World

MADRID — Spain's Popular Party and the far-right Vox reached a deal on Tuesday to govern the Valencia region in a tie-up that could be replicated nationally if the right wins July's election.

With less than six weeks until the July 23 snap election, the two parties reached "a government agreement in principle", said Juan Francisco Perez, a negotiator for the right-wing Popular Party (PP), which polls suggest is on track to win.

The parties "have agreed on a coalition government in the Valencia region”, Vox wrote on social media.

Located on Spain's eastern seaboard, Valencia has five million residents and is Spain's fourth-largest region in terms of population.

The agreement means Valencia will become the second of Spain's 17 regions to be jointly ruled by the PP and Vox, the first being Castilla y Leon near Madrid.

The Valencia deal is the first big agreement between the two factions following their success in the May 28 local and regional elections, with the PP's Carlos Mazon taking over as regional leader.

On that day, elections were held in 12 Spanish regions, with the PP seizing six of them from the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

But the PP needs the support of Vox to govern in five of them: Aragon, Baleares, Extremadura, Murcia and Valencia.

Socialists decry 'shameful' pact 

Polls have long suggested that PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo's chances of replacing Sanchez hinge on his party inking a pact with Vox — which could harm his image as a moderate.

During negotiations over Valencia, the PP managed to ensure that Vox's regional candidate Carlos Flores — who was convicted in 2002 of psychologically abusing his ex-wife — would not be given any role in government.

"I'm not stepping aside, I'm moving forward," said Flores who has now left regional politics to run as a Vox candidate in the general elections.

The PP-Vox deal was dismissed as "embarrassing and shameful" by Socialist spokeswoman and Education Minister Pilar Alegria, who denounced Vox for fielding a candidate like Flores.

The PP has "reached a deal with a party which rejects the idea of gender violence out of hand, which says it doesn't even exist", she said.

"And even worse, this man [Flores] has been convicted of domestic violence."

The two parties also signed a pact to jointly govern Elche, a town of 230,000 residents in the Valencia region in what was their first such deal at a municipal level.

KYIV — Russian strikes early Tuesday on the hometown of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky killed ten people, as Moscow said it had captured Western armoured vehicles from Kyiv's forces.

The strikes overnight hit multiple sites and smashed into a five-storey apartment building in the central city of Kryvyi Rig, leaving smoke billowing from the housing block strewn with debris.

"Ten people have died. One is under rubble. Twenty-eight are injured and 12 of them are in the city's hospitals in medium, serious and very serious condition," said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city's military administration.

"Rescue operations are ongoing," he added.

Zelensky said after the strikes that Russian forces were waging a war against "residential buildings, ordinary cities and people".

He promised Ukrainians that those responsible would be held to account.

“Terrorists will never be forgiven, and they will be held accountable for every missile they launch,” he said in a statement on social media.

Air raid sirens earlier had sounded across Ukraine as the capital Kyiv and the northeast city of Kharkiv also came under missile and drone attacks.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 cruise missiles and four Iranian-made drones overnight, with 10 missiles and one drone intercepted.

‘Trophies’ 

In the morning, another missile was fired by Russian forces before being shot down by the Ukrainian air defences.

The fresh wave of attacks came shortly before Moscow claimed to have captured several German Leopard tanks and US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. 

The defence ministry released footage showing Russian troops surveying the equipment supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.

“Leopard tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. These are our trophies. Equipment of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Zaporizhzhia region,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

“Servicemen of the Vostok group inspect enemy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles captured in battle.”

Kyiv has appealed to its allies in the West to deliver a broad range of modern military equipment to help Ukrainian forces recapture large swathes of territory controlled by Russia.

The defence ministry said several of the captured vehicles had working engines, suggesting that battles they were involved in had been short and that Ukrainian troops had “fled” their offensive positions.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has asked Australia about the condition of dozens of retired F-18 fighter jets, the country’s ambassador told AFP on Tuesday, eyeing a potential weapons transfer that could significantly bolster Kyiv’s airpower.

