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Tag: Evacuations

  • Four new astronauts arrive at the ISS to replace NASA’s evacuated crew

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    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The International Space Station returned to full strength with Saturday’s arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns.

    SpaceX delivered the U.S., French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral.

    Last month’s medical evacuation was NASA’s first in 65 years of human spaceflight. One of four astronauts launched by SpaceX last summer suffered what officials described as a serious health issue, prompting their hasty return. That left only three crew members to keep the place running — one American and two Russians — prompting NASA to pause spacewalks and trim research.

    Moving in for eight to nine months are NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev. Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have lived up there before. During her first station visit in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk.

    Adenot, a military helicopter pilot, is only the second French woman to fly in space. Hathaway is a captain in the U.S. Navy.

    NASA has refused to divulge the identity of the astronaut who fell ill in orbit on Jan. 7 or explain what happened, citing medical privacy. The ailing astronaut and three others returned to Earth more than a month sooner than planned. They spent their first night back on Earth at the hospital before returning to Houston.

    The space agency said it did not alter its preflight medical checks for their replacements.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • New astronauts launch to the International Space Station after medical evacuation

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    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A new crew rocketed toward the International Space Station on Friday to replace the astronauts who returned to Earth early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.

    SpaceX launched the replacements as soon as possible at NASA’s request, sending the U.S., French and Russian astronauts on an expected eight- to nine-month mission stretching until fall. The four should arrive at the orbiting lab Saturday, filling the vacancies left by their evacuated colleagues last month and bringing the space station back to full staff.

    “It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the astronauts reached orbit. “That was quite a ride,” replied the crew’s commander, Jessica Meir.

    NASA had to put spacewalks on hold and deferred other duties while awaiting the arrival of Americans Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot and Russia’s Andrei Fedyaev. They’ll join three other astronauts — one American and two Russians — who kept the space station running the past month.

    Satisfied with medical procedures already in place, NASA ordered no extra checkups for the crew ahead of liftoff and no new diagnostic equipment was packed. An ultrasound machine already up there for research went into overdrive Jan. 7 when used on the ailing crew member. NASA has not revealed the ill astronaut’s identity or health issue. All four returning astronauts went straight to the hospital after splashing down in the Pacific near San Diego.

    It was the first time in 65 years of human spaceflight that NASA cut short a mission for medical reasons.

    With missions becoming longer, NASA is constantly looking at upgrades to the space station’s medical gear, said deputy program manager Dina Contella. “But there are a lot of things that are just not practical and so that’s when you need to bring astronauts home from space,” she said earlier this week.

    In preparation for moon and Mars trips where health care will be even more challenging, the new arrivals will test a filter designed to turn drinking water into emergency IV fluid, try out an ultrasound system that relies on artificial intelligence and augmented reality instead of experts on the ground, and perform ultrasound scans on their jugular veins in a blood clot study.

    They also will demonstrate their moon-landing skills in a simulated test drawing extra attention because of the impending launch of four astronauts to the moon on Artemis II, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century.

    Adenot is only the second French woman to launch to space. She was 14 when Claudie Haignere flew to Russia’s space station Mir in 1996, inspiring her to become an astronaut. Haignere cheered her on from the Florida launch site, wishing her “Bon vol,” French for “Have a good flight,” and “Ad astra,” Latin for “To the stars.”

    Hathaway, like Adenot, is new to space, while Meir and Fedyaev are making their second station trip. On her first mission in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk. The other half of that spacewalk, Christina Koch, is among the four Artemis II astronauts waiting to fly around the moon as early as March. A ship-to-ship radio linkup is planned between the two crews.

    Meir wasn’t sure astronauts would return to the moon during her career. “Now we’re right here on the precipice of the Artemis II mission,” she said ahead of liftoff. “The fact that they will be in space at the same time as us … it’s so cool to be an astronaut now, it’s so exciting.”

    SpaceX launched the latest crew from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Elon Musk’s company is preparing its neighboring Kennedy Space Center launch pad for the supersized Starships, which NASA needs to land astronauts on the moon.

    NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman said following Friday’s liftoff that testing continues at the Artemis pad, where the Space Launch System moon rocket awaits liftoff. A practice fueling last week unleashed hydrogen fuel leaks. Two seals have since been replaced and a mini fueling conducted.

    Isaacman stressed that no launch date will be set until additional fueling tests — potentially a series of them — are completed. The earliest that Artemis II could launch is March 3, he noted.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Philippines evacuates 3,000 people after activity increases at Mayon Volcano

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    MANILA, Philippines — A series of mild eruptions at the most active volcano in the Philippines has prompted the evacuation of nearly 3,000 villagers from a danger zone on its foothills, officials said Wednesday.

