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Thousands in Papua New Guinea have been ordered to evacuate from the path of a landslide that killed at least 670 people, as fears grow of a second major rockfall.

Officials from the Pacific country said the chance of finding survivors under the rubble in Yambali is slim, after previously saying they believe more than 2,000 people were buried alive.

Enga province disaster committee chairperson Sandis Tsaka explained the area “is very unstable”, hindering relief efforts for those hit by Friday’s landslide.

Military convoys have also had to escort aid teams over unrest among survivors. Meanwhile, the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) previously estimated 670 villagers died.

On Tuesday afternoon, the UN said six bodies have already been retrieved from the rubble, and an estimated 7,849 people have been displaced.

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Rescue ongoing after deadly landslide

‘Another landslide can happen’

Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the IOM’s mission in Papua New Guinea, said on Tuesday his agency is hearing “that another landslide can happen and maybe 8,000 people need to be evacuated”.

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“This is a major concern,” he added. “The movement of the land and the debris is causing a serious risk, and overall, the total number of people that may be affected might be 6,000 or more.

“If this debris mass is not stopped, if it continues moving, it can gain speed and further wipe out other communities and villages further down.”

The landslide occurred after a limestone mountainside sheared away at around 3am (6pm in the UK) on Friday.

Boulders, loose earth and splintered trees were then washed down into Yambali by rainfall trapped between the debris and ground.

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Pic: AP

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Pic: AP

Fears of disease outbreak

Footage posted on social media showed locals pulling out people from beneath the rubble and searching through mud, which Mr Aktoprak warned could lead to an outbreak of diseases in the village.

“My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are decaying… water is flowing and this is going to pose serious health risks in relation to contagious diseases,” he said.

Mr Aktoprak separately told Sky News on Tuesday morning that “rocks are continuing to fall” in Papua New Guinea and added: “The land mass debris is moving towards lower areas.

“And to make [the] situation worse, water has been flowing between the soil on which the mass debris had landed for days.

“Now the water levels – as reported by my colleagues – are rising to the upper levels of the debris, making it difficult.”

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Pic: Reuters / UNDP

Aid bridge collapses

It comes as a UN official said a bridge, part of the main route for delivering aid to Yambali, collapsed on Tuesday.

Itayi Viriri, regional spokesperson for the IOM, said the collapse has cut off Enga province from the main highway, forcing heavy equipment to take a longer route through the rough terrain.

“The conditions are very, very difficult,” he added. “In some parts, the land is still moving.”

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He added teams are working to prevent “another disaster” and told a UN briefing in Geneva: “We still have water underneath the rubble so that is making the whole area quite uneven. It ensures all response efforts have to be done in a very careful manner.”

Australia has also announced an initial aid package of $2.5m (£1.3m) and sent a disaster response team to Yambali, which was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.

Papua New Guinea is a developing Pacific nation comprising mostly subsistence farmers, with over 800 languages spoken.

Some 85% of its 10 million population live in rural areas.

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Ukraine and NATO to hold emergency talks as Russia vows to increase production of ‘unstoppable’ missile

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Ukraine and NATO to hold emergency talks as Russia vows to increase production of 'unstoppable' missile

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks on Tuesday after Vladimir Putin said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

Ukraine‘s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following a Russian strike on Thursday on a military facility in Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the attack – carried out with an intermediate-range Oreshnik missile – was in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

“No one in the world has such weapons,” the Russian president said. “Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

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General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

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Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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Israel hits central Beirut with series of airstrikes – reports

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Israel hits central Beirut with series of airstrikes - reports

Israel has targeted central Beirut with at least four airstrikes, according to security sources cited by Reuters news agency.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

It is not immediately clear how many have been killed or injured and the Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack, the fourth targeting the centre this week.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time) and came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs, which Israel had warned residents of in advance.

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Pic: AP

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end the more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the Gaza war.

Read more:
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Woman who accused Conor McGregor of rape wins civil assault case – and is awarded damages

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Woman who accused Conor McGregor of rape wins civil assault case - and is awarded damages

A woman who accused Conor McGregor of raping her has said “justice has been served” after she won her civil case against the Irish mixed martial arts fighter.

Nikita Hand has been awarded €248,603 (£206,000) in damages after a jury at Dublin’s High Court found McGregor assaulted her in a Dublin hotel in 2018.

McGregor, 36, made no comment as he swiftly left court following the decision on Friday evening.

He later said in a statement that he had instructed his legal team to appeal the civil court’s decision, adding he was “disappointed that the jury did not hear all the evidence that the director of public prosecutions reviewed”.

He ended the statement saying: “I am with my family, focused on my future.”

McGregor had previously told the court he had consensual sex with Ms Hand in a penthouse at the Beacon Hotel in December 2018.

‘No matter who the person is, justice will be served’

Speaking outside court after the decision, an emotional Ms Hand said the last two weeks of her civil case against the fighter have been a “nightmare” and has impacted not only her life but her daughter’s, friends and loved ones.

“I would like to start off by saying I’m overwhelmed and touched by the support I have received from everybody,” the mother-of-one said.

“It’s something that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.

“Now that justice has been served, I can now try and move on and look forward to the future with my family and friends and daughter.”

Ms Hand continued: “I hope my story is a reminder that no matter how afraid you might be: Speak up, you have a voice and keep on fighting for justice.

“You can stand up for yourself if something happens to you – no matter who the person is – and justice will be served.”

Ms Hand told the civil court McGregor pinned her to a bed, choked her three times and “brutally raped and battered” her.

The jury was told she was left with extensive injuries, including purple and blue bruising along her hands and wrists, a bloodied scratch to her breast and tenderness to her neck.

McGregor no longer known for just his sporting abilities

There was not an inch to move in this tiny civil courtroom in centre Dublin.

The jury sat for six hours and 10 minutes, determining the future of one of Ireland’s biggest stars.

You could cut the tension with a knife.

McGregor sat stoney faced taking intermittent, deep heavy breaths as the clerk of the court declared the jury had reached their decision.

The judge sternly told the public gallery he would “jail” anyone who caused a scene when the news came out.

It was a sign of the high stakes in this case.

Within 40 seconds, the judge read out the news that McGregor was dreading, and Nikita Hand was determined to get.

“Did Conor McGregor assault Nikita Hand?”

“Yes” came the reply.

The blood drained from McGregor’s face. His head in his hands.

As the MMA star stepped out of court, he entered a new era. He walked straight to his Bentley, ignoring questions from reporters about whether he feels remorse.

He is no longer just a household name for his sporting abilities.

But lawyers for the fighter contested the lawsuit and accused her of attempted “extortion”.

They pointed to CCTV footage of Ms Hand arriving at and leaving the hotel with McGregor and a second man, James Lawrence, whom she also accused of assault.

Both McGregor and Lawrence denied any wrongdoing. While Ms Hand won her case against McGregor, she lost her claim against Lawrence.

On Monday, McGregor’s legal team told jurors it did not matter if they did not like or even loathed the famous fighter, urging them to look at the evidence and not his character.

McGregor and Ms Hand knew each other and had occasionally been in contact on social media, the civil trial heard.

Before the assault, Ms Hand had contacted the fighter, who picked up her and a friend in his car.

McGregor “came on to her”, but she did not want to have sexual intercourse with him as she was on her period, the court heard.

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