PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic on Thursday ordered 63 more Russian diplomats to leave the country, further escalating a dispute between the two nations over the alleged involvement of Russian spies in a massive ammunition depot explosion in 2014.
Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said Russia won't be allowed to have more diplomats in Prague than the Czechs currently have at their embassy in Moscow. All others have to leave by the end of May, he said.
DETROIT (AP) — A driver in South Carolina is the latest person to be killed by an exploding Takata air bag inflator.
Honda said Wednesday that a faulty driver's air bag blew apart in a crash involving a 2002 Honda Accord in Lancaster County, South Carolina. The company wouldn't give details of the Jan. 9 crash near Charlotte, North Carolina, nor would it identify the person who was killed.
PRAGUE (AP) — The two Russian military agents believed to be behind a massive Czech depot explosion in 2014 likely targeted the ammunition, not the Czech Republic itself, the country's prime minister and prosecutor general said Monday.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said he didn’t consider the Russian action “an act of state terrorism” but said “the presence of GRU agents is absolutely unacceptable.”
DENVER (AP) — Two passengers who were aboard a United Airlines flight that had to make an emergency landing after one of its engines blew apart and sent debris raining down on Colorado neighborhoods sued the company Friday.
In separate lawsuits filed in Chicago, where United is based, Joseph McGinley of Honolulu and Jonathan Strawn of Sioux City, Iowa, say they have suffered personal, emotional and financial injuries following the failure of the Boeing 777's engine on Feb. 20.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Equipment from a marijuana grow in a Los Angeles home's garage may have caused an explosion that shattered the structures, trapping one man in the debris and sending another to the hospital with critical burn injuries, authorities said Monday.
MARSHALL, Mich. (AP) — An explosion possibly leaked to natural gas destroyed a house in southern Michigan on Monday and injured eight people, authorities said.
All were taken to hospitals, though three were released. The explosion and fire occurred overnight in Marshall, 15 miles east of Battle Creek. There were at least two children in the house.
“I’ve got to be honest: It was miraculous that all of them were able to get out,” Fire Chief Martin Esrkine said.
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP) — La Soufriere volcano fired an enormous amount of ash and hot gas early Monday in the biggest explosive eruption yet since volcanic activity began on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent late last week, with officials worried about the lives of those who have refused to evacuate.
Experts called it a “huge explosion” that generated pyroclastic flows down the volcano’s south and southwest flanks.
KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP) — People who ignored an initial warning to evacuate the area closest to a volcano on the eastern Caribbean island of St. Vincent raced to get clear Saturday, a day after it erupted with an explosion that shook the ground, spewed ash skyward and blanketed the island in a layer of fine volcanic rock.
BEIRUT (AP) — Representatives of several German companies on Friday outlined a multi-billion-dollar plan to rebuild the port of Beirut and surrounding neighborhoods that had been devastated by a massive explosion last year.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An explosion and fire rocked a paint manufacturer early Thursday in Ohio's capital, killing one person and injuring eight others.
Some of the injured were able to get out of the Yenkin-Majestic Paint plant in Columbus, authorities said. Others were rescued and taken to the hospital. All of them, including two initially listed as in critical condition, were stable by later Thursday.
ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) — A massive fireworks explosion that left two people dead in Southern California earlier this week caused at least $3.2 million worth of damage, officials said Friday.
Residents began returning to their homes Friday evening after evacuating when Tuesday’s blasts rained debris down over a wide area in the city of Ontario, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. About 80 homes were within the explosion's radius and dozens were damaged.
MOSCOW (AP) — An explosion in a residential building in a Moscow suburb killed three people and injured four more, emergency officials said.
The blast occurred in an apartment in the Moscow suburb of Khimki on Friday morning. It destroyed the ceilings between the two floors, shattered windows and damaged balconies of adjacent apartments.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man has been arrested days after explosive devices were detonated near a county building and a veterans post, causing “superficial damage,” according to police. An unexploded device had also been found near a local Baptist church while worshipers were inside last weekend.
Brevard police said in a news release that officers arrested Terry Lee Barham, 64, on Tuesday.
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Equatorial Guinea’s government has declared the coastal city of Bata an “area of catastrophe” saying it has activated urgent measures to help those affected by blasts Sunday that killed at least 105 people and injured 615 others.
The government declared three days of mourning beginning Wednesday. Investigations into the cause of the blasts have begun.
ROME (AP) — A particularly spectacular blast from Italy's Mount Etna volcano belched out a towering cloud of ash and lava stone Sunday onto Sicilian villages, the latest in a series of explosions since mid-February.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's top judicial body on Friday named a new judge to lead the investigation into last year's massive explosion at Beirut's port, officials said, a day after his predecessor was removed following legal challenges by senior officials he had accused of negligence that led to the blast.
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's highest court on Thursday decided to remove the chief prosecutor investigating last year's massive Beirut port explosion, following legal challenges by senior officials he had accused of negligence that led to the blast, a judicial official and the country’s official news agency said.
The Court of Cassation called for a new investigating judge to be appointed to lead the probe, nearly six months after it had started.
BEIRUT (AP) — Joana Dagher lay unconscious and hemorrhaging under a pile of rubble in her apartment after the massive Beirut port blast in August, on the brink of death.
She survived because of the courage of her husband who got her out, the kindness of a stranger who transported her in his damaged car and the help of her sisters during the chaos at the overwhelmed hospital.
BEIJING (AP) — Eleven workers trapped for two weeks inside a Chinese gold mine were brought safely to the surface on Sunday, a landmark achievement for an industry long-blighted by disasters and high death tolls.
State broadcaster CCTV showed workers being hauled up one-by-one in baskets on Sunday afternoon, their eyes shielded to protect them after so many days in darkness.