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A Bangladeshi fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 170 in the country’s deadliest aviation accident in decades.Many of the victims were young students who had just been let out of class when a Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft slammed into the Milestone School and College.An AFP photographer at the scene saw fire and rescue officials taking away the injured students on stretchers, while army personnel helped clear the mangled wreckage.A military statement said 20 people were killed, including the pilot, and 171 others injured when the jet crashed following a mechanical failure.An 18-year-old student, Shafiur Rahman Shafi, said he heard a huge blast that felt like an earthquake.”There were two fighter planes… Suddenly one of the two planes crashed here (in the junior playground),” he told AFP. “It created a boom, and it felt like a quake. Then it caught fire,” he added.The well-known private school offers education to children from kindergarten through to senior secondary.Most of the injured were aged between eight and 14, said Mohammad Maruf Islam, joint director of Dhaka’s National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute where many victims were treated.Grieving relatives of the victims thronged the hospital, while dozens of volunteers lined up to donate blood.Tofazzal Hossain, 30, broke down in tears on learning that his young cousin had been killed.”We frantically searched for my cousin in different hospitals,” Hossain told AFP.”He was an eighth grader at the school. Finally, we found his body.”- ‘Deep grief and sorrow’ -Mohammad Sayedur Rahman, a Health and Family Welfare official, said at least seven bodies remained unidentified.The military said the pilot, flight lieutenant Towkir Islam, was on a routine training mission when the jet “reportedly encountered a mechanical failure”.”The exact cause remains under investigation,” it said in a statement.The pilot tried to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas but, “despite his best efforts”, crashed into the two-storey school building, the military added.It was Towkir’s first solo flight, his uncle Motakabbir told AFP.”His mother was nervous yet happy and had been eagerly waiting for the completion of her son’s first solo flight,” said Motakabbir, who uses only one name.Shuvra Ghosh, the aunt of one of the injured students, said her eight-year-old niece was rescued by a teacher who broke open a window to bring her out.”We are mentally traumatised,” she told AFP.The interim government of Muhammad Yunus announced a day of national mourning on Tuesday.Yunus expressed “deep grief and sorrow” over the incident in a post on X. “The loss suffered by the Air Force, the students, parents, teachers, and staff of Milestone School and College, as well as others affected by this accident, is irreparable,” he said. “This is a moment of profound pain for the nation.”The crash was the worst aviation accident in the country in several decades.The deadliest ever disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board.Last month, a commercial aircraft crashed in neighbouring India, killing 260 people. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply shocked and saddened at the loss of lives” in Dhaka. Relations between the neighbours have been strained since protesters in Bangladesh last year ousted leader Sheikh Hasina, an old ally of New Delhi.”India stands in solidarity with Bangladesh and is ready to extend all possible support and assistance,” Modi wrote on X.

