Four people, including a child, were shot and killed Wednesday evening at an office building in Southern California, police said.

It is the third such shooting in the United States in weeks, with 18 people killed in two separate gun violence incidents in March.
The shooter, whose motivations are so far unknown, sustained a gunshot wound and was taken to hospital, police lieutenant Jennifer Amat said, adding the suspect was in a critical condition.
She continued that officers were still working to determine whether the wound was self-inflicted or a result of an exchange of fire with police.
Police did not release any more information about the victims, but said that a fifth individual -- a woman -- had been hospitalized and was in a critical condition.
-The situation has been stabilized and there is no threat to the public- the Orange Police Department said in a post to their Facebook page.
The incident began around 5:30 pm local time on the upper floor of a small office building in the city of Orange.
The block houses businesses including a counseling service, an insurance company, a financial consulting firm and a phone repair shop, local media reported.
Police and the suspect exchanged fire, according to the Los Angeles Times.
One man, who asked not to be identified speaking to local TV channel KTLA5, described the situation as "terrifying".
Cody Lev told local media The Orange County Register that they heard three loud pops, followed by silence and then sirens.
"I can tell you that we haven't had an incident like this in the city of Orange since 1997," Amat said, referring to a mass shooting event that saw four people shot dead.
She added: "It's just such a tragedy for the victims, their families, our community and our police department."
California governor Gavin Newsom posted on Twitter: "Horrifying and heartbreaking. Our hearts are with the families impacted by this terrible tragedy tonight."
-I'm deeply saddened by reports of a mass shooting in Orange County, and I'm continuing to keep victims and their loved ones in my thoughts as we continue to learn more- US Representative Katie Porter from California also tweeted.
It comes after two other high-profile mass shootings earlier this month, which set off a renewed debate about gun control measures in the United States.
On March 22, 10 people were killed in a shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, less than a week after a man shot and killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, at spas in Atlanta, Georgia.&nbsp;

It is the third such shooting in the United States in weeks, with 18 people killed in two separate gun violence incidents in March

The incident began around 5:30 pm local time on the upper floor of a small office building in the city of Orange

Four people, including child, shot and killed in California

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny announced Wednesday that he has gone on hunger strike until he receives proper medical treatment for severe back pain and numbness in his legs.

Last week the 44-year-old opposition politician, who is serving a 2.5-year prison sentence in one of Russia's most notorious penal colonies, said he was suffering from a pinched nerve that had caused his right leg to go numb.
In a post on Instagram on Wednesday, Navalny said that the back pain that had earlier caused his right leg to go numb was causing his left leg to now lose sensitivity too.
-I have gone on a hunger strike demanding that the law be obeyed and that a visiting doctor be allowed to visit me- he wrote.
Navalny, who is considered a flight risk by authorities, said last week that he is woken eight times per night by guards announcing to a recording camera that he is still in his cell. 
On Wednesday, he said that instead of receiving medical treatment he is continuing to be "tortured with sleep deprivation".
Navalny was detained in January after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering for several months from a poisoning attack he says was orchestrated by the Kremlin.
He was last month sent to prison for 2.5 years on old embezzlement charges his allies and Western governments say are politically motivated.

Last week the 44-year-old opposition politician, said he was suffering from a pinched nerve that had caused his right leg to go numb

Navalny, who is considered a flight risk by authorities, said last week that he is woken eight times per night by guards announcing to a recording camera that he is still in his cell

Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny announces hunger strike

The cockpit voice recorder from a crashed Indonesian jet has been retrieved in "good condition", officials said Wednesday, more than two months after the airliner plunged into the sea killing all 62 passengers and crew.

