it in half," the 54-year-old said.The accident happened at a construction site that is part of a more than $5bn project backed by China to build a high-speed rail network in Thailand.It aims to connect Bangkok to Kunming in China via Laos by 2028 as part of Beijing's vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.Engineering consultant Theerachote Rujiviphat, an adviser on the project, said Italian-Thai Development was solely responsible for the crane collapse.Theerachote, from the China Railway Design Corporation, said the launching crane that fell onto the existing rail tracks also belonged to Italian-Thai."It is the only company in charge," Theerachote added.But Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said later at the scene that all parties involved would be held accountable, including Italian-Thai and the Chinese consultancy company.Thailand's state rail operator said it would set up a fact-finding committee within 15 days and "prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law".The rail operator also said it ordered Italian-Thai to halt construction until its investigation was completed.Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters at the site of the accident that it was "clearly the fault of the construction company".He earlier said in Bangkok that "this kind of incidents happen very regularly," noting the company's involvement in past accidents."It is time to change the law to blacklist construction companies that are repeatedly responsible for accidents."Italian-Thai Development and its director were among more than 20 people and firms indicted last year in a case linked to the collapse of a Bangkok high-rise in an earthquake. The collapse killed around 90 people, mostly construction workers.Five people were killed in March when a crane collapsed at a highway construction site, a joint venture including Italian-Thai.In 2017, a crane used in the construction of Bangkok's elevated rail system by the firm collapsed, killing three construction workers, according to local media.The Nakhon Ratchasima provincial public relations department said Wednesday the crane collapsed onto a train travelling from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchathani province, "causing it to derail and catch fire". Transport Minister Phiphat said 195 people were on board.Thailand has around 5,000kms of railway but the run-down network has long driven people to favour travel by road.Upon completion of the 600-kilometre high-speed railway, Chinese-made trains will run from Bangkok to Nong Khai, on the Mekong River border with Laos, at up to 250 kilometres per hour.In 2020, then Thai prime minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha signed a deal for Thailand to cover all expenditures for the project, while using China-advised technology.China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Wednesday Beijing "attaches great importance to the safety of this project and its personnel", and expressed the nation's condolences. 

A rainstorm swept across the Gaza Strip Tuesday, flooding hundreds of tents, collapsing homes sheltering families displaced by two years ‌of war and killing at least ‍six people, local health officials said.Medics said five people, including two women and a girl, died when homes collapsed near ⁠Gaza City’s beach, while a one-year-old boy ⁠died of extreme cold in a tent in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.Tents were torn from ‍their stakes, some flying dozens of meters before crashing to the ground. Others lay crumpled in muddy pools as families scrambled to salvage what they could. Residents tried to resecure remaining shelters, hammering in loosened pegs and stacking sandbags around the edges to keep floodwaters from pouring inside."We didn’t realise what was happening until the wall started collapsing - an eight-metre-high wall, a strong concrete wall. Because of the speed and force of the wind, ‌the wall fell on top of us, onto three tents,” said Bassel Hamuda, a displaced man in Gaza."The elderly man, 73 years old, was martyred. His son’s wife was killed, and his son’s daughter ‍was killed,” he said.Three months ⁠since a ceasefire ‌halted major combat, Israeli forces have ordered the near-total depopulation of nearly two thirds of Gaza, forcing its more than 2mn people into a narrow strip near the coast where most live either in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.Dozens of relatives gathered at a hospital morgue Tuesday for special prayers over bodies laid on medical stretchers before the funerals.The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said at least 31 Palestinians had died since the start of the winter season from exposure to cold or the collapse of unsafe buildings damaged by previous Israeli strikes.It said about 7,000 tents were damaged in the past 48 hours, most of whose occupants have no ​alternative shelter.Municipal and civil defence ‌officials said they were unable to cope with the storm because of fuel shortages and damaged equipment. During the war Israel had ⁠destroyed hundreds of vehicles needed to respond ‍to the weather emergency, including bulldozers and water pumps.In December, a UN report said 761 displacement sites hosting about 850,000 people were at high risk of flooding, and thousands had moved in anticipation of heavy rain.UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents were urgently needed for the roughly 1.5mn people still displaced. 