    Authorities raised the 5-step alert around Mayon Volcano in the northeastern province of Albay to level 3 on Tuesday after detecting intermittent rockfalls, some as big as cars, from its peak crater in recent days along with deadly pyroclastic flows — a fast-moving avalanche of super-hot rock fragments, ash and gas.

    Alert level 5 would indicate that a major explosive eruption, often with violent ejections of ash and debris and widespread ashfall, is underway.

    “This is already an eruption, a quiet one, with lava accumulating up the peak and swelling the dome, which cracked in some parts and resulted in rockfalls, some as big as cars,” Teresito Bacolcol, the country’s chief volcanologist, told The Associated Press.

    He said it is too early to tell if Mayon’s restiveness would worsen and lead to a major and violent eruption given the absence of other key signs of unrest, like a spike in volcanic earthquakes and high levels of sulfur dioxide emissions.

    Troops, police and disaster-mitigation personnel helped evacuate more than 2,800 villagers from 729 households inside a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius from the volcano’s crater that officials have long designated a permanent danger zone, demarcated by concrete warning signs, Albay provincial officials said.

    Another 600 villagers living outside the permanent danger zone have evacuated voluntarily to government-run emergency shelters to be safely away from the volcano, Claudio Yucot, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense, said.

    Entry to the permanent danger zone in the volcano’s foothills is prohibited, but thousands of villagers have flouted the restrictions and made it their home or maintained farms on and off for generations. Lucrative businesses, such as sand and gravel quarrying and sightseeing tours, have also thrived openly despite the ban and the mountain’s frequent eruptions — now 54 times since records began in 1616.

    The 2,462-meter (8,007-foot) volcano is one of the Philippines’ top tourism draws because of its near-perfect cone shape. But it’s also the most active of the country’s 24 restive volcanoes.

    A terrifying symbol of Mayon’s deadly fury is the belfry of a 16th-century Franciscan stone church which protrudes from the ground in Albay. It’s all that’s left of a baroque church that was buried by volcanic mudflow along with the town of Cagsawa in an 1814 eruption which killed about 1,200 people, including many who sought refuge in the church, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the volcano.

    The thousands of people who live within Mayon’s danger zone reflect the plight of many impoverished Filipinos who are forced to live in dangerous places across the archipelago — near active volcanoes like Mayon, on landslide-prone mountainsides, along vulnerable coastlines, atop earthquake fault lines, and in low-lying villages often engulfed by flash floods.

    Each year, about 20 typhoons and storms batter the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of fault lines along the Pacific Ocean basin often hit by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

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  • Massive apartment construction site fire in Denver burns into Saturday

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    DENVER — A massive fire that tore through a three-story apartment complex under construction in Denver on Friday evening was still smoldering Saturday as crews battled hotspots.

    The blaze erupted at the Harker Heights building site at around 6:45 p.m. Friday near S. Leetsdale Drive and S. Forest Street, forcing street closures, evacuations and injuring one firefighter. No other injuries were reported. S. Leestdale Drive remains closed between S. Forest and S. Holly streets.

    Evacuations were issued for residents behind the construction site on Friday evening due to heat from the fire. Officials said 12 families stayed at an emergency shelter overnight from Friday into Saturday, but the shelter closed around noon on Saturday.

    “We just all were rushing into the car, and my dad was grabbing drinks because we didn’t know if we were going to have to stay out of our house all day,” said an evacuee.

    The fire has caused significant air quality concerns, and nearby residents were advised to stay indoors.

    “I would try to find a way to avoid breathing in this smoke. It is not good for you. Wear a mask or just get plain, get away from it. There’ll be smoke generating from this for a while,” said Robert Murphy, operations division chief for the Denver Fire Department.

    The fire continued to spread eastward through the unfinished structure throughout the night. More than 150 firefighters worked to control it.

    Denver

    Apartment construction site fire took up ‘a complete city block’ in Denver

    Fire officials said the flames engulfed an entire city block, causing significant damage to the structure and multiple pieces of construction equipment. They said that several nearby homes and businesses may have sustained exposure damage, such as heat or smoke impact. Power outages in the immediate area were also reported.

    A full damage assessment has not been completed. Firefighters said multiple sections of the building have collapsed, making it impossible to search for potential victims or determine the cause of the fire at this time.

    Denver7

    “There was a little bit of wind when this fire first came in,” said Murphy. “A fire of this size actually generates its own mini wind and starts pushing those embers out. When I arrived, those embers completely covered my car. That has since died down. That was when the fire was at its peak.”

    He said the complex did not have any drywall to slow the fire’s progress, and was not yet outfitted with a sprinkler system.

    “This has really reached the level of about a five-alarm fire, which is huge for Denver,” he explained.

    On Saturday morning, AirTracker7 flew over the scene and captured video of at least 35 firefighters still battling flames in parts of the unfinished structure. Firefighters will work throughout the day and night to extinguish the fire.

