Disaster

Sydney has been drenched in rain for days, braced for more heavy downpours on Sunday, the death toll from flooding across the country’s east rose to 17.

About 60 people were killed and dozens more wounded on Monday in an explosion at an informal gold mining site in southwest Burkina Faso.

A passenger who was among the 12 people missing after a ferry caught fire early Friday has been found alive, a spokesperson from the Hellenic Coast Guard told.

An abandoned cargo ship packed with cars is adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, after a rapidly-spreading fire on board forced the crew to escape.

Canadian police began an unprecedented operation Friday morning to remove protesters and their trucks and cars that have been blockading Ottawa’s streets.

At least seven people, including two children, were killed in an explosion in the village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque in France on Monday.

Tonga has fully vaccinated more than 80% of its eligible population against the virus, according to the World Health Organization.

At least 21 people have died since Friday after heavy rain battered São Paulo, triggering floods and landslides across the Brazilian state. More than 600 people have also been displaced, according to a statement released by the State Civil Defense, which earlier said that at least seven children were among the dead. Authorities have deployed a working group of firefighters, military police and civil defense personnel to support the mayors of the cities that have been impacted, said São Paulo Governor João Doria…

The flooding in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province, left 398 people dead or missing. Torrential rains submerged entire neighborhoods and subway stations, drowning many people in vehicles and underground spaces, while others were caught in landslides and house collapses. The Chinese Communist Party launched an investigation after the disaster and released its findings on Friday, concluding the city's government and other local bodies were "guilty of negligence and dereliction of duty."…

"The reports that I'm getting from the bureaus, hospitals, is that roughly about 17 people that have passed away," Isaac Dasmani, the municipal chief executive for the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipal Assembly, told local media. An additional 59 people were injured in the explosion, according to AFP. The blast appeared to have completely leveled Apiate, a small town in western Ghana. Kwadwo Bempah, who works in the area and heard the explosion, told CNN that nearly every building there had collapsed, trapping people…

The first contactless aid flights arrived in disaster-hit Tonga on Thursday, as the coronavirus-free Pacific island nation takes precautions to keep the virus out of its borders in the wake of a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami. Flights from Australia and New Zealand carrying humanitarian aid and disaster relief landed at Fua'amotu International Airport in Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, after the runway was cleared of volcanic ash and debris following Saturday's violent eruption of the underwater…

A massive volcanic eruption and tsunami near Tonga caused "an unprecedented disaster," the Pacific nation's leader said Tuesday, as New Zealand warned of further eruptions that may complicate the delivery of aid to remote islands where communications are down. In its first official update since Saturday's eruption of the underwater Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, Tonga's government on Tuesday confirmed the deaths of three people and several other injuries, and outlined the scale of destruction to communities.…