News in brief
Egypt prolongs Sinai emergency rule, bomb wounds 18
AFP, CAIRO: Egypt extended a state of emergency in parts of the Sinai Peninsula for three months, as a roadside bomb wounded 18 policemen yestreday in the insurgency-wracked region, security officials said.
The attack happened near El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province where the army is battling Islamic State group loyalists, according to the officials, who said the policemen were on leave. Health ministry official Tarek Khater said the wounded were in stable condition in a military hospital in the city. Egyptian security forces have come under frequent attack in North Sinai since the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said late Saturday that the extension of the state of emergency for a third time was necessary because of the dangerous security situation. It was originally declared in parts of the peninsula in October following the death of 30 soldiers in an attack close to El-Arish.
Paris police fire on car driven through Tour de France barrier
AFP, PARIS: French police opened fire yesterday at a car which smashed through a security barrier in central Paris close to the finishing line of cyclings Tour de France, a police source said.
The authorities were still searching for the driver after the incident which happened at around 8:00 am (0600 GMT) at the Place de Concorde at the end of the famous Champs Elysees, where the worlds greatest cycling race is to finish later Sunday.
Three dead as small plane crashes into Tokyo suburb
AFP, TOKYO: Three people were killed yesterday when a small plane crashed into a Tokyo suburb shortly after takeoff, police said, leaving nearby homes and cars ablaze and the charred remains of the fuselage lying in a burnt-out residence.
The single-engine propeller aircraft with a 36-year-old pilot and four passengers on board crashed at around 11:00 am (0200 GMT) shortly after leaving Chofu airport on the outskirts of the Japanese capital, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Two people from the airplane are confirmed dead and a person believed to be a local resident has also died, a spokesman for Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department told AFP.
Thee other people from the airplane and two others on the ground were injured. Their condition is unknown.
Local media reports said earlier that two men, including the pilot, and a woman on the ground were killed in the fiery crash.
Italy fireworks factory blast toll rises to eight
AFP, ROME: The death toll from an explosion at a fireworks factory in southern Italy has risen to eight
after one of those hurt succumbed to their injuries, a hospital source said yesterday. Another person remained in serious condition in hospital and is not out of danger, the source said. Seven people were killed on the spot and several other injured on Friday in the explosion in the southern port city of Bari, local media reported citing the emergency services.
La Repubblica newspaper reported that a van exploded first, triggering a series of blasts within the factory that lasted around an hour. The Bari prosecutors office has opened an involuntary homicide enquiry into the explosion.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella said everything would be done to ensure that the cause of the tragedy would be discovered as soon as possible. Two Canadair water-bomber planes were deployed to stop the fire triggered by the blasts reaching a nearby forest.
One of the injured sustained burns on 90 per cent of the body, La Repubblica said. The factory was totally destroyed. Such explosions are a relatively regular occurrence in Italy, costing several lives each year.