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    Denver7

    A nearby resident, Lauren McClelland, told Denver7 that they initially thought the entire area was on fire.

    “I was scared,” said McClelland. “As I was driving, I was thinking that my neighborhood was on fire.”

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    Bryce Beamish

    Another neighbor, Ila Bordelon-Walker, said she mistook the blaze for fireworks at first.

    “I was actually taking a nap when I heard this really loud booming sound. Waking up, I thought it was leftover fireworks from New Year’s, so I just stayed in my room for a while,” said Bordelon-Walker.

    In a statement Saturday, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston praised firefighters:

    “Last night, our city witnessed true courage. Our firefighters ran toward danger when a huge fire broke out at a construction site in the Hilltop/Glendale area. More than 150 firefighters put their own safety on the line, and thanks to their quick response and bravery, families are safe and nearby businesses were protected. We are incredibly grateful to the Denver Fire Department today, and to the crews from neighboring districts who jumped in to support. We don’t know the cause, but the fire department will begin a thorough investigation. For now, we just want to say thank you,” Johnston said.

    Massive apartment construction site fire in Denver burns into Saturday

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  • Shopping mall shooting wounds 2, prompts Black Friday evacuation in the Bay Area

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    SAN JOSE, California — Police in California evacuated a shopping mall Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, after a shooting left two people with gunshot wounds.

    The shooting was an isolated incident, the San Jose Police Department said on the social platform X.

    Officers evacuated and cleared Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara to confirm there was no threat to public safety.

    The wounded were taken to a hospital, police said.

    San Jose and Santa Clara are neighboring cities about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of San Francisco.

    The day after Thanksgiving, known in the retail industry as “ Black Friday,” marks the official start of the holiday shopping season in the U.S. and is the biggest shopping day of the year.

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  • What to know about the apartment tower fire in Hong Kong

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    HONG KONG — Hong Kong firefighters were making a final push to try and find victims and any possible survivors from the city’s worst fire in memory, going apartment-to-apartment in the high-rise complex in an exhaustive search.

    At least 128 people were known to have died in the blaze that started Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court in the suburban Tai Po district. Dozens more were injured, and about 900 of the 4,800 residents were evacuated to temporary shelters.

    Seven of the eight 32-story towers in the building complex were engulfed in flames after construction materials and bamboo scaffolding spread the fire. Officials said extreme heat was hampering rescue efforts.

    The fire was deadlier than a 1996 blaze in a commercial building in Kowloon that killed 41 people. A warehouse fire in 1948 killed 176 people, according to the South China Morning Post.

    Here’s what to know about the fire:

    Officials are investigating why construction materials, netting and bamboo scaffolding being used in renovations to the exterior of the buildings caught fire.

    In the meantime, authorities arrested three people, the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company, on suspicion of manslaughter. Police did not name the company, but they searched the office of Prestige Construction & Engineering Co., which The Associated Press confirmed was in charge of the renovations. Phone calls to the company’s offices went unanswered.

    Officials said they suspect that some materials, such as plastic foam panels being used to protect windows from damage, did not meet fire resistance standards. High winds helped spread the flames.

    About a third of Hong Kong residents live in the government’s Housing Authority dwellings. Wang Fuk Court is privately owned but subsidized housing built in the 1980s.

    The basic apartments in the complex measure 40-45 square meters (430-485 square feet), according to online real estate listings. Like most Hong Kong mass market housing, they appear to lack smoke detectors or sprinkler systems.

    The buildings were constructed before revisions to Hong Kong’s fire codes required mandatory fire refuge floors.

    Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents mostly live in cramped apartments crammed on scarce flat lands or perched on the slopes of steep mountainsides. Many of those high-rise buildings are crowded closely together.

    Firefighters struggled to bring the blaze under control as their ladders and hoses could only reach just over halfway up the 32-story buildings, or about 53 meters (174 feet) — under 20 stories.

    High winds and extremely high heat may have prevented use of aerial equipment such as helicopters. The high temperatures also deterred firefighters from entering the buildings to fight the blaze and rescue survivors, said Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong’s Fire Services.

    Hong Kong leader John Lee said the government would set up a task force to investigate the fire and the case would be submitted to the Coroner’s Court, which conducts inquiries into the causes and circumstances of certain deaths.

    Lee said the government planned to inspect all housing estates undergoing major repairs to review the safety of scaffolding and construction materials. He also promised to provide “all possible support” to those affected by the fire.

    The hundreds of survivors who were evacuated or were outside the buildings at the time the fire started were staying in temporary shelters, including a nearby school.

    There, workers were distributing bottled water, food and other necessities. Volunteers were bringing supplies like water and snacks.

    More than 70 people were injured, including about a dozen firefighters, the city’s Fire Services Department said.

