Soccer Star Threatens to Kill Himself on Bridge

A suicidal player at French football club Nice who threatened to throw himself off the Magnan Bridge is reportedly now out of danger.

French news outlets RMC Sport and Nice-Matin reported the footballer has been taken to safety by firefighters after several hours of negotiations.

Police officers and a psychologist from the Ligue 1 club were also involved in helping the player on Friday morning.

Nice-Matin reported the young player was suicidal following a break-up, though this has been denied by his representatives.

BFMTV said the footballer stood on the 100 metre high Magnan viaduct, located on the A8 motorway to the north-west of the city of Nice.   

The player reportedly pulled up by the side of the road and threatened to jump off. 

The club cancelled its press conference with coach Francesco Farioli scheduled for Friday with ‘crisis talks’ going on behind the scenes. 

French outlet Instant Foot quoted the player’s agent, saying: ‘The stories about the romantic break-up are false. This has absolutely nothing to do with it and is out of context.’ 

Nice are currently second in the French top division table and have a home fixture at the Allianz Riviera against the leaders Brest on Sunday. 

Their manager Eric Roy, giving a press conference on Friday ahead of the game, said: ‘I would like to give, as well as the entire club, my support to Nice with regard to the current events.

‘I am hoping that it ends as well as possible. My heart goes out to them.’ 

Reports said a 6km traffic jam had formed as a result of the incident with traffic restricted on this important route. 

More Than 100 Dead After Fire Breaks Out at Wedding Party (Video)

At least 100 people were killed and over 200 were injured in a fire at a wedding celebration in the district of Hamdaniya in Iraq’s Nineveh province, Iraqi state media said early on Wednesday.

The fire ripped through a large events hall in the north-eastern region of the country after fireworks were lit during the celebration, local civil defence said, according to state media.

Civil defense officials quoted by the Iraqi News Agency described the wedding hall’s exterior as being decorated with highly flammable cladding that were illegal in the country. 

Najim al-Jubouri, the provincial governor of Nineveh, said some of the injured had been transferred to regional hospitals. He cautioned there were no final casualty figures yet from the blaze, which suggests the death toll still may rise. 

Ambulances and medical crews were dispatched to the site by federal Iraqi authorities and authorities in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, according to official statements.

Television footage showed charred debris inside of the wedding hall as an man shouted at firefighters.

Health Ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr gave the casualty figure via the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

‘All efforts are being made to provide relief to those affected by the unfortunate accident,’ al-Badr said.

It wasn’t immediately clear why authorities in Iraq allowed the cladding to be used on the hall, though corruption and mismanagement remains endemic two decades after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

While some types of cladding can be made with fire-resistant material, experts say those that have caught fire at the wedding hall and elsewhere weren’t designed to meet stricter safety standards and often were put onto buildings without any breaks to slow or halt a possible blaze. 

That includes the 2017 Grenfell Fire in London that killed 72 people in the greatest loss of life in a fire on British soil since World War II, as well as multiple high-rise fires in the United Arab Emirates.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:

Original Article

125 Killed in Gas Station Explosion in Nagorno-Karabakh

At least 125 people were killed and hundreds were injured in an explosion at a crowded gas station in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region as thousands of ethnic Armenians rushed to flee into neighboring Armenia, the separatist territory’s authorities said Tuesday.

Some 28,000 people — about 23% of the region’s population — have fled across the border since Azerbaijan defeated separatists who have governed the breakaway region for about 30 years in a swift military operation last week, according to Armenia’s government.

Residents of Nagorno-Karabakh scrambled to flee as soon as Azerbaijan lifted a 10-month blockade on the region’s only road to Armenia. That blockade had caused severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel. While Azerbaijan has pledged to respect the rights of Armenians, many residents feared reprisals.

“I think we’re going to see the vast majority of people in Karabakh leaving for Armenia,” said Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Europe think tank. “They are being told to integrate into Azerbaijan, a country that they’ve never been part of, and most of them don’t even speak the language and are being told to dismantle their local institutions. That’s an offer that most people in Karabakh will not accept.”

The explosion took place as people lined up to fill their cars at a gas station outside Stepanakert, the region’s capital, late on Monday. The separatist government’s health department said that 13 bodies have been found and seven people have died of injuries from the blast. An additional 290 people have been hospitalized and scores of them remain in grave condition.

The cause of the blast remains unclear, but Nagorno-Karabakh presidential aide David Babayan said initial information suggested that it resulted from negligence, adding that sabotage was unlikely.

Armenia’s health ministry said a helicopter brought some blast victims to Armenia on Tuesday morning, and more flights were expected. The Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh also provided helicopters to carry victims to Armenia.

