PARIS -- Rating agency Fitch on Friday evening downgraded France's long-term sovereign credit rating from AA- to A+, with a stable outlook.
Fitch cited a high and rising government debt ratio, political fragmentation hindering consolidation, a weak fiscal record, and high deficits in 2025 as key reasons for the downgrade. (Fitch-France-Rating)
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NEW DELHI -- At least six people were killed and four others injured, two of them critically, after rocks caved in inside a stone quarry in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, officials said Saturday.
The stretch of stone quarry collapsed on Friday near Bahadurpur village of Nalhati in Birbhum district. (India-West Bengal-Quarry Collapse)
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ISLAMABAD -- At least 97 people have been killed and more than 4.4 million others affected by recent floods in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has said.
According to the PDMA on Friday, floods triggered by high water levels in the Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab rivers have damaged over 4,500 villages across the province. (Pakistan-Flood-Punjab)
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NEW DELHI -- At least eight people died and around 15 others were injured when a speeding truck rammed into a group of people carrying a religious procession on a busy highway in India's southern state of Karnataka on Friday night, confirmed a local policeman over phone.
The accident occurred in the state's Hassan district. (India-Accident-Deaths) ■
