Skip to main content

Rare light aircraft crash in Beijing kills pilot, injures 13 people

A light aircraft crash into Beijing's tallest building on Friday killed ​the pilot and injured 13 people who were not on ‌board, the local government said following the unusual accident for the Chinese capital, where airspace is heavily restricted. Those injured are receiving medical treatment and authorities are ​investigating the incident, Chaoyang district government said in a statement ​on Saturday. "A single-engine, two-seat light sport aircraft collided with ⁠a high-rise building while flying near the East third ring road ​in Chaoyang, at 5:55pm (0955 GMT) on June 26," said the ​statement, which was posted on social media. "There was only one person on board, the pilot, who died," the statement added, without giving any further details of ​the possible cause of the crash. Damage to the facade of the ​skyscraper appeared to be limited to a hole caused by the loss of ‌two ⁠large glass panels. The gap had been temporarily boarded up as ...
Post a Comment

Sri Lanka arrests ex-spy chief over 2019 Easter bombings

Sri Lanka's criminal investigators arrested the country's former intelligence chief on Wednesday in connection with the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners. Police said retired Major General Suresh Sallay was taken into custody at dawn in a suburb of the capital, Colombo, in the most high-profile arrest in the long-running investigation. "He was arrested for conspiracy and aiding and abetting the Easter Sunday attacks," an investigating officer told AFP. "He has been in touch with people involved in the attacks, even recently." The coordinated bombings targeted three upmarket hotels in the capital, two Roman Catholic churches, and an evangelical Protestant church outside Colombo. The attacks were blamed on a homegrown jihadist group. Read: Iran dismisses missile, nuclear claims after Trump alleges 'sinister ambitions' The Catholic church, which has spearheaded a campaign demanding justice for all victims of the brutal bombings, welcomed the arrest as a sign that the investigation was continuing. "What we need is the truth behind the Easter attacks. We want to see justice for all the victims," church spokesman Father Cyril Gamini Fernando told AFP. The church had previously accused successive governments of failing to identify the masterminds behind the bombings. The string of suicide bombings on April 21, 2019, became the worst attack against civilians in a country where at least 100,000 people had been killed in a Tamil separatist war that ended in May 2009 after nearly four decades of violence. Sallay, who was promoted to State Intelligence Service (SIS) chief in 2019 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president, had been accused of involvement in organising the suicide bombings, a charge he has denied. His long-expected arrest came ahead of the seventh anniversary of the bombings. British broadcaster Channel 4 reported in 2023 that Sallay was linked to the Islamist bombers and had met them prior to the attack. Read More: Trump lays out case for possible attack on Iran in State of the Union A whistleblower told the network that Sallay had permitted the attack to proceed with the intention of influencing that year's presidential election in favour of Rajapaksa. Two days after the bombings, Rajapaksa declared his candidacy and went on to win the November vote in a landslide after promising to stamp out Islamist extremism. A former member of the jihadist group told reporters in 2019 that they were originally funded by a military intelligence unit to propagate a fundamentalist ideology in Sri Lanka's multi-ethnic eastern province. Sallay was employed in the intelligence unit that funded the jihadists. The government at the time admitted the military was behind the radical group. Sallay was promoted to head the SIS, Sri Lanka's main intelligence agency, following Rajapaksa's victory, but was dismissed after Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidency in 2024, promising prosecutions of those behind the attacks. While local jihadists were held responsible, Sallay was also accused of orchestrating the attack. Two days after the bombings, ISIS claimed responsibility, but investigators said they had no evidence to directly establish a foreign link. Other investigations faulted the authorities for failing to act on warnings from an Indian intelligence agency that an attack was imminent. More than 500 people were wounded in the bombings, which crippled the island nation's lucrative tourism industry. US authorities in 2021 charged three Sri Lankans with supporting the Easter attacks, in which five US nationals were killed. The three are among 25 suspects indicted in Sri Lanka's High Court. The Supreme Court fined then-president Maithripala Sirisena and four senior officials more than $1.03 million in a civil case for their failure to prevent the attacks. The UN has asked Sri Lanka to publish parts of previous inquiries into the bombings that were withheld from the public.

from Latest World News, International News | Breaking World News https://ift.tt/LAbKifg
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

A bridge collapsed at a cobalt mine in southeast Democratic Republic of Congo killing at least 32 wildcat miners, a regional government official said Sunday. The bridge came down Saturday onto a flooded zone at the mine in Lualaba province, Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, told reporters. He said 32 bodies had been recovered and more were being searched for. The DRC produces more than 70 percent of the world supply of cobalt, which is essential for batteries used in electric cars, many laptop computers and mobile phones. More than 200,000 people are estimated to be working in giant illegal cobalt mines in the giant central African country. Local authorities said the bridge collapsed at the Kalando mine, about 42 kilometres (26 miles) southeast of the Lualaba provincial capital, Kolwezi. "Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of the heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry," said Mayonde. He said ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Indian devotees splurge on jets, gold idols as Hindu temple opens

The private jet parking lots at airports near the Indian city of Ayodhya are full and the shops have run out of gold-plated idols, as wealthy devotees prepare for the invite-only opening ceremony of one of Hinduism's holiest temples. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani are among the 8,000 or so attendees at Monday's inauguration event for the Ram Temple, which devotees believe is built on the birthplace of Lord Ram, a sacred Hindu deity. The construction of the temple, which began after the Supreme Court awarded the site to Hindus in 2019 more than two decades after a Hindu mob razed a mosque there, triggering deadly riots, fulfils a key campaign promise of Modi and his Hindu nationalist party. Read BJP-promised temple transforms Ayodhya: Muslims, locals feel neglected The opening ceremony, organised by the trust that built the temple, comes months before a national election which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is widely expected to w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vancouver tribunal says 'every dog is entitled to one bite' in injury case

A woman who sought nearly $5,000 in damages after being bitten by a dog on Christmas Eve has had her claim dismissed, after a British Columbia tribunal ruled the incident amounted to an accident — and that “every dog is entitled to one bite.” Ying Shen was bitten on the hand by a mini Australian Shepherd named Juliet as she stepped out of an elevator in her apartment building in Vancouver on 24 December 2022. The dog, which was leashed and accompanied by neighbour Jeffrey Dale Polo, bit Shen as the two passed each other in the corridor. According to the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal’s decision, Polo apologised, saying Juliet was “usually well behaved.” Shen sought medical attention that night at St. Paul’s Hospital, where she was treated for a superficial abrasion and given a tetanus shot. She later filed a report with the City of Vancouver. A bylaw officer determined that Juliet was not considered dangerous under city regulations, though the dog was found to be unlicensed. In his 5 M...
Post a Comment
Read more