Armenian authorities also said that they brought 125 bodies over to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh for identification. The country’s Health Ministry clarified that all of those were killed in the fighting last week.

Azerbaijani presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said on X, formerly Twitter, that hospitals in Azerbaijan were ready to treat victims, but did not say if any had been taken there. Azerbaijan has sent in burn-treatment medicine and other humanitarian aid, he said.

Azerbaijan also said Tuesday that 30 metric tons (33 U.S. tons) of gasoline and 34 metric tons (37 U.S. tons) of diesel fuel were being sent into the region.

The Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces in a 24-hour blitz last week, forcing the separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and start talks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan.

Ethnic Armenians gather in hope to leave Nagorno-Karabakh region for Armenia in the center of Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023.The Armenian government said that more 6,500 Nagorno-Karabakh residents had fled to Armenia as of Monday evening. Moscow said that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh were assisting the evacuation. (AP Photo/Aspram Avanesyan)

Gasoline has been in short supply in Stepanakert for months, and the explosion further added to the shortages, compounding anxiety among many residents about whether they will be able drive the 35 kilometers (22 miles) to the border.

Cars bearing large loads on their roofs crowded the streets of Stepanakert, and residents stood or lay along sidewalks next to heaps of luggage.

Nagorno-Karabakh authorities asked residents to hold off on leaving in order to keep the road clear for emergency services and said buses would be provided for those who want to leave.

Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous region within Azerbaijan under the Soviet Union. Separatist sentiment grew in the USSR’s dying years and then flared into war. Nagorno-Karabakh came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, after a six-year separatist war that ended in 1994.

In another war in 2020, Azerbaijan took parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and completely reclaimed surrounding territory that it lost earlier. Under the armistice that ended the 2020 fighting, Russia deployed a peacekeeping force of about 2,000 to the region. Russia’s influence in the region has waned amid its war in Ukraine, emboldening Azerbaijan and its main ally, Turkey.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has blamed Moscow, the country’s main ally, of failing to prevent the hostilities, accusations the Kremlin has angrily rejected. The Russian Foreign Ministry retorted, denouncing Pashinyan’s statement as an “attempt to shift responsibility for failures in domestic and foreign policies onto Moscow” and part of efforts to take Armenia out of Russia’s orbit in favor of forging stronger ties with the West.

“The Armenian leadership is making a huge mistake by deliberately attempting to sever Armenia’s multifaceted and centuries-old ties with Russia, making the country a hostage to Western geopolitical games,” the ministry said in Monday’s statement.

It denied allegations that Moscow was fomenting the protests in Yerevan calling for Pashinyan’s ouster.

De Waal predicted that political infighting in Armenia would increase.

“We’re going to see unstable days in Armenia with various forces trying to get rid of Pashinyan and others on the contrary trying to defend him because they fear some kind of Russian-backed attempt to get rid of him,” he said.

Original Article

Passengers Stuck Upside Down on Amusement Park Ride (Video)

Theme park guests were left hanging after an upside-down ride became stuck for nearly half an hour on Saturday.

The tears of several of the dangling passengers rolled right back into their eyes as they hung from at the Lumberjack swinging axe ride in Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario around 10:40 p.m., the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.  

Horrifying social media footage shows the pendulum ride full of thrill-seekers stuck upwards at a 180-degree angle after a malfunction caused the ride to stop in its tracks.

Guests reported losing feeling in their feet as they dangled upside down above the popular amusement park, which had become “inverted,” according to the outlet.

The ride was brought down by 11:05 p.m., park officials told CBC.

When the ride suddenly came to a halt, Spencer Parkhouse, 11, and his 15-year-old sister Mackenzie Parkhouse, thought it was part of the experience.

But when ambulances arrived below them, they realized something terrible had happened.

“[I was] just like feeling — when are we going to drop down? Are we ever going to drop down?” Spencer told CBC.

While dangling, Spencer saw a panicked rider vomit while he and his sister both felt their legs go numb.

For Spencer, his first opportunity to experience a “big ride” at the park left him traumatized, as the ride had to finish once workers fixed it, instead of just allowing the guests to disembark.

“The ride had to still finish. So the ride kept going and we’re all like, ‘No, please, I don’t want to get stuck again,” he recalled. 

Mackenzie said once they were off the ride, the park staff checked guests for injuries and asked if anyone had passed out or thrown up.

“I’m just thinking, like next time I go to Canada’s Wonderland, am I going to go on these big rides? Because now I’m scared to go on them,” she said.

Two riders reported chest pain and were seen by the park’s health center before being released, the theme park said.

“Guests were unloaded safely and assessed by first aid staff before being released back into the park,” the park said in a statement.

“The safety of our guests is always our first priority.”

