Politics
Spain mourns as train disaster toll rises to 41
ADAMUZ: Spain began three days of national mourning on Tuesday for 41 people killed after two high-speed trains collided in the country’s deadliest train accident in over a decade.
The disaster took place late Sunday when a train operated by rail company Iryo, travelling from Malaga to Madrid, derailed near Adamuz in the southern Andalusia region.
It crossed to the other track, where it crashed into an oncoming train, which also derailed.
The death toll rose to 41 after the body of a passenger was recovered on Monday evening from one of the Iryo train carriages, the regional government said.
Over 120 people were injured, with 39 still in hospital, including four children, it added.
Flags flew at half-mast on public buildings, television anchors wore black, and cabinet ministers curtailed public appearances as Spain observed the first of three days of national mourning.
Heavy machinery was deployed on Monday to lift the most severely damaged train carriages and give rescuers better access.
The head of Andalusia´s regional government, Juan Manuel Moreno, warned Monday it would take another 24-48 hours “to know with certainty how many deaths have resulted from this terrible accident”.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were scheduled to meet with rescuers and officials in Adamuz later on Tuesday.
Harrowing
Aerial footage of the crash site from Spain’s Guardia Civil police showed the two trains far apart, as rescuers in high-visibility neon vests worked nearby.
Among the survivors is a six-year-old girl who lost her parents, brother and cousin in the crash, according to Spanish media.
The 27-year-old driver of one of the trains was among those killed, daily newspaper El Pais reported.
The collision occurred in a hilly, olive-growing region accessible only by a single-track road, making it difficult for ambulances to reach the area.
Firefighter Angel Uceda, who was among the first rescuers on the scene, told Onda Cero radio that mobile phones were ringing beside injured victims as he entered the wrecked train carriages.
“It was harrowing, but we had to do our job and do what was needed,” he said.
Unlike the 2013 accident, the derailment occurred on a straight section of track, and the trains were travelling within the speed limit, officials said.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the first train to derail was “practically new” and the section of the track where the disaster happened had been recently renovated, making the accident “extremely strange”.
The company said around 300 people were on board its service from the Andalusian city of Malaga to the capital, Madrid.
Renfe, the operator of the second train travelling to the southern city of Huelva, said it was carrying 184 passengers.
Solidarity
Human error has “been practically ruled out”, Renfe President Alvaro Fernandez Heredia told Spanish public radio RNE.
Heredia also ruled out speeding as a cause of the accident. He said both trains were travelling just over 200 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, below the 250 kilometres per hour limit for that section of track.
Spain has Europe’s largest high-speed rail network, with more than 3,000 kilometres of dedicated tracks connecting major cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Malaga.
In Adamuz, where white buildings gleam among orange-lined streets, residents rushed to the town hall with supplies as news of the disaster spread.
“We started bringing water, blankets, everything we could,” Manuel Munoz, a 60-year-old olive oil factory worker, told AFP.
Among those offering condolences were Pope Leo XIV and French President Emmanuel Macron.
MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose a little-known legislator from India’s poorest state as the party’s youngest president on Tuesday, a generational shift in the effort to retain young voters.
Nitin Nabin, 45, takes over from outgoing president JP Nadda, 65, months before key state elections, one of them in the eastern state of West Bengal, which the BJP has never won and is strongly focused on.
A five-time lawmaker from the eastern state of Bihar, Nabin was elected unopposed as the party’s 12th president after Modi and other leaders proposed him.
Hundreds of workers watched at party headquarters in New Delhi as Nabin, his forehead smeared with a vermillion mark and his shoulders wrapped in a scarf with the party symbol, took the oath of office before Modi and four past presidents.
“When it comes to the party, I am a worker and he is my boss,” Modi, 75, said in his remarks, pointing to Nabin, who will serve a three-year term.
In his speech, Nabin repeatedly praised Modi as a generational leader and urged young people to take an active part in politics.
More than 40% of India’s one billion voters are aged between 18 and 39, the Election Commission and analysts estimate.
The BJP suffered a shock setback in the 2024 general election as Modi lost his majority after 10 years in power and had to rely on regional allies to form a government.
But it has since regained ground, winning critical state and civic body elections. The party and its allies govern 19 of India’s 28 states.
- Five Chinese nationals among injured in restaurant blast.
- China demands Kabul to spare no effort to treat the injured.
- Kabul police say restaurant mostly served Chinese Muslims.
Beijing demanded on Tuesday that Afghanistan protect Chinese citizens after a bombing at a restaurant in Kabul killed at least seven people, including a Chinese man.
China, which shares a rugged 76-kilometre (47-mile) border with Afghanistan, has close ties with the Taliban government.
“China has made urgent representations with the Afghan side, demanding that the Afghan side spare no effort to treat the injured, further take effective measures to protect the safety of Chinese citizens,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news conference.
Six Afghans were also killed in Monday’s explosion at the Chinese Noodle restaurant in central Kabul, city police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.
The blast was claimed by the regional branch of the Daesh group, the SITE Intelligence Group reported, saying it was a suicide attack targeting Chinese nationals.
The Kabul police spokesman said the restaurant in the Shahr-e-Naw area mostly served Chinese Muslims.
Five Chinese nationals were also among the wounded, Beijing said, warning its citizens against travelling to Afghanistan.
“Chinese citizens and enterprises already in Afghanistan should enhance their awareness of prevention, strengthen security measures and evacuate high-risk areas as soon as possible,” Guo said.
Taliban officials have vowed to restore security to the country and are courting foreign investors to secure crucial revenue streams as foreign aid funding dries up.
Chinese business visitors have flocked to Afghanistan since the Taliban government took power in 2021 for the second time.
PARIS: Emmanuel Macron has sent a “private message” to Donald Trump offering to organise a G7 summit in Paris on Thursday in which Russia could be invited on the sidelines, the French president’s entourage confirmed.
Trump posted this message on his Truth Social network, in which Macron also proposes inviting Ukraine to the meeting as well as Denmark, to discuss disagreements over Greenland.
The offer comes as Europe is weighing countermeasures after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on eight European countries in a bid to pressure the European Union over Greenland.
“My friend, we are totally in line on Syria. We can do great things on Iran. I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” Macron said in his message.
“I can set up a G7 meeting after Davos in Paris on Thursday afternoon,” Macron wrote, referring to the gathering of global elites in Switzerland where the US president is set to be in attendance.
“I can invite the Ukrainians, the Danish, the Syrians and the Russians in the margins” of the meeting, he added.
Trump’s relations with Macron hit a new low Monday when the US president threatened 200 tariffs on French wine over France’s intention to decline an invitation to join his “Board of Peace”.
“Tariff threats to influence our foreign policy are unacceptable and ineffective,” a source close to Macron told AFP on Tuesday.
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