World Today: Myanmar explosion kills over 45 people

A blast in Myanmar killed 45 people, reportedly due to explosives stored at a mine, according to rescue officials and independent media reports. Around 70 others were injured in the midday explosion in Kaungtup village, Namhkam township. The area, located three kilometres south of the Chinese border, is controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed group engaged in sporadic clashes with Myanmar’s central government. A rescue official told the Associated Press that 46 bodies, including six children, were found on Sunday and have since been cremated. Brazilian health authorities are monitoring two suspected Ebola cases in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Last weekend, São Paulo’s government said a 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ‘exhibited fever-like symptoms and met the definition of a suspected Ebola case’. Although initial tests did not detect the Ebola virus, he is being monitored and isolated as a precaution at a specialised infectious disease facility. Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro’s health department activated safety protocols after a man from Uganda displayed ‘viral symptoms including coughing, chills, and diarrhoea’. Three people have reportedly died since the East Montana Camp opened on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas, nine months ago. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups have filed a lawsuit on behalf of four detainees at the desert facility, established under former US President Donald Trump’s mass deportation strategy. The lawsuit accuses the camp’s operator, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and its parent agency, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The ACLU stated the lawsuit aims to improve conditions for over 2,700 detainees. A DHS spokesperson denied the claims of inhumane conditions at the camp. Unauthorised fireworks were ignited by a traffic police officer during a late-night parade rehearsal in Rome. The explosions caused ceremonial horses—some ridden and some led by hand—to panic during preparations for Italy’s Republic Day parade last weekend. Around 35 horses fled onto the busy Via Cristoforo Colombo, captured by drivers. Several riders were thrown from their horses, including a 22-year-old soldier with a punctured lung from a rib fracture, though his condition is not life-threatening. Police reported around 15 horses were injured, but none required euthanasia.