England batsman Harry Brook has warned India that his team “don’t always have to be nice” as they prepare to resume hostilities at Old Trafford on Wednesday.After England battled to a fiery 22-run victory in the third Test at Lord’s, the teams will lock horns again with the series on the line in Manchester.England on Monday named just one change to that side with Hampshire’s left-arm spinner Liam Dawson making his first Test appearance in eight years at the expense of the injured Shoaib Bashir, while Jofra Archer remains in an unchanged pace attack.  An England win would put them 3-1 up with one game to play, while India must take the last two matches to secure their first Test series triumph on English soil since 2007.It promises to be another fiercely-fought encounter after India’s fielders clashed with England batsmen Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett in a time-wasting row at Lord’s.That lit a fire under England when it was their turn to field, with Archer giving a pumped-up send-off to India’s Rishabh Pant.As the tension mounted in England’s 22-run win, Brydon Carse and India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja were involved in a mid-pitch collision.But Brook is adamant Ben Stokes’ side did not go to far with their spikey approach in pursuit of victory.”I’ve had a lot of compliments. Everybody said it was awesome to watch. It was good fun, I have to admit. It was tiring but it made fielding a lot more enjoyable,” he said on Monday.”I think it put them under a little bit more pressure. The opportunity that arose for us to not be the nice guys was because of what they did. We just thought ‘we’re not standing for that’.”We had a conversation and said ‘it’s time to not be those nice guys that we have been before’. You don’t always have to be nice. Who knows, that might have played into our favour. It was good fun.”We were doing it within the spirit of the game. We weren’t going out there effing and jeffing at them and being nasty people. We were just going about it in the right manner.”- ‘Wily old fox’ -India pace bowler Mohammed Siraj was fined 15 per cent of his match fee and given one demerit point for his angry send-off of Duckett during England’s second innings, which ended with the pair brushing shoulders.Brook revealed it was at his urging after some choice words from head coach Brendon McCullum that they decided to fight back.Asked whether that aggressive approach will continue as England look to win the series, Brook said: “God knows. We’ll see whether it happens again and whether it works.”I brought it up the night before the last day: ‘Baz said the other day we’re too nice, I think tomorrow is a perfect opportunity to really get stuck into them’.”Bashir took the final wicket at Lord’s but the Somerset spinner’s broken finger has opened the way for Dawson’s Test recall.The 35-year-old, who has starred in county action for Hampshire leapfrogging the centrally-contracted Jack Leach as the replacement for Bashir, played the last of his three Tests in 2017.He was a member of England’s ODI World Cup winning squad in 2019 and was recalled to the T20 side against the West Indies in June.Apart from his bowling Dawson is a more than handy lower order batter with 18 first-class hundreds and an average of just over 35. “He is a wily, old fox, very experienced and a very skilful cricketer,” Brook said.”He’s willing to always fight for the team, he’s very competitive and it’s good to have him here.”Archer, who took five wickets in his comeback Test at Lord’s while bowling at high pace, retains his place in the bowling attack alongside Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes who were preferred to the fit-again Gus Atkinson. 

India’s Mohammed Siraj expects fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah to feature in the vital fourth Test against England at Old Trafford this week.Bumrah, the world’s top-ranked Test bowler, is only slated to play three of the five matches against England as he battles a back injury.He has already featured in India’s defeats at Headingley and Lord’s, leaving the tourists 2-1 down in the series.With doubts over the availability of India seam bowler Akash Deep due to a groin injury, Siraj believes Bumrah will feature in Manchester on Wednesday rather than hold him back for next week’s final Test at The Oval.”So far, we only know that Jassi (Bumrah) will play,” Siraj said on Monday.India must make at least one change as Nitish Kumar Reddy will miss the last two Tests because of a knee injury.India are also sweating on the fitness of wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who suffered a finger injury last week.Siraj was last man out as India fell to an agonising 22-run defeat in the third Test at Lord’s.The pace bowler played Shoaib Bashir’s delivery on to his stumps before slumping to his knees in frustration.Siraj took heart from India’s lower-order fight as he lasted 30 balls and Reddy and Bumrah more than 50, with Ravindra Jadeja contributing an unbeaten 61.”It took a long time to get over. That match felt like we could’ve won. I’m very emotional,” he said.”We fought hard. Jadeja did great and even Bumrah batted 54 balls. Still, we lost. But I told myself, it’s 2-1 now, not over yet. That gave me motivation to do better.”At one point it looked like we’d lose by 80 runs but we took it deep and made it close, losing by just 22. That fight meant a lot.”

