Ƶ

Rain warning lowered in eastern Spain, Ibiza on red alert

Rain warning lowered in eastern Spain, Ibiza on red alert
A parked car is surrounded by water following heavy rains during the passage of post-tropical Cyclone Gabrielle in Cullera, Valencia region, Spain, Sept. 30, 2025. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 12 sec ago

Rain warning lowered in eastern Spain, Ibiza on red alert

Rain warning lowered in eastern Spain, Ibiza on red alert
  • AEMET said the alert level in Valencia was cut by two levels from red
  • By contrast, Ibiza and Formentera were placed under red alert, with forecasters warning of “extraordinary danger” from heavy rainfall

MADRID: Spain’s national weather service on Tuesday downgraded its rain alert for the eastern region of Valencia, the site of deadly flooding in 2024, but issued its highest warning for the holiday islands of Ibiza and Formentera.
AEMET said the alert level in Valencia was cut by two levels from red — its highest — to yellow, a day after torrential downpours forced schools across the region to close.
By contrast, Ibiza and Formentera were placed under red alert, with forecasters warning of “extraordinary danger” from heavy rainfall that could trigger flash floods and river surges in the Mediterranean islands.
Ibiza City, the capital of Ibiza, urged residents to avoid travel and outdoor activities and warned in a post on X against approaching streams, low-lying areas or basements.
Monday’s red alert in Valencia revived memories of October 2024, when flooding killed more than 230 people.
More than half a million pupils in Valencia missed lessons on Monday as 243 local councils closed schools as a precaution.
Images on social media showed roaring torrents of water gushing through the town of Cullera, south of the regional capital Valencia, one of the hardest-hit areas.
Cullera Mayor Jordi Mayor said residents’ compliance with calls to stay indoors “prevented many tragedies.”
“If there had been an elderly person, someone with mobility difficulties, or even children out on the streets, the consequences could have been much worse,” he told Spanish public television.
Last year’s disaster sparked public anger over the adequacy of warning systems and the emergency response. Residents have continued to stage protests, accusing officials of failing to provide timely alerts.


India to build $454m cross-border rail lines with Bhutan

India to build $454m cross-border rail lines with Bhutan
Updated 16 sec ago

India to build $454m cross-border rail lines with Bhutan

India to build $454m cross-border rail lines with Bhutan
  • Bhutan has no railway network and the 70-km project with India will be its first
  • Via trade links in northeast India, it will connect to Nepal and ports in Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: India has announced its first-ever cross-border railway project with Bhutan, slated to connect the landlocked mountainous neighbor with its nearly 70,000-km railway network in four years.

The $454 million project will connect the eastern Indian states of Assam and West Bengal to two towns in Bhutan. Together, the lines will cover a total distance of 89 km.

The project agreement was signed on Monday evening by Bhutan’s Foreign Secretary Pema Choden and Indian Railway Board CEO Satish Kumar.

“The construction period will be about four years for this project. All the land schedules, everything has already been done … And very soon, we’ll start the construction work,” India’s Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters in New Delhi.

“Both goods and passengers will be using these two lines … The entire area will get connected. And lots of goods’ movement, which takes days today, will start happening in a few hours.”

Vaishnaw said that in the first $390 million phase of the project, Assam’s Kokrajhar will be linked to Gelephu — a special zone developed as a smart city — a route spanning 69 km and six stations.

In the second phase, West Bengal’s Banarhat will connect to the agricultural and industrial district of Samtse via separate rail lines. The 20-km railway line will have two stations.

The establishment of the cross-border lines was agreed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Thimphu in 2024. It will be entirely funded by the Indian government.

Bhutan does not have a railway network, and the links to India will be its first such connections.

With an area of 34,400 sq. km and a population of less than 800,000, Bhutan is landlocked between India to the south, east, and west, and China to the north.

India is the largest trading partner of Bhutan, with bilateral duty-free transit for goods accounting for nearly 80 percent of its trade. The connection will further link it to India’s two other neighbors, Bangladesh and Nepal.

