The fire erupted on the 5th floor of the six-story Ember Hotel, police said. Khao San Road is a popular backpacker street in the Thai capital that’s also known for its lively nightlife.
| Photo Credit: AP

A fire broke out at a hotel near Bangkok’s Khao San Road, a popular tourist destination, killing three foreigners and injuring several other people, Thai police said Monday (December 30, 2024).

The three who died in the fire on Sunday night were all foreign tourists, Police Colonel Sanong Saengmanee told The Associated Press. One was found dead at the scene and the other two died after being transported to the hospital.

Police later identified the dead as a Brazilian woman, a Ukrainian man and an American man. Four people were hospitalised, of whom one was in critical condition.

The fire erupted on the 5th floor of the six-story Ember Hotel, police said. Khao San Road is a popular backpacker street in the Thai capital that’s also known for its lively nightlife.

The flames were eventually contained and the cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Seventy-five people were staying at the hotel at the time of the fire.

Sreekanth Kolamala, a 37-year-old Indian national who lives in Singapore and was in Thailand on vacation, witnessed the rescue operation and said that firefighters “broke the glass over there to try to pull people out.” Sanga Ruangwattanakul, the president of the Khao San Road Business Association, stood outside The Ember Hotel on Monday, looking at the damage. He said 20,000 people were expected at a New Year’s Eve countdown event on Tuesday night.

“Now everybody’s scared about what happened and they’re scared it will affect the event tomorrow. But definitely there’s no worry because we already had a meeting with the police station and we have over 150 police and district staff to cover on Khao San Road for security,” he said.

Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt also emphasized the importance of safety following the incident, especially as New Year’s Eve approaches, with fireworks and other celebrations planned across the city. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region. File
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Ukraine’s military intelligence has said.

The intelligence agency, known under its acronym GUR, on Thursday (December 27, 2024) said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units. It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even shortages of drinking water.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region. It marked the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost 3-year war.

The casualty disclosure came as the Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.

Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, dealing a significant blow to Russia’s prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from eastern Ukraine, where they were pressing a slow-moving offensive.

The Russian army has been able to reclaim some territory in the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, but has failed to fully dislodge them.

At the same time, Russia has sought to break Ukraine’s resistance with waves of strikes with cruise missiles and drones against Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure.

The latest attack on Christmas morning involved 78 missiles and 106 drones, striking power facilities, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones and jammed 52 other drones.

On Thursday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 31 exploding drones. Twenty were shot down and another 11 didn’t reach their target due to jamming, the Ukrainian air force said.

As part of the daily barrage, Russian forces also struck a central market in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, wounding eight people, according to local authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Thursday that Russia could again hit Ukraine with the new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile that was first used in a Nov 21 strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Speaking to reporters, Putin said Russia has just a few Oreshnik missiles, but added that it wouldn’t hesitate to use them on Ukraine.

“We aren’t in a rush to use them, because those are powerful weapons intended for certain tasks,” he said. “But we wouldn’t exclude their use today or tomorrow if necessary.” Putin said Russia has launched serial production of the new weapon and reaffirmed a plan to deploy some of Oreshnik missiles to Russia’s neighbor and ally Belarus. Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters Thursday that his country could host 10 or more.

Ukraine struck back with drone strikes of its own. Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications said the military struck a plant in Kamensk-Shakhtynsky in Russia’s southern Rostov region that produces propellant for ballistic missiles.

“This strike is part of a comprehensive campaign to weaken the capabilities of the Russian armed forces to carry out terrorist attacks against Ukrainian civilians,” it said in a statement.

Supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan block a highway, during a protest against his arrest, in Karachi, Pakistan May 9, 2023. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S., UK and EU criticized Pakistan’s military courts on Monday (December 24, 2024) over the sentencing of 25 civilians in connection with attacks on military facilities in 2023 after the arrest of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The civilians were sentenced by a Pakistani military court to periods of two to 10 years in a ruling that underscored concerns among Khan’s supporters that military courts will play a bigger role in cases related to the former leader.

