Japanese actress Okae dies after novel coronavirus infection

TOKYO -- Japanese actress and TV host Kumiko Okae died Thursday of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus, her management office said. She was 63.

Okae, who died at a Tokyo hospital at 5:20 a.m., developed a fever on April 3, the office said, adding she was hospitalized after her condition suddenly deteriorated 3 days later and then tested positive for the virus.

A familiar figure who appeared in TV dramas and variety shows, Okae underwent an operation for breast cancer last year.

She underwent radiation treatment from the end of January to mid-February, according to the office.

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7 killed, 150 injured in riots in Indian capital

NEW DELHI - At least 7 people were killed and around 150 were injured in clashes between opposing groups in the Indian capital, a police official told Reuters on Tuesday, the deadliest riots in the city since protests against a new citizenship law began over 2 months ago.

"Seven persons, including one head constable of Delhi police, have died," said Anil Mittal, a police officer, adding around 150 persons were injured in the violence on Monday.

The clashes erupted in a northeastern district of the city between thousands of people demonstrating for and against the new citizenship law. Police used tear gas and smoke grenades, but struggled to disperse the stone-throwing crowds that tore down metal barricades and set vehicles and a petrol pump alight.

"Some of the people brought in had gunshot wounds," said Dr Rajesh Kalra, additional medical superintendent at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in New Delhi.

Tensions in parts of the city remained high on Tuesday with schools remaining shut in some areas amid news reports of fresh clashes. At least 5 metro stations in the city were closed.

A fire department official told Reuters that its teams were responding to reports of at least 8 separate cases of arson on Tuesday, linked to fresh protests in the city. One department vehicle was also torched by protesters on Monday, and a small number of firemen were injured in the violence, he added.

The violence on Monday began just as US President Donald Trump began his maiden visit to India. Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are set to meet for talks on Tuesday at a venue located a few miles away from where the clashes occurred.

At a press conference early on Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed for people to maintain peace. "Whatever problems people have can be resolved peacefully," he said. "Violence will not help find a solution."

India's Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to meet Kejriwal and police officials on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation.

India's capital has been a hotbed of protests against the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which eases the path of non-Muslims from 3 neighboring Muslim-dominated countries to gain Indian citizenship.

This has led to accusations that Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are undermining India's secular traditions. The BJP denies any bias against India's more than 180 million-strong Muslim minority, but objectors have been holding protests and camping out in parts of New Delhi for 2 months.

The violence erupted even as Trump was praising India as being a tolerant country.

"India is a country that proudly embraces freedom, liberty, individual rights, the rule of law, and the dignity of every human being," Trump said while addressing a rally of more than 100,000 people in Modi's home state of Gujarat. "Your unity is an inspiration to the world."

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4th person from quarantined Japan ship dies: local media

TOKYO - A fourth person has died after being taken to hospital from a quarantined coronavirus-stricken cruise ship off Japan, local media reported on Tuesday.

Public broadcaster NHK and other local outlets said the fatality was a man in his 80s, with the Yomiuri Shimbun saying the man had tested positive for the new coronavirus and died of pneumonia.

The health minister did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the reports.

Three others, all Japanese, have so far died after becoming sick on the ship. Two were confirmed to have the new coronavirus, while the health ministry declined to comment on whether the third person tested positive for the virus.

At least 691 people who were on board the Diamond Princess have so far tested positive for COVID-19, according to the health ministry.

Around a 1,000 people were allowed to leave the ship after it completed a 14-day quarantine if they tested negative and displayed no symptoms.

But several people who left the boat after getting the all-clear have since tested positive, and the health ministry has admitted some people were allowed to disembark despite not being tested during the quarantine.

Separately, Japan has confirmed at least 156 cases of infection with the virus, and 1 death.

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Hospital director dies in China's Wuhan, epicenter of coronavirus outbreak

BEIJING - The head of a leading hospital in China's central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, died of the disease on Tuesday, state television said, becoming the second prominent Chinese doctor to have succumbed to the pathogen.

Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, died at 10:30 a.m., it said.

Earlier this month, millions in China mourned the death of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was previously reprimanded for issuing an early warning about the coronavirus.


Tens of thousands of medical workers have been fighting to contain the spread of the coronavirus, believed to have first surfaced in a seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of the central province of Hubei.

As in the case of Li's death, there was confusion on the Chinese internet about Liu's condition on Monday night.

On Monday night, the Communist Party propaganda department of the Hubei Health Commission wrote in a social media post that Liu had died.

But it said in a subsequent post that Liu was alive.

"According to Liu's relative, the hospital is still trying its best to rescue him," the commission said in the second post, adding that the previous misinformation was from a good friend of Liu who was not aware of the latest situation.

It has not posted any message since state television announced Liu's death on Tuesday morning.

Beijing was accused of covering up the full extent of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. In the current coronavirus outbreak, Beijing has called for transparency.

A senior Chinese health official said on Friday that 1,716 health workers have been infected by the coronavirus and 6 of them have died.

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Dead man lies on empty street at China's virus ground zero

WUHAN - A gray-haired man wearing a face mask lay dead on the pavement at ground zero of China's virus epidemic, a plastic shopping bag in one hand.

On what would typically be a crowded street in Wuhan, an industrial city of 11 million under quarantine, there are only a few passersby and they dare not go near him.

AFP journalists saw the body on Thursday morning, not long before an emergency vehicle arrived carrying police and medical staff in full-body protective suits.

The man lay straight on his back in front of a closed furniture store. Medical staff in blue overalls gently shrouded his body with a blue blanket.

The ambulance left, and police stacked supermarket cardboard boxes to hide the scene.

AFP could not determine how the man, who appeared to be in his 60s, had died. AFP contacted police and local health officials afterwards but could not get details on his case.

But the reaction of the police and medical staff in hazmat suits, as well as some of the bystanders, highlighted the fear pervading the city.

A woman standing near the man, wearing pink pajamas and a Mao cap, said she believed he had died from the virus.

"It's terrible," she said. "These days many people have died."

Wuhan is the epicenter of the outbreak of the new coronavirus, which is believed to have jumped from wild animals at a city market into humans.

The virus, which emerged late last year, has claimed at least 213 lives and infected thousands in China, with at least 159 deaths in Wuhan alone.

With the virus spreading to other countries, the World Health Organization has declared the crisis a global health emergency.

TORMENT

Authorities have imposed an unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan, blocking off roads out of the city and banning flights, in a bid to stop the virus spreading.

Those who are trapped are enduring a tormenting wait for the lockdown to end, for a cure to be found, or even just for check-ups at overwhelmed hospitals. 

AFP reporters in Wuhan have seen long queues at hospitals, with some patients saying they had lined up for 2 days to see a doctor.

Many brought their own chairs for the wait.

With most traffic banned, people who venture outside have to walk or bike everywhere in the huge city.

The dead man on the street on Thursday lay one block from the Wuhan Number Six Hospital, one of the main medical centers for treating those with virus symptoms.

A team of forensic experts who examined him were immediately sprayed with disinfectant by colleagues after removing their hazardous material suits.

One man smoking near the scene was told sharply by police to put out his cigarette and don a face mask.

He quickly followed their orders.

In the 2 hours that AFP observed the scene, at least 15 ambulances passed by, attending other calls.

Finally, a white van with blacked-out windows arrived to take away the man.

The body was zipped into a yellow surgical bag, and carried into the van on a stretcher.

Staff immediately began to clean the ground as the van drove away, disinfecting the streets where the body had laid.

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38 deaths in 24 hours: China sees deadliest day yet as global virus fears mount

WUHAN - China reported its biggest single-day jump in novel coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as confirmation that 3 Japanese evacuated from the outbreak's epicenter were infected deepened fears about a global contagion.

The World Health Organization (WHO), which initially downplayed the severity of a disease that has now killed 170 nationwide, warned all governments to be "on alert" as it weighed whether to declare a global health emergency.

As foreign countries evacuated their citizens from Wuhan, the locked-down city where the virus was first detected, concern over the economic impact has steadily intensified.

Airlines have suspended services to China and companies from Starbucks to Tesla have shuttered stores and production lines.


Chinese authorities have taken extraordinary steps to arrest the virus's spread, including effectively locking down more than 50 million people in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province.