The CVR records flight crew conversations and could offer critical clues about why the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 dived around 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) into waters off Jakarta just minutes after takeoff on January 9.
The jet's flight data recorder, which holds information about the speed, altitude and direction of the plane, was earlier plucked from the wreckage-littered Java Sea.
Authorities said Wednesday that the voice recorder unit was in good condition, despite having been in the water for months. 
-So we're confident that we will be able to download its data- said Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee.
Investigators want to mine the recorder in the hopes of learning what the crew was saying when the flight from the capital to Pontianak in Borneo went down.
Cockpit voice and flight data recorders are known as black boxes and help explain nearly 90 percent of all crashes, according to aviation experts.
The voice device was found Tuesday evening on the last day of an operation that used dredging equipment to comb the muddy seabed, after the dive search failed to locate it, they said.
"It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack," Tjahjono told reporters earlier Wednesday.
"But without the CVR, it would be very difficult to find the cause of the Sriwijaya Air accident."
A preliminary report last month into the crash said crews on previous flights had described the jet's throttle system as "unserviceable" and that it had been repaired several times before its fatal final flight.
The report said a catastrophic throttle malfunction and possible human error were among the factors being considered.
But investigators had said it was too early to pinpoint a cause.
The 737 had sharply deviated from its intended course just before its plunge.
Despite appeals from air traffic controllers, the crew -- including an experienced captain -- did not respond to questions about the sudden change of direction.
The 26-year-old plane was flown by US-based Continental Airlines and United Airlines before it was purchased by Sriwijaya, which flies to destinations in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago that relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, has suffered a string of deadly plane crashes in recent years.
In October 2018, 189 people were killed when a Boeing 737 MAX jet with Lion Air plunged into the sea.
That accident -- and another in Ethiopia -- led to the worldwide grounding of the 737 MAX over a faulty anti-stall system.
The 737 that crashed in January was not a MAX variant.

Cockpit voice and flight data recorders are known as black boxes and help explain nearly 90 percent of all crashes, according to aviation experts

Authorities said Wednesday that the voice recorder unit was in good condition, despite having been in the water for months

Indonesia retrieves crashed Boeing jet's cockpit voice recorder

President Joe Biden nominated the first Muslim federal judge in the country's history to a US District Court on Tuesday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Zahid Quraishi will become the first Muslim to serve in that position in New Jersey.
Biden's 11 judicial nominees are highly diversified, including three Black women for circuit courts; the first Asian American and Pacific Islander female for US District Court for the District of Washington, D.C. and the first woman of color to serve as a federal judge for the District of Maryland.
-This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession- Biden said. -Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people – and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.-Quraishi, who is of Pakistani ancestry, was also the first Muslim to serve as US Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey in 2019.
Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, Quraishi received his bachelor’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1997 and his Juris Doctor from Rutgers Law School in 2000.

Zahid Quraishi also first Muslim to become US Magistrate Judge for District of New Jersey in 2019

Biden: This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession

Biden nominates first Muslim US federal judge

Apple Inc. introduced its contactless payment service in South Africa on Tuesday, as the global tech giant looks to cash in on the mobile payments boom in the country.

The use of digital finance and payments systems has surged in South Africa and elsewhere as the coronavirus crisis has prompted a shift towards e-commerce and contactless payments.
Apple Pay has joined Samsung’s digital wallet offering, Samsung Pay, which was launched in South Africa in 2018.
Apple said it had launched the service without giving details.
The service is available via three South African banks, namely Absa Group, Nedbank Group and Discovery Bank, which is part of the Discovery group.

The use of digital finance and payments systems has surged as the coronavirus crisis has prompted a shift towards e-commerce and contactless payments

The Apple Inc logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 16, 2019.

