عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Earthquake Aftershocks Halt Demolition of Leaning Building in Taiwan as Death Toll Rises to 13

People walk near the partially collapsed residential building Uranus, following the 03 April earthquake in Hualien, Taiwan, 06 April 2024. (EPA)
People walk near the partially collapsed residential building Uranus, following the 03 April earthquake in Hualien, Taiwan, 06 April 2024. (EPA)
TT
TT

Earthquake Aftershocks Halt Demolition of Leaning Building in Taiwan as Death Toll Rises to 13

People walk near the partially collapsed residential building Uranus, following the 03 April earthquake in Hualien, Taiwan, 06 April 2024. (EPA)
People walk near the partially collapsed residential building Uranus, following the 03 April earthquake in Hualien, Taiwan, 06 April 2024. (EPA)

The demolition of a building that is leaning precariously after an earthquake in Taiwan was halted on Saturday because of aftershocks that made it lean even more, media reports said.

The red building, about 10 stories tall and inclined over a street in the city of Hualien, has become an iconic image from the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that also buried people under boulders at nearby Taroko National Park, a popular hiking destination about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Hualien.

The death toll rose to 13 after a third victim was found on the park's Shakadang Trail. Six other people are still missing, including three on the same trail. More than 400 people remained stranded three days after the quake in locations cut off by damage. Most are at a hotel in Taroko park.

Hundreds of aftershocks have struck the area since the Wednesday morning quake off Taiwan's east coast, including a magnitude-5.2 earthquake shortly before noon on Saturday.

Survivors have told harrowing tales of rocks tumbling onto roadways, trapping them in tunnels until rescuers arrived to free them.

The relatively low number of deaths from the powerful quake has been attributed to strict construction standards and widespread public education campaigns on the earthquake-prone island. The quake was the strongest to hit Taiwan since a magnitude 7.7 earthquake in 1999 that killed 2,400 people.

Rescuers were planning to bring in heavy equipment to try to recover two bodies pinned under boulders on the Shakadang Trail. The three dead and three missing on the trail include a family of five. Search and recovery work had been called off Friday afternoon because of aftershocks.

In Hualien, a city official said that experts would discuss how to proceed with the demolition of the leaning building. Offerings were made at a ceremony before the demolition began the previous day.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Belgium to Allow Home Searches for Suspected Illegal Migrants

Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever speaks to the media following a European Union leaders' summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever speaks to the media following a European Union leaders' summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 19, 2026. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Belgium to Allow Home Searches for Suspected Illegal Migrants

Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever speaks to the media following a European Union leaders' summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever speaks to the media following a European Union leaders' summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 19, 2026. (Reuters)

Belgium's parliament ‌early on Friday approved a controversial law allowing police to enter the homes of suspected undocumented migrants who have ignored orders to leave the country.

The measure is part of a broader push by Prime Minister Bart De Wever's right-leaning coalition to limit migration and increase expulsions of those who have been denied the right to stay in the country.

The legislation has drawn strong ‌opposition from ‌human rights groups and lawyers, who ‌argue ⁠that allowing police ⁠to enter private homes for immigration enforcement risks undermining constitutional rights and privacy laws.

Around 3,000 people formed a human chain around Brussels' Palace of Justice on Wednesday evening to protest the bill. More than 50 other demonstrations and gatherings ⁠were organized in towns and cities across ‌the country, Belgian ‌media reported.

The law was finally approved by a ‌majority of lawmakers around 5 a.m. local time (0400 ‌GMT), following a lengthy debate that lasted throughout the night.

Searches will be limited to the homes of people who have been denied asylum in Belgium, ‌have ignored orders to leave and are seen to be a threat to ⁠public ⁠security.

Home searches must be agreed to by an investigative judge and can only occur between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m., with immigration officials present.

Ahead of the vote, Amnesty International urged lawmakers to reject the legislation, which it said could also affect people who help undocumented migrants.

The government has defended the measure as a tool to enforce deportation orders for people who are considered a danger to public order or national security.

World

UN: Nearly 90 Mn Displaced Facing Severe Climate Risks

Scientists say human-caused climate change has made heavy rain and floods more frequent and severe. AFP
Scientists say human-caused climate change has made heavy rain and floods more frequent and severe. AFP
TT
TT

UN: Nearly 90 Mn Displaced Facing Severe Climate Risks

Scientists say human-caused climate change has made heavy rain and floods more frequent and severe. AFP
Scientists say human-caused climate change has made heavy rain and floods more frequent and severe. AFP

Three-quarters of the world's displaced people live in countries facing severe exposure to climate-related hazards, the United Nations said Friday, calling for urgent action to protect them.