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  • Hundreds evacuated and dozens hospitalized after an ammonia gas leak in Oklahoma

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    WEATHERFORD, Okla. — Hundreds of people were evacuated from a city in Oklahoma and others were told to shelter in place after a tanker truck that was leaking in a hotel parking lot spewed a plume of anhydrous ammonia gas, authorities said Thursday.

    The gas release happened shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday. People in the immediate area were in respiratory distress and at least 36 people were taken to a local hospital, city officials said at a news conference. Eleven of them were brought to other hospitals for further treatment.

    At least 500 to 600 people were in a shelter as of Thursday morning, authorities said. Several nursing homes were evacuated and schools were closed for the day. Those that were told to shelter in place were in a triangle-shaped area, including businesses that were advised to stay closed, authorities said.

    Krystal Blackwell, who was evacuated, said emergency officials were wearing gas masks and knocking on doors.

    “It was a little crazy to wake up to,” Blackwell told KWTV-TV. “I really thought it was a kind of dream.” She said she was sitting in her car, still wearing her pajamas.

    Authorities said the air quality was being monitored and that the tanker truck was no longer spewing gas, but that a lack of wind was slowing efforts to dissipate it. A number of agencies were on hand to assist, including hazmat crews and an Oklahoma National Guard unit that supports first responders during emergencies.

    An exit from Interstate 40 to Weatherford was shut down, authorities said.

    Anhydrous ammonia is used as a fertilizer to help provide nitrogen for corn and wheat plants. If a person touches it when it is in gas or liquid form, they could be burned. Last week, an anhydrous ammonia leak caused by an explosion at a plant north of Yazoo City, Mississippi, prompted evacuations for nearby residents.

    Weatherford has about 12,000 residents and is about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City.

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  • Explosion at Mississippi chemical plant causes ammonia leak, evacuations

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    YAZOO CITY, Miss. — An explosion at a hydrogen and nitrogen product manufacturer in Mississippi on Wednesday caused an ammonia leak and forced nearby residents to evacuate, officials said.

    Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a post on the social platform X that emergency officials from across the state were responding to the anhydrous ammonia leak at CF Industries’ plant north of Yazoo City.

    No deaths or injuries have been reported, he said.

    “Thank you to all of Mississippi’s first responders and emergency managers for quickly responding to the leak,” he said.

    Photos and video posted online show a large plume of yellowish smoke rising above the facility, which includes an ammonia plant and four nitric acid plants, among other things.

    The facility is able to store about 48,000 tons of ammonia, although the exact amount there when the explosion took place was not immediately clear.

    CF Industries said in a statement that there are no injuries, and “all employees and contractors on site at the time of the incident have been safely accounted for.”

    Andre Robinson, who lives about a half-mile (800 meters) from the facility, said he and his son were getting ready to make gumbo when he heard what sounded like a sonic boom or a tree crashing on his house.

    “There was a boom and then the house shook,” he said.

    When he looked outside, Robinson said he saw smoke rising from the facility and started to smell a strong scent of ammonia.

    “We’re used to the ammonia smell, but not that bad,” he said, adding that his family has since evacuated to Jackson.

    Part of U.S. Route 49E was temporarily closed, according to the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

    The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said in a post on X that “air monitoring operations are underway and will continue as long as necessary to ensure public safety.”

    Anhydrous ammonia is used as a fertilizer to help provide nitrogen for corn and wheat plants, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. If a person touches it when it is in gas or liquid form, they could be burned.

    Yazoo City is a small community about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Jackson.

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  • Inspector Clouseau? The mystery man in an AP photo after the Louvre jewel heist creates a buzz

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    PARIS (AP) — It was shortly after the stunning heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre when Paris-based Associated Press photographer Thibault Camus caught in his frame a dapperly dressed young man walking by uniformed French police officers, their car blocking one of the museum gates.

    Instinctively, he took the shot.

    It wasn’t a particularly great photo, with someone’s shoulder obscuring part of the foreground, Camus told himself.

    But it did the job — showing French police sealing off the world’s most-visited museum after the brazen daylight robbery last Sunday.

    Plus, Camus figured, the guy walking past the officers was unusually well dressed, in a coat, a jacket and tie and wearing a fedora, adding a touch of Paris couture to the scene.

    And so off went the photo to AP’s worldwide audiences.

    From there, fertile imaginations sprung into high gear — whipping up an online buzz.

    Posts on social media declared the well-dressed man to be a French detective — if you will, a more dashing version of the famed Inspector Clouseau from “Pink Panther” movies — even though AP’s photo caption had not identified him.

    It simply read: “Police officers block an access to the Louvre museum after a robbery Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris.”

    A post on X that now has 5.6 million views says: “Actual shot (not AI!) of a French detective working the case of the French Crown Jewels that were stolen from the Louvre.”

    Another poster — with 1.2 million followers — claimed the man “who looks like he came out of a detective film noir from the 1940s is an actual French police detective who’s investigating the theft.”

