News in Brief -(24-06-2019)

FE Team | Published: June 23, 2019 21:50:26

Syria regime air strikes leave four civilians dead
BEIRUT, June 23: Syrian regime air strikes killed four civilians including two children on Sunday in a northwestern bastion of opposition, a Britain-based war monitor said. The Idlib region of some three million people is supposed to be protected by a September buffer zone deal, but the jihadist-run enclave has come under mounting bombardment by the government and its ally Russia since late April. An air raid by Damascus aircraft on Sunday took the lives of two adults and two children in the village of Josef in Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.--AFP
Heavy rains submerge roads in Switzerland
BERLIN, June 23: Swiss media say four people have been injured after heavy rains in the west of the country saw rivers burst their banks and roads to become flooded. Online news site 20Minuten reported the injuries on Saturday, but did not give further details. Local police could not immediately be reached for confirmation. The news site also reported that several people were temporarily trapped in their cars on flooded roads in the Val-de-Ruz region, while firefighters were called dozens of times to pump water out of flooded basements. — AP
19 injured in Sichuan 5.4-magnitude quake
CHENGDU, June 23: At least 19 people were confirmed injured after a 5.4-magnitude earthquake jolted Gongxian County in southwest China's Sichuan Province Saturday, local authorities said on Sunday. The injured have been rushed to hospitals for treatment. None of them is in critical condition. Eleven of them remain hospitalized for observation and treatment, according to quake relief headquarters of Yibin City, which administers Gongxian County. The quake struck at 10:29 pm Saturday, with the epicenter, with a depth of 10 km. — Xinhua
Govt candidate claims victory in Mauritania vote
NOUAKCHOTT, June 23: Government candidate and frontrunner Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has declared himself the winner of the first round of Mauritania's presidential election. The 62-year-old former head of the domestic security service made the claim in the early hours of Sunday in the presence of current president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and journalists. An election commission source said Ghazouani had won 50.56 percent of the votes after 80 per cent of the votes had been counted. — AFP
Death toll in Cambodia building collapse hits 17
PHNOM PENH, June 23: The death toll in the collapse of a Chinese-owned building under construction at a Cambodian resort rose to 17 overnight, officials said Sunday, as rescue workers scrambled to find survivors buried under rubble. The building went down before sunrise on Saturday in the casino-resort coastal town of Sihanoukville in southwestern Cambodia, a rapidly developing tourist hotspot awash with Chinese investment. — AFP