At Least 20 Killed in Shooting in Las Vegas

At least 20 people were killed and over 100 wounded in a shooting in the US city of Las Vegas. (AFP)
At least 20 people were killed and over 100 wounded in a shooting in the US city of Las Vegas. (AFP)
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At Least 20 Killed in Shooting in Las Vegas

At least 20 people were killed and over 100 wounded in a shooting in the US city of Las Vegas. (AFP)
At least 20 people were killed and over 100 wounded in a shooting in the US city of Las Vegas. (AFP)

At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when a gunman opened fire at a music festival in the US city of Las Vegas on Sunday.

The attacker fired down from the 32nd floor of a hotel, where he was shot dead by police.

Police described the suspect as being a local Las Vegas man who acted alone and was not believed to be connected to any militant group, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.

Concert-goers reported hearing what they described as automatic gun fire during the shooting.

The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since a gunman who pledged allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in June 2016.

"We have no idea what his belief system was," Lombardo said.

"Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor and the scene is static."

Authorities were seeking a woman they named as Marilou Danley, he said. He described her as Asian, 4 foot 11 inches (1.5 m) tall, 111 pounds (50 kg). He gave no details of whether she was suspected of involvement in the attack but described her as an "associate".

Police were also searching for two cars that belonged to the suspect.

Lombardo said rumors of other shootings or explosives such as car bombs in the area were false. Video taken of the attack showed panicked crowds fleeing as sustained rapid gunfire ripped through the area.

Las Vegas's casinos, nightclubs and shopping are a major draw for some 3.5 million visitors from around the world each year and the area was packed with visitors when the shooting broke out shortly after 10 p.m. (0400 GMT).

Police warned the death toll may rise.

"I don't want to give you an accurate number because I don't have it yet," Lombardo said.

At least one police officer was hospitalized with critical injuries, Lombardo said.

The shooting broke out on the last night of the three-day Route 91 Harvest festival, a sold-out event attended by thousands and featuring top acts such as Eric Church, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean.

US media, including Fox News, reported that Aldean was performing when the rampage began but that he had been bundled safely off stage at the event outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in the Nevada gambling resort. CNN reported all the performers were safe.

Lombardo said the gunfire came from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, where the gunman was killed.

Police have disclosed no information that would suggest a motive for the shooting or revealed the identify of the suspect.

Even so, the rampage was reminiscent of a mass shooting at a Paris rock concert in November 2015 that killed 89 people, part of a coordinated attack by ISIS that left 130 dead.

A witness named Christine told CNN both she and her husband had separately taken shooting victims to two hospitals, the University Medical Center and the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

"The shots just kept coming," she said. "Everyone was telling us 'run, run as fast as you can'."

The concert venue was in an outdoor area known as Las Vegas Village, across the Strip from the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor hotels.

The Mandalay Bay hotel is near McCarran International Airport, which said on Twitter it had temporarily halted flights after the shooting. Later, the airport said that some flights had resumed.

The United States has seen a series of deadly mass shootings in recent years. Prior to Orlando, the deadliest occurred in April 2007 when a gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university and in December 2012 a man killed 26 young children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Mike McGarry, a 53-year-old financial adviser from Philadelphia, said he was at the concert when he heard hundreds of shots ring out.

"It was crazy - I laid on top of the kids. They're 20. I'm 53. I lived a good life," McGarry said. The back of his shirt bore footmarks, after people ran over him in the panicked crowd.

Hours after the shooting, Aldean posted on Instagram that he and his crew were safe and said the shooting was "beyond horrific."

Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said he and his girlfriend were watching Aldean's performance when he heard what sounded like fireworks. The music stopped temporarily and started up again before another round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.

Thousands fled as bursts of gunfire could be heard for more than five minutes, Yazzie said.

Authorities shut down part of the Las Vegas Strip and Interstate 15. Flights were temporarily halted at McCarran International Airport because of the shooting, the airport said on its verified Twitter account.



Thailand and Cambodia Sign New Ceasefire Agreement to End Border Fighting

A handout photo made available by the Defense Ministry of Thailand shows Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha (L) and Thai Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit attending a General Border Committee Meeting in Ban Pak Kard, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, 27 December 2025. (EPA/Defense Ministry of Thailand/Handout)
A handout photo made available by the Defense Ministry of Thailand shows Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha (L) and Thai Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit attending a General Border Committee Meeting in Ban Pak Kard, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, 27 December 2025. (EPA/Defense Ministry of Thailand/Handout)
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Thailand and Cambodia Sign New Ceasefire Agreement to End Border Fighting

A handout photo made available by the Defense Ministry of Thailand shows Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha (L) and Thai Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit attending a General Border Committee Meeting in Ban Pak Kard, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, 27 December 2025. (EPA/Defense Ministry of Thailand/Handout)
A handout photo made available by the Defense Ministry of Thailand shows Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Seiha (L) and Thai Defense Minister Natthaphon Narkphanit attending a General Border Committee Meeting in Ban Pak Kard, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand, 27 December 2025. (EPA/Defense Ministry of Thailand/Handout)

Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday signed a ceasefire agreement to end weeks of armed combat along their border over competing claims to territory. It took effect at noon local time.

In addition to ending fighting, the agreement calls for no further military movements by either side and no violations of either side’s airspace for military purposes.

Only Thailand employed airstrikes in the fighting, hitting sites in Cambodia as recently as Saturday morning, according to the Cambodian defense ministry.

The deal also calls for Thailand, after the ceasefire has held for 72 hours, to repatriate 18 Cambodian soldiers it has held as prisoners since earlier fighting in July. Their release has been a major demand of the Cambodian side.

The agreement was signed by the two countries’ defense ministers, Cambodia’s Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Nattaphon Narkphanit, at a checkpoint on their border after lower-level talks by military officials met for three days as part of the already-established General Border Committee.

The agreement declares that the two sides are committed to an earlier ceasefire that ended five days of fighting in July and follow-up agreements and includes commitments to 16 de-escalation measures.

The original July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from US President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.

Despite those deals, the two countries carried on a bitter propaganda war and minor cross-border violence continued, escalating in early December to widespread heavy fighting.

Thailand has lost 26 soldiers and one civilian as a direct result of the combat since Dec. 7, according to officials. Thailand has also reported 44 civilian deaths from collateral effects of the situation.

Cambodia hasn’t issued an official figure on military casualties, but says that 30 civilians have been killed and 90 injured. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from affected areas on both sides of the border.

Each side blamed the other for initiating the fighting and claimed to be acting in self-defense.

The agreement also calls on both sides to adhere to international agreements against deploying land mines, a major concern of Thailand. Thai soldiers along the border have been wounded in at least nine incidents this year by what they said were newly planted Cambodian mines. Cambodia says the mines were left over from decades of civil war that ended in the late 1990s.

Another clause says the two sides “agree to refrain from disseminating false information or fake news.”

The agreement also says previously established measures to demarcate the border will be resumed and the two sides also agree to cooperate on an effort to suppress transnational crimes.

That is primarily a reference to online scams perpetrated by organized crime that have bilked victims around the world of billions of dollars each year. Cambodia is a center for such criminal enterprises.


Russia Attacks Kyiv with Missiles and Drones, Wounding 11 ahead of Ukraine-US Meeting

Firefighters work at the site of a private home that went up in flames after it was hit by a Russian drone during a night of attacks on Kyiv, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, November 29, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Firefighters work at the site of a private home that went up in flames after it was hit by a Russian drone during a night of attacks on Kyiv, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, November 29, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Russia Attacks Kyiv with Missiles and Drones, Wounding 11 ahead of Ukraine-US Meeting

Firefighters work at the site of a private home that went up in flames after it was hit by a Russian drone during a night of attacks on Kyiv, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, November 29, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Firefighters work at the site of a private home that went up in flames after it was hit by a Russian drone during a night of attacks on Kyiv, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, November 29, 2025. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones early Saturday morning, wounding at least 11 people a day before talks between Ukraine and the US, local authorities said.

Explosions boomed across the capital for hours as ballistic missiles and drones hit the city. The attack began in the early morning hours Saturday and was continuing as day broke.