But that was yet to pay dividends, with the government reporting 38 new deaths in the 24 hours to Thursday, the highest 1-day total. All but one were in Hubei.

The number of confirmed new cases also grew steadily to 7,711, the National Health Commission said. Another 81,000 people were under observation for possible infection.

The pathogen is believed to have been spawned in a market that sold wild game, spreading far and wide by a Lunar New Year holiday season in which hundreds of millions of Chinese travel domestically or abroad.

'TOTALLY NEW SITUATION'

Japan's infection rate grew to 11 after 3 Japanese citizens among more than 200 on an evacuation flight Wednesday tested positive.

Officials had already confirmed 2 cases in which patients tested positive without having traveled to China, adding to anxiety over human-to-human transmission of the respiratory disease.

"We are in a truly new situation," Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament.

The fact that 2 of the 3 new confirmed Japanese cases showed no symptoms underscored the scale of the challenge for health workers.


The WHO has come under fire after it last week declined to declare a global health emergency.

The global health body's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed regret for what he called a "human error" in the WHO's assessment.

WHO's Emergency Committee will meet Thursday to decide whether to declare an emergency -- which could lead to travel or trade barriers.

"The whole world needs to take action," Michael Ryan, head of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told reporters in Geneva.

A US charter flight from Wuhan arrived Wednesday at a California military base with nearly 200 consular staff and other Americans, who "cheered loudly" when the jet touched down, said an official with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All passengers were declared symptom-free but will remain isolated for days while they are monitored.


Some 250 French citizens and 100 other Europeans will be flown out of Wuhan on board 2 French planes this week.

Australia plans to house any citizens it evacuates from the city on an island normally used to detain asylum seekers.

A growing number of governments -- including the United States, Britain and Germany -- have advised their citizens to avoid non-essential travel to China.

China also has urged its own citizens to delay trips abroad, after more than 15 countries confirmed infections.

FLIGHTS SCRAPPED, STORES CLOSED

Major airlines that have suspended or pared back service to China include British Airways, German flag carrier Lufthansa, American Airlines, KLM, and United.

China's efforts to halt the virus have seen the suspension of classes nationwide and an extension of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Most street traffic in and around Wuhan has been banned.


"This is the first day since the lockdown that I've had to go out," a man in his 50s told AFP on the mostly deserted streets of the industrial city.

"I have no choice because I need to buy food."

China's football body meanwhile said it was postponing "all levels and all types of football matches across the country," including the country's top-tier Chinese Super League, in response to the outbreak.

ECONOMIC WORRIES

Japanese automaker Toyota, Swedish furniture giant IKEA, tech giant Foxconn, Starbucks, Tesla and McDonald's were among major corporate giants to temporarily freeze production or close large numbers of outlets in China.

As the "world's factory," the disruptions in China are expected to send ripples through supply chains globally, denting profits.


US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the new coronavirus posed a fresh risk to a fragile world economy, adding that the US central bank was on alert.

"There will clearly be implications at least in the near term for Chinese output and I would guess for some of their close neighbors," Powell said.


The contagion has spread to nearly every corner of China, with remote Tibet reporting its first case on Thursday.

It has triggered fears in part due to its striking similarity to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002-03, which also began in China and eventually killed nearly 800 people worldwide.

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Doctor at hospital in China's Hubei province dies from coronavirus

BEIJING - A doctor at a hospital in China's Hubei province, the center of the new coronavirus outbreak, has died from the virus, China Global Television Network reported in a tweet.

Liang Wudong, a doctor at Hubei Xinhua Hospital who had been at the frontline of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan city, died from the virus aged 62, it said.

The virus, similar to the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that spread in 2002 and 2003, has killed 41 and infected 1,300 as of Saturday. 

Confirmed cases have been reported in Chinese cities and the United States, France, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Nepal. 

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At least 11 dead in Brazil hospital blaze

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil—A fire erupted in a hospital in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, leaving at least 11 people dead and forcing medical staff and desperate relatives to rescue patients from smoke-filled wards.

Hospital authorities said the blaze on Thursday evening was thought to have been caused by a short circuit in a generator, though the city mayor said sabotage could not be ruled out.

