Headline

At Least 22 Dead After India Boat Capsizes

Published

2 years ago

May 8, 2023

Editor

At least 22 people died when a tourist boat capsized in India, officials said Monday, with many of those on board thought to be children.

It was not clear why the double-decker boat carrying at least 30 people tipped over in the southern state of Kerala’s Malappuram district late Sunday.

Dozens of people searched for survivors in and around the stricken vessel all night, which was partially submerged, and the search continued into Monday.

Some used ropes to stabilise the boat while others were in the water, desperately looking inside the vessel’s windows for any survivors.

“We have recovered 22 bodies, including 15 females and seven males. There are around six people in the hospital. Rescue operations are on,” a police officer told AFP.

Local publication Onmanorama reported that 11 people from one family, including three children, had died in the accident.

Rajisa, who was on the boat with her husband and daughter, told the publication most of the passengers on board were children and that there was smoke coming from the boat during the journey.

“We survived only because we were wearing life jackets,” Rajisa, who bruised her neck after hitting the boat, was quoted as saying.

She said three life jackets were brought to her and her family, and four jackets were given to children on the boat’s top deck.

“The boat swerved sometime after it set sail. Everyone was thrown off to one side as the boat wobbled,” she told Onmanorama.

“I fell before my child and sank into the water. The boat overturned on top of the people who had fallen into the water. There were mostly children on the boat,” she said.

Broadcaster NDTV said rescue teams, including personnel from National Disaster Response Force and the Indian Coast Guard, were using underwater cameras to look for those still missing.

VD Satheesan, a politician from the opposition Congress party in the state, said the accident was “man-made” and called for a probe.

“Nobody even knows if the boat had a licence or not,” he said Monday, speaking to reporters.

“A case has been registered against the boat’s owner for alleged culpable homicide,” media reports said.

Kerala’s sports and fisheries minister V. Abdurahiman, who was helping to coordinate rescue efforts, said most of the victims were children on school holidays.

Police said that there were around 30 people on board.

But NDTV reported that 40 people had tickets, although there were many others on the vessel who did not.

Abdurahiman said four people were taken to hospital in critical condition, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

“Pained by the loss of lives due to the boat mishap in Malappuram, Kerala. Condolences to the bereaved families,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter, adding that families would get compensation.

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

13 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

16 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

16 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP