Nepal Landslides Kill Nine, Including 3 Children

Nepalese farmers plant rice saplings in terraced paddy fields during the beginning of the monsoon season in the Nagarkot village, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 June 2024. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA
Nepalese farmers plant rice saplings in terraced paddy fields during the beginning of the monsoon season in the Nagarkot village, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 June 2024. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA
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Nepal Landslides Kill Nine, Including 3 Children

Nepalese farmers plant rice saplings in terraced paddy fields during the beginning of the monsoon season in the Nagarkot village, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 June 2024. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA
Nepalese farmers plant rice saplings in terraced paddy fields during the beginning of the monsoon season in the Nagarkot village, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 June 2024. EPA/NARENDRA SHRESTHA

At least nine people, including three children, were killed after heavy monsoon rains in west Nepal triggered landslides, an official said on Saturday.
Five members of a family were sleeping when their house was washed away by a landslide in Malika village in Gulmi district, about 250 km west of Kathmandu, according to Dizan Bhattarai, a spokesman for the National Disaster Rescue and Reduction Management Authority.
“Bodies of all five have been recovered,” Bhattarai told Reuters, adding that the family included two children.
In neighboring Syangja district, one woman and her three year old daughter died in a landslide that swept away their house, while in Baglung district, which borders Gulmi, two people were killed in another landslide.
At least 35 people across Nepal have died in landslides, floods and lightning strikes since mid-June when annual monsoon rains started. Rains normally continue until mid-September.
Landslides and flash floods are common in mostly mountainous Nepal during the monsoon season and kill hundreds of people every year.



Germany Arrests Five Suspected of War Crimes in Syria

German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
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Germany Arrests Five Suspected of War Crimes in Syria

German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle
German police secure the main train station in Munich, Germany, January 1, 2016. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

German police arrested four stateless Syrian Palestinians and one Syrian national suspected of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria some 10 years ago, prosecutors said.
The men, identified in line with German privacy laws only as Jihad A., Mahmoud A., Sameer S. and Wael S. are suspected to have been affiliated with the Free Palestine Movement in Syria. Mazhar J. is suspected to have been a Syrian Intelligence Officer, said prosecutors in a statement on Wednesday.
"The individuals ... are strongly suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians (which) qualified as crimes against humanity and war crimes," the statement said.
Jihad A., Mazhar J. and Sameer S. were arrested in Berlin, Mahmoud A. in Frankenthal in the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Wael S. in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, said prosecutors.
The individuals are suspected of participating in a violent crackdown on a peaceful anti-government protest in Al Yarmouk in July 2012, in which civilian protesters were targeted and shot at. Six individuals died and others were seriously injured, Reuters quoted prosecutors as saying.
The suspected militia members are also accused of punching and kicking civilians between 2012 and 2014 at checkpoints and beating them with rifle butts, according to prosecutors.
One individual was handed over to the Syrian Military Intelligence Service to be imprisoned and tortured, they said. In addition, one of the suspects is suspected of having turned in to authorities three people killed in a mass execution of 41 civilians in April 2013.
The arrests were made thanks to Germany's universal jurisdiction laws, which allow courts to prosecute crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world. Authorities coordinated with Sweden in a joint investigation.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a separate statement it had arrested three people in Sweden for crimes against international law committed in Syria in 2012.