others
A 6-year-old boy traveling alone for Christmas was put on the wrong Spirit flight
A 6-year-old boy who left on a flight for the Christmas holiday to visit his grandmother in southwest Florida instead was put on the wrong plane and ended up 160 miles away in Orlando, Florida.
When the grandmother, Maria Ramos, showed up on Thursday at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers to greet her grandson who was flying for the first time from Philadelphia, she was told he wasn't on the Spirit Airlines flight.
Read: Bangladesh's mobile users reach 190.36 mln
“I ran inside the plane to the flight attendant and I asked her, ‘Where’s my grandson? He was handed over to you at Philadelphia?’ She said, ‘No, I had no kids with me,'” Ramos told WINK News.
She then got a call from her grandson from the airport in Orlando, telling her that he had landed.
In a statement, Spirit Airlines said the boy was under the care and supervision of an airlines employee the entire time, even though he was incorrectly boarded on a flight to Orlando. Once the mistake was discovered, the airlines let the family know, the statement said.
Read: Afghan schoolgirls are finishing sixth grade in tears. Under Taliban rule, their education is over
“We take the safety and responsibility of transporting all of our Guests seriously and are conducting an internal investigation,” the statement said. “We apologize to the family for this experience.”
Floods in a central province in Congo kill at least 22 people, a local official says
Flooding triggered by heavy rains in central Congo killed at least 22 people, including 10 from the same family, a local official said Tuesday.
The hourslong rainfall in the district of Kananga in Kasai Central province destroyed many houses and structures, the province's governor, John Kabeya, said as rescue efforts intensified in search of survivors. Five more deaths were confirmed later on Tuesday in addition to the initially reported death toll of 17, he said.
“The collapse of a wall caused 10 deaths, all members of the same family in Bikuku,” said Kabeya.
More than 300 rescued from floodwaters in northeast Australia
There was significant material damage caused by the floods, according to Nathalie Kambala, country director of The Hand in Hand for Integral Development nongovernmental organization.
Flooding caused by heavy rainfall is frequent in parts of Congo, especially in remote areas. In May, more than 400 people died in floods and landslides brought on by torrential overnight rains in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province.
40 people dead in Kenya and Somalia as heavy rains and flash floods displace thousands
Among the structures damaged in the latest flooding was the Higher Institute of Technology of Kananga, as well as a church and a major road that was cut off, said Kabeya, who added that urgent action would be requested from the national government.
Heavy rains triggered a landslide in eastern Congo late Sunday, killing at least four people and leaving at least 20 missing.
4 young children and their mother were killed in their French home
Four children between nine months and 10 years old and their mother were killed in their apartment east of Paris, in what the local prosecutor called an exceptionally violent crime. Authorities said the children’s father was arrested Tuesday and is the primary suspect.
Neighbors spotted a pool of blood outside the family’s door on Christmas Day and alerted police, who discovered the five bodies, Prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier told reporters in the city of Meaux.
The mother and two daughters, ages 7 and 10, were stabbed several times overnight from Sunday to Monday, he said. The couple’s two sons, ages 9 months and 4 years old, were suffocated or drowned. The prosecutor described a small, blood-stained apartment in extreme disarray.
The motive for the killings was unclear. The suspect, a 33-year-old man born in the Paris suburb of Colombes, was arrested Tuesday outside his father’s home northeast of the French capital, the prosecutor said.
Read: 160 killed in central Nigeria attacks
The suspect had stabbed his partner once before, when she was pregnant with their older son in 2019, but the investigation was dropped because he was declared mentally unsound at the time of the attack, the prosecutor said. The suspect had been placed in a psychiatric hospital in 2017, and also attempted suicide that year, the prosecutor said.
The couple had been together for 14 years and had known each other since high school, Bladier said.
None of the family members’ names were released, according to French law protecting minors who are victims of crimes.
Read: Lose a limb or risk death? Growing numbers among Gaza's thousands of war-wounded face hard decisions
Authorities are opening an investigation into five homicides, and the suspect will undergo psychiatric examination to determine the next steps, the prosecutor said.
New COVID variant JN.1 makes nearly half latest infections in U.S.
A new coronavirus subvariant JN.1 is spreading fast in the United States, and is now accounting for nearly half of the latest COVID-19 cases in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
JN.1 is currently the fastest growing variant and the dominant one in the country. It is responsible for over 44 percent of new infections across the country, up from the previously reported 21.4 percent, according to the CDC.
