Author: CNN

CNN
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You’d be hard-pushed to call golf an extreme sport. It is a low-risk game played at a leisurely pace in mostly scenic, but ultimately ordinary, locales.

Emphasis on most, because in various pockets around the world – and in one instance, outside it – golf is taken to extremes.

Across these venues, the familiar rules of course design have been shredded; dress codes are exclusively nude, tee boxes require a helicopter journey to access, fairways sit on the rims of active volcanic craters, and water hazards are home to sharks and alligators.

“The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flagstick on top,” celebrated golf course designer Pete Dye once said. The following courses are a love-letter to that ethos.

Kantarat Golf Course, Bangkok, Thailand

Generally, golfers like it to be quiet when they swing. At professional events, stewards will hold up signs to instruct nearby spectators to be silent.

Unsurprising then, that no Tour events are hosted at Kantarat Golf Course in Bangkok, where players must periodically tune out the deafening roar of passenger airplanes touching down and taking off either side of them.

Situated between the two runways at Don Mueang International – Asia’s oldest active airport – the 18-hole, par-72 course was was built by the Royal Thai Air Force in 1952. It was the first golf course established in the Thai capital, and the second ever built in the country after Hua Hin Royal Golf Course.

A weekday round for visitors costs 300 Baht, according to the course’s website, a very reasonable $8.62 for those willing to weather the overhead distractions. Air Force personnel can play at the discounted price of 100 Baht – around $2.87.

Camp Bonifas Golf Course, South Korea

Described by Sports Illustrated in 1988 as “the most dangerous golf course in the world,” the course at Camp Bonifas – situated 200 yards south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides North and South Korea – is not a course at all: it is a single, 192-yard, par three hole.

US and South Korean service members stationed at the military post are welcomed to wind down with a venture down a fairway like no other – one bordered with barbed wire and military trenches, and ending with a green made of artificial turf.

At most golf courses, the signs to introduce each hole tend to just show the number and its yardage. Camp Bonifas’ sign follows the same formula, before adding a warning: “Danger! Do not retrieve balls from the rough. Live mine fields.”

A tongue-in-cheek joke? Not according to a 1998 Washington Post article, which said that at least one wayward ball had detonated a land mine.

Legend Golf and Safari Resort, Limpopo Province, South Africa

For 18 holes of South Africa’s Legend Golf course, each designed by a different pro golfer, players enjoy a visually stunning experience. At most venues, it would then be time to retire to the clubhouse. Here though, a helicopter awaits to escort you to what the course claims is the world’s longest par-three hole.

“The Extreme 19th” tee box sits 4,500 feet above sea level on the lip of a sheer cliff face on Hanglip Mountain, some 400 meters (434 yards) above, and 361 meters (395 yards) away from, a green shaped like the African continent. With most drives airborne for over half a minute, cameras and tracking technology are used to spot balls.

It is a challenge that has attracted some of the world’s top golfers and biggest celebrities, with actor Morgan Freeman one of an elite group to record par on the hole, according to South Africa’s official tourism site.

Former Barbados cricketer Franklyn Stephenson made history as the first to make birdie, but spare a thought for musician Phil Collins, who could only manage a double-bogey.

Fins and pins

Carbrook Golf Club, Queensland, Australia

Finding the water with your ball during your round could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. At Carbrook Golf Club in Australia, jaws might just snatch your ball.

Long believed to be a local legend, rumors of bull sharks in the water hazards at the Queensland-based course were proven to be true in 2011 when general manager Scott Wagstaff uploaded YouTube footage of a finned local circling just off the greens.

The arrival of the bull sharks – considered by many scientists to be the most aggressive shark species – is the result of heavy flooding during the mid-1990’s, Wagstaff told Golfing World in 2012. According to Wagstaff, the sharks entered the course’s lake after the nearby Logan River overflowed, and have remained there ever since.

Today, they have become a part of the course’s identity. The club’s logo features a shark, its youth program is coined the Junior Shark Academy, and the “Shark Lake Challenge” is staged as a monthly tournament.

Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia

Staging an annual golf tournament on the world’s deepest lake sounds like a recipe for lost balls, but organizers in Siberia have found an unlikely golfing ally: ice.

Every March, Lake Baikal stages the “Baikal Prize Open,” where contestants don coats and gloves to play golf on the water’s frozen surface. Balls are exclusively bright colors – red, orange, or yellow – to ensure they can be spotted amid the endless floor of snow and ice, and holes are made bigger.

In 2020, the lake hosted the World Ice Golf Championship, a tournament long held at Uummannaq in Greenland.

Fra Mauro formation, the moon

Granted, there is no official golf course on the moon, but as far as extreme golfing goes, Alan Shepard’s legendary exploits in February 1971 were out of this world.

