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Record-breaking heat wave grips western United States

A record early heat wave striking the western United States on Friday is a one-in-500-year event and almost certainly the result of human-caused climate change, experts say. The heat has been toppling records this week and is set to continue into the weekend across western cities while expanding eastward. Four locations in the desert area near the California-Arizona border registered 44.4 degrees Celsius on Friday, a US national record for March. The readings were recorded near Yuma and Martinez Lake in Arizona, and around Winterhaven and Ogilby in California. Read: Intense heatwave grips US, triggering record-breaking temperatures Already, 65 cities have recorded new March highs, ranging from Arizona and California to Idaho, Weather.com reported. Death Valley reached 40°C on Thursday, while typically cool and foggy San Francisco tied its historic March record at 29°C. In Colorado, skiers were seen hitting the slopes shirtless. The National Weather Service issued extreme heat warni...
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Five killed in autonomy protests in disputed Ladakh

Five people were killed in India on Wednesday as police clashed with hundreds of protesters demanding greater autonomy in the disputed territory of Ladakh, leaving "dozens" injured, police said. In the main city of Leh, demonstrators torched a police vehicle and the offices of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, while officers fired tear gas and used batons to disperse crowds, police said. "Five deaths were reported after the protests," a police officer in Leh told AFP, on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to journalists. "The number of injured is in the dozens." Another police officer, Regzin Sangdup, told AFP that "several people, including some policemen, were injured." Authorities later imposed restrictions on gatherings, banning assemblies of more than four people. The sparsely populated, high-altitude desert region, home to some 300,000 people, borders both China and Pakistan. Around half of Ladakh's residents are Muslim and about 40 percent are Buddhist. It is classed as a "Union Territory" — meaning that while it elects lawmakers to the national parliament, it is governed directly by New Delhi. Wednesday's demonstrations were organised in solidarity with prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on hunger strike for two weeks. He is demanding either full statehood for Ladakh or constitutional protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment. "Social unrest arises when you keep young people unemployed and deprive them of their democratic rights," Wangchuk said, in a statement posted on social media.

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At least 32 miners dead after bridge fails at cobalt site in southeast DR Congo

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