Days before the COP31 climate conference in Türkiye, a UN refugee agency report said nearly 90 million refugees and other forcibly displaced people faced severe risks linked to a warming planet.

"Refugees face a double injustice," Anton Leis Garcia, UNHCR's assistant high commissioner for operations, said in a statement.

"Forced to flee conflicts they did not cause, they are now on the frontlines of a climate crisis they have contributed least to."

People forced to flee conflict, violence and persecution find themselves in places grappling with severe droughts, deadly floods and extreme heat, the organization pointed out.

Climate change was also increasingly threatening the prospect of lasting solutions for displaced people, UNHCR said.

It said more than two-thirds of refugees who returned home during the first half of this year went back to countries highly vulnerable to climate hazards.

In Syria, where nearly four million displaced people have recently returned, declining groundwater and climate shocks were threatening recovery, the agency said.

It mentioned flooding along the Euphrates River last May that damaged homes and displaced thousands once again.

Extreme heat was also a growing threat, it said, cautioning that by 2050, one in three refugee settlements across sub-Saharan Africa could face 100 or more days of dangerous heat each year.

Weather-related disasters are meanwhile spurring even more displacement inside countries, causing more than 255 million internal displacements worldwide over the past decade, UNHCR said.

That amounts to 70,000 each day, it pointed out.

This year's exceptionally strong El Nino was expected to cause even more displacement.

In East Africa, forecasts indicate that severe flooding linked with the weather phenomenon could displace up to three million people across Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda by the end of 2026.

"For millions, climate change is not a distant threat. It is destroying shelters, undermining livelihoods and putting their hopes of rebuilding their lives at risk," Garcia said.

UNHCR said only 10 percent of global climate finance goes to fragile and conflict-affected countries hosting large populations of climate-exposed displaced people.

The organization said that during COP31 it would call on governments and climate finance institutions to include refugees and other displaced populations in national climate plans and financing mechanisms.

"We cannot allow those who have already lost so much to be left behind in global climate action," Garcia said.

World

Trump Administration Held Talks with Iran on Deporting Iranians During War

Tehran's Azadi sports complex bombed at the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran (EPA)
Tehran's Azadi sports complex bombed at the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran (EPA)
TT
TT

Trump Administration Held Talks with Iran on Deporting Iranians During War

Tehran's Azadi sports complex bombed at the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran (EPA)
Tehran's Azadi sports complex bombed at the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran (EPA)

US President Donald Trump’s administration held secret talks with Iran on deporting Iranians, court documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

The court documents unsealed Thursday show the Republican administration as recently as mid-October said it had plans to deport the Iranians through an unnamed third country, although they did not specify when that would be carried out.

The judge in the case ordered the government to give the court 24-hour notice of any finalized plans to deport Iranians to Iran or to any other country and five days’ written notice before any such deportation is carried out.

A legal group representing Iranians held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement said at least a dozen Iranian detainees had been notified over the past week that they were being deported to Iran, with some told it could be as soon as this coming Sunday.

The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund said Thursday the Iranian detainees were contacted by the Iranian Interest Section, an Iranian representative office in the Pakistani Embassy in Washington that handles consular affairs, in the past week and notified of an upcoming deportation flight to Iran through Pakistan. Some had also been notified by DHS officials of the upcoming deportation.

One of those detainees attempted suicide once he learned he might be returned to Iran, according to Yasmine Chubin, the executive director of the organization. He was one of two people who were subsequently moved across state lines to a detention center where detainees are often sent immediately before a removal.

None of the detainees who have been contacted have been provided any information in writing from immigration authorities, the legal group said.

“Some of those same asylum applicants, and others who could face the same death, are being sent back — all against a backdrop of further and intensifying US bombing of Iran,” Chubin said. “This flight must be stopped.”

Activists abroad have expressed concern about deportees returning to Iran, whose theocracy has been cracking down on intellectuals and where the government vociferously cracks down on any dissent.

The lawsuit on the Iranian asylum seekers alleges the Trump administration’s immigration agencies have been sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government, violating national immigration regulations and endangering countless Iranians, court filings state.

The lawsuit depicts a coordinated campaign between the US and Iranian governments to identify Iranians in ICE custody and pressure them to return to Iran — a marked departure from decades of diplomatic hostility between the two governments.

DHS has denied that it is sharing asylum application records with the Iranian government. The judge overseeing the case said it was possible the government shared the confidential information, but appeared skeptical of claims that have arisen in the lawsuit that DHS has a coordinated policy of sharing those records.

In addition, hundreds of emails exchanged between US immigration officials exposed how the two countries worked together to arrange for more than 100 Iranians to be flown back to Iran on three immigration flights in September and December 2025 and January 2026.