Explosion at India plant kills at least 18
HYDERABAD, India — A big explosion triggered a fire at a pharmaceutical plant in southern India, killing at least 18 workers, police said Thursday.
The death toll rose from 15 as three of the 40 injured in the fire Wednesday in the chemical reactor of the plant in Andhra Pradesh state died in a hospital on Thursday, police officer M. Deepika said, adding that some of the injured were in critical condition.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported distressing scenes with some workers severely burned. Ambulances transported them to the hospital.
Officials suspect the fire was caused by an electrical fault at the plant, according to media reports. State authorities have ordered an investigation.
The explosion occurred at the Escientia Company in the Anakapalle district.
The 5-year-old company manufactures intermediate chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients.
As the news of the blast spread, hundreds of people from families of workers rushed to the plant to find out what happened to their loved ones.
Around 380 employees work two shifts at the plant. Many escaped because they were on lunch break when the explosion started the fire.
Venezuela high court backs Maduro win
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s Supreme Court has backed President Nicolas Maduro’s claims that he won last month’s presidential election and said voting tallies published online showing he lost by a landslide were forged.
Its decision, read Thursday in an event attended by senior officials and foreign diplomats, came in response a request by Maduro to review vote totals showing he had won by more than 1 million votes.
The high court’s ruling certifying the results contradicts the findings of experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center who were invited to observe the election and which both determined the results announced by authorities lacked credibility. Specifically, the outside experts noted that authorities didn’t release a breakdown of results by each of the 30,000 voting booths nationwide, as they have in almost every previous election.
The government has claimed — without evidence — that a foreign cyberattack staged by hackers from North Macedonia delayed the vote counting on election night and publication of the disaggregated results.
11 officers killed in Punjab police attack
LAHORE, Pakistan — Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades ambushed a police convoy in an eastern Punjab province on Thursday, killing at least 11 officers and wounding seven others, authorities said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the Rahim Yar Khan district. The officers were ambushed while on patrol in a deserted area in search of robbers who operate in the region.
Punjabi police said the gunmen were likely robbers and not militants. The victims were taken to a nearby hospital.
Security forces often carry out operations against bandits in Punjab and in the southern Sindh province, where they hide in rural, forested areas and where they have killed several police officers in attacks over the past months.
Thursday’s attack in the district of Rahim Yar Khan’s area of Kacha is known for robbers’ hideouts along the Indus River, where hundreds of heavily armed bandits evade police.
Police said that one of the police vehicles apparently broke down while passing through accumulated rainwater along farm fields, when dozens of bandits launched the attack. Pakistan has been lashed by monsoon rains since July.
Fist-sized diamond found in Botswana
GABORONE, Botswana — The largest diamond found in more than a century has been unearthed at a mine in Botswana, and the country’s president showed off the fist-sized stone to the world at a viewing ceremony Thursday.
The Botswana government says the huge 2,492-carat diamond is the second-biggest ever discovered in a mine. It’s the biggest diamond found since 1905.
The as-yet-unnamed diamond was presented to the world at the office of Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi. It weighs approximately half a kilogram and Masisi was one of the first to get to hold it.
“It is overwhelming,” Masisi said. “I am lucky to have seen it in my time.” He gasped and said “wow” before calling senior government officials over to take a closer look.
Officials said it was too early to value the stone or decide how it would be sold.
“This is history in the making,” said Naseem Lahri, Botswana managing director for Lucara Diamond Corp., the Canadian mining company that found the diamond. “I am very proud. It is a product of Botswana.”
Lucara said in a statement Wednesday that it recovered the “exceptional” rough diamond from its Karowe Mine in central Botswana. Lucara said it was a “high-quality” stone and was found intact. It was located using X-ray technology designed to find large, high-value diamonds.
Leela Devi, center, with her arms outstretched, wails after hearing of her husband Chiranjeevi’s death in an explosion at the Escientia Advanced Sciences Private Ltd., a pharmaceutical company, outside the mortuary of King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh state, India, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo)
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi holds the 2,492-carat diamond that was unearthed at one of its mines and will be put on show Thursday in Gaborone. (AP)
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