Read: 276 Indians stuck in a French airport for days for a human trafficking probe have left for India
The CDC estimates that JN.1 is strongest in the Northeast regions including New Jersey and New York, where it accounts for nearly 57 percent of cases.
JN.1 is closely related to the variant BA.2.86 that the CDC has been tracking since August. It was first detected in the United States in September 2023.
Read: On Christmas Eve, Bethlehem resembles a ghost town; celebrations are halted due to war
JN.1 is likely more transmissible than other variants "or better at evading our immune systems than other circulating variants," said the CDC.
276 Indians stuck in a French airport for days for a human trafficking probe have left for India
A charter plane grounded in France for a human trafficking investigation departed Monday for India with 276 Indians aboard, authorities said. The passengers had been heading to Nicaragua but were instead blocked inside a rural French airport for four days in an exceptional holiday ordeal.
Associated Press reporters outside the Vatry Airport in Champagne country saw the unmarked Legend Airlines A340 take off after the crew and passengers boarded the plane.
The regional administration said that 276 of the original 303 passengers were en route to Mumbai, and that 25 others requested asylum in France. Those who remained were transferred to a special zone in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for asylum-seekers, it said. The passengers grounded in France had included a 21-month-old child and several unaccompanied minors.
The remaining two passengers were initially detained as part of a human trafficking investigation but were released Monday after appearing before a judge, the Paris prosecutor's office said. The judge named them as ‘’assisted witnesses'' to the case, a special status under French law that allows time for further investigation and could lead to eventual charges or to the case being dropped.
The Legend Airlines A340 plane stopped Thursday for refueling in Vatry en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua, and was grounded by police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying human trafficking victims.
Prosecutors wouldn’t comment on whether the passengers’ ultimate destination could have been the U.S., which has seen a surge in Indians crossing the Mexico-U.S. border this year.
French authorities are working to determine the aim of the original flight, and opened a judicial inquiry into activities by an organized criminal group helping foreigners enter or stay in a country illegally, the prosecutor's office said.
It did not specify Monday whether human trafficking — which the U.N. defines as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit" — is still suspected.
The Vatry airport was requisitioned by police for days. Local officials, medics and volunteers installed cots and ensured regular meals and showers for those held inside. Then it turned into a makeshift courtroom Sunday as judges, lawyers and interpreters filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine the next steps.
Some lawyers at Sunday’s hearings protested authorities’ handling of the situation and the passengers’ rights, suggesting that police and prosecutors overreacted to the anonymous tip.
The Indian Embassy posted its thanks on X, formerly Twitter, to French officials for ensuring that the Indians could go home. French authorities worked through Christmas Eve and Christmas morning on formalities to allow passengers to leave France, regional prosecutor Annick Browne told The Associated Press.
Foreigners can be held up to four days in a transit zone for police investigations in France, after which a special judge must rule on whether to extend that to eight days.
Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said some passengers didn't want to go to India because they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua. The airline has denied any role in possible human trafficking.
The U.S. government has designated Nicaragua as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking. Nicaragua has also been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing poverty or conflict because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. Sometimes charter flights are used for the journey.
Pope Francis denounces the weapons industry as he makes a Christmas appeal for peace in the world
Pope Francis on Monday blasted the weapons industry and its “instruments of death” that fuel wars as he made a Christmas Day appeal for peace in the world and in particular between Israel and the Palestinians.
Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to the throngs of people below, Francis said he grieved the “abominable attack” of Hamas against southern Israel on Oct. 7 and called for the release of hostages. And he begged for an end to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the “appalling harvest of innocent civilians” as he called for humanitarian aid to reach those in need.
Read: Israel creates massive obstacles to aid distribution in Gaza -- UN chief
Francis devoted his Christmas Day blessing to a call for peace in the world, noting that the biblical story of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem sent a message of peace. But he said that Bethlehem “is a place of sorrow and silence” this year.
Francis’ annual “Urbi et Orbi” ("To the City and the World") speech typically offers a lament of all the misery facing the world, and this year’s edition was no different. From Armenia and Azerbaijan to Syria and Yemen, Ukraine to South Sudan and Congo and the Korean peninsula, Francis appealed for humanitarian initiatives, dialogue and security to prevail over violence and death.
He called for governments and people of goodwill in the Americas in particular to address the “troubling phenomenon” of migration and its “unscrupulous traffickers” who take advantage of innocents just looking for a better life.
He took particular aim at the weapons industry, which he said was fueling the conflicts around the globe with scarcely anyone paying attention.