Hard hat-wearing rescue workers and backhoes dug through rubble in search of survivors Saturday in the shadow of a mountain of garbage that buried dozens of landfill employees in the central Philippines, killing at least six.About 50 sanitation workers were buried when refuse toppled onto them on Thursday from what a city councillor estimated was a height of 20 storeys at the Binaliw Landfill, a privately operated facility in Cebu City.Rescuers were now facing the danger of further collapse as they navigated the still-shifting wreckage, Cebu rescuer Jo Reyes said Saturday."Operations are ongoing as of the moment. It is continuous. (But) from time to time, the landfill is moving, and that will temporarily stop the operation," she said.Cebu City councillor Dave Tumulak, chairman of the city's disaster council, said another two bodies had been uncovered Saturday by crews working in 24-hour shifts.The discovery brings the death toll to six, while 32 people remain missing."We found another two bodies, but we cannot retrieve the bodies because of the heavy metal beam that fell on them, so we are trying to cut the metal," he said.To assist in the rescue operation, 20 trucks equipped with hydraulic cranes and specialised cutting attachments were being sent to help rescuers forced to crawl to reach areas blocked by debris."Our rescuers are struggling because the metal beams are big," he said. "With (the trucks), the metal can be lifted and our rescuers can navigate the site more efficiently."We are just hoping that we can get someone alive ... We are racing against time, that's why our deployment is 24/7."Twelve employees have so far been pulled alive from the garbage and hospitalised.Numerous families were on site awaiting word on the fate of their relatives, Joel Garganera, another Cebu City council member, said Saturday."We are hoping against hope here," he said.The city councillor described the height from which the trash fell as "alarming", estimating the top of the pile had stood 20 storeys above the area struck."Every now and then, when it rains, there are landslides happening around the city of Cebu ... how much more (dangerous is that) for a landfill or a mountain that is made of garbage?" Garganera said."The garbage is like a sponge, they really absorb water. It doesn't (take) a rocket scientist to say that eventually, the incident will happen." 

Two people who ran a Swiss club that burst into flames during a New Year's Eve party, killing 40, have been placed under criminal investigation on suspicion of offences including homicide by negligence, prosecutors said Saturday.Two ⁠days after the fire, in which 119 ⁠people suffered injuries including severe burns, officials were still trying to identify many of those killed and attention turned to how one of Switzerland's worst tragedies could have occurred.The club’s two operators are suspected of offences including homicide by negligence, causing bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence, prosecutors in Valais, the canton that is home to the club in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana, said in a statement, without naming them.**media[400593]**"It was an enormous tragedy. We're all so sorry that this had to happen," Swiss Justice Minister Beat Jans told reporters, adding that temperatures in the club must have reached "500°, 600° (Celsius, 900°-1,100° Fahrenheit)".Reuters was not immediately able to contact the club's owners for comment or reach the prosecutors to verify whether they were the people referred to.Witnesses had reported seeing staff at Le ⁠Constellation carrying so-called fountain candles atop beverage bottles, and questions have also arisen about a foam material used to soundproof the ceiling of the basement where revellers danced.Beatrice Pilloud, chief prosecutor of Valais, said indications were that the fire started because the sparklers got too near to the ceiling."From there, a rapid, very rapid and widespread blaze ensued," she said on Friday afternoon.Investigations will focus on renovations made to the club, the fire extinguishing systems and escape routes, as well as the number of people in the building when the fire started, prosecutors said.Police arrived quickly at the scene, according to local residents, but the fire burned victims so severely that investigators said they would need days to identify the bodies.Illustrating the painstaking nature of that work, the Valais prosecutors' office said in a statement Saturday that the police had identified the bodies of four Swiss victims aged between 16 and 21 – two female and two male – and returned them to their families.It did not elaborate on their identities.**media[400594]**On Friday, officials had only identified one of the dead, a teenage Italian international golfer, Emanuele Galeppini.According to two people familiar with the investigation, some of the victims may be under 16.Local residents said the club was popular with young people and the Swiss government said many of the dead were likely youths.One of the club's two owners, Jacques Moretti, told the *Tribune de Geneve newspaper that Le Constellation had been checked three times in 10 years and that everything was done according to the rules.Stephane Ganzer, head of security in Valais, said the investigation would determine if the club had undergone its annual building inspections, but that the town had not raised concerns or reported defects to the canton.Grieving residents continued paying their respects to the victims of the blaze, leaving flowers and tributes nearby, even after police reopened the area around the cordoned-off club in the heart of the wealthy mountain town."Courage to all the victims' families, we're thinking of Stefan and hoping he's okay; a hero," said one message.A white sheet, emblazoned with a drawing of a large heart and the words "Courage" and Thank You", had been hung outside the Crans-Montana fire station.The disaster has left Switzerland reeling, with families of the overwhelmingly young partygoers waiting for news of their loved ones.Among those bracing for the worst was Laetitia Brodard, who said that the last text she received from her son, Arthur, was "Mum, Happy New Year, I love you"."It's been 40 hours. Forty hours since our children disappeared. So now we need to know," she told journalists on Friday near the memorial. 