Having snuck a modified club in his suit, the Apollo 14 astronaut hit arguably the most famous two shots in the history of the sport, and the only ones ever made on the lunar surface. He might have scuffed the first, and the second may only have traveled 40 yards – not the “miles and miles and miles” he initially claimed – but Shepard’s feats have long since resonated as one of the most iconic, human moments of NASA’s space missions.

Unaffected by wind or erosion, the balls remain frozen in time, unmoved for half a century. With the launch of Artemis I last month, humankind’s long-awaited return to the lunar surface edges closer, but the universe’s most exclusive golf club looks set to stay restricted for a while yet.

“Maybe one day we’ll have colonies on the moon and it’s like Stonehenge – we don’t want to be messing around in the Apollo landing sites,” NASA’s chief historian Brian Odom told CNN.

“I think they (the balls) are where they need to stay and we need to make sure they’re preserved as they were.”

The incredible true story of the time an astronaut played golf on the moon

Volcano Golf Course, Hawaii, USA

“Kīlauea ranks among the world’s most active volcanoes and may even top the list,” reads a US Geological Survey report. Sounds like a good site for a golf course.

Situated close to the crater rim of the island of Hawaii’s southeastern-most volcano, Volcano Golf Course brings a new meaning to “playing with fire.” Set 4,000 feet above sea level, the course offers golfers breathtaking views of Mauna Loa – the world’s largest active volcano – to the west and Mauna Kea to the north.

That proximity provided players with a front-row seat to the eruption of both Kilauea and Mauna Loa earlier this month. The eruption of Kilauea in 2018 caused devastating damage to hundreds of surrounding homes, but lava from an ongoing eruption that began in 2021 has been confined to the summit crater.

Kiawah Island Golf Resort, South Carolina, USA

As if taking on one of golf’s most notoriously difficult courses wasn’t daunting enough, players at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course must share the fairways with a crowd of sharp-toothed residents.

Host of the 1991 Ryder Cup and 2012 PGA Championship, the course welcomes an array of wildlife – including turtles, dolphins, and bobcats – but alligators typically steal the show. Be it swimming in the water hazards or basking in the South Carolina sunshine, the reptiles are naturally shy of people and require little management, resort official Bryan Hunter told CNN.

“Really, there’s not much to manage as long as people respect the alligators and don’t feed or harass them,” Hunter said, adding that anyone caught aggravating them is hit with a $2,000 fine.

“Feeding them is equally bad as they soon learn to associate people with food, which is not a good combination, obviously. So, really the key is to observe and appreciate them from a distance.

“They’re truly remarkable creatures, and play a vital role in the ecology of the island.”

Nullarbor Links, Australia

One hole down, just 17 more and 863 miles to go. At Nullarbor Links in Australia, the world’s longest golf course brings a new whole meaning to “the long game.”

Starting at Ceduna in the country’s west, players stop off at holes spread across nearby towns and roadhouses along the Eyre Highway before finishing up their round – often days later – in the western city of Kalgoorlie.

Taking on the challenge has become a bucket list item for golfers around the world. Each year the Nullarbor Links stages its “Chasing the Sun” tournament, traversing the entirety of the course.

La Jenny, Le Porge, France

A course in France has adopted a unique approach to the notorious problem of golf’s dress code: no dress at all.

Situated near Bordeaux in the country’s southwest, the La Jenny naturist holiday resort lays claim to the world’s only naturist golf course. Weather permitting, nudity is compulsory at the six-hole course.

As well as hosting tournaments and Pro-Am competitions, the course also offers visitors a driving range and golfing lessons, taught by a member of the PGA France, according to the resort’s website.

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) said one of its aid workers was seriously injured minutes before the deadly strikes on a WCK convoy that killed seven aid workers on April 1.

The Palestinian WCK staff member — named only as Amro by the organization — was “gravely injured” in a reported airstrike at the al-Bashir Mosque in Deir al-Balah, WCK said Wednesday. The strike occurred a mere 15 minutes before the aid convoy was first hit, according to the organization.

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on this claim by the WCK.

The aid worker suffered “serious head and hand injuries while he was off duty in a home close to the mosque in the area surrounding our warehouse and newly established kitchen in Deir al-Balah,” WCK said.

After being pulled from the rubble, he was taken to the same hospital where those killed in the deadly strike on the WCK convoy were brought, WCK said.

Both airstrikes occurred within miles of each other and were “flagrant reminders of the harrowing conditions humanitarian aid workers and Palestinian families continue to face every minute of every day,” the NGO said.

The aid organization said more than 400 Palestinians are employed by WCK, with thousands working as volunteers.

The aid worker injured in the April 1 strike owned a sweet shop until it was destroyed early in the war. Despite several opportunities to leave Gaza for Egypt, he chose to continue working for the organization, WCK said.