Sirens wailed as ambulances delivered charred bodies of children to a Dhaka hospital on Monday, victims of a military jet crash that killed at least 19 people, most of them young students.In Bangladesh’s deadliest aviation accident in decades, a training aircraft of the Bangladesh Air Force crashed into a school campus in the northwestern part of its bustling capital Dhaka. Grief hung heavy over the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute, where many of the more than 150 injured were rushed for treatment. Tofazzal Hossain, 30, broke down in tears on learning that his young cousin had been killed. “We frantically searched for my cousin in different hospitals,” Hossain told AFP.”He was an eighth grader. Finally, we found his body.”The Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft crashed moments after students were let out of class at 1:00 pm (0700 GMT) at the Milestone School and College.The well-known private school offers education to kindergarten children as well as senior secondary students.”We have two playgrounds, one for the senior students and one for the juniors,” said Shafiur Rahman Shafi, 18, who is enrolled at the school.”We were on the playground for the seniors. There were two fighter planes… Suddenly one of the two planes crashed here (in the junior playground),” he told AFP. “It created a boom, and it felt like a quake. Then it caught fire, and the army reached the spot later.”- ‘Helping the children’ -The Dhaka hospital’s joint director, Mohammad Maruf Islam, said most of the injured were aged between eight and 14. Of the 51 brought to the facility, at least 20 were critically hurt, he said. Monsur Helal, 46, waited grimly as his wife Mahrin — a coordinator in the school —  lay unconscious on life support. “Mahrin was helping the children out of the classroom when the plane suddenly crashed near her,” he said. “She was able to speak with me briefly, but now she is unresponsive.”Outside the hospital’s intensive care unit, grieving and tearful mothers comforted one another, sharing harrowing stories of how they found their children.Dozens of volunteers lined up at the hospital, ready to donate blood.The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus announced a day of national mourning on Tuesday.The crash was the worst aviation accident in the country in several decades.The deadliest ever disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board.

A Bangladeshi training fighter jet crashed into a school in the capital Dhaka on Monday, killing at least 19 people and injuring dozens more in the country’s deadliest aviation accident in decades.An AFP photographer at the scene saw fire and rescue officials taking away the injured students on stretchers, while military personnel helped clear the wreckage.A military statement said 19 people were killed, including the pilot, and 20 others were critically wounded.At least 51 people, mostly students, were undergoing treatment at Dhaka’s National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute, its director Mohammad Nasir Uddin told AFP.The Chinese-made F-7 BJI aircraft crashed moments after students were let out of class at 1:00 pm (0700 GMT) at the Milestone School and College.A witness said he heard a huge blast that felt like an earthquake.”We have two playgrounds, one for the senior students and one for the juniors,” said Shafiur Rahman Shafi, 18, who is enrolled at the school.”We were on the playground for the seniors. There were two fighter planes… Suddenly one of the two planes crashed here (in the junior playground),” he told AFP. “It created a boom, and it felt like a quake. Then it caught fire, and the army reached the spot later.”The interim government of Muhammad Yunus announced a day of national mourning on Tuesday.- ‘We frantically searched’ -Grieving parents and relatives of the victims thronged the National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.Tofazzal Hossain, 30, broke down in tears on learning that his young cousin had been killed.”We frantically searched for my cousin in different hospitals,” Hossain told AFP.”He was an eighth grader at the school. Finally, we found his body.”Yunus expressed “deep grief and sorrow” over the incident in a post on X. “The loss suffered by the Air Force, the students, parents, teachers, and staff of Milestone School and College, as well as others affected by this accident, is irreparable,” he said. “This is a moment of profound pain for the nation.”The crash was the worst aviation accident in the country in several decades.The deadliest ever disaster happened in 1984 when a plane flying from Chattogram to Dhaka crashed, killing all 49 on board.Last month, a commercial aircraft crashed in neighbouring India, killing 260 people. 

Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church on Monday demanded the criminal prosecution of the intelligence chief who was sacked for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners. Church spokesman Cyril Gamini Fernando said they welcomed the dismissal days ago of Nilantha Jayawardena, who was head of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) when jihadist suicide bombers attacked three churches and three hotels. “This (sacking) is for the negligence part of it, but we want the authorities to investigate Jayawardena’s role in the attack itself,” Fernando told reporters in Colombo. “We want a criminal prosecution.” He said evidence presented before several courts and commissions of inquiry indicated that the SIS, under Jayawardena, had attempted to cover up the actions of the jihadists in the lead-up to the April 21 attacks. “Six years on, we are still looking for answers. We want to know the truth about who was behind the attack,” he said. Jayawardena, 52, was dismissed Saturday from the police department, where he was the second most senior officer in charge of administration and on track to become the next inspector-general. Court proceedings have revealed that both military and police intelligence units were closely linked to the home-grown jihadists, and some had even been on the payroll of the intelligence services.The current ruling party, led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, had while in opposition accused Gotabaya Rajapaksa of orchestrating the attacks to win the 2019 presidential election. The once powerful Rajapaksa family has denied the allegations. The attacks occurred despite a warning from an intelligence agency in neighbouring India, which alerted Jayawardena 17 days before the devastating bombings. He was found guilty of ignoring a series of alerts. More than 500 people were also wounded in the bombings, Sri Lanka’s worst jihadist attack on civilians. Jayawardena was removed from his position as SIS chief in December 2019 but was later promoted to deputy head of the police force, overseeing administration. However, he was placed on compulsory leave a year ago, pending the disciplinary inquiry, following repeated judicial orders to take action against him. 