A pair of explosions and a fire, apparently sparked by leaking ‌gas, ripped through a nursing home ‍near Philadelphia, killing a female employee and a resident, and injuring 20 people, officials said.All residents and ⁠staff of the Silver Lake Nursing ⁠Home in Bristol Township, about 33km northeast of Philadelphia, have now been accounted ‍for and the injured taken to local hospitals, police chief Charles Winik said.Winik said people had been feared missing for a number of hours as flames and blasts gutted the nursing home. Fire Marshal Kevin Dippolito said numerous patients and staff were initially trapped inside a demolished portion of the building.Dippolito said the first firefighters arriving on the scene, some from a fire-and-rescue station across the street, encountered "a major structural collapse," with part of the building's first floor crumbling into the basement below.He ‍said numerous victims were extricated ⁠from debris, blocked stairwells ‌and stuck elevators, while firefighters ventured into the collapsed basement zone and pulled at least two more people to safety before retreating amid lingering gas fumes."We got everyone out that we could, that we could find, that we could see, and we exited the building," Dippolito said. "Within approximately 15 to 30 seconds of us exiting the building, knowing there was a heavy odour of natural gas around us, there was another explosion and fire.”The front of the structure appeared to have been blasted away from the inside, but the majority of the facility remained standing, though most of its windows were shattered, according to a ​Reuters photographer on the scene.News footage ‌from WPVI-TV, an ABC News affiliate, showed roaring flames and smoke billowing from the crippled building shortly after the first ⁠explosion.The precise number of patients ‍and staff inside at the time was not immediately known. The nursing home is certified for up to 174 beds, according to an official Medicare provider site.More than 50 patients, ranging in age from 50 to 95, are typically in the building at any one time, WCAU-TV reported, citing a nurse employed by the facility who arrived on the ​scene after the blast. About five hours later, nursing home officials had informed authorities that all patients had been accounted for, Dippolito said. 

 Thailand announced Sunday its first civilian death in a week of fighting with Cambodia, as international efforts fail to stop violence that has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.The latest killing comes a day after Bangkok denied US President Donald Trump's claim that a truce had been agreed between the Southeast Asian neighbours.The conflict, rooted in a colonial-era demarcation dispute along their 800km (500-mile) border, has displaced around 800,000 people, officials said."I have been here for six days and I feel sad that the fighting continues," 63-year-old Sean Leap told AFP at an evacuation centre in Cambodia's border province of Banteay Meanchey."I want it to stop," he said, adding he was worried about his home and livestock.At least 27 people have been killed, including 15 Thai soldiers and 11 Cambodian civilians, officials said Sunday.A Thai civilian killed in Sisaket province was the first non-military death recorded in the country since the latest round of fighting began on December 7, health ministry spokesman Ekachai Piensriwatchara confirmed to AFP.The Thai army said the 63-year-old man was killed by shrapnel after Cambodian forces fired rockets into a civilian area.Each side has blamed the other for instigating the clashes, claiming self-defence and trading accusations of attacks on civilians.Trump, who earlier backed a truce and follow-on agreement, said on Friday that the two countries had agreed to stop fighting.However, Thai leaders later said no ceasefire deal was made, and both governments said Sunday that clashes were ongoing.Thai defence ministry spokesman Surasant Kongsiri said Cambodia shelled and bombed several border provinces overnight.The Thai military has imposed a curfew from 7pm to 5am (1200 to 2200 GMT) in parts of Sa Kaeo and Trat provinces.Cambodia, which is outgunned and outspent by Thailand's military, said Thai forces had shelled and launched air strikes on Cambodian territory near the border Sunday.After Trump's promised truce did not come to pass, Cambodia shut its border crossings with Thailand on Sunday, leaving migrant workers stranded.Under a makeshift tent at an evacuation site in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey, Cheav Sokun told AFP that her husband in Thailand wanted to return home.She and her son left Thailand alongside tens of thousands of other Cambodian migrant workers during deadly clashes in July, but her spouse stayed to work as a gardener with his "good Thai boss"."He asked me to return first. After that, the border was closed so he cannot come back," the 38-year-old said.In Thailand, officials said Sunday that nine civilians have died of non-combat-related causes after evacuating from their homes.The United States, China and Malaysia, as chair of the regional bloc Asean, brokered a ceasefire in late July.In October, Trump backed a follow-on joint declaration between Thailand and Cambodia, touting new trade deals after they agreed to prolong their truce.However, Thailand suspended the agreement the following month, after Thai soldiers were wounded by landmines at the border.Last week Trump pledged that he would "make a couple of phone calls" to get the earlier brokered truce back on track.However, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told journalists on Saturday that Trump "didn't mention whether we should make a ceasefire" during their Friday phone call.Anutin vowed to keep fighting "until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people".A White House spokesperson later said that Trump expected all parties to honour commitments and that "he will hold anyone accountable as necessary to stop the killing and ensure durable peace". 

