One dead, 17 injured in Berlin car crash
Berlin, July 26: A van ramming and stabbing near Berlin’s Pride festival that left one person dead and many others injured is believed to have been an Islamic extremist terror attack, Germany’s interior minister said Sunday. The suspect in Saturday night’s attack remains at large. Authorities issued a wanted notice and warned people against approaching Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, saying that he may be armed and dangerous. Authorities said he is believed to have injured several people after he drove a van into a crowd at a park near the Pride festival’s closing party. He then allegedly attacked other people with a weapon, suspected to be a machete. “Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Dobrindt put the total number of injured at 29. (AP)
Pak’s monsoon death toll nears 100
Islamabad, July 26: Pakistan’s monsoon death toll has risen to 97 after 11 more people were killed and 25 others injured in rain-related incidents, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said. Eastern Punjab province remained the worst-hit during the latest reporting period, recording seven deaths and 20 injuries. Southern Sindh reported two deaths and two injuries, while northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and northern Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) region each recorded one fatality. KP also reported three injuries. The authority said the cumulative number of people injured since the onset of the monsoon season on June 26 has reached 297, Xinhua news agency reported. The latest spell of rains also damaged 22 houses and killed eight livestock, bringing the season’s total to 447 houses damaged and 269 livestock lost nationwide. (IANS)
France, Greece sites added to UNESCO Heritage List
Seoul, July 26: World War II’s D-Day landing beaches in northern France and the iconic Mount Olympus in Greece were among the sites added to the World Heritage List on Sunday at a UN committee meeting in South Korea reviewing dozens of nominations.The UNESCO committee, which meets in Busan through Wednesday, also inscribed the ancient Japanese capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara and South Sudan’s Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape, host to one of the world’s largest land mammal migrations and the country’s first addition to the World Heritage List.The French designation covers the five Normandy landing beaches, Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno, where more than 150,000. (AP)
Space crew lands safely after 8 months on ISS
Moscow, July 26: A US-Russian space crew landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Sunday after an eight-month stint on the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian crewmates Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev touched down in their Soyuz MS-28 that landed smoothly by parachute in a designated area southeast of Dzhezkazgan. Their 241-day stint on the orbiting outpost was the first space mission for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud-Sverchkov. (AP)
