A fire destroyed at least 30 makeshift wooden homes in Malaysia's Sabah state early Wednesday, officials said, in the second reported blaze in the area in fewer than two weeks. The Sabah Fire and Rescue Department said the pre-dawn blaze swept through a settlement in Sandakan district in Sabah's northeast, where some of Malaysia's poorest residents, including indigenous and stateless communities, live in closely packed, wooden houses. No injuries or fatalities were reported, it said. It was the second such fire in Sandakan since April 19, when a massive fire razed 1,000 homes and displaced thousands of people in a coastal village. "It is estimated that about 186 residents are affected. We're still investigating the cause of the fire," Sandakan Fire and Rescue station chief Jimmy Lagung told AFP by telephone from Sandakan on Wednesday. In a statement, the fire department said 21 firefighters were deployed to put out the blaze, managing to prevent the flames fro...
Israeli strikes killed three Palestinians, including a nine-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, health officials said. Medics said an Israeli drone killed the child, Adel Al‑Najjar, in eastern Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, while an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in Gaza City, killing two people and wounding several others. At Nasser Hospital’s morgue, relatives arrived to bid farewell to the small, white‑shrouded body of Najjar. Women cried next to the body, lying on a medical stretcher on the floor, and men held a special prayer before carrying him to the cemetery for burial. The boy was collecting cardboard that the family uses in cooking, relatives said. There has been no electricity in Gaza since the fighting began in October 2023, and Palestinians have complained of Israeli restrictions on the entry of cooking gas. Read More: New wave of Israeli strikes kills 4 Palestinians in Gaza "We don't have gas. We collect cardboard to bake, they wan...