Deadly Hurricane Beryl causes ‘immense destruction’: World news in brief, 7/3
Deadly Hurricane Beryl causes ‘immense destruction’
KINGSTON (Reuters) — Hurricane Beryl barreled toward Jamaica as a powerful Category 4 storm on Tuesday after battering smaller islands in the eastern Caribbean, and scientists cited human-caused climate change as the likely culprit for the storm’s rapid strengthening. The unusually early hurricane felled power lines and unleashed flash floods. It has so far claimed at least three lives. Beryl, the 2024 Atlantic season’s first hurricane and the earliest storm on record to reach the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, hit St. Vincent and the Grenadines especially hard, according to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.
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More than 100 dead in Indian stampede
NEW DELHI, India (TNS) — At least 107 people, mostly women and children, died in a stampede Tuesday as they tried to exit from a crowded venue of a religious gathering in northern India, according to regional administration officials. Thousands people had gathered for a prayer meeting and sermon organized by a local godman at a tented venue off a highway in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. Some people fainted because of the high humidity and as others tried to rush out, some fell leading to the stampede, senior Uttar Pradesh official Chaitra V said. “The death toll is now 107 and 18 are being treated in local hospitals for injuries,” she added. Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation and trampling, the official added.
Taiwan says China seizes fishing boat near Chinese coast
TAIPEI (Reuters) — Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing boat operating near China’s coast close to a Taiwan-controlled island and took it to a Chinese port, the Taiwan coast guard said late on Tuesday in a further escalation of tensions. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has ramped up pressure on Taipei since President Lai Ching-te took office in May, a man Beijing accuses of being a “separatist”. The fishing boat was operating near the Taiwan-administered Kinmen islands, which sit next to the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, on Tuesday night when it was boarded and seized by two Chinese maritime administration boats, Taiwan’s coast guard said.
Ukraine says it destroyed Russian ammunition depot in Crimea
(Reuters) — Ukraine’s air force commander, Mykola Oleshchuk, said on Tuesday the military had carried out a “destructive strike” on a Russian ammunition depot in Moscow-occupied Crimea on Monday. “Once again, Ukrainian aircraft ‘destroyed’ by enemy propaganda continue to successfully perform combat missions,” Oleshchuk said on Telegram, referring to a report by Russia’s defence ministry that five Ukrainian military jets had been destroyed on an airfield in the Poltava region. Oleshchuk did not specify the exact location but posted a video from a local Ukraine-linked Telegram channel Krymskiy Veter allegedly showing the strike on Balaklava, near Sevastopol.