The rail line will join the Fulbari Corridor near Siliguri, a hub linking India’s northeastern states with the rest of the country and the Bangladeshi border.

“The four countries would be meeting at that particular point known as Fulbari … And this corridor would lead straight away to Chittagong Port, Mongla Port, and a new port, which is being developed by Japan, known as Matarbari Deep Sea Port,” Prof. Mahendra P. Lama, development economist from Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Arab News.

“The idea is to integrate Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and India in a sub-regionalism process … so Bhutan can access Bangladeshi ports from the Assamese side (Northeast Frontier), and from the Bengal side, that is Fulbari.”

The increased connectivity will have an impact on the whole region.

“This is something very new, and we are now trying to open Arunachal Pradesh–Myanmar connectivity through the Second World War route known as the Stillwell Road,” Prof. Lama said.

“This will be something big and far-reaching, a win-win situation for all four countries, with many expected commercial, cultural, and socioeconomic benefits.”


Family says a Mexican man shot at a Dallas ICE facility has died, becoming attack’s second victim

Family says a Mexican man shot at a Dallas ICE facility has died, becoming attack’s second victim
Updated 4 min 4 sec ago

Family says a Mexican man shot at a Dallas ICE facility has died, becoming attack’s second victim

Family says a Mexican man shot at a Dallas ICE facility has died, becoming attack’s second victim
  • The family confirmed that Miguel Ángel García-Hernández, 32, succumbed to his injuries
  • The Mexican man was one of three detainees shot in the Sept. 24 attack

DALLAS, USA: A second detainee shot in an attack on a Dallas immigration field office last week has died, his family said Tuesday.
In a statement shared by the League of United Latin American Citizens, the family confirmed that Miguel Ángel García-Hernández, 32, succumbed to his injuries after being removed from life support.
The Mexican man was one of three detainees shot in the Sept. 24 attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas. That attack left one man dead and two other detainees critically wounded. Officials previously identified the man who was killed in the attack as Norlan Guzman-Fuentes.


Authorities have said the gunman, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, fired indiscriminately from a nearby rooftop. They said he hated the US government and wanted to incite terror by killing federal agents. No ICE personnel were hurt in the shooting, and Jahn fatally shot himself following the assault.
The attack happened as heightened immigration enforcement has generated a backlash against ICE agents and stirred fear in immigrant communities across the country.
“My husband Miguel was a good man, a loving father, and the provider for our family,” Stephany Gauffeny said in the statement. “We had just bought our first home together, and he worked hard every single day to make sure our children had what they needed. His death is a senseless tragedy that has left our family shattered. I do not know how to explain to our children that their father is gone.”
Gauffeny is expecting their fifth child, LULAC said.


Ukrainian detained in Poland over 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions

Ukrainian detained in Poland over 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions
Updated 43 min 21 sec ago

Ukrainian detained in Poland over 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions

Ukrainian detained in Poland over 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions
  • Volodymyr Z. has been transferred to prosecutors in Warsaw
  • The man, whose full name wasn’t released due to privacy rules, was detained on a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities

WARSAW: A Ukrainian man suspected of being involved in causing undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022 was arrested in Poland, a spokesperson for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw said Tuesday.
Volodymyr Z. was detained in Pruszkow, central Poland, according to Polish radio station RMF FM, which first reported his capture. He has been transferred to prosecutors in Warsaw.
The man, whose full name wasn’t released due to privacy rules, was detained on a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities, said Piotr Antoni Skiba, a spokesperson for the Warsaw prosecutor’s office.
A spokesperson for Germany’s federal prosecutor did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
Another Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy last month in connection with the explosions on the undersea pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
“Taking into consideration the full-scale war in Ukraine and the fact that Nord Stream is owned by the Russian company Gazprom, which finances these activities, the defense currently does not see any possibility of pressing charges against anyone who participated in these events,” Tymoteusz Paprocki, Volodymyr Z.’s lawyer, told RMF FM.
The lawyer said it was not certain whether his client was involved in the sabotage act and he was awaiting official information about the intentions of the German justice system in pressing charges. The defense would fight extradition, the lawyer said.
Undersea explosions on Sept. 26, 2022, damaged pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The damage added to tensions over the war in Ukraine as European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources, following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to RMF FM, German authorities say the man is a diving instructor and, in September 2022, he sailed to the Baltic Sea on a yacht, from which he dove underwater and placed the explosive on the underwater pipeline.


