- At least 38 dead following 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia
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- Magnitude 7.7 earthquake in Indonesia leaves at least 38 dead
- Bangladesh leads Australia by 67 runs at close of Day Three in Test match
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Get you up to speed: At least 38 people dead after 7.7 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia | News World
A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Flores Island, Indonesia, resulting in 38 confirmed fatalities and injuries among residents. Search and rescue teams are actively working through the rubble as several aftershocks have been reported, including one with a magnitude of 6.1.
Search and rescue teams from Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) are actively working through the rubble in Maumere, where significant structural damage has occurred. The Indonesian government has initiated a rapid assessment of the situation to ascertain the full extent of casualties and damage, with ongoing aftershocks complicating their efforts.
The Indonesian disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) has advised residents to avoid entering damaged buildings and stated that a rapid assessment of casualties is underway. Following the earthquake, around 2,000 residents were evacuated in Nagekeo, with strong aftershocks continuing to prompt concerns about structural safety.
What remains unclear — The total number of people trapped or missing in the rubble following the earthquake has not been disclosed.
At least 38 dead following 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia
Search and rescue teams have continued combing through rubble to free people trapped in buildings after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia.
The official death toll has risen to 38 fatalties, with several more injured as the rescue effort continues on the island of Flores.
Several aftershocks followed the earthquake on early Saturday morning, with the government issuing a tsunami warning too.
Streams of people could be seen rushing inland after the warning, with concrete reportedly falling off a terminal building at the port in Maumere.
Some passengers waiting to board the inter-island ferry were thrown into the sea as the gangway collapsed.
The tsunami warning was lifted around 8am local time, three hours after the main quake struck the island of Flores.
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Five have died in a 7.7 magnitude earthquake (Picture: Handout / INDONESIA’S NATIONAL SEARCH AND RESCUE AGENCY (BASARNAS) / AFP via Getty Images)

Flores Island was hit with several strong aftershocks (Picture: ARNOLD WELIANTO / AFP via Getty Images)
The Indonesian agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics said in a statement the quake had a depth of 15km.
‘Residents should also avoid entering buildings, especially those that have already sustained cracks or structural damage,’ the BNPB – Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency – said.
‘A rapid assessment is currently underway to determine the number of casualties and the extent of the impact. We will provide that information after the data has been verified.’
Locals were mainly asleep when the earthquake began, waking up to ‘very strong shaking’ as the disaster unfolded.
Arnold Welianto, who lives in Talibura village, Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, told the BBC: ‘I was startled awake and immediately went to my child’s room.

The government had warned about a potential tsunami (Picture: Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency are still working through the rubble (Picture: Handout / INDONESIA’S NATIONAL SEARCH AND RESCUE AGENCY (BASARNAS) / AFP via Getty Images)

The Laurensius Say Port in Maumere crumbled (Picture: ARNOLD WELIANTO / AFP via Getty Images)
‘Once we were outside, residents in our neighbourhood, which is located close to the shoreline, had already fled their homes and were heading toward the hills and crowding the roads, while some other residents were standing along the roadside because the sea had also receded.’
He said the water levels caused people to ‘panic and run’ as it remained low for ‘quite some time’.
Around 2,000 residents are said to have been evacuated in Nagekeo, with damage to several buildings.
Strong aftershocks were felt around the area, with a max magnitude of 6.1, as most residents stayed outside for fear that the buildings could still collapse.
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‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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