International
Japan Quake Death Toll Rises To 94 With 222 Missing
Hampered by bad weather and damaged roads, Japanese rescuers searched Friday for 222 people still missing four days after a devastating earthquake as the death toll approached 100.
Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble on Thursday, but hopes of finding other survivors after the 7.5 magnitude quake on New Year’s Day were fading with rain, snow and falling temperatures forecast in the coming days.
Thousands of rescuers from all over Japan have been battling aftershocks and roads littered with gaping holes and blocked by frequent landslides in the central Ishikawa region to reach hundreds of people in stranded communities.
On Thursday afternoon, 72 hours after the quake, the two older women were miraculously pulled alive from the remains of their homes in Wajima, one of them thanks to a sniffer dog.
The port city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula was one of the worst hit, with a pungent smell of soot still in the air and faint columns of smoke visible from a huge fire that destroyed hundreds of structures on the first day.
“I was relaxing on New Year’s Day when the quake happened. My relatives were all there and we were having fun,” Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, told AFP amid the burnt-out cars, wrecked buildings and fallen telegraph poles.
“The house itself is standing but it’s far from livable now… I don’t have the space in my mind to think about the future,” he told AFP.
Grief
Authorities said on Friday afternoon that 222 people were unaccounted for, down from an earlier count of 242, including 121 in Wajima and 82 in Suzu.
The death toll was raised to 94 from 92, with 464 people injured. The dead included a junior high school boy visiting his family, reports said.
Around 30,000 households were without electricity in the Ishikawa region, and 89,800 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.
Hundreds of people were in government shelters.
“We are doing our best to conduct rescue operations at the isolated villages… However, the reality is that the isolation has not been resolved to the extent that we would like,” regional governor Hiroshi Hase said Friday.
In the town of Anamizu, Sang and his four fellow Vietnamese compatriots have no heating or water in their damaged house. The toilet was full of bricks.
“We were cooking when it happened. We all dashed out of the house,” the 32-year-old told AFP.
“We had no internet connection on the day of the earthquake, but it resumed yesterday. We were able to contact family in Vietnam,” he said.
“What we need now is something to eat and drink.”
The Suzu area was also devastated, with fishing boats sunk or lifted like toys onto the shore by tsunami waves that also reportedly swept one person away.
Noriaki Yachi, 79, fought back tears after his wife was pulled from the rubble there and confirmed dead, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.
“My life with her was a happy one,” Yachi said.
Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and most cause no damage, with strict building codes in place for more than four decades.
Earthquakes have hit the Noto region with intensifying strength and frequency over the past five years.
The country is haunted by a massive 9.0 magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
It also swamped the Fukushima atomic plant, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
AFP
Veteran American actor Harris Yulin, widely known for his memorable roles in Ghostbusters II and Scarface, has passed away at the age of 87.
According to reports, Yulin died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday, June 10, 2025.
His manager, Sue Leibman, confirmed his death in a statement to The Post on Thursday.
Leibman described Yulin as part of a generation of actors deeply committed to their craft.
“Yulin was part of the vanguard of a generation that passionately cared about the craft of acting.
This lifelong dedication led to extraordinary, resonant performances that were a gift to actors he worked with, audiences, and the art of acting itself,” she stated.
International
‘I walked out of rubble’: Survivor on how he escaped Air India wreckage
But Mr Ramesh, a businessman from Leicester who has a wife and four-year-old son, said the section he was sitting in landed near the ground and did not make contact with the building.
The British man who was the sole survivor of Thursday’s Air India plane crash said he managed to escape the wreckage through an opening in the fuselage.
“I managed to unbuckle myself, used my leg to push through that opening, and crawled out,” Vishwashkumar Ramesh told Indian state media DD News.
Mr Ramesh, 40, was in seat 11A on the London-bound Boeing 787 flight when it went down shortly after take off in Ahmedabad, western India on Thursday.
Air India said all other passengers and crew were killed – including 169 Indian nationals and 52 British nationals.
More than 200 bodies have been recovered so far, though it is unclear how many were passengers and how many were from the ground.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Mr Ramesh said the lights inside the aircraft “started flickering” moments after take off.
Within five to 10 seconds, it felt like the plane was “stuck in the air”, he said.
“The lights started flickering green and white…suddenly slammed into a building and exploded.
“The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed into a building used as accommodation for doctors at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College and Civil Hospital.
But Mr Ramesh, a businessman from Leicester who has a wife and four-year-old son, said the section he was sitting in landed near the ground and did not make contact with the building.
“When the door broke and I saw there was some space, I tried to get out of there and I did.”No one could have got out from the opposite side, which was towards the wall, because it crashed there.”
(BBC)
The Israeli military confirmed the airborne assault, alerting its citizens that an Iranian retaliation was actively underway. The Israeli military confirmed the airborne assault, alerting its citizens that an Iranian retaliation was actively underway.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have escalated sharply as Iran launched more than 100 drones toward Israeli territory late Thursday night in what it described as a retaliatory operation.
The Israeli military confirmed the airborne assault, alerting its citizens that an Iranian retaliation was actively underway.
“This is a different event to what we’ve experienced thus far, and we’re expecting difficult hours,” said IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari in a late-night briefing.
“All aerial defense arrays have been operating to intercept the threats.”
The attack follows a series of Israeli airstrikes earlier this week targeting Iranian military installations.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) stated that the strikes, carried out under the codename Operation Rising Lion, were a “pre-emptive, precise, combined offensive based on high-quality intelligence.”
According to reports, dozens of Israeli airstrikes struck multiple locations across Iran, including high-level military targets.
One of the most significant casualties of the operation was Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s chief of staff for the armed forces, who was reportedly killed in the Israeli strikes.
Iranian authorities have not issued an official statement confirming Bagheri’s death or detailing the extent of the damage from the Israeli offensive, but state-affiliated media have vowed that a “decisive response” would follow.
Air raid sirens were heard across multiple regions in Israel, and emergency protocols were enacted nationwide as the military attempted to intercept the incoming drones.
Early reports suggest that Israel’s Iron Dome and other defense systems were actively engaged, though the full impact of the drone assault remains unclear at this time.
International leaders have urged both nations to de-escalate, warning that continued retaliation could spiral into a broader regional conflict.
Meanwhile, citizens in both countries have been urged to remain vigilant as military tensions appear far from resolved.
Father’s Day: LAAF Acknowledges Men’s Daily Challenges (Conference Photos)
NDLEA warns parents “Beware of drug-laced sweets for children “
IGP Egbetokun Approves Extension of Tinted Glass Permits Until August 12
Tech Expert, Zuckerberg trains with UFC champions, Adesanya, Alexander
Organ Trafficking: Ekweremadu bags 10 years in UK prison
SAINT OBI: Between his marriage and his death
-
News3 days agoTinubu’s 2025 Democracy Day address (Full Speech)
-
International3 days agoAir India Plane Crash : One survivor out of 242 Passenger
-
News2 days agoLagos Court Convicts Canadian Returnee for Assaults on KAI Official
-
Business2 days agoNNPCL Declares N5.89trn revenue, N748bn PAT for April 2025
-
News1 day agoLagos Warns Residents “Don’t Go Out in The Heavy Rain falls”
-
Business3 days agoSterling Bank launches N2bn private university scholarships for Nigerian youth
-
International2 days ago‘I walked out of rubble’: Survivor on how he escaped Air India wreckage
-
International2 days agoIran attacks Israel, Launches Over 100 Drones In Retaliatory Strike