Flooding toll rises 

The strikes across Ukraine came shortly after Kyiv claimed to have retaken seven villages and made advances in its counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Military spokesman Andriy Kovalyov said the area of the recaptured land in the eastern and southern regions amounted to “more than 100 square kilometres”.

The commander of Ukrainian ground forces, Col. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said troops were continuing “the defence operation in the Bakhmut sector”, scene of the longest battle of the offensive. 

“Our soldiers are advancing, and the enemy is losing ground on the flanks,” he said. 

On Monday, Zelensky said Ukraine was making small gains in a “tough” counteroffensive. 

Kyiv’s ambitions to capture more territory further south have been complicated after the destruction of a major dam in southern Ukraine, inundating huge swathes of land under Russian and Ukrainian control.

The toll in Russian-controlled territory from the Kakhovka Dam breach last week — which Kyiv and its allies believe was an act of Russian sabotage — has since risen to 17, Moscow-installed officials announced Tuesday.

“As of this morning, 12 dead were confirmed in Gola Prystan and five in Oleshky,” Andrei Alekseyenko, head of the Russian-installed government in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, said on social media.

ROME — Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister who reshaped Italy's political and cultural landscape while fending off multiple legal and sex scandals, died on Monday aged 86.

The billionaire media mogul had been suffering from a rare type of blood cancer.

Mourners laid flowers and notes outside Villa San Martino, Berlusconi's home near Milan, with one reading simply "we will miss you".

Berlusconi will have a state funeral in Milan's gothic Duomo Cathedral on Wednesday.

He had suffered ill health for years, from heart surgery in 2016 to a 2020 hospitalisation for COVID-19. Despite being reelected to the Senate last year, he was rarely seen in public.

But he remained the official head of his right-wing Forza Italia Party, a junior — and occasionally troublesome — partner in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's coalition government.

"Berlusconi was above all a fighter," Meloni said in a video message posted on Twitter.

"He was a man who was not afraid to defend his convictions, and it was precisely that courage and determination which made him one of the most influential men in Italy's history," she said.

As Berlusconi's body was moved from the hospital to Villa San Martino, tributes flowed from in from international leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin — whom Berlusconi controversially defended following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine — said his death was an "irreparable loss" and he hailed him as a "true friend".

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban tweeted: "Gone is the great fighter", while Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "Silvio was a great friend of Israel and stood by us at all times."

'Loved him, hated him'

Berlusconi led Italy three times between 1994 and 2011, for a total of nine years, wooing voters with a promise of economic success, only to be forced out as a debt crisis gripped his country.

But his influence extended well beyond politics, thanks to his extensive TV, newspaper and sporting interests, while his playboy antics kept him in the headlines even in his final years.

Italian ex-prime minister Matteo Renzi said that Berlusconi had “made history”, even if he was controversial.

“Many loved him, many hated him: Everyone today must recognise that his impact on political but also economic, sporting and television life was unprecedented,” he said.

Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic Party, said Berlusconi’s death “marks the end of an era”.

Berlusconi had been admitted to a Milan hospital on Friday for what aides said were pre-planned tests related to leukaemia.

His admission came just three weeks after he was discharged following a six-week stay at Milan’s San Raffaele hospital, during which time doctors revealed he had a rare type of blood cancer.

He is survived by his 33-year-old girlfriend, Marta Fascina, two ex-wives and five children, some of whom help run his empire, recently estimated to be worth around $7 billion. 

Funeral details have not been announced, but Berlusconi built a Pharaoh-inspired marble mausoleum at his villa in Arcore, near Milan, to house his family and friends when they die.

Charismatic, clownish and with a fine grasp of what his audiences wanted, Berlusconi used his media interests to project an image of a strong, self-made man that voters could emulate — a tactic later used by US president Donald Trump.