Madagascar protesters return to streets despite move to dissolve government

Madagascar protesters return to streets despite move to dissolve government
Updated 48 min 21 sec ago

Madagascar protesters return to streets despite move to dissolve government

Madagascar protesters return to streets despite move to dissolve government
  • Protesters also marched in the city of Fenoarivo
  • Rallies were reported in MaHajjanga, northwest of Antananarivo, and in Diego Suarez, north of the capital

ANTANANARIVO: Security forces fired teargas to disperse hundreds of young protesters in Madagascar’s capital who took to the streets again on Tuesday despite the president’s decision to partly yield to their demands by dissolving the government.
Andry Rajoelina went on state television late on Monday and said he wanted to create room for dialogue with young people pressing for access to water and an end to power cuts, and promised measures to support businesses affected by looting.
In a message on the protest movement’s Facebook page, some of the protest organizers said they were disappointed by his speech and demanded an apology from him and the now dismissed prime minister, as well as the firing of Antananarivo’s administrator.
Others went further, waving placards with messages such as “We need water, we need electricity, Rajoelina out,” footage of protesters marching in the capital Antananarivo, broadcast on the privately owned broadcaster Real TV Madagasikara, showed.
Protesters also marched in the city of Fenoarivo, a small town 20 km (12 miles) west of the capital, footage from Real TV showed.
Rallies were reported in MaHajjanga, 510 km (315 miles) northwest of Antananarivo, and in Diego Suarez, 950 km (590 miles) north of the capital, privately owned 2424.MG and Fitaproduction reported.
A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday’s protest.
The United Nations says at least 22 people have been killed and more than 100 injured in protests that began last week and are now in the fourth day.
The ministry of foreign affairs has rejected the casualty figures shared by the UN, saying the data did not come from competent national authorities and were based on rumors or misinformation.
Inspired by the so-called youth-led “Gen Z” protests in Kenya and Nepal, the four days of demonstrations have been the largest the Indian Ocean island has seen in years, and the most serious challenge Rajoelina has faced since his re-election in 2023.
Rajoelina first came to power in a 2009 coup. He stepped down in 2014 but became president again after winning the 2018 election, and secured a third term in a December 2023 poll that his challengers said was marred by irregularities.
In Monday’s and last week’s protests, the demonstrators adapted a flag used in Nepal, where protesters forced the prime minister to resign this month.
They have also used similar online tactics to organize rallies as protesters did last year in Kenya, where the government scrapped proposed tax legislation.


South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead in Paris — Le Parisien

South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead in Paris — Le Parisien
Updated 11 min ago

South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead in Paris — Le Parisien

South Africa’s ambassador to France found dead in Paris — Le Parisien
  • Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa was South Africa’s minister of arts and culture from 2014 to 2019

PARIS: South Africa’s ambassador to France has been found dead at the foot of the Hyatt Hotel, a high-rise tower in Porte Maillot in the west of Paris, newspaper Le Parisien reported on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Paris Police declined to comment. Calls to the South African Embassy went unanswered.

The embassy’s website says Ambassador Nkosinathi Emmanuel “Nathi” Mthethwa was South Africa’s minister of arts and culture from 2014 to 2019, adding sports to his portfolio from 2019 to 2023.
The ambassador had been reported missing by his wife after she received a text message from him that worried her, Le Parisien reported.