Firefighters battled the blaze at the private Badim hospital, near Rio's iconic Maracana World Cup football stadium, for several hours before extinguishing it.

Hospital director Fabio Santoro said Friday that 11 deaths had been confirmed and searches were still underway for one patient who had been reported missing. 

Emergency personnel searched through the burned-out building until the early hours of Friday to recover bodies.

The hospital said there had been 103 patients in the building when the fire broke out and that "more than 100 doctors were mobilized to bring help to the victims." Seventy-seven of them had been moved to other hospitals while 14 had been cleared to return to their homes.

During the evacuation, patients on gurneys and stretchers were carried into surrounding streets as ambulances struggled through crowds of curious onlookers to transport patients to other medical facilities.

"The doctor arrived in the room and told us that there was fire and that we had to evacuate as quickly as possible," 58-year-old Teresa Dias, who was visiting her father, told AFP.

"They put him on a wheelchair and tied him up to prevent him from falling out. There were a lot of other sick people on stretchers on the stairs."

Staff wheeled medical equipment outside, and the most seriously ill patients were taken at first to a nearby children's nursery.

Sheets tied together were seen hanging from hospital windows.

SMOKE SPREAD QUICKLY

"I was able to take my mother out of her room and when we got to the fire escape, there were a lot of people running around," lawyer Carlos Otorelo, whose 93-year-old mother is being treated for pneumonia, told the UOL news website.

"It was terrible because the smoke spread very quickly."

Other relatives were forced to wait outside for word on their loved ones as dense black fumes filled the sky.

"I heard the loud noise of glass breaking and thought it was shooting or a robbery when I heard screaming. I went downstairs to see what was happening and I saw a lot of smoke," said local resident Terezinha Machado, 76.

Hospital authorities said smoke spread to all floors of the building, and pointed to a generator in the oldest part of the complex as the probable cause of the fire.

Mayor Marcelo Crivella said investigators would probe whether the fire was an accident.

"Experts will have to find whether anyone was responsible. I hope I am wrong, but we have to check there was no sabotage, we have to investigate," he told reporters when visiting the hospital Friday.

The fire service said the premises had safety certificates.

Rio has been hit by 2 major fires in the past year, including when the National Museum was gutted by flames last September, destroying most of its priceless collections.

In February, 10 teenage members of the Flamengo football club were killed in the prefabricated building where they were staying. 

Faulty air conditioning systems were the cause of both fires.

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Patient dies in US from lung disease after vaping

WASHINGTON, United States—A patient who had recently been vaping has died in hospital in the Midwestern US state of Illinois after developing severe respiratory illness, the local health authority said Friday.

The adult, whose age and gender have not been released, was one of 153 people across 16 states sickened by the illness since the end of June, according to figures released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The cause has not been determined but all had recently used e-cigarettes, medics said.

"The severity of illness people are experiencing is alarming and we must get the word out that using e-cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous," said Illinois health department director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.

"We requested a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help us investigate these cases and they arrived in Illinois on Tuesday."

Many of the patients had recently vaped cannabis, the CDC said, though no specific product has even been identified, let alone blamed, for the illness, in any of the cases.

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France roasts in record heatwave, 2 die in Spain

PARIS/MADRID—France registered its highest temperature since records began on Friday as the death toll rose from a heatwave suffocating much of Europe.

The mercury hit 45.9 degrees Celsius (114.6 Fahrenheit) in Gallargues-le-Montueux, in the southern Provence region, weather forecaster Meteo France said, nearly 2 degrees above the previous high of 44.1 Celsius recorded in Aug. 2003.

Twelve towns in southern France saw new all-time highs on Friday and 3 experienced temperatures above 45 degrees, it said.

The World Meteorological Organization said 2019 was on track to be among the world's hottest years, and that 2015-2019 would then be the hottest 5-year period on record.

It said the European heatwave was "absolutely consistent" with extremes linked to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions.

Four administrative departments in France were placed on red alert, signaling temperatures of "dangerous intensity" that are more typical of Saudi Arabia.

The unusually high temperatures are forecast to last until early next week.

In Spain, where temperature peaked above 43 degrees for the second day running, wildfires raged across 60 sq km (23 sq miles) of land in the northeastern Tarragona province. Officials said firefighters battling the blazes on 20 fronts managed to avoid them from spreading.

