The blaze almost completely destroyed the resort, which is located on the country’s southeastern coast and is a popular destination for visitors from the United States and other countries.

The Dominican Republic’s Emergency Operations Center said approximately 1,690 tourists were evacuated from the resort and relocated to other hotels and nearby housing facilities as emergency crews responded to the fire.

Local media reported that an Italian tourist died in the incident and that several other tourists required medical assistance. Authorities had not immediately released further details regarding casualties.

Officials said the cause of the fire remained under investigation. The Emergency Operations Center said preliminary assessments indicated that strong winds and sections of thatched roofing contributed to the rapid spread of the blaze across the property.

The fire prompted a large-scale emergency response as authorities worked to secure the area and accommodate displaced guests.

Viva Wyndham’s nearby Dominicus Palace resort was not affected by the fire and continued normal operations, according to the Emergency Operations Center.

The Dominican Republic is one of the Caribbean’s leading tourism destinations, with resort developments along its coast forming a key pillar of the country’s economy.

The quake triggered strong shaking that lasted more than a minute in Palu, a coastal city of around 400,000 people and the capital of Central Sulawesi province, sending residents and hospital staff into open areas as a precaution.

Hospitals evacuated patients, including some still attached to IV drips, while several buildings sustained visible damage including collapsed roofs, cracked walls and debris scattered across streets, according to accounts from the affected area.

Several aftershocks followed the main tremor, including one measured at magnitude 5.2, prompting continued caution among residents who moved away from buildings and coastal zones amid concerns about possible secondary effects.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said there was no tsunami threat following the quake but warned that aftershocks could continue in the region.

The US Geological Survey reported that the earthquake was centered about 43 kilometers east-southeast of Palu at a depth of approximately 10 kilometers, indicating a shallow quake consistent with strong surface shaking.

Local residents described intense tremors and expressed fear due to past disasters, including the 2018 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Palu and surrounding areas, killing more than 4,000 people.

Authorities said assessments of damage and potential casualties were still underway as emergency response teams monitored affected areas and continued safety checks.

The blaze erupted at about 5 a.m. on the third floor of a residential apartment block in Magaluf, a popular holiday destination on the southwestern coast of Mallorca, according to Spain’s Civil Guard.

Residents initially attempted to extinguish the fire before emergency services arrived, but the flames spread rapidly through the building, particularly to the upper floors. More than a dozen occupants were evacuated as firefighters worked to contain the blaze.

Emergency crews brought the fire under control and extinguished it approximately two hours after it began.

Nine people were transported to medical facilities for treatment related to smoke inhalation, a Civil Guard spokesperson said.

Authorities identified one of the victims as a 58-year-old Argentine national. The second victim was a woman whose identity had not yet been established. Officials said the two were found in separate apartments within the building.

Investigators have opened an inquiry to determine the cause of the fire.

The incident occurred in Magaluf, one of Mallorca’s best-known beach and nightlife destinations, particularly popular among British and German tourists. The resort is located in the municipality of Calvià, about 22 kilometers west of Palma, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands.

Local authorities declared two days of mourning following the tragedy as emergency services and investigators continued work at the scene.

The men were among seven villagers trapped in a semi-submerged cave in central Xaysomboun province on May 20 when flash floods blocked the exit. The group had entered the cave while hunting bats and searching for gold in former mining areas.

Five survivors were located alive a week later. One was rescued on May 29, while four others were guided out the following day after rescuers pumped water from the cavern.

Malaysian cave diver Lee Kian Lie, who joined the operation, said unstable conditions near the cave entrance and the increasing danger to rescue personnel forced authorities to halt the search.

“We were so close,” Lee told AFP, adding that the cave had become too hazardous for divers despite improved water levels.

Thai rescue coordinator Kengkad Bongkawong said no further entries into the cave would be permitted because of the risks posed by flooding and unstable structures. Water-pumping operations, however, will continue outside the cave.

Rescuers had stocked food and survival supplies at various points inside the cave in the hope that the missing men might still be alive.Heavy rainfall forecast for the coming days further complicated rescue efforts.

International cave specialists from Malaysia, Finland and Japan participated in the operation, which rescuers described as one of the most challenging cave missions in recent years.

Officials halted rescue operations on Monday evening following assessments by emergency crews using life-detection equipment at the site of a building under construction that collapsed at dawn on Sunday in Angeles City, north of Manila. Recovery teams on Tuesday focused on retrieving remains from the debris field.

At least four people have been confirmed dead, including a Malaysian national whose body was recovered from a neighboring hotel struck by the collapse. Sixteen others, most of them construction workers, remain unaccounted for, according to authorities.