Three people died and more than 500 others were rescued after a ferry caught fire off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, emergency officials said Monday.Passengers jumped overboard with lifejackets after the fire broke out on Sunday at the stern of the KM Barcelona 5, as it sailed to Manado, according to the Indonesian coast guard.A video released by the Manado rescue agency showed a coast guard vessel spraying water on the ferry, which was emitting black smoke. Indonesian authorities previously reported five people died in the accident, but later revised the death toll to three.”Until now, the joint rescue team is still conducting the search and rescue operation because the data is still developing,” Manado rescue agency head George Leo Mercy Randang told AFP on Monday.”Our post is still open 24 hours a day, in case families want to report about their missing relative.”At least 568 people were rescued from the ferry and water while three others were found dead, the national search and rescue agency said in a statement Monday.The ferry’s log had only registered 280 passengers and 15 crew on board.Local media reported that the ship had a capacity for 600 people.Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in the Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards or bad weather.Sunday’s fire came just weeks after another ferry sank off the popular resort island of Bali due to bad weather, killing at least 19 people.In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra Island.

Cammie, a young camel whose front leg was chopped off by a landlord in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, left her caregivers emotional as she walked for the first time on a prosthetic leg.”I started weeping when I saw her walking with the prosthetic leg. It was a dream come true,” Sheema Khan, the manager of an animal shelter in Karachi told AFP on Saturday.Veterinarian Babar Hussain said it was the first time a large animal in Pakistan had received a prosthetic leg.Cammie’s leg was allegedly severed by a landlord in June 2024 as punishment for entering his field in search of fodder. A video of the wounded camel that circulated on social media prompted swift government action. According to the deputy commissioner of Sanghar, she was transported the very next day to Karachi, over 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, and has been living in a shelter there ever since. “She was terrified when she first arrived from Sanghar. We witnessed her heart-wrenching cries. She was afraid of men,” Khan told AFP. One of the biggest challenges the caregivers faced was gaining her trust.”I cannot put her condition into words,” Khan added. To aid her recovery, the caregivers introduced another young camel named Callie. Her presence brought comfort to the injured Cammie, who tried standing on her three legs for the first time after seeing her new companion. “Cammie had been confined to her enclosure for almost four to five months before Callie arrived,” Khan added. After treating the wound and completing initial rehabilitation, the shelter — Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) Benji Project — arranged a prosthetic leg from a US-based firm so she could walk on all fours again. “We don’t force her to walk. After attaching the prosthetic leg, we wait about 15 to 20 minutes. Then she stands up on her own and walks slowly,” veterinarian Hussain told AFP. He said that it would take another 15 to 20 days for her to fully adjust to the new limb. The caregivers said Cammie will remain at the shelter permanently.

