Cicalengka (Indonesia) (AFP) – At least four people were killed and 22 injured when two trains carrying hundreds of passengers collided in Indonesia. The front carriages of both trains were a mangled wreck while others further back had derailed and overturned on a stretch of tracks cutting through rice fields in West Java province. All four deaths reported so far involved the train crew.
Lima (AFP) – With a total of 1,879 species, Peru now has the world’s greatest diversity of bird species, according Peruvian authorities. The announcement is yet to be verified by the South American Classification Committee (SACC), affiliated with the International Ornithologists’ Union.
Seoul (AFP) – South Korea’s defence ministry says a North Korean artillery barrage near two border islands was a “provocative act” and urges it to stop, warning Seoul will take “appropriate measures” in response.
Wajima (Japan) (AFP) – A woman in her 80s is rescued from under rubble in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture on Thursday, following a major earthquake in Japan, which killed at least 92 and has left at least 242 missing.
Khan Yunis (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Lama Abu Jamous is 9 years old. In the face of Israeli bombardments and forced displacement, she has turned to social media to start documenting the conflict unfolding in the Gaza Strip. In a short amount of time, she has accumulated over half a million followers tuning into her videos from the besieged Palestinian territory.
Aire-sur-la-Lys (France) (AFP) – Aerial shots of the flooded town of Aire-sur-la-Lys in northern France. The floodwaters have begun to recede in the Pas-de-Calais department, which is still under a red weather warning, but many towns are still under water, two days after the start of a second episode of exceptional flooding in two months.
San Salvador (AFP) – El Salvador tears down the Reconciliation Monument, a symbol of the end of a bloody civil war that took place between 1980 and 1992, which President Nayib Bukele branded “unsightly” and an apology for pacts between the left and right. “It was a monument to corruption,” says Public Works Minister Romeo Rodriguez.
Yangon (AFP) – Leaving Yangon’s Insein prison by buses, thousands of prisoners are greeted by their loved ones after being granted amnesty. Over 9,000 prisoners will be freed, part of an annual release to mark the country’s Independence Day.
Tokyo (AFP) – Wreckage of a Japan Airlines plane that was engulfed in flames just after all 379 passengers and crew escaped. The airliner collided with a coast guard plane after landing at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on the evening of January 2. All but one of the six people on the smaller aircraft were killed.
Seoul (AFP) – South Korean opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, who was stabbed in the neck, is “recovering well” but still needs close monitoring to avoid complications, according to a Seoul National University Hospital doctor. Lee was surrounded by journalists in Busan on January 2 when a man pretending to be a supporter pushed through the crowd and stabbed him on the left side of his neck with a knife.
