Officials Say at Least 2 People are Dead and 8 are Missing after Stone Quarry Collapse in Indonesia

Representation photo: Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Representation photo: Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
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Officials Say at Least 2 People are Dead and 8 are Missing after Stone Quarry Collapse in Indonesia

Representation photo: Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Representation photo: Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A natural stones quarry in Indonesia’s West Java province collapsed on several people who were working inside on Friday, killing at least two people and leaving several workers missing, officials said.

At least 10 people were trapped in the rubble when the mine in Cirebon district collapsed, West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi estimated in a video statement, and rescuers have retrieved at least two bodies.

The exact number of casualties was still unclear as local television reported rescuers were able to pull at least a dozen injured people from the debris and recover bodies during a grueling search effort.

Police, emergency personnel, soldiers and volunteers were trying to locate any remaining worker. Their efforts were hampered by unstable soil that risked further slides, the television report said.



Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.