Berlusconi “ignited and polarised the public debate perhaps like no other”, former prime minister Giuseppe Conte said on Facebook.

“And even those who faced him as a political opponent must recognise that he never lacked courage, passion, [and] tenacity,” he wrote.

Bunga bunga parties 

Berlusconi began his career as a real estate magnate before investing in television channels which broke the mould in Italy, featuring shows particularly popular with housewives, later a pillar of his electorate.

His empire also included football — he reigned supreme at AC Milan from 1986 until 2017, during which time the club won 29 trophies.

The club said in a tribute that it was “grieving the passing of the unforgettable Silvio Berlusconi” and “Thank you, Mr President. Always with us”.

Berlusconi portrayed himself as both messiah and martyr and enjoyed widespread popularity, though detractors accused him of cronyism, corruption and pushing through laws to protect his own interests.

His fans admired his plain speaking, though many Italians were acutely embarrassed by his crude jokes and insults on the international stage, as well as his endless legal cases, which resulted in one conviction for corporate tax fraud.

HANOI — As a young woman, Tran To Nga was a war correspondent, a prisoner and an activist. Now, at 81, she is waging a court battle against US chemical firms to win justice for the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.

Nga is the first and only civilian to bring a lawsuit against the 14 multinational chemical firms, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto, that produced and sold the toxic herbicide sprayed over Vietnam by US forces during the war.

According to the World Health Organisation, some batches of Agent Orange were contaminated with a dioxin — a highly toxic environmental pollutant — that is being investigated for its link to certain types of cancer and to diabetes.

In May 2021, a French court threw Nga’s case out. But she refuses to give up.

“I will not stop. I will be on the side of the victims until my last breath,” Nga, visiting Hanoi from her home in Paris, told AFP.

“This will be my last fight, and the most difficult of all,” said Nga, herself a victim of Agent Orange who spent nine months behind bars, imprisoned by the South Vietnamese regime for her suspected connections to high-ranking communist leaders.

The activist gave birth to her youngest daughter in prison, before being freed when the communists defeated US-backed South Vietnam on April 30, 1975.

‘I blamed myself’ 

Like many other first-generation victims, Nga was at first unaware she had been exposed.

In her mid-20s, she was stationed at a Viet Cong military base near Saigon — now known as Ho Chi Minh City — as a trainee journalist working for Hanoi’s Liberation News Agency.

Coming out of an underground shelter one day, Nga was “covered with a wet powder from a US aircraft”.

“I took a shower only when I was told that it was herbicide all over my body. But then forgot all about it,” she said.

Between early 1962 and 1971, US warplanes dropped about 68 million litres of Agent Orange — so-called because it was stored in drums with orange bands — to defoliate jungles and destroy Viet Cong crops.

At that time, no-one knew they had been exposed to a substance that many believe destroyed not only their lives, but also their children’s and grandchildren’s.

A year after the exposure, in 1968, Nga gave birth to her first baby, a girl born with a congenital heart defect who survived for just 17 months.

“For so long, I blamed myself for being a bad mother, giving birth to a sick baby and not being able to save her,” Nga told AFP.

Nga only suspected her child was a victim of Agent Orange decades later when she encountered veterans and their disabled children in a similar situation.

Vietnam’s Association of Victims of Agent Orange says 4.8 million people were directly exposed, and more than three million have developed health problems.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs has said it assumes — although there is no official scientifically proven link — that some cancers, diabetes and birth defects are associated with Agent Orange exposure. 

It has also recognised a link among veterans’ children to spina bifida — a spine defect in a developing foetus.

Nga herself is suffering from effects including type 2 diabetes and cancer.

“I think of Agent Orange as the ancestor for all sorts of other substances that have destroyed the environment,” Nga said.

No settlement 

At a state-sponsored facility caring for Agent Orange victims in the suburbs of Hanoi, Nga watched a computer lesson given by Vuong Thi Quyen.