The attack came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to meet with US President Donald Trump on Sunday for further talks in an effort to end the nearly four-year-old war. Zelenskyy said they plan to discuss issues including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Two children were among those injured in the attack, which affected seven locations across the city of Kyiv said the head of Kyiv's City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko in a statement on Telegram, The Associated Press said.

A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district of the city, and emergency crews rushed to the scene to contain the flames.

A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.

In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.


Russia Lashes Out at Zelensky ahead of New Trump Talks on Ukraine Plan

Trump is trying to broker an agreement between the warring sides to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II. Jim WATSON, Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP/File
Trump is trying to broker an agreement between the warring sides to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II. Jim WATSON, Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP/File
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Russia Lashes Out at Zelensky ahead of New Trump Talks on Ukraine Plan

Trump is trying to broker an agreement between the warring sides to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II. Jim WATSON, Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP/File
Trump is trying to broker an agreement between the warring sides to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II. Jim WATSON, Tetiana DZHAFAROVA / AFP/File

Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend, but Russia accused the Ukrainian president and his EU backers Friday of seeking to "torpedo" a US-brokered plan to stop the fighting.

Sunday's meeting to discuss new peace proposals comes as Trump intensifies efforts to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II, one that has killed tens of thousands since February 2022, AFP said.

The 20-point plan would freeze the war on its current front line but open the door for Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, where demilitarized buffer zones could be created, according to details revealed by Zelensky this week.

Ahead of the talks, AFP journalists reported several powerful explosions in Kyiv on Saturday, and authorities warned of a possible missile attack.

“Explosions in the capital. Air defense forces are operating. Stay in shelters!" Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

Ukraine's air force announced a countrywide air alert and said drones and missiles were moving over several regions including Kyiv.

Zelensky's office said earlier that a meeting with Trump is planned for Sunday in Florida, where the US leader has a home.

Trump, speaking to news outlet Politico, said about Zelensky's plan that "he doesn't have anything until I approve it", adding: "So we'll see what he's got."

Zelensky meanwhile said he held telephone talks on Friday with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz and a host of other European leaders.

A spokesperson for Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the leaders "reiterated their unshakeable commitment for a just and lasting peace for Ukraine and the importance that talks continue to progress towards this in the coming days".

Security guarantees

The new plan formulated with Ukraine's input is Kyiv's most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions and is very different from an initial 28-point proposal tabled by Washington last month that adhered to many of Russia's core demands.

Part of the plan includes separate US-Ukraine bilateral agreements on security guarantees, reconstruction and the economy. Zelensky said those were changing on a daily basis.

"We will discuss these documents, security guarantees," he said of Sunday's meeting.

"As for sensitive issues, we will discuss (the eastern region of) Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and we will certainly discuss other issues," he added.

Russia signaled its opposition to the plan ahead of the Florida talks.

The Kremlin said Friday that foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov had held telephone talks with US officials, and deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov criticized Zelensky's stance.

Russia accuses EU

"Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party," Ryabkov said on Russian television.

"Especially in a context where Kyiv and its sponsors -- notably within the European Union, who are not in favor of an agreement -- have stepped up efforts to torpedo it."

He said the proposal drawn up with Zelensky input "differs radically" from points initially drawn up by US and Russian officials in contacts this month.

He said any deal had to "remain within the limits" fixed by Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin when they met in Alaska in August, or else "no accord can be reached".

Zelensky said this week there were still disagreements between Kyiv and Washington over the two core issues of territory and the status of the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Washington has pushed Ukraine to withdraw from the 20 percent of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls -- Russia's main territorial demand.

It has also proposed joint US-Ukrainian-Russian control of Zaporizhzhia, Europe's largest nuclear plant, which Russia seized during the invasion.

Zelensky said he could only give up more land if the Ukrainian people agree to it in a referendum, and he does not want Russian participation in the nuclear plant.

But Moscow has shown little inclination to abandon its hardline territorial demands that Ukraine fully withdraw from Donbas and end efforts to join NATO.

Zelensky said Ukrainian negotiators were not directly in touch with Moscow, but that the United States acted as intermediary and was awaiting Russia's response to the latest proposal.

"I think we will know their official response in the coming days," Zelensky said.

"Russia is always looking for reasons not to agree," he added.