Category: Natural disaster

BREAKING NEWS - Casualties as toxic gas leak in Aqaba, Jordan

A poisonous gas leak in Jordan's southern port city of Aqaba on Monday killed at least 10 people and injured some 250, authorities said. The Public Security Directorate said a gas tank sprung a leak while being transported. It did not identify the contents of the tanker. The directorate said authorities sealed off the area […]

Lebanon hit with new pine forest fire

Rescue teams scrambled to douse a massive blaze in Lebanon's largest pine forest on Wednesday that authorities said could be deliberate, as the country braced for another summer of fires. The fire in the northern Dinniyeh region broke out on Tuesday night, prompting the army and volunteer firefighters to intervene to try to salvage one […]

Iraq suffers seventh major sandstorm in a month

More than 1,000 Iraqis were rushed to hospital with respiratory ailments on Thursday due to a sandstorm, the seventh to hit the country in the past month, state media said. Residents of six of Iraq's 18 provinces, including Baghdad and the vast western region of Al-Anbar, awoke once again to a thick cloud of dust […]

BREAKING NEWS - Explosion heard in Azerbaijan capital

An explosion struck a nightclub in the capital of Azerbaijan and set off a fire early Sunday, killing one person and injuring 31, officials said. The explosion at the LocationBaku club was believed to have been caused by a gas leak but the investigation was ongoing, Interior Ministry spokesman Ehsan Zahidov told The Associated Press. […]

Ammonia nitrate factory could explode, warns Lebanon interior minister

Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi has asked the army to send soldiers to the Zouk power plant to protect fuel tanks and expired chemical materials that “could cause an explosion,” a day after Cabinet tasked the army with safeguarding the site. “The plant’s current security situation is not appropriate due to the presence of holes in […]

UAE ship sinks in Gulf off coast of Iran

An Emirati-flagged cargo ship sank Thursday off Iran in the Persian Gulf in poor weather, authorities said, with rescuers attempting to account for all of its 30 crew members. Capt. Nizar Qaddoura, the operations manager of the Salem Al Makrani Cargo company, told The Associated Press that the Al Salmy 6 encountered rough and stormy […]

Mysterious explosions heard in Lebanon

The sound of a blast was reportedly heard overnight between the southern towns of Houmine and Deir al-Zahrani of the Nabatiyeh district. The causes of the blast, followed by a fire outbreak, remain unknown. Media reports said that at 1:30 am, the residents of the area heard a blast, than saw a fire erupting in […]

North Iraq hit by shocking floods, several dead

At least eight people have died and more are feared injured amid severe flooding caused by torrential rainfall in northern Iraq, Iraqi officials said on Friday. Omed Khoshnaw, governor of Irbil province in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, said the deaths occurred primarily in the Daratu district. In comments to local outlet Rudaw, he said seven […]

Children in peril in Lebanon, warns UN

One in two children in Lebanon is at serious risk of physical, emotional, or sexual violence, as families struggle to cope in the country’s deepening crisis, according to a new report from UNICEF. ‘Violent beginnings: Children growing up in Lebanon’s crisis’ report also details that around 1.8 million children (more than 80 per cent) are […]

Hamas says Lebanon explosion caused by oxygen cylinders

The Palestinian Hamas group said Saturday that explosions that shook a refugee camp in southern Lebanon were caused by an electrical short-circuit in a storage area for oxygen bottles used to treat coronavirus patients. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency had reported that arms stored for Hamas exploded Friday in the al-Burj al-Shamali camp, killing and […]

UPDATE - Syrian oil workers killed in attack

At least 10 oil field workers were killed Thursday in an attack on their bus in eastern Syria’s Deir Ezzor province, state media reported. “Ten workers at the Al-Kharata oil field were martyred and another was wounded in a terrorist attack on a bus transporting them back from work,” the official SANA news agency said, […]

Beirut in peril from forest fire

The Beirut Fire Brigade pleaded Tuesday for help to extinguish a fire that has ripped through a forest in Bshamoun. The firefighters urged those who can help to secure water for the fire engines, as the wind caused the fire to spread. The schools in the area evacuated the students because of the smoke, amid […]

Climate justice favours rich nations against poor

A hundred billion dollars every year — that's the aid promised more than a decade ago to help developing nations curb their carbon pollution and adapt to devastating climate impacts. But rich countries have not delivered on that pledge, a failure that could undermine a critical COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next month already riven […]

Fire rages at oil facility in Lebanon

A fire broke out at an oil facility fuel storage tank in southern Lebanon on Monday, sending a column of smoke into the air as firefighters doused the flames and a security source said the army was cooling nearby tanks to stop the blaze spreading. There was no immediate official comment or reports of casualties […]

World Bank report on pandemic costs in Arab world reach $200 billion

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s economic losses will amount to almost $200 billion by the end of 2021 as a result of the pandemic, the World Bank estimated. The region’s GDP contracted by 3.8 percent in 2020 and is forecast to grow by 2.8 percent in 2021, the multilateral lender said in […]

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