Apple launches its contactless payment service in South Africa

The Russian prison camp holding Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has placed an order for 32 new CCTV cameras and other surveillance equipment, a state procurement website showed on Tuesday.Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critics, is serving a two-and-half-year sentence at the IK-2 corrective penal colony 100 km (60 miles) east of Moscow after he was jailed for parole violations he called trumped up.
Conditions at the facility have been thrust into the spotlight as Navalny has accused its guards of waking him every hour during the night as a flight risk, and of denying him proper treatment for acute back and leg pain.
In an earlier blog post, Navalny said there were video cameras “everywhere” and that IK-2 looked as though it had been inspired by George Orwell’s dystopian 1984 novel. His lawyers who visit him almost daily to check on his wellbeing have helped him to publish messages from jail.
According to an entry published on the state procurement website on Monday, the facility has placed an order to buy 32 new CCTV cameras, network cards, hard disks, cabling and other equipment worth a total of 500,000 roubles ($6,580).
The contract to supply the equipment is due to be awarded to a vendor on April 9. State agencies are required to publish such information under legislation aimed at curbing graft.

The prison did not immediately reply to a written request from Reuters to comment on the order.

Navalny was jailed last month on charges he called politically motivated. He was arrested as he returned to Russia from Germany in January, where he had been recovering from what doctors said was a nerve agent poisoning.
His lawyers said last week that his health was deteriorating in custody and that he was experiencing numbness and pain in his leg. His allies have voiced fears of potentially irreversible damage if he does not receive treatment.
Prison authorities, after examining Navalny last week, declared his condition to be stable and satisfactory.
More than 500 medical professionals have signed an open letter demanding the 44-year-old opposition politician get proper care, the letter’s author, Andrey Bilzho, was quoted as saying by Moscow-based TV Rain late on Monday.

Conditions at the facility have been thrust into the spotlight as Navalny has accused its guards of waking him every hour during the night as a flight risk, and of denying him proper treatment for acute back and leg pain

A general view shows Penal Colony No 2, where opposition leader Alexei Navalny is serving a jail term, in the town of Pokrov, Russia February 28, 2021.

Prison holding Kremlin critic Navalny boosts surveillance

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a set of measures responding to rising anti-Asian violence, including deploying $49.5 million from COVID-19 relief funds for U.S. community programs that help victims.

White House officials said in a statement that the Department of Justice is also focusing on a rising number of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
-We can’t be silent in the face of rising violence against Asian Americans- Biden wrote on Twitter. -These attacks are wrong, un-American, and must stop.-

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">We can’t be silent in the face of rising violence against Asian Americans. That’s why today I’m taking additional steps to respond–including establishing an initiative at the Department of Justice to address anti-Asian crimes. These attacks are wrong, un-American, and must stop.— President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1376931500852187143?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The measures come after a shooting in Atlanta earlier this month left eight people dead, six of them Asian-American women.

The shooting stoked fears among those in the Asian-American Pacific Islander community, which has reported a spike in hate crimes since March 2020 when then-President Donald Trump began referring to the novel coronavirus as the “China virus.”
Biden’s new steps include $49.5 million of pandemic relief funds for “community based, culturally specific services and programs for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault” as well as a new task force dedicated to countering xenophobia against Asians in healthcare.
The Justice Department is also planning new efforts to enforce hate crime laws and report data on racial crimes, the statement said.

The measures come after a shooting in Atlanta earlier this month left eight people dead, six of them Asian-American women

Biden: We can’t be silent in the face of rising violence against Asian Americans

White House announces new measures to counter anti-Asian violence

US President Joe Biden has joined other world leaders on condemning the bloodshed in Myanmar, where people are protesting against the Feb. 1 military coup.

-It's absolutely outrageous and based on the reporting I've gotten, an awful lot of people have been killed totally unnecessarily- he told reporters on Sunday.
At least 141 people, including children, were shot dead by Myanmar's ruling military regime on Saturday in a violent crackdown on weeks of pro-democracy protests.
The bloodshed came on Armed Forces Day, an annual parade, when the ruling military regime was seen as showcasing its strength.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the regime's celebration of its armed forces was damaged by "a day of horror and of shame."
Turkey has also "strongly condemned" the crackdown, saying: "We follow with concern that the Military Regime in Myanmar has further increased the use of deadly force against civilians, ignoring the calls of the international community."

