Seven dead, 50 hurt in Bangladesh blast likely caused by gas line
At least seven people were killed and another 50 people were injured after a powerful explosion ripped apart a three-storey building in central Dhaka on Sunday (June 27), Bangladeshi officials said, citing a gas pipeline as the likely cause.
Police said the explosion was so forceful that it broke the windows of at least four moving buses, injuring dozens of passengers on board.
Dhaka police chief Shafiqur Rahman said at least seven people were killed in the explosion, though the fire service offered a lower death toll of three. Police and fire service officials said 50 people were injured.
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Hong Kong police arrest former Apple Daily journalist at airport: Local media
Hong Kong police arrested a former senior journalist with the Apple Daily newspaper at the international airport on Sunday (June 27) night on a suspected national security charge as he tried to leave the city, according to local media reports.
Fung Wai-kong would be the seventh staffer at the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper to be arrested on national security grounds in recent weeks. He was an editor and columnist at the now-closed paper, local media reported.
The Hong Kong police said in a statement that a 57-year-old man had been arrested at the airport for "conspiring to collude with foreign countries or foreign forces to endanger national security". They added that he had been detained and investigations were continuing.
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In meeting with US, Israel expresses serious reservations on Iran nuclear deal
Israel has serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal being put together in Vienna, new foreign minister Yair Lapid told his America counterpart, as he pledged to fix “the mistakes made” between the two countries over the past few years.
In their first face-to-face meeting since Israel’s new government was sworn in two weeks ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lapid said they would also discuss Israel’s normalisation accords with Gulf Arab states.
Blinken said he would also be raising the issue of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
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Exit polls show French far-right loses regional vote in key southern battleground
Exit polls showed France's far-right party headed for defeat in Sunday's (June 27) election for the southeastern Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur (PACA) region, its best hope for securing a local powerbase, with the incumbent centre-right projected to win.
The region had been seen as the far-right Rassemblement National's best prospect for bringing credibility to leader Marine Le Pen's claim that it is fit for power ahead of next year's presidential election.
An exit poll by IFOP showed the far-right winning 44.2 per cent of the run-off vote in PACA compared to 55.8 per cent for the mainstream conservatives. A second survey by Opinionway showed the far-right taking 45 per cent of the vote compared to 55 per cent for its rivals.
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South Africa to tighten Covid-19 restrictions for 14 days
South Africa will tighten Covid-19 restrictions for 14 days as current containment measures are insufficient to cope with the speed and scale of new infections, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday (June 27).
The country, the worst-hit on the African continent in terms of recorded cases and deaths, is in the grip of a "third wave"of infections.
It recorded almost 18,000 new cases on Saturday, approaching the peak of daily infections seen in a second wave in January, and local scientists say the Delta coronavirus variant first identified in India seems to be spreading fast.
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