    Camus says nothing he saw led him to that conclusion — the man was just someone who streamed away from the Louvre as authorities evacuated the area, Camus says.

    “He appeared in front of me, I saw him, I took the photo,” Camus says. “He passed by and left.”

    If the unidentified man really is one of the more than 100 investigators hunting for the jewel thieves, the authorities are keeping it very hush-hush.

    “We’d rather keep the mystery alive ;)” the Paris prosecutor’s office said with a wink in an email response to AP questions.

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  • Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s memoir is coming out in January

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has a book coming out in January, touching upon everything from his swift political rise to the trauma of his home being set on fire.

    Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Tuesday that “Where We Keep the Light: From a Life of Service,” will be released Jan. 27. Shapiro, 52, has become a prominent national Democrat since he was elected governor in 2022. He was on Kamala Harris’ shortlist as a running mate in last year’s presidential election and he has often been cited as a potential candidate for 2028.

    According to Harper, Shapiro “shares powerful stories about his family, his faith, and his career in public service.”

    “Gov. Shapiro reflects on what he has learned along his journey,” Tuesday’s announcement reads in part, “knocking on doors, serving his community, and bringing people together to tackle the tough problems we face.”

    In April, a man set fire to the governor’s mansion while Shapiro and his family were sleeping inside, according to authorities. The Shapiros, who hours earlier had hosted a gathering for the Jewish holiday of Passover, were awakened by state police and ushered to safety. Cody Balmer pleaded guilty last week to charges of arson and attempted murder, and was sentenced under a plea deal to 25 to 50 years in state prison.

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  • A fire aboard a gas tanker off the coast of Yemen kills 2 mariners

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A fire that erupted on a Cameroonian-flagged gas tanker traveling through the Gulf of Aden killed two mariners on board, authorities said Monday, as the ship remained adrift off the coast of Yemen.

    The blaze aboard the Falcon began on Saturday and appeared to be an accident, according to the U.S. Navy-overseen Joint Maritime Information Center. However, there were no other immediate details and the ship had been abandoned at sea, without any time for further investigation.

    “The incident resulted from an explosion deemed as an accident and not caused by external factor/influence,” the center said, citing the crew members. “Of the 26 crew onboard, 24 crew members were evacuated safely by responding vessels but two of the crew members have unfortunately passed away.”

    The ship’s crew was Indian with one Ukrainian abroad. Photos released by the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority showed the mariners had arrived in Djibouti.

    The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center initially reported the Falcon had been “hit by an unknown projectile” on Saturday, but later said it could not confirm what caused the blast.

    Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press showed the ship ablaze off Yemen at 0750 GMT Saturday. Photographs released early Monday by the European Union’s Operation Aspides, which patrols the Red Sea corridor, showed flames burning and extensive damage to the piping on its deck, though the ship was not listing, meaning tilting to the side.

    The Falcon “remains on fire and adrift,” the EU force warned. It said a private firm would salvage the tanker.

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been carrying out attacks targeting ships traveling through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the waterways. The Iranian-backed Houthis have gained international prominence during the Israel-Hamas war over their attacks on shipping and Israel, which they said were aimed at forcing Israel to stop fighting.

    However, since the ceasefire in Gaza began on Oct. 10, no attacks have been claimed by the Yemeni rebels.

    The Falcon previously had been identified by United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based pressure group, as operating allegedly in an Iranian “ghost fleet” of ships moving their oil products in the high seas despite international sanctions. The ship’s owners and operators, listed as being in India, could not be reached for comment.

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  • Rare October storm brings heavy rain and possible mudslides to Southern California

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    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some homes were ordered evacuated in wildfire-scarred Los Angeles neighborhoods as Southern California was hit by a rare October storm that was expected to pummel the region with heavy rain, high winds and possible mudslides.

    “We’re very concerned about the weather,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Monday night, explaining that strike teams, rescue teams and helicopters were all ready to respond.

    The evacuations covered about 115 homes mostly in Pacific Palisades and Mandeville Canyon, both struck by a massive inferno in January that killed more than 30 people in all and destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings in Los Angeles County. Wildfires can leave hillsides without vegetation to hold soil in place, making it easier for the terrain to loosen during storms.

    Bass and other officials warned residents across the region to remain alert and stay indoors. The worst was expected to begin early Tuesday and carry through the afternoon, and more than 16,000 had already lost power as of Monday night, according to PowerOutage.us.

    The storm could result in up to 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) of rain in some areas, according to the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office, which described it as a “rare and very potent storm system.”

    Ariel Cohen, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, said the storm could even bring a couple of tornadoes, and one major challenge is its unpredictability.

    “The nature of this system is such that we cannot be certain about exactly when and where these impacts will strike, the exact details until right before they occur at the earliest,” he said.

