Bus crash kills 29 in northern India

Policemen and onlookers stand next to a damaged passenger bus after it fell into a drain on the outskirts of Agra, India, on Monday. At least 29 people were killed in the accident. The bus was carrying about 50 people and traveling to the Indian capital, Delhi. Reports said that the driver fell asleep and lost control of the double-decker bus before it went off a highway and plunged into a drain below.SD-Agencies

Financier Jeffrey Epstein in court over sex charges

Wealthy financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was in court on Monday following an arrest in New York on new sex-trafficking* charges involving allegations that date to the early 2000s, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.

Epstein, a wealthy hedge fund manager who once counted as friends former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Great Britain’s Prince Andrew, and U.S. President Donald Trump, was taken into federal custody on Saturday and appeared in Manhattan federal court on Monday, U.S. media reported

Epstein is accused of paying underage girls for massages and molesting* them at his homes in Florida and New York.

23 hurt in Florida shopping center blast

U.S. authorities suspect a gas leak as the cause of an explosion on Saturday morning at a Plantation shopping center that injured 23 people.

Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with the Broward Sheriff’s bomb squad, were investigating. Posts on social media reported the blast was heard more than 9.6 kilometers to the west near Weston to about 6.4 kilometers to the east near the turnpike.

Von der Leyen named EU Commission chief

Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s defense minister and fellow conservative party member, was nominated by European Union leaders to become the bloc’s next chief executive after a brutal final round of weeks of horsetrading*.

The council will also propose IMF chief Christine Lagarde to head the European Central Bank and Charles Michel as president of the European Council. Spain’s Josep Borrell Fontelles will be foreign policy chief.

Airstrike hits detention center, killing 44 migrants

An airstrike hit a detention center for migrants near the Libyan capital on July 3, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 130, the U.N. mission to the war-torn country said.

The airstrike raises further concerns about the European Union’s policy of partnering with Libyan militias to prevent migrants from crossing the Mediterranean.

Iran to exceed uranium enrichment cap

Iran said on Sunday it was set to breach* the uranium enrichment* cap set by an endangered nuclear deal within hours as it seeks to press signatories* into keeping their side of the bargain.

The Islamic republic also threatened to abandon more commitments unless a solution is found with parties to the landmark 2015 agreement.

The move to start enriching uranium above the agreed maximum purification level of 3.67 percent comes despite opposition from the European Union and the United States, which has quit the deal.

(SD-Agencies)