Colombia quake death toll rises to 273
The death toll from Monday's 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Colombia has risen to 273, David Tamayo, director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, said Thursday.
"We have the report of 40,753 affected families, 97,515 affected people and 273 deaths. Of those 273 deaths, 250 bodies have arrived at Legal Medicine, 227 have been identified and 189 have been handed over to their families," Tamayo told a press conference.
He also said the quake left 3,824 people injured and 377 missing.
Kennedy Center board decides to inscribe Trump's name on building despite judge order
The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday voted to inscribe U.S. President Donald Trump's name on the building, although a federal judge previously ruled it unlawful, U.S. media reported Thursday.
The Trump-allied board decided to inscribe Trump's name on the building beneath the main signage, The New York Times cited two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings as saying.
The inscription would read: "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump," the report said.
Putin visits Kuril Island of Iturup
Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the Far Eastern Kuril Island of Iturup, Russian media reported on Thursday.
According to TASS news agency, Putin has visited the Kuril Island of Iturup after attending the final stage of the Pacific Fleet drills in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Putin visited the Yasny fish-packing factory on Iturup, said the TASS report.
5 killed due to Ukrainian ordnance explosion in Russian-controlled Sevastopol
Four pyrotechnicians of Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations and a security guard were killed Thursday during the disposal of an unexploded Ukrainian ordnance in Russian-controlled Sevastopol, authorities said.
Regional Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said that the men were clearing the area of debris following a Ukrainian attack when the unexploded ordnance detonated, causing them fatal injuries.
Authorities in other Russian regions have also reported casualties during Ukrainian attacks on Thursday.
Ukraine says 2 killed in Russian strike on passenger train
Two people were killed in a Russian drone strike on a passenger train in Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia reported.
The train, carrying 340 passengers, was hit by a jet-powered drone in the southern Odesa region, the company said.
A train driver and his assistant were killed in the attack, it said.
Gaza police chief, Hamas member killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
The Hamas-run interior authorities in the Gaza Strip said on Thursday that the 43-year-old Gaza Police Chief Jamal Mahmoud Abu Kamil was killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his vehicle on Rashid Street, southwest of Gaza City.
Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews reported that Israeli aircraft targeted Abu Kamil in his vehicle, killing him instantly and wounding several others who were taken to Al-Shifa Hospital.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it targeted a company commander in Hamas' military wing in an airstrike that killed a person in the southern Gaza Strip.
Yemen's Houthis claim fresh drone attack on Saudi Aramco refinery in Jazan
Yemen's Houthi group said Thursday it had launched a fresh drone attack on an Aramco oil refinery in Saudi Arabia's southwestern city of Jazan, marking another strike on the kingdom's energy infrastructure amid escalating tensions between the two sides.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency, citing a military source within the group, said two drones targeted the refinery and claimed that the strike was "precise."
The source said the attack came in response to what the group described as Saudi violations of the airspace over the Houthi-held northern provinces of Saada and Hajjah.
Iran says no vessels can cross Hormuz Strait without its permission
Iran's main military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said on Thursday that no commercial vessel or oil tanker has been, or will be, able to cross the Strait of Hormuz safely without the Iranian armed forces' permission and supervision.
In a video message carried by Iranian media, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the headquarters' spokesman, said that, as in the past, the Strait of Hormuz is under Iran's full control and management, rejecting U.S. claims about vessels' normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz as being "false and nothing but lies."
He added the U.S. "false" claims are indicative of its army's "desperation and helplessness," stressing that the U.S. leaders and army have well tested the Iranian armed forces' "power and resistance."■