The tragedy has left families waiting anxiously for news. Lea Casilao said she feared her husband, Joselito, was among those trapped after he spent Saturday night at the workers’ barracks near the construction site. The couple had exchanged messages until the evening before the collapse, but his customary morning response never arrived.

Casilao said she went directly to the site after being unable to contact him and found a scene of twisted steel, shattered concrete and collapsed scaffolding. Speaking from a temporary shelter near the disaster zone, she said her hopes of finding her husband alive had disappeared after rescue operations were called off.
Emergency officials acknowledged the anguish facing families as the mission transitioned from rescue to recovery. Maria Leah Sajili, an information officer with the regional Bureau of Fire Protection, said rescuers had exhausted all available measures to locate survivors before concluding that no signs of life remained beneath the wreckage.

Among those confirmed dead was the father of 19-year-old Evelyn Alicaway. She said she recognized him in footage circulating on social media showing rescuers attempting to recover victims from the debris. Alicaway spoke at her father’s funeral, describing the emotional toll of identifying him through the images.

The collapse has also intensified scrutiny of the project’s compliance with construction regulations. Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident and whether the development exceeded the conditions of its approved permit.
Investigators are examining reports that the building had authorization for nine stories, while a swimming pool was being constructed on a tenth floor at the time of the collapse.

Records show that the Philippine labor agency suspended work at the site in September 2025 over safety violations. The stop-work order was lifted a month later after the company was deemed to have complied with regulatory requirements.

Relatives of the victims have called on the project’s owners to cooperate with authorities and provide assistance to affected families as investigations continue.

Rescuers worked by hand amid intense heat to clear debris from the collapsed structure, located about 80 kilometers north of Manila, avoiding the use of heavy machinery because of concerns that further movement of the wreckage could endanger any survivors trapped beneath the rubble.

Search operations intensified after overnight thermal scans detected signs consistent with heartbeats and breathing under the debris. K9 units were deployed while rescue workers inserted flexible tubes into voids within the wreckage to channel air into potential survival pockets beneath collapsed concrete, twisted metal and scaffolding.

Families gathered near the disaster site expressed frustration over the lack of information about missing relatives. Lea Casilao, whose husband is believed to be trapped beneath the rubble, said she had received no confirmation of his condition as rescue efforts continued.

Officials said the confirmed death toll rose to four after rescuers recovered a third body from the site. Maria Leah Sajili, information officer for the regional Bureau of Fire Protection, said one victim recovered earlier had initially shown signs of life but later died, while another suffered cardiac arrest while still trapped beneath the debris.

Authorities warned that additional victims could remain buried under the collapsed structure.
Among the fatalities was a 65-year-old Malaysian national whose body was recovered on Sunday from a neighboring hotel building that was also affected by the collapse, officials said.

Government agencies have opened an investigation into the incident and are seeking to locate the building owner to determine the circumstances surrounding the collapse and establish how many workers were present at the site when the structure failed.

Planning records showed the project had been approved as a nine-story condominium-hotel development. Authorities said, however, that construction work was underway on a swimming pool located on an additional 10th floor at the time of the collapse.

Geraldine Panlilio, regional director of the Department of Labour and Employment, told DZMM radio that the agency had issued a work stoppage order in September 2025 after inspectors identified multiple occupational health and safety violations at the site. The order was lifted one month later after the construction company complied with regulatory requirements.

The collapse has renewed scrutiny of construction safety oversight in the Philippines as investigators examine whether regulatory, structural or operational factors contributed to the failure of the multi-story building.

Mount Dukono, located on Halmahera island in eastern Indonesia, erupted on Friday morning, sending volcanic ash as high as 10 kilometers into the atmosphere, according to Indonesia’s volcanology authorities.

Local police said the victims included two Singaporean nationals and one Indonesian hiker who were inside a restricted exclusion zone near the crater when the eruption occurred. Indonesia’s search and rescue agency has continued to classify the three as missing while recovery efforts remain underway.Seventeen other climbers, including additional Singaporean nationals, were evacuated safely from the mountain on Friday.

The search operation was temporarily suspended late Friday because of continued eruptions and unstable conditions around the crater area. Authorities resumed the mission on Saturday with more than 100 personnel, including police officers, soldiers and drone operators.“We are racing in this search.

When the situation and condition is safe, we will approach the crater, and when an eruption occurs, we must secure all search personnel,” rescue official Iwan Ramdani said in a statement recorded near the Dukono monitoring station in Mamuya village.