    Teams from the Los Angeles Fire Department had started patrolling the area Monday night and a section of state Route 27, beginning at the Pacific Coast Highway, was closed in preparation for the storm, the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, said on social media.

    The weather service also warned of high winds that could knock down trees and power lines.

    To the north, up to 3 feet (1 meter) of mountain snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevadas.

    Heavy rain had already started falling Monday evening across much of Northern California, bringing some urban flooding around the San Francisco Bay Area.

    Gladstones Restaurant, located along the Pacific Coast Highway, said it was closing on Tuesday in anticipation of the heavy rains. The Pacific Palisades establishment is located at an intersection that has experienced heavy debris flow during past rains.

    In February, torrential rains unleashed debris flows and mudslides in several neighborhoods torched by the January fires. In the community of Sierra Madre, near the site of the Eaton Fire, water, debris and boulders rushed down the mountain, trapping cars in the mud and damaging several home garages. A portion of the Pacific Coast Highway by Pacific Palisades was submerged in at least 3 feet of sludge, and a swift debris flow swept a Los Angeles Fire Department vehicle into the ocean.

    Concerns about post-fire debris flows have been especially high since 2018, when the town of Montecito, up the coast from Los Angeles, was ravaged by mudslides after a downpour hit mountain slopes burned bare by a huge blaze. Hundreds of homes were damaged and 23 people died.

    Elsewhere in the U.S., Typhoon Halong brought hurricane-force winds and ravaging storm surges and floodwaters that swept some homes away in Alaska over the weekend. One person was dead and two were missing in western Alaska on Monday, while more than 50 people had been rescued — some plucked from rooftops.

    Officials warned of a long road to recovery and a need for continued support for the hardest-hit communities with winter just around the corner.

    In Tempe, Arizona, a microburst and thunderstorm on Monday dropped about a half-inch of rain within 10 minutes, the National Weather Service said. The storm caused significant damage, including uprooting trees that toppled onto vehicles and buildings, and dropping them on streets and sidewalks. A business complex had its roof torn off, and thousands of homes lost power.

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    Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer contributed from Juneau, Alaska.

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  • Evacuation orders lifted for brush fire east of Ramona

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    The Rancho Fire as seen from “Big” Black Mountain. (Image courtesy Cal Fire)

    A brush fire caused by a traffic accident spread east of Ramona Thursday, prompting evacuations before crews stopped its forward rate of spread.

    Just after 4 p.m. Cal Fire San Diego reported the progress after the fire had grown to 105 acres. The containment area held at 15%; 90 minutes earlier, the blaze had charred 50 acres, officials said.

    The fire caused no injuries or structural damage.

    The blaze erupted in the early afternoon off state Route 78, near Casner Road in the Ballena area, Cal Fire said.

    Within an hour, it had spread over two to five open acres, posing threats to structures, said Robert Johnson, a CalFire captain.

    Officials directed residents living in two zones north of SR-78 to leave their neighborhoods. The area included Whale and Creek mountains, Hatfield Creek, Rancho Ballena Road, Slaughterhouse Road, Witch Creek Mountain Road and Flying T Ranch Airport.

    By 4:40 p.m., the evacuation orders – residents had been sent to the Ramona Rodeo – had been lifted, along with warnings that been in place farther north of the burn area.

    Air tankers and water-dropping helicopters, meanwhile, joined ground crews to battle the brush fire as authorities limited access to the area.

    Westbound traffic on SR-78 is closed at Old Julian Highway, with eastbound traffic shut down at Rancho Santa Teresa, according to the California Highway Patrol.

    The fire started when a vehicle veered off SR-78 and overturned, officials said. Flames then ignited, spreading to roadside vegetation. An occupant of the truck suffered moderately serious injuries in the accident.

    It’s the second brush fire in North County in three days, with the Sandia Fire west of Interstate 15 100% contained as of Thursday.

    City News Service contributed to this report.

    Updated 5:10 p.m. Oct. 9, 2025


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  • Levee breaches, flooding prompts evacuations near Vallecito Creek in La Plata County

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    LA PLATA COUNTY, Colo. — Authorities issued an immediate evacuation order for parts of La Plata County on Saturday after levee breaches caused flooding near Vallecito Creek north of Bayfield.

    Breeches occurred on the west side of the creek, forcing an immediate evacuation of homes on West Vallecito Creek Drive, according to the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District.

    Nearly 350 homes were evacuated, though no injuries have been reported.

    Evacuees are asked to check in at Bayfield High School, located at 800 County Road 501, where a shelter has also been established.

    A map of the evacuation area has been posted here.

    Crews are asking for volunteers to fill sandbags at Upper Pine Fire Station 1 on Clover Drive.

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    The breeches occurred after stream gauges hit 1,040 cubic feet per second, signaling high spring runoff.

