A deadly gas blast tore through a coal mine in northern China on Friday, killing at least 90 people in the country’s worst mining disaster in 17 years, according to state media. State news agency Xinhua said 247 workers were underground when the explosion struck at 7:29 pm (12.29pm Irish time) at the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi province. By this morning, most had been brought to the surface, Xinhua reported, confirming that at least 90 people were dead. The agency said 345 emergency personnel were sent to the scene, where…

A deadly Israeli strike in southern Lebanon has left six people dead — among them two rescuers and a child — according to the Lebanese health ministry, underscoring the volatility that persists despite a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war. The ministry said in a statement that "six people were martyred" in the strike on the village of Deir Qanun al-Nahr, including two rescuers from the Risala Scouts association, one of whom also worked as a freelance photographer, as well as a Syrian girl. The association is…

An Irish doctor detained after Israeli forces intercepted a protest flotilla this week says she was held in conditions she likened to a “horror of a concentration camp”. Dr Margaret Connolly, sister of President Catherine Connolly, was among 14 Irish citizens and 430 activists detained by Israeli authorities after the vessels were stopped at sea on Monday. The group had been travelling with the Global Sumud Flotilla, an effort aimed at breaching the blockade of the Palestinian territory and bringing aid to people in Gaza.…

Tennessee stopped the planned execution of death row inmate Tony Carruthers after medical staff could not secure the intravenous access needed to carry it out, officials said. Carruthers, 57, had been set to die by lethal injection at a Nashville prison for the 1994 killings of Delois Anderson, her son Marcellos Anderson and Frederick Tucker. According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, medical personnel successfully placed a primary IV line for the lethal drugs but were unable to locate a suitable vein for the…

A drone strike in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region hit a college dormitory overnight, killing six people and injuring dozens more, according to Russian officials, in an attack the Kremlin swiftly denounced as terrorism. Up to 15 others remain missing, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in televised remarks, calling the strike a "terrorist" act. Mr Putin said he had instructed the defence ministry to prepare a response, but gave no further details. Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, is almost بالكامل under Russian occupation,…

Mounting tensions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are likely to drive Ebola deeper into the country, an Irish doctor working with Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) has warned. The warning followed an attack yesterday on an Ebola treatment centre in eastern Congo, which was set ablaze by people angered after they were stopped from recovering the body of a local man. About 600 suspected Ebola cases have been recorded in the DRC, along with more than 140 deaths, figures that led the World Health Organization to declare a…

Britain’s police inquiry into former prince Andrew is expected to be lengthy and complicated, senior officers have said, following his arrest earlier this year on suspicion of misconduct in public office — an offence that can encompass sexual impropriety. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was questioned under caution for several hours by detectives after his arrest at his Norfolk home in February, which came after the US Department of Justice released millions of documents connected to the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.…

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has embraced President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to send 5,000 US troops to Poland, a move that reverses an earlier plan shelved as Washington pressed Europe to shoulder more of its own defence. "Of course, I welcome the announcement," Rutte told reporters before a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Sweden, saying NATO's "military commanders are working through all the details". Trump caught allies off guard by unveiling the deployment only hours before Secretary of State Marco…

International condemnation mounted after Israel’s far-right security minister released a video showing Gaza-bound flotilla activists pinned to the ground and mocked, as two detainees later said they were physically assaulted while in custody. The police treatment of the group, carried out under the authority of Itamar Ben-Gvir, prompted criticism not only from Western governments but also from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States, Israel’s closest ally. The activists had been attempting to bring…

Keir Starmer has said he will join the campaign trail for Andy Burnham in the north-west England bye-election, throwing his weight behind a figure widely seen as a possible rival for the Labour leadership. At the same time, the British prime minister and Labour leader tried to shift attention onto his government’s record and away from what he called “all the other discussions that are going on” — an apparent nod to the leadership speculation that has shadowed him since Labour’s heavy losses in local and devolved elections…