US president calls crackdown on pro-democracy protesters 'absolutely outrageous'

Biden: It's absolutely outrageous and based on the reporting I've gotten, an awful lot of people have been killed totally unnecessarily

Biden condemns bloodshed in Myanmar

The Venezuelan government slammed Facebook on Sunday after it froze President Nicolas Maduro’s page for 30 days over “repeated violations” of its policies against spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

In a statement, Venezuela’s Information Ministry denied any misinformation campaign by the president, arguing he is only promoting "content geared towards combating the pandemic.”
The ministry declared that Facebook’s actions are part of their “digital totalitarianism” against sovereign states.
-We are witnessing a digital totalitarianism exercised by supranational companies who want to impose their law on the countries of the world- it said.
Facebook also took down a video from Maduro’s page in which he promoted a medication called Carvativir. Maduro argues that the medicine can cure and prevent the virus.
Facebook argued that Maduro’s statement regarding Carvativir is not backed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Venezuela has registered 155,663 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 1,555 deaths and 144,229 recoveries, according to a running tally by US-based Johns Hopkins University.
Since originating in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 2.78 million lives in 192 countries and regions.
Over 127 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries surpassing 72 million, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins.
The US, Brazil and India remain the worst-hit countries in terms of cases.

Social media giant freezes President Nicolas Maduro’s page for ‘spreading misinformation about COVID-19’

The ministry declared that Facebook’s actions are part of their “digital totalitarianism” against sovereign states

Venezuela accuses Facebook of ‘digital totalitarianism’

U.S. planemaker Boeing Co said on Monday it sold 100 new 737 MAX-7 jets to long-time customer Southwest Airlines, in its biggest order win since the aircraft’s safety ban was lifted in the United States late last year.Shares of Boeing were up 3.5% in early trading on the news.
The order signals Southwest’s show of confidence in 737 MAX jets, ending speculation of a shift to jets made by Airbus SE by the U.S. budget carrier as it hopes for a recovery in the pandemic-hit aviation sector.
-This is a very solid boost for the (737 MAX) program, but since Boeing was the incumbent here they had a strong advantage- said Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia.
-In fact, since Southwest is the world’s only large 737-only airline, it would have been a major disaster for Boeing if they had lost.-Southwest, which has been flying older variants of the 737 planes for nearly 50 years, said its order book now has a total of 349 orders and 270 options for the 737 MAX jet for 2021 through 2031.
Southwest previously had 249 orders and 115 options for the 737 MAX aircraft for 2021 through 2026.

The COVID-19 outbreak compounded troubles for Boeing, forcing it to cut production after the nearly two-year grounding of the 737 MAX family, following fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.

After a blowout 2020, Boeing has outperformed Airbus in order wins this year with its monthly orders, including cancellations, turning positive for the first time in February since November 2019.
Airbus, on the other hand, had reported negative net orders for the first two months of this year.
Southwest's purchase comes days after Reuters reported here that Boeing was close to a multibillion-dollar deal to sell dozens of 737 MAX 7 jets to Southwest.
Each 737 MAX 7 carries a list price of roughly $100 million, though such jets usually sell for less than half their official value with typical market discounts, aircraft industry sources have said.

Shares of Boeing were up 3.5% in early trading on the news

Employees are pictured as the first Boeing 737 MAX 7 is unveiled in Renton, Washington, U.S. February 5, 2018.

Boeing wins biggest 737 MAX order since safety-ban lift from Southwest

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said Monday he had received nearly a dozen warnings for his behaviour since being imprisoned last month and risks time in solitary confinement.

