U.N. says most Libya flooding deaths could have been avoided, as officials warn the toll could still soar
CBSN
The number of people killed by the devastating flash flooding in northern Libya remained unclear Thursday, due to the daunting scale of the catastrophe and political chaos that's left the African nation divided between two governments for years, but it was undoubtedly well into the thousands. With survivors still desperately hoping to find the bodies of lost loved ones in debris-choked towns and cities, the United Nations said most of the thousands of deaths could have been avoided.
With better functioning coordination in the crisis-wracked country, "they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties," Petteri Taalas, head of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization, told reporters.
An enormous surge of water, brought by torrential downpours from Storm Daniel over the weekend, burst two upstream river dams and reduced the city of Derna to an apocalyptic wasteland where entire blocks and untold numbers of people were washed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Police in Greece said Wednesday they were investigating how an ancient Greek statue came to be dumped in a black plastic bag near garbage cans in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Drug traffickers whose entire organized crime ring was brought down by a photo of a French Bulldog were ordered to fork over more than $1.4 million, the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency said.
An Israeli military operation in a built-up refugee camp in the occupied West Bank killed at least seven people Tuesday, according to Palestinian health officials, as the Israel Defense Forces announced a new "large scale" offensive in the area on the third day of a ceasefire in the smaller Gaza Strip.
Men confess to brutal murder in France after over 20 years on the run, living under false identities
Two men admitted on Monday to the brutal 2003 murder of a Frenchman when they appeared in court after more than two decades on the run.
Islamabad, Pakistan — Afghanistan's Taliban government announced the release Tuesday of two Americans in a prisoner exchange.
President Trump has signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization. It was among dozens of executive actions he signed after being sworn in Monday for a second term, on issues ranging from immigration to foreign policy to climate change.
London — A British teen pleaded guilty Monday to murdering three girls and attempting to kill 10 other people in what a prosecutor said was a "meticulously planned" stabbing rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last summer. Axel Rudakubana, 18, entered the surprise plea as jury selection had been expected to begin at the start of his trial in Liverpool Crown Court.
An Indian court on Monday sentenced a police volunteer to life in prison after finding him guilty in the rape and killing of a trainee doctor last year, a crime that sparked nationwide protests over inadequate safety for women and led to a speedy trial in the country's slow-moving justice system.
More than 80 people have been killed in Colombia's northeast region following failed attempts to hold peace talks with the National Liberation Army, a Colombian official said.
A senior Taliban figure has urged the group's leader to scrap education bans on Afghan women and girls, saying there is no excuse for them, in a rare public rebuke of government policy.
A long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has officially begun after a last-minute delay of almost three hours. The fighting continued past the initially provisioned 8:30 a.m. local (1:30 a.m. Eastern) deadline as the Israeli military said Hamas had failed to provide the names of the first three hostages due to be released, per the terms of the agreement.
South Korea's impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was formally arrested early Sunday, days after being apprehended at his presidential compound in Seoul, as he faces possible imprisonment over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month.
At least 30 people have been injured, some seriously, in a chairlift accident at the Spanish Astún ski resort, in the Pyrenees mountain range, emergency services and local media reported Saturday.
A police volunteer was found guilty of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in India, a crime that sparked countrywide protests and hospital strikes last year.
Canadian homeowners returned home in July 2024 and found a star-shaped pattern of grey dust spotted on a walkway in front of their home on Prince Edward Island.
Archeologists in Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by ash and lava in 70 AD, unearthed a private bathhouse built over 2,000 years ago, officials said Friday.
Russia on Friday sentenced three lawyers who had defended Alexey Navalny to several years in prison for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world.
London - Britain's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced Thursday that there would be a number of new central government-backed local inquiries into years-old allegations of child grooming gangs, weeks after Elon Musk accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failings in relation to the handling of the crimes in a series of tweets. The crimes took place a decade ago when Starmer was the country's top prosecutor.