17 children killed in Nigeria school fire
Abuja, Feb 6: At least 17 children were killed in a fire that broke out in an Islamic school in northwestern Nigeria, the country’s emergency response agency said, as authorities launched an investigation into the cause on Thursday. About 100 children were at the school when the fire broke out on Wednesday in the Kaura Namoda district of Zamfara state, the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire. Preliminary findings, however, suggest that the fire was caused by a stockpile of sticks used for oral hygiene, locally known as “kara,” which were gathered in the vicinity of the school, the agency said. (AP)
4 killed in US military-contracted plane crashes in Philippines
Manila, Feb 6: A US military-contracted plane crashed in a rice field in the southern Philippines Thursday, killing all four people on board, US Embassy and Philippine officials said. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines confirmed the crash of a light plane in Maguindanao del Sur province. It did not immediately provide other details. The plane that crashed in the southern province was contracted by the US military, US Embassy spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay told The Associated Press, adding that the US Indo-Pacific Command will issue a more detailed statement on the plane crash. (AP)
ChatGPT faces global outage
New Delhi, Feb 6: ChatGPT, one of OpenAI’s most popular Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools on Thursday faced a global outage as millions of users were unable to access the service. Many frustrated users took to social media platforms like X on Thursday to report that ChatGPT was not working for them. The complaints indicate that the issue is widespread, with reports coming in from different countries. According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks online outages, thousands of users have been affected by the outage.ChatGPT was still down till the time of the filing of this report. (IANS)
LA wildfires cost up to $164 bn in losses
Los Angeles, Feb 6: The two largest wildfires that recently ravaged Los Angeles County may have caused total property and capital losses of as much as 164 billion US dollars, according to a new report. The report published on Tuesday by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) suggests total property and capital losses caused by the Palisades and Eaton fires could range between 95 billion dollars and 164 billion dollars, with insured losses estimated at 75 billion dollars. The report, authored by UCLA Anderson Forecast economists Zhiyun Li and William Yu, predicts a 0.48-percent loss in county-level GDP for 2025, amounting to approximately 4.6 billion dollars, and a total wage loss of 297 million dollars for local businesses and employees in the affected areas. “Without substantial and effective wildfire mitigation efforts and investments, Californians will face higher insurance premiums and growing health risks from wildfire-related pollution.” (AP)