Quyen, 34, was born with a deformed spine after her soldier father was exposed during the war.

“I am so happy to meet Nga, my idol. She has done so much for victims of Agent Orange like ourselves,” Quyen told AFP.

After the war Nga, a trained chemist, spent many years as a head teacher at a school in Ho Chi Minh City before assuming a role as a go-between for donors in France and Agent Orange victims in Vietnam.

“I have no hatred towards the American government or people. It’s only those that caused devastation and pain that should pay for what they did,” Nga said.

At the trial in France, the multinationals argued that they could not be held responsible for the way the US military used their product, with the court ruling they had been “acting on the orders of” the United States, and were therefore immune from prosecution.

Nga said she had been offered “a lot of money” to settle the lawsuit, but “I refused to accept”. 

She has since started a crowdfunding campaign to finance an appeal, scheduled for 2024.

So far, only military veterans from the United States and its allies in the war have won compensation over Agent Orange.

In 2008, a US federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a civil lawsuit against major US chemical companies brought by Vietnamese plaintiffs.

“The fight to get justice for Agent Orange victims will last a long time,” Nga said.

“But I think I have chosen the correct path.”

SHAH BANDAR — Pakistan authorities on Monday began an evacuation effort to move 80,000 citizens out of the path of an approaching cyclone, which is expected to bring winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour.

The cyclone is making its way across the Arabian Sea towards the coastlines of Pakistan and India, forecast to make landfall later this week.

Swathes of coastal communities in southern Sindh province are set to suffer storm surges up to 3.5 metres, which could inundate low-lying settlements, as well as up to 30 centimetres of rain.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said an emergency has been declared and the army drafted in to help relocate "more than 80,000 people" at risk.

"We will not request people but demand them to evacuate," Shah told reporters, adding that the order was being issued through social media, mosques and radio stations.

A spokesman for Shah said around 2,000 people have already been evacuated to "safe places" from the area of Shah Bandar, a fishing town nestled among mangrove deltas 45 kilometres west of India's Gujarat state.

However, in the nearby village of Gul Muhammad Uplano, authorities struggled to persuade families to leave.

"We will become helpless in the government camps, that is why we are better off at our own place," said 46-year-old Gul Hasan.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned that traditional mud and straw homes which house the poorest in Pakistan will be vulnerable to disintegration in high winds.

But in the settlement of Haji Ibrahim, a cluster of such structures, fisherman Abu Bakar said concerns over losing their livelihoods prevail.

"Our boat, goats and camels are our assets," the 20-year-old said. "We cannot compromise on their safety."

"But if the danger becomes imminent, we will be forced to leave to save our lives," he conceded.

'Adverse effects 

of climate change' 

Provincial lawmaker Muhammad Ali Malkani told AFP a decision had been made to evacuate the population living up to eight kilometres inland.

Karachi — a port city home to around 20 million — is also due to be deluged by dust and thunder storms with winds whipping up to 80 kilometres per hour.

Billboards will be removed and 70 vulnerable buildings evacuated in the city, while construction will be stopped over the entire affected area.

India’s Meteorological Department said Monday the storm will hit western Gujarat state around noon on Thursday, with winds gusting up to 150 kilometres per hour causing “total destruction of thatched houses”.

Heavy rains and strong winds late Saturday killed 27 people in northwest Pakistan, including eight children, officials said.

“Undoubtedly, these are the adverse effects of climate change,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Twitter Sunday.

Last summer, Pakistan was hit by massive monsoon rains which put a third of the country under water, damaged two million homes and killed more than 1,700 people.

Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country with 220 million inhabitants, is responsible for only 0.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But the nation ranks highly among those vulnerable to extreme weather events, which scientists say are becoming more frequent and more severe owing to climate change.

WASHINGTON — A fire caused an overpass on one of America's busiest highways to collapse early Sunday in Philadelphia, authorities said, as reports attributed the cause to a truck that burst into flames under the bridge.