“It should be talked about and written about, so as to bring to light the interests and the profits that move the puppet strings of war,” he said. “And how can we even speak of peace, when arms production, sales and trade are on the rise?”
Read: US is engaging in high-level diplomacy to avoid vetoing a UN resolution on critical aid for Gaza
Francis has frequently blasted the weapons industry as “merchants of death” and has said that wars today, in Ukraine, in particular, are being used to try out new weapons or use up old stockpiles.
He called for peace between Israel and Palestinians, and for the conflict to be resolved “through sincere and persevering dialogue between the parties, sustained by strong political will and the support of the international community.”
Vatican officials said about 70,000 people filled St. Peter's Square for Francis' noonday speech and blessing. They included many people flying Palestinian flags, as well as some Ukrainian ones.
Francis' address from the loggia marked his main appearance for Christmas Day, though he is expected to deliver a blessing on Tuesday, the feast of St. Stephen, which is also a holiday in Italy. Rounding out the holiday, he is to celebrate a New Year's Eve vigil in the basilica and Mass the following day.
Despite his recent bout of bronchitis, the 87-year-old Francis appeared to hold up well Monday and during Christmas Eve Mass the previous night, though he occasionally coughed and seemed out of breath.
Furnace explosion at Chinese-owned nickel plant in Indonesia kills 13
A smelting furnace exploded Sunday at a Chinese-owned nickel plant on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, killing at least 13 workers and injuring dozens of others, police and a company official said.
It was the latest of a series of deadly incidents at nickel smelting plants in Indonesia that are part of China's ambitious transnational development program known as the Belt and Road Initiative.
Nickel is a key component in global battery production for electric vehicles.
At least four Chinese and nine Indonesian workers died when the furnace exploded while they were repairing it, said Central Sulawesi police chief Agus Nugroho.
Read: About 300 Indian travelers stuck in French airport in a human trafficking probe
The blast was so powerful it demolished the furnace and damaged parts of the side walls of the building, said Nugroho, adding that about 46 workers were injured, including four Chinese nationals, some in critical condition.
Authorities are working to determine whether negligence by the company led to the deaths, Nugroho said.
The accident occurred at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel, a subsidiary of PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, known as PT IMIP, in the Bahodopi neighborhood of Morowali regency.
“We sincerely apologize for this incident and we are working closely with authorities to investigate what caused the accident,” said company spokesperson Deddy Kurniawan.
Rescuers extinguished the fire and evacuated workers after a nearly four-hour operation, he added.
A preliminary investigation showed there were explosive liquids at the bottom of the furnace that triggered a fire and then a subsequent explosion in nearby oxygen cylinders.
It was the third deadly incident this year at Chinese-owned nickel smelting plants in Central Sulawesi province, which has the largest nickel reserves in Indonesia.
Two dump truck operators were killed when they were engulfed by a wall of black sludge-like material following the collapse of a nickel waste disposal site in April.
Read: Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead
In January, two workers, including a Chinese national, were killed in riots that involved workers and security guards at an Indonesia-China joint venture in North Morowali regency.
Last year, a loader truck ran over and killed a Chinese worker while he was repairing a road in PT IMIP’s mining area, and an Indonesian man burned to death when a furnace in the company’s factory exploded.
Nearly 50% of PT IMIP’s shares are owned by a Chinese holding company, and the rest are owned by two Indonesian companies. It began smelter operations in 2013 and is now the largest nickel-based industrial area in Indonesia.
Three Chinese workers in March filed a complaint to Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights, alleging that their health is deteriorating due to dust and smoke exposure while working seven-day weeks without a break at PT IMIP. They added that workers there don’t have adequate safety equipment.
Read: Putin ratchets up military pressure on Ukraine as he expects Western support for Kyiv to dwindle
Data collected by the Mining Advocacy Network, an Indonesian watchdog, showed that at least 22 workers from China and Indonesia have died in nickel smelting plants in Central Sulawesi province since 2019, including two Chinese nationals who committed suicide.
On Christmas Eve, Bethlehem resembles a ghost town; celebrations are halted due to war
The normally bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town on Sunday, as Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war.
The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists who gather each year to mark the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square.
Read: Israel creates massive obstacles to aid distribution in Gaza -- UN chief
The gift shops were slow to open on Christmas Eve, although a few did once the rain had stopped pouring down. There were few visitors, however.
“This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there’s just darkness,” said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years.
