Author: Darren Smith

At least five Indian Air Force personnel have been killed after a military transport plane crashed while attempting to land at an airbase in Assam, in the northeast of the country, with a major rescue operation launched at the scene. The Antonov An-32 crashed at the air force base in Jorhat on Saturday morning. The Indian Air Force confirmed in a post on X that the aircraft “met with an accident during a routine sortie.” The co-pilot survived and is undergoing emergency treatment, officials told news agency ANI. Images and video from the scene showed catastrophic damage, with the aircraft…

A 17-year-old girl has died and a 19-year-old man is fighting for his life in hospital after the car they were travelling in left the road and struck a tree in Kent. Kent Police confirmed the collision occurred on Headcorn Road, near Staplehurst, on Thursday. A third teenager, a 17-year-old boy, has also been taken to hospital with serious injuries following the crash.

A fan attempting to invade the pitch during the USA’s World Cup opener against Paraguay was tackled by security before he ever made it onto the field, in scenes that drew mockery from fellow spectators and led one outlet to brand him “quite possibly the worst streaker in the history of sports.” The incident unfolded towards the end of the match at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, where a near-full crowd of around 70,000 had watched the United States cruise to a 4-1 victory over Paraguay, with goals including an own goal, a double from Folarin Balogun and a fine…

People caught in possession of drugs who are diverted into treatment and education programmes rather than prosecuted are a third less likely to reoffend, according to a major new study examining outcomes across 13 English police forces over four years. The research, described as the first of its kind, examined more than 62,000 criminal incidents involving people contacted by police between October 2021 and September 2022, tracking outcomes over the following four years. It found that those whose cases were handled through police-led diversion schemes — which steer individuals away from the criminal justice system and into treatment and education…

Brazil’s quest to end a 24-year wait for a sixth World Cup title begins this evening against Morocco in New Jersey, with Carlo Ancelotti facing serious questions over a squad that arrives in North America carrying significant defensive weaknesses and little recent momentum. The Selecao remain the most successful nation in World Cup history with five titles, the last of which came in 2002 when Cafu lifted the trophy in Yokohama following a 2-0 win over Germany. Since then, Brazil have endured a run of quarter-final and earlier exits — eliminated by France in 2006, by the Netherlands in 2010,…

England’s training equipment, including match boots and official tournament balls, has been stolen ahead of the team’s arrival at their World Cup training base in Kansas City, with two people taken into custody as police investigate. The theft occurred on Friday as team staff transported the equipment from England’s pre-tournament base in Florida to the Swope Soccer Village in Missouri, where the players are due to arrive on Saturday. The vehicles carrying the kit were broken into while the players travelled separately. Local police confirmed the incident in a statement: “We are investigating a possible theft of equipment from a…

A 44-year-old woman was killed by a 25-foot python in Indonesia after the giant snake attacked her while she was tending to cattle, with her husband later finding her body partly inside the reptile’s mouth just metres from their home. Elisabet Yamalau had stepped outside to tend to her farm animals in North Maluku on Tuesday afternoon when the python, concealed in undergrowth, sank its fangs into her leg and wrapped itself around her body. Her husband, Benyamin Lanto, 52, went looking for her that evening when she failed to return home, discovering her motionless body halfway inside the snake’s…

Israeli air raids across southern Lebanon killed one person on Friday and into the evening, as the military issued forced displacement orders for 20 towns and villages, despite a US-brokered ceasefire that was meant to have ended hostilities. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that the person was killed in an Israeli air raid on the municipality of Maarakeh, in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon. Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett, reporting from Beirut, said the strikes continued into Friday evening on towns and villages well north of what Israel calls the “Yellow Line” — the area of southern Lebanon it has…

The humpback whale that captivated Germany for months likely died only five or six days after a controversial final rescue attempt failed to guide it back into the Atlantic, officials confirmed on Friday, drawing a sad close to a saga that divided scientists, government officials and the public. The whale, nicknamed “Timmy” and “Hope” by German media, was found dead on 14 May, stranded off the small island of Anholt in the Kattegat, the broad strait between Denmark and Sweden connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea. Its discovery brought an end to a months-long rescue effort that culminated…

The mother of a former police officer accused of murdering his TV presenter ex-boyfriend and his new partner with a service pistol has been refused bail after being charged with attempting to interfere with a key witness ahead of her son’s trial, in the latest twist in one of Australia’s most closely watched criminal cases. Coleen Lamarre, 63, herself a former police officer, was arrested by homicide detectives at her Balmain home on 29 April and charged with one count of intending to pervert the course of justice. NSW Police allege she attempted to persuade a man referred to in…