At least eight people have been killed in the northern Philippines after an earthquake destroyed several buildings there, a local official said, adding that dozens could be trapped under the rubble.

The 6.0 magnitude tremor hit on Monday about 55 km NW of the Philippines capital Manila, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). Its focus is estimated to be 40km deep. The US Geological Survey (USGS) initially said the magnitude of the quake was 6.3 but later scaled it down to 6.1.

The province of Pampanga was the worst-hit one, its governor, Lilia Pineda told Reuters, adding that eight people died in the quake.

Three people were crushed when a building collapsed in the town of Porac, Pineda said. Two other victims, an elderly woman and her grandchild, were killed in a building collapse in the town of Lubao. She did not provide any details about three more victims, though.

Some 20 people were injured as a result of the disaster while dozens allegedly remain trapped under the rubble after a four-story building went down, crushing a supermarket located on the ground floor, the governor said.

“They can be heard crying in pain,” Pineda told Reuters by phone. “It won’t be easy to rescue them.”

The governor added that the tremor caused a blackout, hampering the response and rescue efforts in her province. The official said that the neighboring province of Zambales was affected as well, with reports of a church collapsing in the town of Castillejos.

In the capital, the train system was suspended after the quake to ensure that it was safe for operation, according to local media. However, no reports of damage emerged from Manila in the immediate aftermath.

Pampanga’s international airport at Clark, a former US military base, was closed following the quake, which damaged some buildings there, including the check-in areas. All flights to and from the airport were canceled.

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A bomb went off near a church in Sri Lanka as it was being defused, a witness has claimed. But local media say that it was a controlled explosion by police, following the horrific attacks that killed 290 people.

A van apparently blew up when a police unit tried to defuse the explosives after cordoning off the area.

Local media, however, reported that it was a controlled explosion near St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Colombo, and that the police cordoned off the area before detonating the device. Local reports suggested that there were no casualties.

Footage from the scene shows a white van parked in the middle of the road, before suddenly exploding.

In another video, officers in fatigues are creating a barrier around the van. A bomb-disposal unit, firefighters and news crews are also present. The van is later seen engulfed in flames, with no signs of casualties around it.

St. Anthony’s church is one of the three Christian places of worship attacked during a series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday. Four hotels and an apartment complex were also targeted that day. Another bomb was later discovered near the Colombo International Airport and defused.

Overall, 290 people were killed during the attacks, and hundreds more were injured. 

A total of 24 people were subsequently arrested in connection with the bombings, but so far no group has claimed responsibility. Some government officials said that the perpetrators were local Islamist extremists, aided by an “international network.”

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Sri Lankan police found 87 bomb detonators at the bus station in the nation’s largest city, following horrific bombings which killed 290 people on Easter Sunday.

The detonators were discovered on Monday at a private bus stand located in the Pettah neighborhood of Colombo, police said. The officers initially found just a dozen devices, but later retrieved 75 more while clearing the garbage heap.

Police launched an investigation into the incident. It is unclear whether the devices had anything to do with the multiple coordinated bombings which took place on Easter Sunday.

Suicide bombers set off explosives in several hotels and Catholic churches across the country, killing 290 and injuring hundreds more. An apartment complex was also hit. Another bomb was later discovered near Colombo International Airport and successfully defused.

A total of 24 people were arrested in connection with the attacks, but no group has claimed responsibility so far. Some government officials said that the perpetrators were local Islamist extremists aided by international groups.

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Israeli soldiers shot a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian teenager who was attempting to flee after being detained for suspected stone-throwing in the West Bank on Thursday.

The minor was detained by the Israeli forces after he had been shot, but was later evacuated by Palestinians to receive medical treatment at Beit Jala near Bethlehem. He appears to have been shot in the groin area.

A witness told Haaretz news agency that the boy is 15 years old.

Video taken at the scene shows Israeli soldiers clashing with a group of Palestinians as they attempted to help the wounded teen.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military said in a statement there had been “massive stone-throwing” near military forces and civilians and confirmed the incident with the teen “who tried to flee after his arrest” and who was “shot in the lower body.” The statement said the incident will be investigated.

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The US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher has wished Jews a happy Passover in Polish – then faced a backlash from Twitter users wondering if she might have forgotten that Poland is a Catholic-majority country.

The ambassador took to Twitter to wish Jews happy holidays on Friday, just as the Passover celebrations, marking the escape from Egypt, had begun. This year, Passover overlaps with the Holy Week observance by Roman Catholics – and the beginning of the Jewish holiday coincided with Christianity’s Good Friday – the day when Jesus Christ was crucified.

