News in brief (2022-09-26)

WB pledges $2b for flood-ravaged Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The World Bank said it will provide about $2 billion in aid to Pakistan, ravaged by floods that have killed more than 1,600 people this year, the largest pledge of assistance so far. Unprecedented monsoon rains and flooding this year - which many experts attribute to climate change - have also injured some 13,000 people across the country since mid-June. The floods have displaced millions and destroyed crops, half a million homes and thousands of kilometers (miles) of roads. — AP

Plane skids into lake in France

MONTPELLIER, Sept 25: French authorities on Saturday shut the airport in the southern city of Montpellier for an indefinite period after a cargo plane overran the runway and ended up with its nose in a nearby lake. Images showed the Boeing 737 of the West Atlantic cargo carrier tilting with its nose in the lake and body perched on the land. The three crew escaped the accident in the early hours of Saturday unhurt, local authorities said. — AFP

Tokyo tightens security for Abe's funeral

TOKYO, Sept 25: Japan's state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday is under the spotlight as authorities seek to avoid the kind of security blunders exposed in his assassination in July. Abe was shot from close range by a man with a homemade gun while on the campaign trail in the western city of Nara, an act that shocked a nation where violent crime is rare and dignitaries tend to travel with only modest protection. Japanese authorities - including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida - have acknowledged security flaws contributed to Abe's death.—Reuters

Lebanon migrant ship death toll hits 94

DAMASCUS, Sept 25: Seventeen bodies were recovered Saturday after a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, raising the overall toll to 94, Syrian state television said, in one of the eastern Mediterranean's deadliest such episodes. The toll has repeatedly ratcheted higher since the first bodies were found on Thursday. — AFP