Also Read | May 9 riots | 20 convicts freed after reprieve by Pakistan Army chief ahead of Eid

Washington “is deeply concerned that Pakistani civilians have been sentenced by a military tribunal for their involvement in protests on May 9, 2023,” the U.S. State Department said.

The British government’s foreign office added that “trying civilians in military courts lacks transparency, independent scrutiny and undermines the right to a fair trial.”

The European Union said the sentences were “inconsistent with the obligations that Pakistan has undertaken under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”

Khan supporters attacked military installations to protest his arrest by paramilitary soldiers.

The ruling on Saturday came days after Khan was indicted by an anti-terrorism court. After his arrest in May 2023, Khan was briefly released before being arrested again in August that year and he has since been in jail.

He has faced dozens of cases since he was removed as prime minister in 2022, after which he launched a protest movement against a coalition of his rivals led by current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Khan says cases against him, which disqualified him from contesting the 2024 elections, are politically motivated. He had a fallout with Pakistan’s military that he blames for his ouster.

Candidates whom Khan backed secured the highest number of seats in the elections. However, his rivals formed a coalition government. A U.N. human rights working group has said Khan’s detention violates international law.

The military denies political interference. Pakistan’s government denies being unfair in the treatment of Khan or his supporters. The Pakistani embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.

A supporter of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), reacts as he along with others attend a rally demanding his release in Swabi, Pakistan. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Pakistani authorities banned gatherings of five or more people in the capital ahead of a planned march by the supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The two-month ban announced Tuesday (November 19, 2024) comes before a rally Sunday planned by Khan’s party to pressure the government to release the imprisoned former leader.

Officials said the ban is aimed at ensuring peace by stopping any unlawful gathering in the current security environment. The government notice made no mention of any specific security threat, but militant violence has been surging in Pakistan.

Last month, authorities had virtually locked down the city to thwart a similar big political rally by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, forcing the opposition to hold the gathering on the outskirts of the city.

Khan has been in prison for more than a year in connection with more than 150 criminal cases, but he remains popular and his party and supporters say the cases against him are politically motivated.

Khan was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in Parliament, and authorities say they are in talks with Khan’s party to convince it to postpone the rally because of possible militant attacks.

A Taiwan national flag flutters near the Taipei 101 building at the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 7, 2023. Taiwan said Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023 that China sent 43 military aircraft and seven ships near the self-ruled island, the latest sign that Beijing plans no let-up in its campaign of harassment, threats and intimidation.
| Photo Credit: AP

Taiwan said Wednesday that China sent 43 military aircraft and seven ships near the self-ruled island, the latest sign that Beijing plans no let-up in its campaign of harassment, threats and intimidation.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the figure was current for the 24 hours up to 6:00 a.m. Wednesday and that 37 of the aircraft had crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait, which China no longer recognizes as an informal divider between the sides.

It said Taiwan had monitored the situation, scrambled jet fighters, dispatched ships and activated land-based missile systems, all standard responses to Chinese military activities, which include crossing into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone but not into its actual airspace.

Such Chinese maneuvers have become frequent and aggressive since then- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022. China suspended military communication with the U.S. to show its displeasure over her trip to Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory to be brought under under its control by force if necessary.

China’s military maneuvers are seen as intended to break down Taiwanese morale, exhausting its pilots and other personnel and wearing down its equipment. Despite that, the present status of de-facto independence remains widely popular among the island’s voters and the defense budget has been increased to purchase new equipment from the U.S., its chief ally, and to produce some items locally, including submarines.

At an international defense forum in Beijing on Monday, China’s second-ranking military official Gen. Zhang Youxia reiterated threats by the Chinese government to retaliate against moves toward establishing Taiwan’s formal independence, saying that “no matter who tries to split Taiwan from China in any form, China and the Chinese military will never allow that to happen.”

Zhang, who is also vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the world’s largest standing military, opened the three-day event in the absence of former Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu, who would have normally hosted the event.