In the central region, a fire broke out on the outskirts of Toledo, forcing the evacuation of 2 public buildings, a regional official told Reuters.

To the north in Valladolid, a man of 93 collapsed and died due to the heat, police said. And in a small town outside Cordoba, a 17-year-old died of heat-related effects after jumping into a swimming pool to cool off.

Since 1975, Spain has registered 9 heatwaves in June, including 5 in the last decade, according to the Spanish meteorological office.

In France, a boy was seriously hurt when he was thrown back by a jet of water from a fire hydrant. Some 4,000 schools were either closed or running a limited service to help working parents unable to stay at home.

State-run rail operator SNCF offered free cancellations or exchanges on long-distance trips, social workers helped homeless people cope with the heat, and French families with elderly relatives who were ill or living alone were advised to call or visit them twice a day and take them to cool places.

The greater Paris region, Ile de France, has banned more than half of cars from its roads as the stifling heat worsened air pollution, the toughest restriction provided for—although all cars were to be allowed to leave the city as school holidays began.

The cities of Lyon, Strasbourg and Marseille have also restricted traffic.

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51 killed, 1,000 people displaced by floods in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Devastating floods in South Africa have left 51 dead and forced more than a thousand people from their homes, according to an updated toll issued Wednesday as President Cyril Ramaphosa flew to the deluged region.

Heavy rains have lashed the southeast of the country, tearing down homes and ravaging infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces. 

Speaking to the affected Amanzimtoti community in Durban, after returning from emergency African Union talks in Egypt on the crises in Libya and Sudan, Ramaphosa said "there are more than 1,000 people who are now displaced."

He raised concerns about Free State province north of KwaZulu-Natal, saying that continuing downpours there were causing "risky situations."

The government will set aside emergency funding to help survivors rebuild their lives, Ramaphosa vowed.

Fifty-one people have been confirmed dead so far, although local media have given a toll as high as 54, rising from 33 on Tuesday.

Rescuers on Wednesday continued to comb debris, desperately looking for people feared trapped by landslides.

Emergency responders reported collapsed buildings and flooded roads, blocked sewer lines, and toppled electricity pylons.

For safety reasons, schools and some businesses were shut in the affected areas.

South African military personnel have been dispatched to help rescue and evacuation efforts.

The South African Weather Services warned that more heavy rain and gale force winds were expected, which could threaten low-lying bridges and roads. 

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Journalist shot dead in Northern Ireland in ‘terrorist incident’

DERRY, United Kingdom  - A journalist was shot dead during riots in Northern Ireland in what police Friday were treating as a terrorist incident following the latest upsurge in violence to shake the troubled region.

"Lyra McKee was murdered during orchestrated violence in Creggan last night," Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said in a statement.

McKee, 29, had earlier posted an image that appeared to be from the riots in the Creggan housing estate in the city of Londonderry, also known as Derry, accompanied by the words "Derry tonight. Absolute madness."

Images of the unrest posted on social media showed a car and van ablaze and hooded individuals throwing petrol bombs and fireworks at police vehicles.

"A single gunman fired shots in a residential area of the city and as a result wounded Ms McKee," said Hamilton, adding that police believed the gunman was a "violent dissident republican".

"We are treating this as a terrorist incident and we have launched a murder inquiry," he added.

McKee had written for The Atlantic magazine and Buzzfeed News and was named by Forbes Magazine in 2016 as one of their "30 under 30" outstanding figures in media, according to her literary agent Janklow & Nesbit.

Leona O'Neill, a reporter with the Belfast Telegraph, said she saw McKee get hurt.

"I was standing beside this young woman when she fell beside a police Land Rover tonight in Creggan #Derry. I called an ambulance for her but police put her in the back of their vehicle and rushed her to hospital where she died. Just 29 years old. Sick to my stomach tonight," she tweeted.

'TRULY SENSELESS'

Thursday's unrest raised memories of past decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned that "we cannot allow those who want to propagate violence, fear and hate to drag us back to the past".

His British counterpart Theresa May said the killing was "shocking and truly senseless".

In Brussels, a European Commission spokesman condemned the "terrible incident".