    Heavy rain is expected around 11 p.m., raising flood concerns in North Vallecito, the fire district said.

    The district said it has activated equipment, prepared emergency contacts, and is urging residents to avoid creek banks, which may be unstable and prone to erosion.

    Officials are urging motorists to drive slowly and carefully as they may encounter debris and mud on the roads throughout the county.

    Officials cite the October 2006 flood, when debris and rising waters damaged flood control structures and forced evacuations of at least 18 homes.

    Rising water levels are also being reported in parts of San Juan County, where officials are warning that some minor flooding may occur.

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  • British Airways flight makes emergency landing in Romania after 4 suffer possible smoke inhalation

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    BUCHAREST, Romania — BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A British Airways flight en route from Istanbul to London was forced to make an emergency landing on Thursday in Romania’s capital after four people on board reportedly suffered possible smoke inhalation, authorities said.

    The pilots on the Airbus A320, which was carrying 142 passengers, requested an emergency landing at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport at 5:50 p.m. local time (1420 GMT) and landed at 6:14 p.m. (1514 GMT), after which an emergency response team, including a medical crew, boarded the plane, the airport said.

    Romania’s Ministry of Health later said in a statement that immediately after the plane landed, “the presence of smoke was confirmed,” and everyone on board was evacuated.

    “Four people are in poor health, possibly being smoke-intoxicated, and are receiving medical assistance on site,” the ministry said, adding that the situation is “dynamic” and that more details will follow. It wasn’t yet clear if the four affected were passengers or cabin crew.

    British Airways didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The airline’s flight status page showed Flight BA603 as having been diverted, with the message: “We’re very sorry, this flight scheduled from Istanbul to London, has been diverted to Bucharest.” No further details were provided.

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  • LA City Hall evacuated after car crashes into building’s steps

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles’s City Hall was evacuated after a car crashed into the steps of the building on Friday afternoon and the driver was later taken into police custody, officials said.

    About two hours after the crash, the driver could be seen getting out of the car and walking with his arms raised toward a line of police and fire vehicles. He was then handcuffed.

    There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to police. LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a post on the social platform X that the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad had arrived at the crash site, though she also said the situation had been “safely resolved.”

    She previously said City Hall was being evacuated “out of an abundance of caution.”

    Police responded to reports just after 4 p.m. about a traffic collision, according to Charles Miller, a spokesperson for the LAPD. They then worked to make contact with the driver. The circumstances that led up to the crash were not immediately clear.

    Video taken from news helicopters soon after the crash shows the driver in the front seat and a cardboard sign in the window that reads, “I need ur help” and makes a reference to President Donald Trump.

    “Thank you to all of the brave first responders who safely resolved this situation with compassion and urgency,” Bass said on X.

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  • Massive fire erupts at Chevron refinery just outside of Los Angeles

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    EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — A fire broke out at a Chevron oil refinery just outside Los Angeles on Thursday night, sending towering flames into the air that were visible for miles.

    Officials in El Segundo, California, urged people to stay indoors. By early Friday, the fire was contained and there was no threat to public safety, the city said in a statement. No evacuations had been ordered.

    “There is still an active fire and road closures remain in place,” it said.

    Residents near the Chevron El Segundo Refinery described feeling a rumble, then they saw the flames.

    “Pretty much the whole sky was orange,” said Sam Daugherty, who told KABC-TV he lives 10 blocks away and began packing a bag in a panic.

    There were no injuries at the refinery and all personnel were accounted for, the company said in a statement late Thursday, adding that a monitoring system indicated the fire did not move beyond the facility’s fence line. The statement did not say what caused the fire.

    The El Segundo police and fire departments did not immediately comment on the fire, which appeared to have erupted suddenly.

    LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell told KCAL-TV that fire crews had contained the blaze to one section of the refinery.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said it was monitoring the situation and coordinating with state and local authorities to protect the surrounding community.

    El Segundo is a beachside city located about a mile (1.6 kilometers) south of Los Angeles International Airport. LA Mayor Karen Bass wrote in a post on X that there was no known impact to the airport.

    “LAFD stands at the ready to assist with any mutual aid request,” she said.

    A shelter-in-place order for nearby Manhattan Beach south of El Segundo was lifted Friday.

    No immediate air pollution problems were detected. An air quality index map Friday showed good levels for the Los Angeles area, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

    The refinery covers roughly 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) and has more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) of pipelines, according to the company’s website. The refinery, which has been in operation since 1911, can refine up to 290,000 barrels of crude oil per day, including gasoline, jet and diesel fuels, according to the company’s website.

    ___

    Golden reported from Seattle.

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  • Federal safety board tells Philadelphia’s mass transit agency to shelve railcars implicated in fires

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. — Federal transportation safety officials told Philadelphia’s mass transit agency this week that it should shelve an aging electric railcar model that is heavily used in its regional rail fleet until it figures out how to stop them from catching fire.