Li was removed from his position last week after a two-month absence from public view. The government has not provided any reason for his removal.

The Beijing event, attended by military representatives from dozens of countries, was an occasion for China to project regional leadership and boost military cooperation. That comes despite frictions with the U.S., with Japan over an uninhabited East China Sea island group, with its Southeast Asian neighbors over China’s claim to virtually the entire South China and with India along their disputed border.

But in a sign that Washington and Beijing were considering a possible resumption of military dialogue, the U.S. was represented at the forum by a delegation led by Cynthia Carras, the Defense Department’s leading official on China. As of Wednesday, it appeared she had departed without holding any formal meetings with Chinese officials or speaking to the media.

Myanmar’s military launched a second day of air strikes on Wednesday, bombing territory controlled by an ethnic armed group on the border with China, a rebel spokesman told AFP.

The strikes come as the military battles an alliance of armed groups across a northern region that is home to Chinese investment and where the junta says it has lost ground.

A military jet struck a site near the town of Laiza in Kachin state at 12:45 p.m. local time (0615 GMT), Kachin Independence Army (KIA) spokesman Colonel Naw Bu told AFP.

He said there were no details yet on casualties from the strike, adding that it came a day after a jet dropped three bombs on Laiza, killing one person and wounding twelve others.

On Tuesday soldiers and officers were killed when the KIA attempted to seize a major road in Kachin state, according to the junta-controlled Global Light of New Myanmar newspaper.

The military said it had carried out an “appropriate counterattack” without giving details.

The “neighbouring country had been warned in advance”, it said.

In the neighbouring northern Shan state, thousands of people have been reportedly displaced after three other ethnic armed groups launched coordinated attacks on the junta last Friday.

Shan is home to oil and gas pipelines that supply China and a planned billion-dollar rail link, part of Beijing’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

On Tuesday China’s Minister for Public Security met junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyidaw, Myanmar state media said, for a second day of talks with top junta officials about the clashes.

They discussed attacks by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) ethnic armed group “on security camps… with attempts to deteriorate peace and stability in the region”, the Global New Light said.

The MNDAA, along with the Arakan Army (AA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) say they have seized sections of key roads to China — Myanmar’s biggest trade partner — since the beginning of their Friday offensive.

On Wednesday the groups said they were in “complete control” of Chinshwehaw town on the China border and Hsenwi, which sits on the road to the China border.

The junta did not immediately respond to questions about whether it still controls the towns.

AFP was unable to reach residents in Hsenwi and in Hopang township, about 10 kilometres from Chinshwehaw.

The ethnic armed groups said the military has suffered dozens of dead and wounded since Friday although AFP was unable to confirm any casualty figures.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to more than a dozen ethnic armed groups, some of which have fought the military for decades over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have trained and equipped newer “People’s Defence Forces” that have sprung up since the 2021 coup and the military’s bloody crackdown on dissent.

The AA, MNDAA and TNLA — which analysts say can call on at least 15,000 fighters between them — have fought sporadically with the junta since its power grab in 2021.

The military was under “unprecedented pressure to respond to the sharpest military reverses it has suffered” since the coup, Bangkok-based security analyst Anthony Davis told AFP.

Beijing maintains ties with some ethnic armed groups along its border with Myanmar, home to ethnic Chinese communities who use Chinese SIM cards and currency.

It has previously denied reports it has supplied the armed groups with weapons.

Earlier this month nearly 30 people were killed and dozens wounded in a strike on a camp for displaced people in neighbouring Kachin state.

The KIA blamed the junta for the attack.

A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit Jamaica on Monday, prompting people to flee buildings amid heavy shaking.

The earthquake was located about two miles (four kilometers) west-northwest of Hope Bay, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It occurred at a shallow depth of six miles (10 kilometers).

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The earthquake prompted panic on the island. Members attending the International Seabed Authority meeting that began Monday could be seeing fleeing on camera before the broadcast cut off.

Six teenagers were shot at a Louisiana house party, leaving one in critical condition, local authorities said.

Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s deputies responded to a reported shooting on Saturday at a home in the southeast Louisiana town of Lake Charles on Saturday shortly before midnight. When deputies arrived, they found several teenagers with gunshot wounds.

All of the victims were between 15 and 19 years old, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Sunday. Authorities said a fight broke out, which led someone to pull out a gun and start firing. The law enforcement statement did not say whether a suspect had been identified.

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said the investigation was ongoing and urged parents to keep a closer eye on their children.

“We are in the process of collecting evidence and speaking to all the witnesses. This was a party full of teenagers. Once again we have to figure out how these weapons are getting in the hands of our kids,” Mancuso said. “Teen violence is a problem in our country and it is our duty as parents to know what are kids are up to.” All of the teenagers were transported to a hospital, where one remains in critical condition.

More than 1,000 people gathered Sunday evening for a vigil to remember those killed and injured in Maine’s worst mass shooting, some putting their heads in their hands as the 18 names of those who died were read. Others quietly wept.

The vigil at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Lewiston came two days after the body of suspected gunman Robert Card was found. The 40-year-old’s body was discovered in a trailer at a recycling center in Lisbon Falls. Card died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound though it was unclear when, authorities said. Card was also suspected of injuring 13 people in the shooting rampage Wednesday night in Lewiston.

The Rev Todd Little from the First United Pentecostal Church of Lewiston spoke at the vigil of a diverse community that shares something new in common after the tragedy — “shared brokenness, worry, fear and loss.”

He also vowed that the community is bigger than the tragedy and will emerge not just “Lewiston Strong” but “Lewiston Stronger.’

“We will not be defined by the tragedies that happened. Fear, anxiety and trepidation will not dictate our present or our future,” he said.

Earlier in the day, several church services were shaped by the shooting and subsequent lockdown that lasted several days. A the morning mass for Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, several women wore black veils in the cavernous sanctuary, where a church official said they are raising funds to help shooting victims and others hurt by “the horrible events in our small town.”

“We can see the rays of light in darkness,“ the Rev. Daniel Greenleaf told those present. He said that it is for times like this that they have “practiced” their faith for.

“We cannot fix this, but then again human beings are not machines to be fixed,” Greenleaf added.

At Lisbon Falls Baptist Church, arriving church members warmly greeted each other. But the atmosphere turned somber when the Rev. Brian Ganong brought up the tragedy. He prayed for those fighting for their lives, those who lost family and friends, first responders and medical workers, and others — including the Card family, who he said had ties to some members of the church.

“It did happen. We may never know the reason why,” he said, encouraging the congregation to seek solace through a higher being.

Authorities recovered a multitude of weapons during their search for Card and believe he had legally purchased his guns, including those recovered in his car and near his body, said Jim Ferguson, the special agent in charge of the Boston office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He declined to provide specific details about the guns, their make and model, nor exactly how many were found.

Investigators are still searching for a motive for the massacre, but have increasingly been focused on Card’s mental health history. State Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said Card had been hearing voices and had paranoia.

Card believed “people were talking about him and there may even have been some voices at play,” Sauschuck said.

Family members of Card told federal investigators that he had recently discussed hearing voices and became more focused on the bowling alley and bar, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss details of the investigation.

Street life began returning to Lewiston in the city of 37,000. Police missed two clear opportunities to end the lockdown sooner, after failing to find Card’s body in searches of the recycling center Thursday night and early Friday.

For many residents, Sunday was a day to reflect, mourn and, for some, to take the first tentative steps toward normalcy. Some went hunting on the opening day of firearm season for deer, and one family handed out buckets of flowers in downtown. Others gathered at a makeshift memorial to the victims down the street from the bar targeted by Card.

But there were still reminders of the shooting.

Over at Schemengees Bar & Grille, one of the shooting sites, workers in white hazmat suits could be seen methodically cleaning up a staircase. Yellow tape surrounded the site and a small memorial had emerged near the bar, featuring colorful balloons, flowers and a poster that read: “Be Strong Lewiston.”