President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence on old embezzlement charges Navalny says are politically motivated.
His allies and rights activists say his penal colony is one of Russia's worst and have raised concerns about his health.
Navalny, 44, said that in the past four weeks he had received 10 formal reprimands from prison authorities, including six from guards at his current prison in the town of Pokrov outside the Russian capital.
-If you receive two reprimands you can go to a punishment cell and that's unpleasant, conditions there are close to torture- he said in a post on Instagram.
He said prison officials were currently considering more warnings against him.
His transgressions include getting up before the allotted time, refusing to watch an "idiotic" video lecture and suggesting to the head of his prison unit to "have coffee" instead of doing exercises.
Navalny said last week he was suffering from severe back pain and numbness in his legs and complained medical staff had neglected to properly treat him.
Since being transferred to Penal Colony No. 2 in Pokrov, Navalny has also issued several light-hearted statements likening his prison routine to that of a stormtrooper in the Star Wars films.
On Monday, he joked that the soundtrack to his prison stay was "Bad Guy", a hit by American pop singer Billie Eilish.
Navalny was arrested on his return to Russia in mid-January from Germany, where he spent months recovering from a near-fatal nerve agent poisoning in August that he blamed on the Kremlin.

President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critic is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence on old embezzlement charges

Navalny, 44, said that in the past four weeks he had received 10 formal reprimands from prison authorities, including six from guards at his current prison in the town of Pokrov outside the Russian capital

Navalny says risks solitary confinement in Russian prison

A massive blaze broke out Monday at one of Indonesia's biggest oil refineries after a huge explosion turned the sprawling complex into a raging inferno.

Firefighters battled to contain the fire at the Balongan refinery in West Java, operated by state oil company Pertamina, as towering plumes of black smoke rose into the sky.
-There was a very loud sound and I thought it was a hurricane- one local resident, Rumaji, told AFP.
-I looked outside and the fire was huge. The flames were shooting into the sky.-At least five people were seriously injured and about 1,000 local residents were evacuated from the scene after the fire broke out early Monday morning at a storage tank and then spread to other containers.
The local disaster agency said one person had died from a heart attack after the explosion.
About 15 people were slightly injured and authorities said they were checking on the whereabouts of three others.
-To prevent the fire from spreading we've shut down operations... and are putting our efforts into handling the blaze- Pertamina's president director Nicke Widyawati said in a statement.
The cause of the fire was not clear, but the company said the blaze broke out during a lightning storm.
By Monday afternoon, the disaster agency said the blaze had been contained but was yet to be extinguished.
Pertamina said it did not expect the fire to cause fuel supply disruptions due to its high volume of stock.
-There's more than enough national supply- said Mulyono, Pertamina's logistics and infrastructure director, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
-So people don't need to panic.-Greenpeace called for a probe into the accident.
-These kinds of dangerous incidents have been happening repeatedly in fossil-fuel industries- the environmental group said.
-If there's any evidence of negligence or a violation of (health and safety) procedures, the government must file criminal charges to hold Pertamina accountable- it added.
The sprawling plant -- which opened in the mid-nineties and can refine some 125,000 barrels of oil a day -- is about 200 kilometres (120 miles) east of the capital Jakarta.

At least five people were seriously injured and about 1,000 local residents were evacuated from the scene

The fire rages at the Balongan refinery, operated by Pertamina, in Indramayu, West Java

Massive fire engulfs Indonesian oil refinery

Egypt has ordered the arrest of eight people over a collision between two trains that killed 18 people last week, the prosecutor's office said Monday.

-The prosecutor general ordered that the two drivers... their two assistants, the guard of a traffic control tower, the head of traffic control in Assiut and two other guards ... be remanded in custody- a statement from the prosecutor said.
The statement put the death toll from Friday's crash at 18, down from 19 cited by Health Minister Hala Zayed on Saturday, and an initially reported 32.
The prosecutor's statement said 200 were wounded, up from 185 cited by the health minister.
Most of those injured in Friday's crash, that occurred in the Tahta district of the southern Sohag province, suffered fractures.
Surveillance camera footage seen by AFP showed a speeding train barrelling into another, sending a carriage hurtling into the air in a cloud of dust.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pledged tough punishment for those responsible for the crash, the latest in a series of rail accidents.
Such incidents are generally attributed to poor infrastructure and maintenance.
One of the deadliest Egyptian train crashes came in 2002, when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of Cairo.