The Lumberjack ride opened in 2018 and features two axe-shaped pendulums that reach up to 75ft, according to Canada’s Wonderland.

Lumberjack’s “face-to-face seats let guests interact with one another and watch the terror on their friends’ faces as they loop round and round,” according to the park’s promotional material.

The ride was closed Sunday as park officials investigated what caused the malfunction.

Learn more in the video below:

‘Sleeping’ Woman, 73, on Flight Discovered to be DEAD

Passengers on board a British Airways flight were shocked after they discovered that a 73-year-old woman who was believed to be asleep during the trip, was discovered to be dead.

The woman remained still when the Thursday flight from London to Nice landed and passengers began to collect their carry-on luggage to get off the plane, French news outlet The Connexion reported.

Passengers then were alarmed to find that she was unresponsive after attempts to wake her up and alerted the flight crew, who called emergency services. 

Paramedics tried to revive her, but they were unsuccessful. She was pronounced dead around 10 p.m. local time that day. 

The woman is suspected to have died from a heart attack, according to Connexion.

British Airways confirmed to the Daily Mail that the elderly woman “passed away on a flight from Heathrow to Nice.” 

In a similar incident in June, a British man died on a flight from London to New York after he had an asthma attack and dropped his inhaler, according to the New York Post. He died after failed attempts by the flight crew to revive him.

Though in-flight deaths are not tracked by the FAA or publicly reported by airlines, they are not uncommon, according to an article by wealth management expert John M. Jennings. 

The New England Journal of Medicine released a 2013 study examining in-flight medical emergency calls from five domestic and international airlines between 2008 and 2010 and found that the medical call center received 11,920 calls over that period, including 36 reported deaths.

Huge Wave ‘Drags Child Out to Sea’ After Crashing into Beachfront Restaurant

Several people were injured, and a child was reportedly swept out to sea in South Africa after a freak wave crashed onshore and flooded a restaurant during an unusually high tide on Sunday.

Dramatic video shared by Jason Livingston showed the moment the rogue wave slammed into the restaurant at Marina Beach, with people scrambling to find a child who was reportedly washed away by the rushing water.

Livingston told Storyful that he was watching a rugby game when the wave crashed onshore.

“Patrons were washed around and some injured,” he told Storyful. “A child was washed into the sea with the backwash but was rescued by lifeguards.”

According to local reports, seven people were injured during the incident and five of them required hospitalization.

This incident was just one of several that have been reported in South Africa.

The TimesLive reports that another restaurant in Kalk Bay was also hit by a large wave causing extensive damage. No injuries were reported there.

And in Leentjiesklip, a 93-year-old woman was killed and another man was injured when a wave crashed into a parking lot.

The TimesLive reports that residents living near the coast have been warned to take extra precautions and to stay out of the water until conditions improve.

Watch the footage below:

Plane Carrying US Tourists Crashes Killing 14

Fourteen people on a small jet died when the plane crashed in Brazil’s northern Amazonas state on Saturday, the regional governor said.

The crash took place in Barcelos province, about 250 miles (400km) from the state capital, Manaus.

“I deeply regret the death of the 12 passengers and two crew members who were victims of the plane crash in Barcelos on Saturday,” the Amazonas governor, Wilson Lima, said on X.

“Our teams have been working from the outset to provide the necessary support. My sympathy and prayers go out to their families and friends.“

The Manaus Aerotáxi airline issued a statement confirming there had been an accident and that it was investigating, but it offered no details about deaths or injuries.

“We count on respect for the privacy of those involved at this difficult time and will be available to provide all necessary information and updates as the investigation progresses,” the statement said.

The Brazilian air force said in a statement that investigators from the Accident Investigation and Prevention Centre (CENIPA) had been called in to begin an investigation into the cause of the crash of the aircraft, an Embraer Bandeirante with the registration PT-SOG.

In an interview with O Globo newspaper, Lima said the bodies had already been removed from the aircraft and that the victims were Brazilian tourists.

He also said the most likely cause of the accident was an error in the approach to landing.

Watch the news clip below for more information:

Man Eaten by Piranhas After His Boat Crashes

A man has been eaten by piranhas after a boat crash on an Amazonian river.

Joney Jose Silva da Luz, 38, was driving a boat on the Cuiabá River in Barão de Melgaço, Brazil, at around 6 p.m. on Saturday, September, when the incident happened. His body was discovered the following morning.

Two vessels collided while carrying a total of five people. Three passengers were rescued alive while two people, including Silva da Luz, remained missing. His corpse was found with multiple bites from a shoal of piranhas in the river.

His ravaged remains were pulled out of the water and placed on one of the rescue boats. The victim’s wife was one of the three survivors. A passenger on the other vessel, named as Wagner Silva, still remains missing and is presumed dead.