Russia launched a new barrage of drones and missiles at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv Tuesday, officials said, killing seven people, wounding 21, and disrupting electricity and heating systems as Ukraine raced to finalise a US-backed peace deal.President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces launched more than 460 drones and 22 missiles, their second major strike on Kyiv this month. The air force said it had downed most of the drones and around half of the missiles."The primary targets were the energy sector and everything that keeps normal life going," Zelenskiy said in a post on the Telegram app. As Russia hit Kyiv in several waves of attacks, diplomatic talks on ending the war gained some momentum.Ukrainian, European, and US officials have held several rounds of talks in recent days, and Ukraine Tuesday signalled support for the framework for a peace deal while stressing that sensitive issues needed to be fixed."What matters most now is that all partners move toward diplomacy together, through joint efforts. Pressure on Russia must deliver results," Zelensky said, urging uninterrupted weapons and air defence supplies to Kyiv.Zelensky said that four Russian drones had flown over Ukraine's neighbours Moldova and Nato-member Romania. Romania said it had scrambled fighter jets to track drones which breached its territory near the border with Ukraine.Romania shares a 650-km land border with Ukraine and has had drones breach its airspace and fragments fall onto its territory repeatedly since Russia began attacking Kyiv's ports across the Danube.Ukraine's Energy Ministry said Russian strikes had disrupted electricity supplies to more than 102,000 people in five Ukrainian regions.Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the military administration for the capital, said damage was recorded at 13 sites across Kyiv. Residential and commercial buildings and infrastructure were damaged.Kyiv city officials also said heating supplies across several districts in the capital were restricted. The weather is unseasonably warm with temperatures hovering at about 8 degrees Celsius."The Russians are deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and housing. Cynical terror," Tkachenko said on Telegram.Moscow denies intentionally targeting civilians despite having killed thousands of them since launching its invasion in 2022. It says civilian infrastructure such as energy supplies are legitimate targets to hurt Ukraine's ability to fight.Ukrainian officials also said that port and energy infrastructure were damaged in the Black Sea port of Odesa, where six people were injured.

A Russian attack hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, killing four people and prompting power cuts in several regions, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday.Moscow has in recent months escalated attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, damaging natural gas facilities which produce the main fuel for heating in the country.Experts have said Ukraine risks heating outages ahead of the winter months.“Russian strikes once again targeted people’s everyday life. They deprived communities of power, water, and heating, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged railway networks,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.Russia launched 458 drones and 45 missiles at Ukraine overnight, said the Ukrainian air force, adding that it had downed 406 drones and nine missiles.“In Dnipro, a Russian drone struck directly at a residential building; as of now, it is known that three people have died in the city. Sadly, there is also a fatality in Kharkiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.Attacks forced emergency power cuts in the capital Kyiv and in the northern city of Kharkiv, authorities and energy company DTEK said.They also interrupted water supplies in Kharkiv, where the mayor said there was a “noticeable shortage of electricity.”There was no electricity, water, and partial heating in Kremenchuk, in the eastern Poltava region, the administration said.There were also significant train delays, Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said, accusing Russia of stepping up its attacks on locomotive depots.“We are working to eliminate the consequences throughout the country. The focus is on the rapid restoration of heat, light and water,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.The attack was the ninth massive attack on gas infrastructure since early October, energy company Naftogaz said.Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power and heating grid throughout its almost four-year invasion, destroying a large part of the key civilian infrastructure.As with previous waves of attacks, Russia’s defence ministry said it struck “enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and gas and energy facilities that support their operation.”The attacks on energy infrastructure have raised concerns of heating outages in Ukraine as the war enters its fourth winter.Kyiv’s School of Economics estimated in a report that the attacks shut down half of Ukraine’s natural gas production. Ukraine’s top energy expert, Oleksandr Kharchenko, told a media briefing Wednesday that if Kyiv’s two power and heating plants went offline for more than three days when temperatures fall below minus 10 degrees Celsius, the capital would face a “technological disaster”.Ukraine has in turn stepped up strikes on Russian oil depots and refineries in recent months, seeking to cut off Moscow’s vital energy exports and trigger fuel shortages across the country.On Friday evening, drone attacks on energy infrastructure in southern Russia’s Volgograd region caused power cuts there too, governor Andrei Botcharov said on Telegram.

An earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale struck Chile on Tuesday. The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the earthquake occurred 70 kilometers northeast of Calama City in northern Chile, at a depth of 128 kilometers. In 2010, an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude followed by a tsunami struck central and southern Chile, killing 500 people. Chile is located in an area called the "Ring of Fire," an arc of faults surrounding the Pacific Ocean basin, and is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Russia fired 40 missiles and around 580 drones at Ukraine in a "massive attack" — one of the largest in past weeks — killing three people and wounding dozens, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday.Despite US-led attempts to broker peace, Russia has been shelling Ukraine with drones and missiles and Kyiv has blamed Moscow for deliberately stalling any peace efforts.In the overnight attacks, "a missile with cluster munitions directly struck an apartment building" in the eastern city of Dnipro, Zelensky said on social media."All night, Ukraine was under a massive attack by Russia. The enemy launched 40 missiles — cruise and ballistic — and about 580 drones of various types," Zelensky said."As of now, we know of dozens of people injured from the shelling, and, unfortunately, three people killed," he added.Sergiy Lysak, the head of the military administration in the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the strikes killed one person and wounded 26, with one man in a serious condition.Vyacheslav Chaus from the regional administration in Chernigiv in northern Ukraine, said a 62-year-old man died in a drone attack.Ukraine issued a nationwide air alert, with officials reporting other strikes in the region around the capital Kyiv.Around 20 residential buildings were damaged in the Khmelnytskyi region, local official Sergiy Tyurin said on Telegram, adding that one body was found "during the extinguishing of a fire in one of the houses."Russian officials meanwhile said their forces had repelled "massive" Ukrainian attacks in the Volgograd and Rostov regions, while one person was wounded in the nearby region of Saratov.The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday its air defence alert systems "intercepted and destroyed" 149 Ukrainian drones overnight.Russian forces have been grinding across eastern Ukraine for months, trying to take control of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.Hopes of a truce have faded since US President Donald Trump held separate high-profile meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodomyr Zelensky last month.On Friday, Estonia said three Russian air force planes violated its airspace, triggering fears in the EU and NATO of a dangerous new provocation from Moscow, which denied the allegation.The alleged Russian incursion came with tensions high on NATO's eastern border, after Warsaw last week complained that around 20 Russian drones overflew its territory — though the Kremlin denied targeting Poland.The UK, Germany and France have announced plans to reinforce joint air patrols with more jets based on NATO's eastern flank.

At least 15 people were killed and 41 others injured in a traffic accident in Mexico. Local authorities said the accident occurred in southeastern Mexico when a heavy truck overturned and collided with a small car and a bus transporting construction workers on a road between Merida and Campeche, killing 15 people and injuring 41.This deadly accident is the third of its kind in Mexico in less than a week. Previously, 10 people were killed and 41 injured when a freight train collided with a bus at a rail crossing in Mexico City.Road accidents in Mexico have risen sharply in recent years, from 301,678 in 2020 to 377,231 in 2022, according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. In late January, 19 people were killed and 22 others injured in a road accident in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Gunmen attacked a village in Zamfara State, northwestern Nigeria, killing a man, wounding his wife, and kidnapping 18 people, all women and children.Residents said the attackers belonged to gangs known for kidnapping and cattle-rustling, and stormed Birnin Zarma village early in the morning as residents were preparing for dawn prayers."The bandits attacked the village around 5 a.m. while people were preparing for morning prayers," Birnin Zarma resident Ibrahim Bello said. "They broke into a house and shot dead a man and injured his wife before herding 18 women and children out of the village."Lawal Umar, a resident of the neighboring town of Bukkuyum, said the attackers were believed to be from the neighboring Anka district, where they maintain camps in a nearby forest.He added that forces stationed in Bukkuyum were unable to repel the attack due to the flooding of a river separating the town from the village of Birnin Zarma, which prevented the timely arrival of security reinforcements.Birnin Zarma is located about 170 km from the state capital, Gusau, and residents are still waiting for a ransom demand from the kidnappers for the release of the hostages.For years, the states of northwestern and central Nigeria, particularly Zamfara, have witnessed a wave of violence perpetrated by armed gangs known locally as "bandits," who have recently intensified their attacks on rural villages.