    The recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board came after it investigated five fires this year involving the Silverliner IV passenger railcars used by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA.

    In addition to suspending operation of the Silverliner IV fleet until it can fix the cause, the agency said SEPTA should fast-track the replacement of the Silverliner IV fleet or retrofit cars to meet modern fire safety standards and add systems to give the train crew detailed information on when dynamic brakes or other electrical systems aren’t functioning normally.

    All five fires forced everyone aboard to evacuate — in one case, as many as 350 passengers — with a few minor injuries reported. One railcar was involved in two of the fires, and two other railcars were destroyed, the NTSB said.

    SEPTA is one of the nation’s largest mass transit agencies, carrying 800,000 daily riders on buses, trolleys and rail.

    The recommendation comes at a time when SEPTA and major transit agencies around the U.S. are fighting for more public funding as they struggle with rising costs and lagging ridership.

    In its report, the NTSB was critical of SEPTA’s maintenance and operating practices.

    That, combined with the outdated design of the Silverliner IV railcars, “represents an immediate and unacceptable safety risk because of the incidence and severity of electrical fires that can spread to occupied compartments,” the NTSB said.

    The NTSB traced the fires to different components, including electrical components associated with the train’s propulsion system, the dynamic brakes and a traction motor.

    SEPTA did not immediately respond to questions about whether it would or could comply with the recommendations.

    In its budget report issued earlier this year, SEPTA reported that ballooning material, manufacturing and construction costs has made it more expensive for it to replace the Silverliner IV fleet.

    Still, it said the replacements are “long-overdue investments” and “can no longer be delayed.”

    It put the price tag at nearly $1 billion to replace its 230 Silverliner IV cars built by General Electric in the 1970s.

    However, SEPTA also projected that the design, procurement and construction timeline for the replacement would stretch until 2036.

    ___

    Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

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  • Israeli strikes kill over 40 people in Gaza

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    CAIRO — Israeli strikes in Gaza City and at a refugee camp killed more than 40 people, including 19 women and children, health officials said Sunday, as several European countries and leading U.S. allies moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

    Health officials at Shifa Hospital, where most of the bodies were brought, said the dead included 14 people killed in a strike late Saturday which hit a residential block in the southern side of the city. Health staff said a nurse who worked at the hospital was among the dead, along with his wife and three children.


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    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    By SAMY MAGDY – Associated Press

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  • Meth burn by FBI smokes out Montana animal shelter

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    BILLINGS, Mont. — A cloud of smoke from two pounds of methamphetamine seized by the FBI and incinerated inside a Montana animal shelter sent its workers to the hospital, city officials in Billings said.

    The smoke started to fill the building during a drug burn on Wednesday, apparently because of negative pressure that sucked it back inside, Billings Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland said Friday. A fan was supposed to be on hand in such situations to reverse the pressure so smoke would flow out of the building, but Iffland said it wasn’t readily available.

    The incinerator is used primarily to burn carcasses of animals euthanized or collected by the city’s animal control division. But every couple of months local law enforcement or FBI agents use it to burn seized narcotics, Iffland said.

    Fourteen workers from the nonprofit Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter evacuated and went to the hospital. The shelter’s 75 dogs and cats were relocated or put into foster homes, said Iffland and shelter director Triniti Halverson.

    The shelter shares space with Billings’ animal control division. When smoke started filling parts of the building, Halverson assumed it was from burning carcasses because she said they had never known about the drug burns.

    Halverson said she had a very intense headache and sore throat, and others had dizziness, sweating and coughing.

    “Not a party,” she said.

    The workers found out it was methamphetamine smoke through a call from a city official while they were the hospital, Halverson said. Most of the staff spent several hours in an oxygen chamber for treatment.

    Symptoms have lingered for some workers, Halverson said.

    They also were closely monitoring four litters of kittens that got more heavily exposed because they were in a closed room with lots of smoke, she said.

    The FBI routinely uses outside facilities to conduct controlled drug evidence burns, agency spokesperson Sandra Barker said. She referred further questions to Billings officials.

    A city animal control supervisor who was present for Wednesday’s burn declined to go the hospital, Iffland said. The FBI agents were told to go to the hospital by their supervisor.

    The incinerator is meant to operate at a certain temperature so it doesn’t emit toxins. Iffland said officials were trying to determine if it was at the appropriate temperature Wednesday.

    The shelter will remain closed until it can be tested for contamination. Shelter workers were tested for potential exposure, and Iffland said he did not know the results.

    Billings resident Jay Ettlemen went to the shelter on Friday to donate dog food and said he was angry when he found out about the drug burns.

    “Why the hell are they destroying drugs inside the city limits?” Ettlemen asked. “There’s so many other places in the middle of nowhere.”

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