He said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering, as he gazed at a nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the hundreds of children killed in the fighting in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the grey rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and bursts of color that normally fill the square during the Christmas season.
“We can’t justify putting out a tree and celebrating as normal, when some people (in Gaza) don’t even have houses to go to,” said Ala’a Salameh, one of the owners of Afteem Restaurant, a family-owned falafel restaurant just steps from the square.
Salameh said Christmas Eve is usually the busiest day of the year. “Normally, you can’t find a single chair to sit, we’re full from morning till midnight,” said Salameh. This year, just one table was taken, by journalists taking a break from the rain.
Read: Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead
Salameh said his restaurant was operating at about 15% of normal business and wasn’t able to cover operating costs. He estimated that even after the war ends, it will take another year for tourism to return to Bethlehem as normal.
The cancellation of Christmas festivities is a severe blow to the town’s economy. Tourism accounts for an estimated 70% of Bethlehem’s income — almost all of that during the Christmas season.
With many major airlines canceling flights to Israel, few foreigners are visiting. Local officials say over 70 hotels in Bethlehem have been forced to close, leaving thousands of people unemployed.
Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel’s air and ground offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, according to health officials there, while some 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The war was triggered by Hamas’ deadly assault Oct. 7 on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages.
Read: A weekend of combat in Gaza kills more than a dozen Israeli soldiers, a sign of Hamas' entrenchment
The fighting in Gaza has also affected life in the West Bank. Since Oct. 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied territory has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.
About 300 Indian travelers stuck in French airport in a human trafficking probe
About 300 Indian citizens heading to Central America were sequestered in a French airport for a third day Saturday after a dramatic police operation prompted by a tip that those aboard might be victims of human trafficking, authorities said.
Those aboard included children and families. The local civil protection agency told regional broadcaster France-3 that the youngest passenger is a toddler of 21 months, and that among the children are 13 unaccompanied minors.
Local authorities hung white tarps across the soaring bay windows of the small Vatry Airport in Champagne country to ensure privacy for the passengers inside. An unmarked plane near the terminal appeared to be the aircraft grounded since Thursday. Other flights were canceled or rerouted as the airport was transformed into the hub of a vast trafficking investigation.
The 15 crew members of the Legend Airlines charter flight — en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates to Managua, Nicaragua — were questioned and released, according to a lawyer for the Romania-based airline. She said they are deeply shaken by what happened.
A surreal holiday weekend scene has been unfolding in the Vatry Airport since Thursday. The flight stopped for refueling, and was grounded by French police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying victims of human trafficking, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. It said two people have been detained and special investigators are questioning the other passengers.
The unusual and sudden probe disrupted air travel as police cordoned off the airport and flights in and out of the regional airport were disrupted, according to the administration for the Marne region. The airfield is used primarily for charter and cargo flights.
Police sequestered the passengers in the airport, where they have spent two nights on camp beds while the investigation continues, according to an official with the Marne administration. The official said the passengers initially remained in the A340 plane, surrounded by police on the tarmac, but were then transferred into the main hall of the airport to sleep.
Emergency workers, Red Cross workers, a doctor and local volunteers are on the scene to look after the needs of the passengers, including regular meals and medical care and access to toilets and showers, the administration said in a statement Saturday. A special section of the terminal has been equipped for families.
Indian consular representatives are visiting regularly, the administration said. The Indian Embassy in France posted on X that embassy staff had obtained consular access to the passengers. “We are investigating the situation and ensuring the wellbeing of passengers," it said.
Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said the company denies any role in possible human trafficking, and welcomed the news that the plane's crew had been released after questioning as "good news for the airline.''
A “partner” company that chartered the plane was responsible for verifying the identity documents of each passenger, and communicated the passengers' passport information to the airline 48 hours before the flight, Bakayoko told The Associated Press.
The customer had chartered multiple flights on Legend Airlines from Dubai to Nicaragua, and a few other flights have already made the journey without incident, she said. She would not identify the customer, saying only that it is not a European company.
The crew members, who are of multiple nationalities, “are rather traumatized,” she said. “They wrote me messages that they want to see their families for Christmas.”
The U.S. government has designated Nicaragua as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking.
Israel creates massive obstacles to aid distribution in Gaza -- UN chief
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the Israeli offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.
Many people are measuring the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza based on the number of trucks allowed to unload aid across the Egyptian-Gaza border. This is a mistake, said Guterres.
"The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza," he told reporters.