Democratic Senators are split on whether to apply new conditions on aid to Israel.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who supports conditions, warned the Biden administration’s policy needs to change in order to boost Democratic support for President Joe Biden in November. “I think the president simply needs to do what is the right policy, and that will send a message to people around the country that he is taking the right course. So in my view, this is a case where the right policies will produce the right politics.”

“He needs to use all the levers of US policy available to him. That includes many options, but one of them is withholding, at least for now, offensive military systems – not to prevent offensive military assistance from being sent at some point, but, again, to make sure the president can enforce his own words,” he said. 

Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin, who does not support conditions, said he believes the conditions will not help them accomplish their most immediate goal: getting humanitarian aid into Gaza. “We need to get the humanitarian assistance in, and I hope we can see some progress on it,” he said. “I don’t think conditionalities are the way to go.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, who has not committed to conditions but left the door open, said, “I think it’s fair, at some point, if we don’t see positive change, to make decisions on what kind of aid we’re providing, and what they could use it for it.”

He criticized Israel after World Central Kitchen aid workers were killed by Israeli strikes last week. “This is reckless action by the IDF. And the IDF’s gotta do a better job at this,” Kelly said. “I want to see how they’re going to make changes to this. They’ve got to make changes.”

CNN
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Here is a look at the life of Melania Trump, wife of 45th US President Donald Trump.

Birth date: April 26, 1970

Birth place: Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia)

Birth name: Melanija Knavs

Father: Viktor Knavs

Mother: Amalija (Ulcnik) Knavs

Marriage: Donald Trump (January 22, 2005-present)

Children: Barron

Education: University of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia)

Changed the spelling of her name from Melanija Knavs to Melania Knauss while modeling professionally.

Speaks six languages: Slovenian, French, Serbian, German, Italian and English.

She is the second foreign-born first lady in US history, after Louisa Adams, the English-born wife of sixth US president John Quincy Adams, who served from 1825 to 1829.

Became a model in Yugoslavia at the age of 16.

She has appeared in magazines such as GQ, Vanity Fair and Sports Illustrated.

1996 – Moves to the United States, heading to New York to work for ID Models.

1998 – Meets Trump at a party at the Kit Kat Club in New York.

2000 – Appears in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

March 19, 2001 – Obtains her green card.

July 2006 – Becomes a US citizen.

2010 – Launches her jewelry line, Melania Timepieces and Jewelry, on QVC.

April 2013 – Launches a caviar-based skincare line, Melania Caviar Complexe C6.

July 18, 2016 – Parts of her campaign speech during the 2016 Republican National Convention are alleged to have been plagiarized from a speech delivered by First Lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. A speechwriter working for Donald Trump’s company later assumes responsibility for the similarities in the two speeches.

September 1, 2016 – Files a defamation lawsuit against British newspaper The Daily Mail and the US-based blog Tarpley, accusing them of publishing claims that she was an escort in the 1990s. The Daily Mail and Tarpley both issue retractions.

November 3, 2016 – During a campaign speech in Philadelphia, Trump announces she intends to make ending social media bullying her focus as first lady.

November 20, 2016 – Donald Trump confirms he will live in the White House as president, but says Melania and their son, Barron, will remain in New York initially, so that Barron can finish out the year at the same school.

January 20, 2017 – Becomes first lady of the United States.

February 2, 2017 – A Maryland judge dismisses Trump’s defamation lawsuit against British newspaper The Daily Mail on jurisdictional grounds. Previously, it was ruled that Trump’s lawsuit against blogger Webster Griffin Tarpley will move forward.

February 6, 2017 – Trump’s lawyers refile the defamation lawsuit against British newspaper The Daily Mail. This time it is filed in the Supreme Court of New York where its publisher, Mail Media Inc., has offices.

February 7, 2017 – Trump’s defamation lawsuit against Tarpley is settled.

April 12, 2017 – Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Daily Mail and Mail Online is settled for $2.9 million.

September 23, 2017 – Trump arrives in Canada for her first solo foreign trip as first lady, traveling to Toronto to lead the US delegation to the Invictus Games. She meets with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Great Britain’s Prince Harry, before attending the opening ceremony of the Paralympic-style games.

March 20, 2018 – At a roundtable event with technology executives, Trump addresses those who have criticized her for taking on a platform that includes cyberbullying saying, “I have been criticized for my commitment to tackling this issue and I know that will continue. But it will not stop me from doing what I know is right.”

May 7, 2018 – Trump announces her formal platform during a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden. The initiative, called “Be Best,” focuses on well-being, combating opioid abuse and positivity on social media.

May 14, 2018 – Undergoes a procedure to treat a benign kidney condition, according to a White House statement.

June 6, 2018 – Makes her first public appearance after the kidney procedure, attending a hurricane season preparedness briefing.