Indonesia’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said the volcano erupted several more times on Saturday, including one blast that produced an ash column reaching around three kilometers above the summit.

National disaster mitigation agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said preliminary information indicated the bodies of the two Singaporean hikers were located approximately 20 to 30 meters from the crater rim. The location of the Indonesian hiker remained unknown.

Singapore’s foreign ministry said it was coordinating with its embassy in Jakarta to assist affected citizens and their families, according to local media reports.Authorities said the hikers had entered an area subject to a four-kilometer exclusion zone imposed around the crater since December 2024.

The restriction remains in place because of persistent volcanic activity at Mount Dukono, one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes.The volcano has remained at level two on Indonesia’s four-tier alert system since 2008. Officials said warning signs and public advisories had instructed visitors to avoid the restricted zone.

Indonesia sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region of intense seismic and volcanic activity caused by shifting tectonic plates. The archipelago has nearly 130 active volcanoes and experiences frequent eruptions and earthquakes.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the incident occurred before nightfall on Saturday when accumulated lava on the volcano’s southwestern slope gave way, sending an avalanche of hot rocks, ash and gas downslope.

The agency’s director, Teresito Bacolcol, said the volcano has been exhibiting mild eruptive activity intermittently since January but emphasized that no explosive eruption had taken place.Authorities reported no casualties, though ash clouds spread across 87 villages in three towns, reducing visibility to near zero in some areas and disrupting road movement.

Caloy Baldo, mayor of Camalig, said residents were caught off guard by the density of the ashfall, which he described as severe enough to halt traffic along national roads.Local officials said agricultural losses were reported, particularly in vegetable farms, while livestock deaths included four water buffaloes and one cow.

Cleanup operations were underway in affected communities, including Camalig, which has a population of about 8,000 people.The volcano, rising 2,462 meters and known for its near-symmetrical cone, is among the Philippines’ most active and closely monitored.

Authorities had raised its alert status to Level 3 in January, indicating heightened unrest with potential for hazardous eruptions, including rockfalls and pyroclastic flows.Bacolcol said conditions had stabilized as of Monday but warned that the threat of further activity remained, noting that the volcano’s behavior continues to require close monitoring under the current alert level.

Authorities said the fires had spread across 1,373 hectares (3,393 acres) by early Sunday, a 7% increase from the previous day, with dry weather and strong winds hampering containment efforts.The blazes are advancing toward neighborhoods in Otsuchi, a Pacific coastal town still marked by the devastation of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which killed nearly a tenth of its population.

Evacuation orders remain in place for 1,541 households, affecting 3,233 residents roughly one-third of the town’s population.“Although the Self-Defense Forces are fighting the fires from the sky with helicopters, the dry weather and winds are helping the fires expand,” Otsuchi Mayor Kozo Hirano told a press conference.

Military helicopters continued aerial water drops over forested mountain areas on Sunday as emergency crews worked to prevent the flames from reaching homes and critical infrastructure.Residents watching the smoke spread expressed concern over the scale of possible destruction.

“A fire burns everything down. With a tsunami, you might have something left after the destruction,” said 74-year-old Yoshinori Komatsu as he watched helicopters dump water over the hills in the distance.

So far, only one minor injury has been reported a person who fell at an evacuation center, according to Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency.The Japan Meteorological Agency said no rainfall is expected in the region on Sunday or Monday, though a brief shower is forecast for Tuesday, offering limited hope for natural relief.

Officials said the cause of the fires remains under investigation.Japan has faced increasing wildfire risks in recent years, particularly during dry seasonal periods, with mountainous terrain and strong coastal winds often complicating firefighting operations.

The current fires represent one of the most serious wildfire threats to northern Japan this year, placing renewed pressure on local emergency services and evacuation systems.

The quake hit at 8:42 p.m. local time (1612 GMT) at a depth of 186 km, with its epicentre in Badakhshan Province, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Afghanistan’s health ministry said the fatalities occurred in the Gosfand Dara area of Kabul Province, where a single family was buried under the impact of the tremor. “Eight members of a family died as a result of the earthquake,” ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said in a statement.

He added that a child, estimated to be around two years old, survived but was injured. The country’s disaster management agency confirmed the child had sustained injuries during the incident.

Journalists reported that the tremors were felt in Kabul and other parts of the country, though no immediate wider casualty figures were released.

Afghanistan lies along the seismically active Hindu Kush region, where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates converge, making earthquakes a frequent occurrence.

The latest quake follows a series of deadly seismic events in recent years, including an August tremor that killed more than 2,200 people in eastern Afghanistan after devastating remote mountain communities.