The collapse took out four traffic lanes along an elevated section of heavily travelled Interstate 95, though no injuries were immediately reported.

"Companies arrived on location and they found... heavy fire from a vehicle — we don't know what type of vehicle it was," Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer of the Philadelphia Fire Department told a news conference.

Bowmer added the situation was considered a hazmat incident, but could not confirm reports that the burning vehicle was an oil tanker.

Local media reported that Philadelphia police as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were looking for the driver of the vehicle associated with the fire, whose whereabouts are unknown.

An ATF spokesman told AFP that its Philadelphia field division "is supporting the investigation" and referred additional inquiries to the fire department. The fire department declined to comment.

The north-south highway — one of the busiest in the United States, connecting major cities along the East Coast from Maine to Florida — remains closed in both directions in the Philadelphia area, officials said.

Rebuilding the section of destroyed highway could take weeks, authorities said, a nightmare scenario for commuters as well as for road travellers at the start of the summer holiday season.

"Avoid area. Plan and seek alternative travel routes," the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management said in a tweet.

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said on Twitter he is offering "any assistance that USDOT can provide to help with recovery and reconstruction".

Television images showed flames and billowing smoke coming from the crumbled section of I-95 in the northeastern city's Tacony neighbourhood, with parts of the elevated roadway having fallen onto the lanes below.

City authorities issued a series of alerts on Twitter about a tanker truck fire on the highway, which local media reported went up in flames underneath the bridge, apparently causing the collapse.

A city spokeswoman told AFP that a "large fire under I-95" caused the highway to collapse, but did not attribute it to any vehicle. She said the fire has been declared "under control".

Local media reported the fire started around 6:20am (02:20 GMT), when Sunday traffic is typically light.

"I will always be grateful to our first responders for the dangerous, life-saving work they do to keep residents and visitors safe," Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said on Twitter.

The southbound lanes of the highway, while still standing, are "compromised", Bowmer said. "They got a lot of heat and heavy fire."

"I-95 will be impacted for a long time, for a long time," city Managing Director Tumar Alexander told a news conference, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Residents told city media outlets that they heard several explosions, which a fire department captain told the local NBC station were coming from underground, caused by runoff from the truck.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Heavy rains followed by strong winds killed at least 27 people, including eight children, in northwest Pakistan, officials said on Sunday.

The storms hit four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province late Saturday, with five siblings aged between two and 11 among the dead.

"At least 12 people were buried alive after the roofs and walls of their houses collapsed," Taimur Ali Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority, told AFP.

More than 140 people were injured and more than 200 livestock died, he said.

Authorities have declared an emergency in all four districts.

Meanwhile, a cyclone is making its way across the Arabian Sea towards the coastlines of Pakistan and India, expected to make landfall at the end of the week.

Pakistani authorities said they would begin evacuating between 8,000 and 9,000 families from along the coastline of Sindh province, including in the mega port city of Karachi, home to around 20 million people.

The army will be deployed from Monday to assist.

The cyclone could bring winds, storm surges and urban flooding from Tuesday evening as it approaches, the disaster management agency said on Sunday.

"Fishermen are advised not to venture into the open sea until the [weather] system is over by June 17," the agency said.

In neighbouring India, the Meteorological Department reported Sunday that the storm would likely cross the Saurashtra and Kutch areas of western Gujarat state as well as adjacent Pakistani coasts around noon on Thursday.

It warned it would likely make landfall as a "very severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 125-135 kmph, gusting to 150 kmph".

Scientists say climate change is making seasonal rains heavier and more unpredictable.

Pakistan, which has the world's fifth largest population, is responsible for only 0.8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions but is one of the most vulnerable nations to extreme weather caused by global warming.

Last summer, unprecedented monsoon rains put a third of the country under water, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.

In India, natural catastrophes are forecast to cause more misery as the planet's climate warms and makes weather more volatile.