The Brazilian Navy said they sent a search and rescue team to the location as soon as they learned of the accident. A spokesperson said: “An administrative procedure has been initiated to determine the cause, circumstances and responsibility of the incident.” As of 11 September, divers are still searching forMr Wagner’s body. Access to the area has been restricted by the authorities as the investigation continues.

In November 2021, a man was eaten by piranhas after jumping into a lake to escape a swarm of bees. The 30-year-old was fishing with two friends by the shoreline of a lake in Brazil when they were targeted by the insects.

All three jumped into the piranha-infested water but one of them was unable to get out and drowned. Specialist divers found his face, his ears and part of his body had lacerations left by the killer fish after recovering it around 13 feet from the shoreline.

Around 30 species of piranhas are said to inhabit South America’s lakes and rivers. They have one of the strongest bites found in bony fishes thanks to their large jaw muscles attached closely to the tip of the jaw.

Swimming near fishermen is said to increase the risk of attacks due to the commotion caused by the struggling fish and the presence of bait in the water. Nearly 200 piranha attacks, all involving single bites to the feet, were reported in the first half of 2007 in an artificial lake near the city of Palmas in central Brazil.

Original Article

British TV Host Skewered After Live Breaking News Blunder (Video)

A presenter on a conservative British TV station is taking flack after a disastrous attempt to deliver breaking news Saturday.

On Saturday (10 September), when news suddenly broke that escaped terror suspect Daniel Abed Khalife had been arrested, cameras cut to presenter Martin Daubney, who was in no way prepared.

Having to improvise on the spot without an autocue, Daubney, flustered, said: “First, it’s the news headlines… no it’s not – we’re going straight to me. This is breaking news – this is fast and happening.”

He then referred to the terrorist as “the terror man” and, growing increasingly more flustered, swore, stating: “F***, it’s all gone wrong.”

Attempting to prematurely throw things over to a guest booked to appear on the show, Daubney said: “Chip Chapman, we have him coming up soon on the arrest of the terror suspect. He escaped from Wandsworth Prison and he’s been apprehended.”

He also attempted to read from the autocue, but the words did not seem to be in order.

However, Daubney continued to stumble over his words, continuing: “We’ve got our first guest. Police have arrested prisoner Daniel Khalife, beg your pardon… This story is just happening.”

The errors didn’t stop there as Daubney then introduced the incorrect guest. |Joining me now for the latest is GB News Home Security Editor, Mark White, are you there, Mark?” he said, before correcting himself: “It’s Chip Chapman, we have Chip Chapman.”

The moment went viral on social media shortly after, with many lampooning Daubney and the channel for the error

Broadcaster Jamie East called the clip “f*** glorious”, adding: “Every second brings me unbridled joy. This channel has been on air for over two years. There is no excuse for being this abysmal anymore, not one.”

Watch the clip below:

Massive Great White Shark Attacks Diving Cage as Boat Crew Scream (Video)

This is the dramatic moment a huge great white shark sunk its teeth into a diving cage in South Africa.

The horrifying scene, which was captured by Ewan Wilson on a shark dive in Mossel Bay, shows the monster fish opening its jaws and repeatedly biting the metal cage.

Crew members can be heard shouting in the background, trying to get the shark to stop. “Luckily the animal left the cage and no divers or sharks were hurt,” Wilson said.

Another video, filmed by Ewan, shows another gigantic sharks slamming the bait into the side of a cage. The awesome clip also features a tourist who appears to be half in shock and half in awe at the great white breaching the surface just metres from her.

Shark baiting for tourist purposes has been criticized in the past by those who claim it alters the way sharks behave around people.

However, cage diving remains an astonishingly popular past time for travellers, particularly those in South Africa, and videos like prove just how magnificent these beasts are.

Earlier this year terrifying footage of the largest great white shark ever captured on camera has people vowing to never go in the world’s oceans again.

The predators are among the largest looking for prey in the seas and responsible for several attacks on humans every year, as they mistake swimmers for their usual food sources.

Great whites typically grow to around 16 feet in length but a video from 2015 caught one female on camera which was believed to top out at an awe-inspiring 20ft. Experts believe the shark, nicknamed Deep Blue, weighed more than 5,500lbs and was around 50-years-old.

One theory as to why the predator was so placid is that it had already fed on nearby whale carcasses. While some experts are sceptical as to whether the shark in the video was Deep Blue or a smaller female great white called Haole Girl.

Deep Blue appeared to continue with her friendly demeanor in Mexico where she was filmed calmly swimming around a shark cage and taking curious bites out of the frame.

Watch the video below:

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