A storm that tore through the US South and Midwest has killed at least 32 people, with more treacherous weather expected for Monday and Tuesday.
Tennessee, one of the states hit hardest by the storms, raised its death toll to 15. Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana and Illinois reported another 17 deaths. Dozens were injured.
Tennessee's emergency management agency said more severe weather was expected for Tuesday.
Tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, felled trees and laid waste to neighbourhoods across a broad segment of the country.
Other deaths from the storms, which hit on Friday night and continued into Saturday, were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in the path of one tornado.
Residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 80km west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke on Saturday to find the high school's roof shredded and its windows blown out.
Huge trees lay on the ground, with their stumps exposed, while debris from fallen walls, broken windows and roofs littered the shells of homes and businesses.
Clothing, insulation, toys, splintered furniture and a pick-up truck with its windows shattered were strewn on front lawns.
Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead”.
A falling tree damaged their home but they were unhurt.
We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm
Ashley Macmillan,
resident of Wynne
“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” Ms Macmillan said.
Recovery was already under way, with workers using chainsaws and bulldozers to clear the area and utility crews restoring power.
Nine people were killed in Tennessee's McNairy County, east of Memphis, said Patrick Sheehan, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency director.
David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville, said: “The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas."
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee drove to the county to assess the destruction and comfort residents.
He said the storm capped the worst week of his time in office, coming days after a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people, including a family friend.
“It’s terrible what has happened in this community, this county, this state,” Mr Lee said. “But it looks like your community has done what Tennesseean communities do, and that is rally and respond.”
Jeffrey Day said he called his daughter after seeing on the news that their community of Adamsville was being hit.
Huddled in a cupboard with her two-year-old son as the storm passed over, she answered the phone screaming.
“She kept asking me, ‘What do I do, Daddy?’" Mr Day said, tearing up. "I didn’t know what to say.”
After the storm passed, his daughter crawled out of her destroyed home and over barbed wire then drove to relatives near by.
In Memphis, police spokesman Christopher Williams said two children and an adult were killed when a tree fell on a house.
Tennessee officials warned that the same conditions were expected on Tuesday.
In Belvidere, Illinois, part of the roof of the Apollo Theatre collapsed as about 260 people were attending a heavy metal concert. A man, 50, was pulled from the rubble.
“I sat with him and I held his hand and I was [telling him], ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do," concert-goer Gabrielle Lewellyn said.
The man was dead by the time emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 were hurt, including two with life-threatening injuries.
Crews cleaned up around the Apollo on Saturday, with forklifts pulling away loose bricks. Business owners picked up glass shards and covered shattered windows.
In Crawford County, Illinois, three people were killed and eight injured when a tornado hit near New Hebron, said Bill Burke, the county board chairman.
Sheriff Bill Rutan said 60 to 100 families were displaced.
“We’ve had emergency crews digging people out of their basements because the house has collapsed on top of them but luckily they had that safe space to go to,” he said at a news conference.
That tornado was not far from where three people died in Indiana's Sullivan County, about 150km south-west of Indianapolis.
Sullivan mayor Clint Lamb said an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 was “essentially unrecognisable right now" and several people were rescued overnight. There were reports of as many as 12 people injured, he said.
He said he was “really shocked” that more people had not been injured and added that recovery was “going to be a very long process".
In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than 50 hurt, some of them critically.
The National Weather Service said that tornado was "a high-end EF3 twister" with wind speeds up to 265kph and a path as long as 40km.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.
On Saturday, Ms Sanders requested a major disaster declaration from President Joe Biden to support recovery efforts with federal resources.
Another tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama’s Madison County, officials said, and in northern Mississippi's Pontotoc County authorities confirmed one dead and four injured.
Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa and broke windows north-east of Peoria, Illinois.
The storms struck only hours after Mr Biden had visited Rolling Fork, Mississippi, where tornadoes last week destroyed parts of the town.
It could take days to determine the exact number of tornadoes from the latest event, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Centre.
There were also hundreds of reports of large hailstones and damaging wind, he said.
“That’s a quite active day," he said. “But it’s not unprecedented.”
More than 530,000 homes and businesses were without power as of midday on Saturday, at least 200,000 of them in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.
The sprawling storm system also brought wildfires to the Southern Plains, with authorities in Oklahoma reporting nearly 100 on Friday.
At least 32 people were said to be injured and more than 40 homes destroyed.
The storms also caused blizzard conditions in the Upper Midwest.
A threat of tornadoes and hail remained for the North-east including in parts of Pennsylvania and New York.
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THE BIO
Age: 30
Favourite book: The Power of Habit
Favourite quote: "The world is full of good people, if you cannot find one, be one"
Favourite exercise: The snatch
Favourite colour: Blue
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
More on animal trafficking
The specs
Engine 60kwh FWD
Battery Rimac 120kwh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power 204hp Torque 360Nm
Price, base / as tested Dh174,500
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
Jordan cabinet changes
In
- Raed Mozafar Abu Al Saoud, Minister of Water and Irrigation
- Dr Bassam Samir Al Talhouni, Minister of Justice
- Majd Mohamed Shoueikeh, State Minister of Development of Foundation Performance
- Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
- Falah Abdalla Al Ammoush, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Basma Moussa Ishakat, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Ghazi Monawar Al Zein, Minister of Health
- Ibrahim Sobhi Alshahahede, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Environment
- Dr Mohamed Suleiman Aburamman, Minister of Culture and Minister of Youth
Out
- Dr Adel Issa Al Tawissi, Minister of High Education and Scientific Research
- Hala Noaman “Basiso Lattouf”, Minister of Social Development
- Dr Mahmud Yassin Al Sheyab, Minister of Health
- Yahya Moussa Kasbi, Minister of Public Works and Housing
- Nayef Hamidi Al Fayez, Minister of Environment
- Majd Mohamed Shoueika, Minister of Public Sector Development
- Khalid Moussa Al Huneifat, Minister of Agriculture
- Dr Awad Abu Jarad Al Mushakiba, Minister of Justice
- Mounir Moussa Ouwais, Minister of Water and Agriculture
- Dr Azmi Mahmud Mohafaza, Minister of Education
- Mokarram Mustafa Al Kaysi, Minister of Youth
- Basma Mohamed Al Nousour, Minister of Culture
'Munich: The Edge of War'
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The specs: Fenyr SuperSport
Price, base: Dh5.1 million
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 800hp @ 7,100pm
Torque: 980Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 13.5L / 100km
if you go
The flights
Emirates offer flights to Buenos Aires from Dubai, via Rio De Janeiro from around Dh6,300. emirates.com
Seeing the games
Tangol sell experiences across South America and generally have good access to tickets for most of the big teams in Buenos Aires: Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Independiente. Prices from Dh550 and include pick up and drop off from your hotel in the city. tangol.com
Staying there
Tangol will pick up tourists from any hotel in Buenos Aires, but after the intensity of the game, the Faena makes for tranquil, upmarket accommodation. Doubles from Dh1,110. faena.com