Relatives anxiously sat beside ambulances on the wharf of one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist sites on Sunday, waiting for news of loved ones who were on a tourist boat that capsized killing dozens.Fruits and flowers were laid on the coast for the at least 35 killed in the wreckage on Saturday in what some called Ha Long Bay’s worst disaster.As rescuers worked into Sunday morning to salvage the sunken boat, a handful of people were still missing.The tourist vessel called “Wonder Sea” had been carrying 49 people, including several children, around the UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to provincial police.Hoang Quang rushed from Hanoi to Quang Ninh province at 2:00 am on Sunday for news of his cousin and her family who were on the boat when it capsized.The couple — a housewife and fruit seller married to a bus driver — had “tried their best” to afford the trip around the world-famous bay.”They found the body of (the husband), not my cousin yet,” Hoang told AFP.He was “so shocked” when he heard news of the incident and immediately went to the wharf with other worried family members.”Suddenly the victims were my relatives — anyone would be scared. We didn’t know what to do, except to keep waiting,” he said.”We think that as we are all here, she knew and she would show up. We are all so anxious… We just wish and pray for her to come back here to us.”- ‘No hope’ -At Ha Long city’s main funeral home, AFP journalists saw bodies wrapped in red cloth being carried in on stretchers, as friends and relatives cried in front of more than a dozen coffins.A 68-year-old man, who asked not to be named, rushed to the scene at 3:00 am, only to discover that his relatives -– a young family of four, including two boys — had died in the capsizing.”We were all so shocked,” the uncle of the family told AFP tearfully. “This was a very sudden accident. They were just taking the kids out to the bay for summer holidays and it ended up terrible.”The bodies of the mother and children had been recovered, but he was awaiting news of the father to be able to cremate them together.”We know there is no hope,” he said.The friend of another victim, a firefighter who had taken the trip with colleagues, said they had known each other since university.”He was still single. We brought his body back to (his hometown) for burial early this morning,” the friend said.He praised the rescue efforts and said provincial authorities had given families 25 million dong ($955) for each victim.- ‘Worst accident ever’ -The wreckage had been towed into the wharf by Sunday and 10 people were being treated at a nearby hospital.Security guard Nguyen Tuan Anh spent the night on the wharf where ambulances were waiting to carry the bodies away — a scene he described as “painful”.”I don’t think I have experienced this scene before. This maybe the worst accident ever in Ha Long Bay,” he told AFP, adding it had been “unpredictable and also I think unpreparable.””The whirlwind came so sudden and so big. The wind blew off the framework of a big stage for a grand music show nearby,” he said.Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.Several hundred rescuers including professional divers, soldiers, and firefighters joined the search for survivors through the night and heavy rain, state media said.”The whirlwind came just so sudden,” a rescue worker, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Saturday.”As the boat turned upside down, several people were stuck inside the cabin. Me and other rescuers pulled up two bodies and rescued one,” he said.”The accident was so devastating.”

Rescuers searched desperately Sunday for four people still missing after at least 35 were killed when a boat capsized at one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations.The tourist boat ferrying families around Vietnam’s famed Ha Long Bay was lashed by a sudden storm Saturday in one of the deadliest disasters at the UNESCO World Heritage site.The vessel “Wonder Sea” was carrying 46 passengers and three crew when it capsized because of sudden heavy rain, according to a provincial police report seen by AFP.Previous state media reports had said that 53 people were on board and 37 people had died, but the figures were later revised by police.Tran Trong Hung, a resident in the Ha Long Bay area, told AFP: “The sky turned dark.”There were “hailstones as big as toes with torrential rain, thunderstorms and lightning”, he said.Most of those on board were families visiting from the capital, Hanoi, with more than 20 children among the passengers, state media outlet VNExpress said35 bodies had been recovered and 10 people rescued by Sunday, police said, with four people still missing.One of the rescued, a 10-year-old boy, told state media outlet VietnamNet: “I took a deep breath, swam through a gap, dived then swam up, I even shouted for help, then I was pulled up by a boat with soldiers on”.Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his condolences on Saturday to relatives of those killed and called on the defence and public security ministries to conduct urgent search and rescue.Authorities would “investigate and clarify the cause of the incident and strictly handle violations”, a government statement said.Torrential rain also lashed northern Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh provinces on Saturday.Several trees were knocked down in the capital by strong winds. The storm followed three days of intense heat, with the mercury hitting 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.Mai Van Khiem, director of the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting, was quoted in VNExpress as saying that the thunderstorms in northern Vietnam were not caused by the influence of Tropical Storm Wipha in the South China Sea.Wipha entered the South China Sea on Sunday gaining strength, and is on course to make landfall in Vietnam early next week.Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.Last year, 30 vessels sank at boat lock areas in coastal Quang Ninh province along Ha Long Bay after Typhoon Yagi brought strong wind and waves.And this month, a ferry sank off the popular Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at least 18 people.