At least four Taliban militants, including the group’s local leader were killed following a drone strike in south-eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.
According to the local government officials, the airstrike was carried out by NATO-led coalition security forces in Qarabagh district late on Tuesday night.
Sabawoon further added that the Taliban leader who was killed in the raid has been identified as Khoraye.
At least 17 people have been killed and 20 injured following a blast at Foshan factory facility in Guangdong, China, Xinhua reports.
At least 17 dead, 20 injured at factory explosion in ChinaScreenshot from 2014-12-31 11:24:56
The incident which happened around 9:40 at the Fuwa Engineering Manufacturing plant, has seen the roof collapse following three loud explosions at a machinery plant.
Black smoke is emerging from the scene as fire fighting and rescue is under way.
A total of 14 bodies have been recovered so far, eight of which are in the morgue, local news reports.
The injured with burn wounds have been admitted to the First People’s Hospital of Shunde for treatment, four of whom are in the intensive care.
Local media reports that the accident was most likely caused by the natural gas pipeline explosion that spread to the entire spray paint workshop.
Greece is sending a navy frigate and a helicopter to locate a cargo ship believed to be carrying hundreds of migrants in the northern Ionian Sea after authorities received a distress call from someone on board the ship, authorities said.
The ship, the Mouldovan-flagged Blue Sky M, was sailing in poor weather near the tiny island of Othonoi, north-west of Corfu.
A merchant marine ministry official said the distress call had come from one of the passengers on board the ship.
The ship is believed to be carrying about 400-600 migrants.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because no official information had yet been issued.
The government will kill all the 15,000 live poultry in a wholesale market in Cheung Sha Wan and close the market off for 21 days after some samples of chicken imported from the mainland tested positive of H7N9 bird flu virus, the government announced early today.
The cull will started at around 8am today and officials from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said they could finish the cull by the end of today.
The government would also inspect all 27 local poultry farms and test the poultry to make sure they would be safe, said the Secretary for Food and Health Dr Ko Wing-man at a press conference around 1.30am. He said the locally raised poultry would be transferred to a government farm in Ta Kwu Ling before distribution.
Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL) on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a suicide attack north of Baghdad the day before that killed 16 people and wounded 34 others, AP said.
The group did not mention the nationality of the attacker in a posting on its Twitter account.
Monday’s attack targeted the funeral of the father of two members of pro-government Sunni militias.
Malaysia’s worst flooding in a decade has forced nearly a quarter of a million people from their homes, Reuters quoted officials as saying on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the government came under fire for its perceived slow response. “Exceptionally High” water levels had cut off rescuers from relief centres as the death toll rose to 21 across the north-east, according to the National Security Council.
Fifteen people have been killed in neighbouring southern Thailand.
A health worker who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in Britain was being transferred to a London hospital from Scotland on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
The woman will be treated in an isolation unit at the Royal Free hospital, the Scottish government said.
At least 27 people were injured as a tourist bus flipped over on a road between the Phuket island destinations of Kamala and Patong.
The Russian embassy in Thailand has confirmed that 25 passengers were Russians.
The incident happened when the bus and a car collided on the main road, flipping the Patong-bound bus over into an entranceway next to the Kamala Falls estate.
A spokesperson at Patong Hospital said the injured are being treated after sustaining various injuries, with some being seriously hurt.
Russian opposition activist Aleksey Navalny, who was given a suspended sentence in an embezzlement case Tuesday, has been detained at an unsanctioned rally in central Moscow after defying house arrest.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
URGENT: @Navalny detained at Moscow rally defying house arresthttp://t.co/3hKkjdNLW8 pic.twitter.com/3fZF2hNOYh
— RT (@RT_com) December 30, 2014
Indonesian rescuers recovered three bodies instead of earlier reported number of over 40 from the Java Sea, where a Malaysian passenger aircraft was discovered on Tuesday after it went missing over the weekend, Bambang Soelistyo, The head of Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, said.
“We have recovered three bodies today and they are currently on board the [Indonesian Navy’s] Bung Tomo-class corvette,” he said adding that the discovered bodies belong to two females and one male.
Commenting on earlier reports that rescuers recovered over 40 bodies from the crash scene, Soelistyo said the information emerged as a result of “misunderstanding” between rescue services working in the area.
