Earthquake kills 5, injures 44 in Iran
TEHRAN, Iran -- Five people were killed and 44 others injured in a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in southern Iran on Saturday, state television reported.
Rescue teams were deployed near the epicenter, Sayeh Khosh village, which is home to around 300 people in Hormozgan province, some 620 miles south of the capital, Tehran, the report said.
People went into the streets as aftershocks continued to jolt the area after the early morning quake, which also damaged buildings and infrastructure.
The earthquake was felt in many neighboring countries, the report said.
The area has seen several moderate earthquakes in recent weeks. In November, one man died after two magnitude 6.4 and 6.3 earthquakes.
Iran lies on major seismic faults and experiences one earthquake a day on average. In 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake killing 26,000 people in the city of Bam. A magnitude 7 earthquake in 2017 killed more than 600 people and injured more than 9,000 in western Iran.
26 confirmed dead in Indian mudslide
GAUHATI, India -- Fresh rain and falling boulders on Saturday hampered rescuers who have so far pulled out 26 bodies from the debris of a mudslide that wiped out a railroad construction site in India's northeast, officials said.
Rescue work was expected to continue for a couple of days in rugged hilly terrain with little hope of finding survivors among 37 people still missing since Wednesday night.
Pankaj Kavidayal, a rescue official, said 21 of the confirmed 26 dead were members of the Territorial Army. Army personnel had been providing security for the railway officials because of a decades-old insurgency seeking a separate homeland for ethnic and tribal groups in the area.
More than 250 soldiers, rescuers and police using bulldozers and other equipment were involved in the operation in Noney, a town near Imphal, the capital of Manipur state. They have been cautioned about fresh mudslides reported in the region Saturday.
Excavators were also used to search for bodies in a river.
Kavidayal said 13 soldiers and five civilians have been rescued from the debris of the entirely swept away railroad station, staff residential quarters and other infrastructure that was being built. Continuous rainfall over the past three weeks has wreaked havoc across India's northeast, eight states and 45 million people, and neighboring Bangladesh.
An estimated 200 people have been killed in heavy downpours and mudslides in states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim, while 42 have died in Bangladesh since May 17. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
Scientists say climate change is a factor behind the erratic, early rains that triggered unprecedented floods. Monsoon rains in South Asia typically begin in June, but torrential rain lashed northeastern India and Bangladesh as early as March this year.
Migrant groups clash near Serbia border
BELGRADE, Serbia -- A clash between two groups of migrants near the Serbia-Hungary border left one person dead and seven others injured Saturday, Serbia's state television reported.
The migrants were stranded in northern Serbia while attempting to cross into the European Union when the violence began. The injured were taken to a local hospital, including a seriously injured 16-year-old girl, Serbian media reports said, quoting doctors.
They said the clash, which included firearms, occurred in a forest near the border with Hungary. Police blocked off the area while conducting the investigation.
The clash also involved migrant smugglers from Afghanistan and Pakistan who take money to get them across the border, according to the media reports, which couldn't be independently verified.
Thousands of migrants fleeing wars and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East are stranded in the Balkans, one of the major European routes for those trying to reach Western Europe.
Search on for survivors after ship sinks
HONG KONG -- An industrial support ship operating in the South China Sea has sunk in a storm with the possible loss of more than two dozen crew members, rescue services in Hong Kong said Saturday.
Authorities dispatched planes and helicopters to aid in the rescue, with at least three people from the crew of 30 brought to safety as of 5:30 a.m. CST.
Photos released by the Hong Kong Government Flying Service showed one crew member being winched up to a rescue helicopter as big waves lashed the sinking vessels, which had broken up in two parts.
The accident occurred about 186 miles south of Hong Kong.
The Flying Service did not give the name or origin of the vessel. It said in a statement that crew members were negotiating difficulties brought on by Severe Tropical Storm Chaba, which was producing maximum winds of 68 miles per hour.
The storm made landfall in the western part of the coastal province of Guangdong later Saturday.
The Hong Kong service sent two fixed-wing aircraft and four helicopters for the rescue effort.
A helicopter with rescue crew members approaches a sinking ship Saturday in the South China Sea, 186 miles south of Hong Kong, as Typhoon Chaba was moving in the area. (AP/Hong Kong Government Flying Service)