"We condemn such violence, and we are confident that the UK authorities will ascertain the exact circumstances of this tragic event," he said.

Visiting US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined in a minute's silence for McKee, saying it was "especially poignant", being held on Good Friday.

The violence came in the run-up to the Easter weekend, when Republicans opposed to the British presence in Northern Ireland mark the anniversary of a 1916 uprising against British rule.

A car-bombing and the hijacking of two vans in Londonderry earlier this year were also blamed on a dissident paramilitary group.

Michelle O'Neill, the deputy leader of Irish republican party Sinn Fein, condemned the killing.

"My heart goes out to the family of the young woman shot dead by so-called dissidents," she wrote on Twitter.

"This was an attack on the community, an attack on the peace process and an attack on the Good Friday Agreement," the peace deal that largely brought an end to violence on the island exactly 21 years ago, she added, calling for calm.

Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Union Party, which is in favor of Britain's presence in Northern Ireland, described the death as "heartbreaking news".

"A senseless act. A family has been torn apart. Those who brought guns onto our streets in the 70s, 80s & 90s were wrong. It is equally wrong in 2019. No one wants to go back," she wrote on Twitter.

HISTORY OF TROUBLES

The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 largely brought an end to three decades of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland between republican and unionist paramilitaries, as well as British armed forces, in a period known as "the Troubles".

Some 3,500 people were killed in the conflict -- many at the hands of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Police have blamed a group called the New IRA for the flare-up in violence in recent months.

Some have expressed fears that recent attacks could be a sign that paramilitaries are seeking to exploit the current political turbulence over Northern Ireland and its border with the Republic of Ireland caused by Brexit.

Londonderry was the scene of one of the darkest episodes in the Troubles in 1972, known as Bloody Sunday, when British troops opened fire on a civil rights demonstration and killed 13 people. A 14th victim later died of his wounds.

A former British soldier was charged with murder last month over the killings.

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Indonesia flood death toll rises to 89, dozens missing

SENTANI, Indonesia - At least 89 people are known to have died after flash floods and landslides tore through Indonesia's Papua region, with the toll expected to rise further as rescuers hunt for dozens still missing, the national disaster agency said Tuesday.

Scores have also been injured in the disaster, triggered by torrential rain on Saturday, with some 6,800 people evacuated to temporary shelters.

The military has taken up the grim task of putting mud-caked corpses into body bags, with the search hampered by mountains of debris, including rocks and fallen trees.

Seventy four people remain unaccounted for, while around 150 suffered broken bones, cuts, and other injuries.

"Many people are choosing to stay at shelters because they're still traumatized and scared of more flash floods, so some evacuation centers are packed," said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

The government has issued a 14-day state of emergency in Papua, which shares a border with independent Papua New Guinea on an island just north of Australia.

Flooding is common in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.

In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.

Meanwhile, 3 people were killed -- including 2 Malaysian tourists -- and some 182 were injured after an earthquake Sunday triggered a landslide on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, next to Bali.

Lombok was rocked by several earthquakes last summer, killing more than 500 people and leaving over 150,000 homeless.

Last September, the country was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island which killed around 2,200 people. 

The Southeast Asian archipelago of some 17,000 islands is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.

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12 dead in bank robbery shootout in Brazil

BRASILIA - Twelve people including 6 hostages were killed on Friday in a shootout between police and bank robbers attempting to blow up ATMs at 2 banks in a small town in northeastern Brazil, authorities said.

Six hostages, among them 2 children, died in the shooting, local media reported, when police opened fire on the robbers at bank branches on the main street in Milagres in the interior of Ceará state.

"Six of the bandits died. We are working to identify the victims," Kelia Jacome, spokeswoman for the governor said by telephone.

She said the attempted night-time robbery was interrupted by a police unit that had been tracking a gang responsible for similar bank robberies in the area, in which explosives were used to blow apart automatic teller machines.

The G1 news website, quoting Milagres Mayor Lielson Landim, reported that 5 of the dead hostages belonged to the same family. Their car had been hijacked by the armed gang that took them as hostages.

Two suspects were arrested by police, who were searching for other gang members with the help of a helicopter, the governor's office said in a statement.

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