At least 35 people have been killed in an explosion at a petrol station in Russia's remote Caucasus republic of Dagestan.
Eighty people, including 13 children, were also injured in the blast, which created a huge fireball, government ministers said.
The blaze started at a roadside car repair shop in the regional capital, Makhachkala, on Monday night and triggered explosions as it spread to the nearby fuel station.
Footage posted online showed a one-storey building ablaze, and witness described the scene as “like a war”.
The Kremlin issued a statement saying: “President Putin expresses his most sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the tragedy in Dagestan and wishes a speedy recovery to the victims.”
Pictures showed a large blaze lighting up the night sky and a number of fire engines at the scene.
The fire broke out during work on a car and nearby buildings and cars were also destroyed in the explosion, the regional branch of the Investigative Committee, which probes major incidents, announced on social media.
A criminal investigation has been opened, it added.
It took firefighters more than three-and-a-half hours to put out the fire that spread across an area of 600 square metres, state-run news agency Tass reported, citing the Russian emergency ministry.
Thirteen of the wounded were children, Interfax reported.
Makhachkala is a city of over 600,000 residents on the Caspian Sea, in Dagestan, which borders Chechnya.
Some 260 emergency workers were deployed, along with an aircraft to evacuate the seriously injured to Moscow, the ministry said.
The Republic of Dagestan is one of 83 constituent parts of the Russian Federation and is the southernmost part of the country.
Makhachkala is around 1,600km from Moscow.
– With reporting from agencies
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Cast: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfayden, Kelly Macdonald and Penelope Wilton
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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1. Fasting
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Brief scores:
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Vardy 58'
Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
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(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
The White Lotus: Season three
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Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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