While Mosbacher followed her Passover post with a re-tweet of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s post on Good Friday, it did not save her from an angry backlash from Polish-speaking users. A legislator with the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, Krystyna Pawlowicz, was among those outraged, calling Mosbacher’s tweet a “provocation.”  Some wondered if Mosbacher thought she was actually an ambassador to Israel.

“You are not a US ambassador in Israel only in Poland,” one user said, adding that “Poland has been Catholic for 1,000 years.” 

Another user provided Mosbacher with a screenshot from Wikipedia, in an apparent attempt to enlighten the US envoy on Polish demographics.

While the figures from the free encyclopedia might be true, Poland had, for centuries, housed the majority of European Jews. The rapid decline of the Jewish population in the country occurred only in the 20th century – due to Nazi occupation and the Holocaust.

Many Poles, however, appreciated Mosbacher’s wishes and thanked her, while others rallied to her support, accusing her critics of anti-Semitism.

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Up to 35 foreigners were among 200 people killed in a series of explosions across in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

The number has been reported by AFP, citing a police official. Hospital sources have said the victims include American, British and Dutch citizens. Later, the local News First TV Channel reported that the list of foreigners killed in the blasts included citizens of Denmark, Japan and Morocco, as well as India and Pakistan.

Some earlier reports also suggested that at least two Chinese citizens and two Turks were among the victims. More than 400 people were injured by the blasts.

Six bombings struck three Christian churches and three luxury hotels in Sri Lanka during Easter Sunday religious services. They were followed by two additional explosions. Most of the targets were in or near the island’s commercial capital of Colombo, where one of the hotels is located around 200 meters from the prime minister’s residence.

Sri Lanka’s police chief reportedly received warning about possible bombing attacks by radical Islamist group NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama’ath) 10 days before Sunday’s blasts. According to an alert cited by AFP, the warning came from “a foreign intelligence agency.”

Sri Lanka has not seen violence on this scale since the end of the civil war against Tamil Tigers militants in 2009. However, there have been multiple reports of minority religious groups – including Christians, which constitute about 7 percent of the country’s worshipers, and Muslims, about 10 percent – being harassed and attacked by Buddhist monks.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the series of deadly explosions that rocked several Sri Lankan Catholic churches and five-star hotels on Sunday. The attacks claimed more than 150 lives.

“Strongly condemn the horrific blasts in Sri Lanka. There is no place for such barbarism in our region,” Modi wrote on Twitter, adding that India stands in solidarity with the Sri Lankan people.

The blasts happened in three packed Catholic churches just as worshipers were attending Easter Sunday Masses. Three luxury hotels were also targeted in what is believed to be a series of coordinated attacks. More than 150 people were killed during the blasts, and hundreds were injured, police say.

India and Sri Lanka enjoy strong historic and cultural ties. India is home to around 70 million Tamil people, while the island of Sri Lanka has a sizeable Tamil minority. In 1987-1990, India deployed a peacekeeping force in Sri Lanka during a long-lasting conflict between Tamil insurgents and the central government.

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Three churches and three hotels were hit by devastating bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Over 160 people were reportedly killed in the blast.

The churches are located in three locations on different sides of the island: St. Anthony’s Church in its commercial capital Colombo and St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo on the western coast, and the Zion Church in Batticaloa in the east.

The explosions hit as Easter Sunday services were being held, with over 50 people killed in St. Sebastian’s alone, according to a police official cited by Reuters. Over 25 people were reportedly killed in Batticaloa.

All three hotels are located in Colombo, one of them – Cinnamon Grand – about 200 meters from the prime minister’s residence, and the other two not much further away.

Foreign tourists are reportedly among the victims. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has condemned the bombings as “cowardly attacks.”

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A new explosion has been reported in Sri Lanka, following six blasts in churches and hotels earlier on Sunday, according to police. It hit in the Dehiwala suburb of Colombo, killing two people.

The seventh explosion took place near a zoo, a police official told Reuters.

At least 156 people were killed and some 400 injured in the six explosions that struck places of Christian worship and high-end hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. The targets, three churches and three hotels, were mostly concentrated in and around the commercial capital Colombo, except for one church located on the opposite side of the island in Batticaloa. No group has claimed responsibility so far.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the bombing attacks on Christian churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, which happened during the celebration of Easter.

Erdogan offered Turkey’s condolences to the families of victims and a speedy recovery to the hundreds of people who were injured by Sunday’s bombings.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu compared the attacks to the recent shooting in New Zealand, in which a white nationalist gunned downed 50 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch.

An increasing number of international officials have joined in condemning the bloodiest act of violence that Sri Lanka has since the end of its civil war a decade ago. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which claimed over 150 lives and resulted in the hospitalization of at least 400.

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