The prosecutor's statement said 200 were wounded, up from 185 cited by the health minister

Screengrab provided by AFPTV shows people gathered around the wreckage of two trains that collided in the Tahta district of Sohag province

Egypt orders eight arrests over fatal train crash

Two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at an Indonesian cathedral on Palm Sunday were newlyweds who belonged to a pro-Islamic State extremist group, police said Monday, as they raided the couple's home.

About 20 people were wounded in the powerful explosion outside the church in Makassar city on Sulawesi island while worshippers celebrated the start of Holy Week.
Both suspects were killed instantly when they rode a motorbike into the compound of the church, setting off an improvised explosive device known as a pressure-cooker bomb, police said.
On Monday, Indonesian authorities said the pair had been married for about six months and that the man was in his mid-twenties. They were identified only by their initials.
-The investigation is ongoing including looking at whether there were others involved- National Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said.
Counter-terror units raided the couple's home and other locations in Makassar, a port city of about 1.5 million, as well as in the capital Jakarta, as they searched for bombs, weapons and other evidence, police said.
A local resident said the male suspect was a street food seller who lived in a rented home near his parents' residence.
-As a kid he was nice... But as he grew older he didn't really socialise around here- Nuraini, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP.
Police said the couple were members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an extremist group blamed for series of attacks, including 2018 suicide bombings in Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya.
On Monday, officials said 15 people remained in hospital, although the extent of their wounds remained unclear. Four had been discharged, they added.
Sunday's explosion at the main Catholic cathedral in Makassar happened just after congregants finished celebrating Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, which commemorates Jesus's entry into Jerusalem.
It comes a week before Easter.
JAD was also implicated in a 2019 cathedral suicide bombing in the Philippines committed by a married Indonesian couple.
That attack killed worshippers and security forces.
Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim majority nation, has long struggled with attacks by Islamist extremists, including the 2002 Bali bombings which killed more than 200, mostly foreign tourists.

About 20 people were wounded in the powerful explosion outside the church in Makassar city on Sulawesi island while worshippers celebrated the start of Holy Week

On Monday, officials said 15 people remained in hospital, although the extent of their wounds remained unclear

Indonesia church suicide bombers were newlyweds

Petr Kellner, the Czech Republic's wealthiest person with a fortune topping $13 billion, died aged 56 in a helicopter crash in Alaska, his spokeswoman said on Monday.

Kellner, who meticulously guarded his privacy, owned the financial, telecommunications, engineering and insurance PPF Group, which employs 94,000 people worldwide.
-With deep regret we announce that PPF Group founder and majority shareholder Mr Petr Kellner died tragically in a helicopter crash in the Alaska Range on Saturday- PPF Group spokeswoman Jitka Tkadlecova told AFP.
-The causes of the accident, in which five people died in total, are being investigated- she added.
Czech media said Kellner was on a heli-skiing trip.
The Forbes magazine put Kellner's wealth in 2020 at 293 billion Czech crowns (11.2 billion euros, $13.2 billion).
Kellner, who started his business selling copy machines, founded the PPF Group in 1991, two years after the fall of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia.
The group with global assets worth 44 billion euros comprises Home Credit International, the world's largest non-banking consumer lender with extensive activities on the Chinese market.
PPF recently bought the CME media group running TV companies in central and eastern Europe, as well as Telenor's telecommunications assets in the Balkans. 
Kellner's daughter Anna Kellnerova is a two-time Czech junior show jumping champion with an ambition to appear at the Tokyo Olympics this summer. 
Kellner's funeral will take place "in a narrow family circle", Tkadlecova said.

