6 workers die in abandoned India mine
GAUHATI, India -- Six miners died after being trapped in an abandoned coal mine that collapsed in India's remote northeast, a state official said Friday.
Their bodies were recovered Friday, a day after the six were trapped in Meghalaya state, said E. Kharmalki, district magistrate of the East Jaintia Hills district.
Meghalaya has scores of small "rathole" mines where workers extract coal in hazardous conditions. The coal is placed in boxes that are hoisted to the surface with pullies.
India's Green Tribunal has banned coal mining in Meghalaya state to protect the environment, but some villagers continue to mine illegally.
ISIS: Behind deadly attack in Baghdad
BAGHDAD -- The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a rare suicide attack that rocked central Baghdad, killing at least 32 people.
The bombing by two men targeted "apostate Shiites," the group said on an Islamic State-affiliated website late Thursday.
In addition to the deaths, more than 100 people were wounded in the blasts Thursday. Some were in severe condition. According to officials, the first bomber cried out loudly that he was ill in the middle of the bustling market, prompting a crowd to gather around him -- and that's when he detonated his explosive belt. The second bomber detonated his shortly after.
The U.S.-led coalition recently ceased combat activities and is gradually drawing down its troop presence in Iraq, sparking fears of an Islamic State resurgence. The group, also known as ISIS, has rarely been able to penetrate the capital since being dislodged by Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition in 2017.
The attack was the first in nearly three years to hit the capital. In northern Iraq and the western desert, attacks continue and almost exclusively target Iraqi security forces.
An increase in attacks was seen last summer as militants took advantage of the government's focus on tackling the coronavirus pandemic and exploited security gaps across disputed territory in northern Iraq.
Ugandan accuses foe of election 'coup'
KAMPALA, Uganda -- Ugandan presidential challenger Bobi Wine on Friday accused the country's longtime president of staging a "coup" in the Jan. 14 election and urged people to protest his loss through nonviolent means. But he suggested he might not go to court to challenge the results.
Calling the vote "a mockery of democracy," the opposition lawmaker and popular singer whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu made his first public address since election day. Speaking from house arrest, he asserted in an online briefing that Ugandans are being oppressed by "a small group of gunmen" in charge of the East African country.
President Yoweri Museveni "committed a coup against the constitution and against the people of Uganda," the opposition leader said from the outskirts of the capital, Kampala.
Museveni won with 58% of the vote while Wine had 34%, according to the official results. Wine insists he won and has said he can prove that the military stuffed ballot boxes, cast ballots for people and chased voters away from polling stations.
"This has been the most fraudulent election in the history of Uganda," he said.
But he suggested he was unlikely to challenge it in court because of concerns that a possible loss there would validate Museveni's win. He said he would announce a decision "in a few days."
He also said many of his supporters, including close associates, remain in jail.
U.K. sentences 4 men for 39 truck deaths
LONDON -- Four people-smugglers convicted of killing 39 people from Vietnam who died in the back of a container truck as it was shipped to England were sentenced Friday to between 13 and 27 years in prison.
The victims, between the ages of 15 and 44, were found in October 2019 inside a refrigerated container that had traveled by ferry from Belgium to the eastern England port of Purfleet. The migrants had paid smugglers thousands of dollars to take them on risky journeys to what they hoped would be better lives abroad.
Instead, judge Nigel Sweeney said, "all died in what must have been an excruciatingly painful death" by suffocation.
The judge sentenced Romanian mechanic Gheorghe Nica, 43, described by prosecutors as the ringleader, to 27 years. Northern Irish truck driver Eamonn Harrison, 24, who drove the container to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, received an 18-year sentence.
Trucker Maurice Robinson, 26, who picked up the container in England, was sentenced to 13 years and 4 months in prison, while haulage company boss Ronan Hughes, 41, was jailed for 20 years.
Prosecutors said all the men were part of a gang that charged about $17,000 per person to transport migrants in trailers through the Channel Tunnel or by boat.
Jurors heard harrowing evidence about the final hours of the victims, who tried to call Vietnam's emergency number to summon help as air in the container ran out. Some recorded goodbye messages to their families.