150 feared trapped after landslide

MUMBAI: A landslide struck a village in western India following heavy monsoon rains, leaving 150 people feared trapped, a rescue official said yesterday.

The landslide submerged Malin village in the Pune district of Maharashtra state.

Indian television said five people had been killed in the landslide while another five had been rescued.

Heavy machinery had been mobilised to try to rescue those feared trapped. – Sapa-AFP

Concert stampede leaves 33 dead

CONAKRY: At least 33 people, including children, died following a stampede at a rap concert in the capital of Guinea, hospital officials said.

Thousands had gathered at the beach in Conakry for a concert celebrating the end of the Muslim month of Ramadaan. Witnesses say the stampede happened after the show ended as the crowd tried to exit through a small gate. – Sapa-AP

North Korea fires four more projectiles

SEOUL: North Korea fired four short-range projectiles towards the sea yesterday in the latest of a series of missile, rocket and artillery tests, the South’s defence ministry said.

Two projectileswere fired froma site near Mount Myohyang, northeast of Pyongyang, in the morning and another two were launched in the afternoon, all towards the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the ministry said. – Sapa-AFP

Chinese gang targets minority group

BEIJING: A clash in Xinjiang, home to China’s Muslim Uighur minority, left nearly 100 people dead or wounded, an exile group said yesterday after what authorities called a “terror attack” on a police station and township.

Dozens of civilians and assailants were killed or injured by a gang armed with knives and axes, Chinese state media reported. – Sapa-AFP

News of World staff face charges

LONDON: Two former senior journalists at Rupert Murdoch’s defunct British tabloid the News of the World would be charged with conspiring to hack phones, prosecutors said yesterday.

Former deputy editor Neil Wallis and ex-features editor Jules Stenson will appear in court in London on August 21. There was “sufficient evidence” for a realistic prospect of conviction, said Gregor McGill of the Crown Prosecution Service. – Sapa-AFP

Jewish museum terrorist charge

BRUSSELS: A Frenchman suspected of carrying out a fatal shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels was charged yesterday with “murder in a terrorist context”, the Belgian prosecutor’s office said.

Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, who spent more than a year fighting with Islamist extremists in Syria, was extradited from France to Belgium on Tuesday, to be questioned over the shooting on May 24, which left four people dead. – Sapa-AFP

Airline apologises for ‘flush’ blunder

SYDNEY: Australian budget airline Jetstar has apologised after a crew member reportedly told passengers to flush any drugs they had down a toilet before their flight landed in Sydney.

The flight was carrying some passengers returning from a music festival.

“The crew member’s words were poorly chosen and are at odds with the professional standards we’d expect from our team,” Jetstar said. – Sapa-AFP