Read: Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead
An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security, staff who can work in safety, logistical capacity, and the resumption of commercial activity. These four elements do not exist, he said.
Security for aid delivery is absent. The intense Israeli bombardment and active combat in densely populated urban areas throughout Gaza threaten the lives of civilians and humanitarian aid workers alike. The United Nations waited 71 days for Israel finally to allow aid to enter Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. The crossing was then hit while aid trucks were in the area, he said.
The humanitarian operation requires staff who can live and work in safety. Some 136 UN staff members in Gaza have been killed in 75 days -- something unprecedented in the history of the United Nations. Nowhere is safe in Gaza, said Guterres.
Every truck that arrives at Kerem Shalom and Rafah border crossings must be unloaded, and its cargo re-loaded for distribution across Gaza. The United Nations has a limited and insufficient number of trucks available for this. Many of the UN vehicles and trucks were destroyed or left behind following forced, hurried evacuation from northern Gaza. But the Israeli authorities have not allowed any additional trucks to operate in Gaza. This is massively hampering the aid operation, he said.
Delivering in the north is extremely dangerous due to active conflict, unexploded ordnance, and heavily damaged roads. Everywhere, frequent communications blackouts make it virtually impossible to coordinate the distribution of aid, and to let people know how to access it, he added.
The resumption of commercial activities is essential. Shelves are empty, wallets are empty, stomachs are empty. Just one bakery is operating in the whole of Gaza, said Guterres. "I urge the Israeli authorities to lift restrictions on commercial activity immediately. We are ready to scale up our cash grant support to vulnerable families -- the most effective form of humanitarian aid. But in Gaza, there is very little to buy."
Over the last weeks and days, there has been no significant change in the way the war has been unfolding in Gaza. There is no effective protection of civilians. Intense Israeli bombardment and ground operations continue. More than 20,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, and the vast majority of them were women and children. Meanwhile, Hamas and other Palestinian factions continue to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel, he said.
Read: JN.1 Covid variant: WHO charts its rapid global spread
Some 1.9 million people -- 85 percent of Gaza's population -- have been forced from their homes. The health system is on its knees. Hospitals in southern Gaza are dealing with at least three times their capacity. In the north, they are barely operational.
According to the World Food Programme, widespread famine looms. More than half a million people, a quarter of the population, are facing what experts classify as catastrophic levels of hunger. Four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza. And clean water is at a trickle, he said.
"In these desperate conditions, it is little wonder that many people cannot wait for humanitarian distributions and are grabbing whatever they can from aid trucks. As I warned, public order is at risk of breaking down," he said.
Israel began its military operation in response to the horrific terror attacks launched by Hamas on Oct. 7. Nothing can possibly justify those attacks or the brutal abduction of some 250 hostages. But at the same time, these violations of international humanitarian law can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people, and they do not free Israel from its own legal obligations under international law, he said.
A humanitarian cease-fire is the only way to begin to meet the desperate needs of people in Gaza and end their ongoing nightmare, he said.
Guterres expressed the hope that Friday's Security Council resolution that calls for the immediate acceleration of aid deliveries in Gaza, may help a humanitarian cease-fire finally to happen.
"I hope that today's resolution will make people understand that a humanitarian cease-fire is indeed something that is needed if we want humanitarian aid to be effectively delivered," he said.
The UN chief stressed the importance of the two-state solution.
"Looking at the longer term, I am extremely disappointed by comments from senior Israeli officials that put the two-state solution into question. As difficult as it might appear today, the two-state solution, in line with UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements, is the only path to sustainable peace," said Guterres. "Any suggestion otherwise denies human rights, dignity and hope to the Palestinian people, fueling rage that reverberates far beyond Gaza. It also denies a safe future for Israel."
Read: Support civil society’s international solidarity efforts for peace: UN experts
The spillover of the war in Gaza is already happening, he warned.
The occupied West Bank is at boiling point. Daily exchanges of fire across the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel pose a grave risk to regional stability. Attacks and threats to shipping on the Red Sea by the Houthis in Yemen are impacting shipping with the potential to affect global supply chains, he said.
Beyond the immediate region, the conflict is polarizing communities, feeding hate speech and fueling extremism. All this poses a significant and growing threat to global peace and security, he warned.
"As the conflict intensifies and the horror grows, we will continue to do our part. We will not give up. But at the same time, it is imperative that the international community speak with one voice -- for peace, for the protection of civilians, for an end to suffering, and for a commitment to the two-state solution, backed with action," he said.