UN: Ukraine Civilian Death Toll Rises to Highest in Nearly a Year

FILE PHOTO: Russian army servicemen drive a tank on a street in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, April 6, 2024. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Russian army servicemen drive a tank on a street in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, April 6, 2024. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo
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UN: Ukraine Civilian Death Toll Rises to Highest in Nearly a Year

FILE PHOTO: Russian army servicemen drive a tank on a street in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, April 6, 2024. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Russian army servicemen drive a tank on a street in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, April 6, 2024. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo

The civilian death toll in Ukraine last month rose sharply, to 174, which was the highest level in nearly a year amid an increase in missile and bomb strikes in populated areas around Kharkiv, the UN human rights office said on Friday.
The May toll represented an increase of 31% from April and the highest since June 2023, according to data from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, reported Reuters.



Fire at Hospital in Iran’s North Kills 9 Patients

The Iranian flag. (AFP)
The Iranian flag. (AFP)
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Fire at Hospital in Iran’s North Kills 9 Patients

The Iranian flag. (AFP)
The Iranian flag. (AFP)

A fire broke out at a hospital in Iran's north, killing nine patients, state media reported Tuesday.

The blaze started at 1:30 local time (2200GMT) at Qaem Hospital in the city of Rasht, some 330 kilometers (about 205 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran, state TV said, leaving six women and three men dead.

Chief of the city fire department, Shahram Momeni, said on state TV that an electric short circuit in the basement — which harbors the intensive care unit — malfunctioned, causing the fire.

Momeni said emergency workers rescued more than 140 people, patients and hospital staff, after being trapped because of the smoke, and that 120 of them were hospitalized in other medical facilities. He added that an investigation has been ordered.

A video posted online appeared to show smoke billowing from the hospital in the middle of the night.

Iranian media occasionally report on fires in hospitals and clinics that are mainly blamed on technical issues.

In 2020, an explosion from a gas leak in a medical clinic in northern Tehran killed 19 people.