News in Brief (2023-11-27)

FE Team | Published: November 26, 2023 22:02:20

Stampede during music festival at Kerala
university kills at least 4 students
NEW DELHI, Nov 26: A stampede during a music festival at a university in southern India on Saturday killed at least four students and injured 60 others, according to news agency Press Trust of India. The disaster happened at the Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala state where students were enjoying a live musical event that was interrupted by rain, leading the audience to scamper for shelter that resulted in a stampede. At least two people among the injured are in critical condition, news website Indian Express reported. Pinarayi Vijayan, the top elected official in Kerala, said he had ordered an investigation. — AP
13 missing after ship sinks off Greek island
ATHENS, Nov 26: A major rescue operation was under way on Sunday for 13 people missing after a Comoros-flagged cargo ship sank in gale-force winds off the Greek Aegean island of Lesbos. The coastguard said a navy helicopter picked up one crew member from the RAPTOR cargo ship, who was taken to Lesbos General Hospital. "He is in a state of shock", coastguard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told AFP, without providing further details. The fate of the other 13 was not immediately clear. Five cargo ships, three coast guard vessels, air force and navy helicopters as well as a navy frigate joined the rescue effort. — AFP
China, US exchange accusations
over US vessel in S China Sea
BEIJING, Nov 26: China and the United States exchanged accusations at the weekend over the disputed South China Sea, after China's military said it had driven away a US warship that the US Navy said was on a routine freedom of navigation operation. According to a post on the official WeChat social media account of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command on Saturday, the Chinese military deployed its naval and air forces to "track, monitor and warn away" the US destroyer. The US Navy said on Sunday that the Hopper had "asserted navigational rights in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law". — Reuters
Sierra Leone enforces curfew
FREETOWN, Nov 26: Sierra Leone has been placed under a nationwide curfew as armed men broke into a prison, setting inmates free. Detainees from Central Pademba Road prison in the capital city Freetown were released on Sunday morning, an official at the facility told BBC News. Earlier on, the gunmen had attacked a major military barracks in the city. Residents reported hearing gunshots at the barracks, which are close to the presidential residence. — BBC
Land conflict leaves nine dead in Mexico
MEXICO CITY, Nov 26: Nine people were killed on Saturday when gunmen shot at a pickup truck in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, the local prosecutor's office said, indicating that peasant conflicts over land may have sparked the violence. Gunmen fired on the truck as it carried people from the municipality of Santiago Mitlatongo to the town of Nochixtlan, where they were "ambushed," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "This caused nine people... to lose their lives on the spot," while four others-three women and one man-were wounded and taken to a local hospital, the statement said. Prosecutors were seeking to determine the identities of the attackers, it added. Saturday's attack is the second clash over land this week in Oaxaca. — AFP