The causes of the accident, in which five people died in total, are being investigated

Kellner's funeral will take place "in a narrow family circle"

Czech billionaire dies in Alaska copter crash

Australian authorities accelerated recovery efforts and cancelled more than a dozen flood evacuation warnings on Friday as water levels that have caused widespread damage across the country’s east receded.Clean-up efforts were ramped up across large parts of New South Wales (NSW) state with military personnel joining the state’s emergency services to clear debris from roads and bridges, and deliver food and other supplies to cut-off communities.
-It is an enormously humbling and proud moment to see the wonderful resilience and character of Australians in times like this- Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in the flood-affected town of Wauchope, 380 km (236 miles) north of Sydney. -The clean-up now begins, the sun is out. The water is receding.-The floodwaters that submerged large swathes of the state are a stark contrast to the drought and catastrophic bushfires that burned through many of the same regions just over a year ago.

Five days of incessant rain triggered the worst floods in more than half a century in NSW, Australia’s most populous state, cutting off entire towns and washing away homes, farms and livestock.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated during the deluge, which at its peak a few days ago subjected around 40% of the country’s population of 25 million across an area the size of Alaska to weather warnings.
The rural crime unit of the NSW police force said it had received an increase in reports of wandering livestock, and urged people to file reports on lost, found and straying animals.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned the recovery process would be “challenging” due to the scale of the rainfall received over the past week.
-We know, regrettably from all the experience we’ve had, that sometimes the clean-up and recovery is more difficult than the crisis itself- Berejiklian said.

The Insurance Council of Australia, the main industry body, said more than 25,600 insurance claims worth about A$385 million($293.1 million) had been lodged by Friday and it expects more to be filed.

Evacuation warnings remained on Friday for hundreds of low-lying properties along the NSW coast, the worst-hit state, as rivers stayed above danger levels.
NSW state emergency services said evacuation warnings and orders now cover around 20,000 people in the state, down from 85,000 at the peak of the wild weather system.
Australia’s weather bureau said moderate flooding would continue in Sydney’s western suburbs and northern regions of NSW state over the weekend but it expects the river levels to gradually recede further.
The Hunter Valley coal rail line to Newcastle, the world’s biggest coal export port, was fully reopened by operator Australian Rail Track Corp on Friday.
The line was shut for nearly a week because of the floods, a disruption that sent coal prices to more than two-year highs above $100 a tonne.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated during the deluge, which at its peak a few days ago subjected around 40% of the country’s population of 25 million across an area the size of Alaska to weather warnings

People wade through floodwaters resulting from prolonged rains northwest of Sydney in Wisemans Ferry, Australia, March 25, 2021.

Four people, including child, shot and killed in California

Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny announces hunger strike

Indonesia retrieves crashed Boeing jet's cockpit voice recorder

Biden nominates first Muslim US federal judge

Apple launches its contactless payment service in South Africa

Prison holding Kremlin critic Navalny boosts surveillance

White House announces new measures to counter anti-Asian violence

Biden condemns bloodshed in Myanmar

Venezuela accuses Facebook of ‘digital totalitarianism’

Boeing wins biggest 737 MAX order since safety-ban lift from Southwest

Navalny says risks solitary confinement in Russian prison

Massive fire engulfs Indonesian oil refinery

Egypt orders eight arrests over fatal train crash

Indonesia church suicide bombers were newlyweds

Czech billionaire dies in Alaska copter crash

Australians assess flood damage, accelerate clean-up

World

Four people, including child, shot and killed in California

Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny announces hunger strike

Indonesia retrieves crashed Boeing jet's cockpit voice recorder

Biden nominates first Muslim US federal judge

Apple launches its contactless payment service in South Africa

Prison holding Kremlin critic Navalny boosts surveillance

White House announces new measures to counter anti-Asian violence

Biden condemns bloodshed in Myanmar

Venezuela accuses Facebook of ‘digital totalitarianism’

Boeing wins biggest 737 MAX order since safety-ban lift from Southwest

Navalny says risks solitary confinement in Russian prison

Massive fire engulfs Indonesian oil refinery

Egypt orders eight arrests over fatal train crash

Indonesia church suicide bombers were newlyweds

Czech billionaire dies in Alaska copter crash

Australians assess flood damage, accelerate clean-up