Parishioners from a Westbrook, Maine, church also came to the site to pay their respects to those killed or injured. With some holding signs honoring the victims, they stood and sang church hymns in front of a memorial featuring flowers, several white crosses and carved pumpkins.

“What happened three or four days ago is very, very painful. When we heard that, we decided to come up from here, sing and share this moment,” said Remy Kazengu, a deacon at the New Apostolic Church in Portland, Maine, some of whose parishioners live in Lewiston and knew some of the shooting victims.

Leroy Walker, an Auburn city councilor and father of one of the victims, was greeting people at a trick-or-treat event on Sunday hosted by an organization he leads.

He smiled broadly when the children hugged him, and accepted hugs from community members. But he became emotional when he spoke of his son, Joseph, who normally would’ve joined him at the event.

“It’s been a tough few days, trust me. The heart doesn’t stop bleeding,” he said. “I miss him every minute. I miss him more every day.”

The deadliest shootings in Maine history stunned a state of 1.3 million people that has relatively little violent crime and had only 29 killings in all of 2022.

Three of the injured remained in critical condition at Central Maine Medical Center, and a fourth was stable, hospital officials said. Another patient was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, and the rest were discharged.

A stay-at-home order in place during the massive search was lifted Friday afternoon, hours before authorities announced they had found Card’s body at the Maine Recycling Corp.

The Lewiston shootings were the 36th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database maintained by AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. The database includes every mass killing since 2006 from all weapons in which four or more people, excluding the offender, were killed within a 24-hour time frame.

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announces that is withdrawing from the presidential campaign during the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 28, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence ended his cash-strapped presidential campaign on October 28, after struggling for months to convince Republican voters he was the best alternative to the man he once served with unswerving loyalty — Donald Trump.

“To the American people I say: This is not my time,” Mr. Pence told attendees at the Republican Jewish Coalition donor conference in Las Vegas.

Mr. Pence, 64, publicly broke with Mr. Trump, lambasting the former president for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Pence gambled that Republican primary voters would reward him for following the U.S. Constitution rather than obeying Mr. Trump, who wanted him to overturn the 2020 election results.

But Mr. Trump’s base of core supporters never forgave Mr. Pence for overseeing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election. They viewed Mr. Pence’s actions in his ceremonial role as president of the U.S. Senate as a supreme act of disloyalty to Mr. Trump, who has become the runaway frontrunner in the Republican race.

Mr. Trump has built one of the biggest primary opinion poll leads in U.S. electoral history. Polls show a majority of Republican voters have embraced, or do not care about, Mr. Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him and his subsequent efforts to overturn the result.

Mr. Pence stopped short of endorsing anyone in his speech on October 28, but in an apparent swipe at Mr. Trump, called on Americans to select someone who appeals to “the better angels of our nature” and can lead with “civility”.

Mr. Pence failed to attract enough anti-Trump Republican primary voters, and donors, to sustain a candidacy that has languished in the low single digits in opinion polls and struggled to raise money since he announced his White House bid in June.

As a result Mr. Pence, a stolid campaigner short on charisma, was low on cash by October and despite spending time and resources in the first Republican nominating state of Iowa, had failed to catch fire there.

When his campaign released Mr. Pence’s third quarter fundraising totals on October 15, his candidacy was $620,000 in debt and only had $1.2 million cash on hand, far less than several better-performing Republican rivals and insufficient to sustain the financial demands of a White House race.

In several past elections, former vice-presidents who have competed to become the White House nominee have succeeded, including Republican George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

This year, Mr. Pence was up against the political juggernaut that is Mr. Trump, along with other rivals who appealed more to anti-Trump primary voters and donors, including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Mr. Pence ran as a traditional social and fiscal conservative, and a foreign policy hawk, calling for increased military aid to Ukraine and cuts in welfare entitlement spending. But that brand of Republicanism has been eclipsed in the Trump-era by full-throated populism and “America First” isolationism.