June 17, 2018 – Issues a statement, via her spokeswoman, expressing concern about family separation at the border: “Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform. She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”

June 21, 2018 – Visits facilities in Texas that are housing children separated from their parents at the border.

August 9, 2018 – Trump’s parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, are granted US citizenship, according to their immigration attorney. They obtain their citizenship through the sponsorship of their adult daughter, one of the categories of family visas that the Trump administration has sought to end.

October 2-6, 2018 – Makes a solo trip abroad, visiting Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt on a tour of Africa.

January 26, 2019 – British magazine, The Telegraph, issues an apology to Trump for the article titled “The Mystery of Melania,” that included several inaccuracies about her life and her family.

March 5, 2020 – Receives criticism after she shares pictures on social media of the private White House tennis pavilion renovations amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

October 2, 2020 – Donald Trump announces that he and Melania have tested positive for coronavirus.

October 13, 2020 – The Justice Department files a lawsuit against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, an ex-friend and former adviser to Trump, claiming she breached a confidentiality agreement by publishing a tell-all book. The complaint asserts that neither the first lady, her chief of staff nor the White House counsel’s office received a draft of the book from Wolkoff and that the former adviser never sought authorization to disclose details of her work for the first lady. On February 8, 2021, the Justice Department drops the lawsuit.

December 16, 2021 – Trump announces she is selling an NFT, or a non-fungible token, titled “Melania’s Vision.” The NFT is the first digital art to be sold on her newly launched platform, which will release NFTs regularly and is powered by Parler.

January 4, 2022 – Trump announces an auction of some of her personal items, including a white hat she wore during a visit from French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018, a watercolor painting, and an NFT of the white hat.

April 11, 2023 – The Office of Melania Trump issues a statement after she did not appear at her husband’s court appearance on April 4.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the “gaps are narrowing” between Israel and Hamas to get a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages, but conceded that “there’s still real challenges.”

“We’ve been working, as you know, with Egypt, with Qatar and with Israel to put a strong proposal on the table. Hamas responded to that,” Blinken said during news conference in Cairo, Egypt, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

Blinken said he still believes a deal is possible, despite “difficult work to get there.”

As Israel prepares for a possible operation in the Rafah region of Gaza, Blinken said the US believes Hamas “can be effectively dealt with without a major ground operation in Rafah.” He said a ground operation would “be a mistake,” and officials will outline alternative plans when an Israeli delegation goes to Washington, DC, next week.

Meanwhile, Shoukry said he and Blinken agreed to plan “concrete steps” to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza.

The minister stated that the US and Egypt are aligned in their “total rejection of military operations in Rafah.”

The minister added that Egypt would do “whatever is possible, whatever is required to facilitate a cessation of hostilities and an end to the military activity.” 

Ultra-Orthodox Israelis have long held a privileged position in that society.

Their religious schools, or yeshivas, get generous government subsidies. And yet young men of the Haredim, as they are known in Hebrew, are in all practical terms exempt from mandatory military service.

That exemption has bedeviled Israeli society since its founding. But a legal deadline to come up with a more equitable social compact, at least in the eyes of the Supreme Court, now looms at the end of March.

Powerful members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have made clear they will not help him kick the can down the road without broad political support.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews view religious study as fundamental to the preservation of Judaism. For many of those who live in Israel, that means study is just as important to Israel’s defense as the military.

In Israel’s nascent days, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion agreed with Haredi rabbis to exempt from military service 400 men studying in religious schools, or yeshivas. In 1948, there were few Haredim in Israel – many were and remain opposed to the state on religious grounds – and the exemption had little practical impact.

In 1998, Israel’s Supreme Court ripped up the longstanding exemption, telling the government that allowing Haredim to get out of conscription violated equal protection principles. In the decades since, successive governments and Knessets have tried to solve the issue, only to be told again and again by the court that their efforts were illegal.

Read more about the brewing clash in Israel over conscription

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

It wasn’t until Republican Rep. Ken Buck raised the final question during Tuesday’s hearing that former special counsel Robert Hur gave one of his fullest explanations as to why he didn’t bring charges against President Joe Biden.

“You must be doing a great job in your report and during your investigation if you have convinced both sides that you are somewhere in the middle,” Buck said to Hur. 

During his questioning, Buck pushed Hur to explain how he determined whether Biden willfully kept classified documents, noting that Biden should have known the areas where he kept classified documents were not secure locations and that he didn’t call the National Archives when he found classified documents while working with the ghostwriter of his memoir. 

This gave Hur the opportunity to explain there were “evidentiary gaps” that defense attorneys or reasonable jurors could focus on in the case, including that although Biden told his ghostwriter he found classified information, he may have later forgotten about the documents.

“A second argument that we considered is that perhaps these documents never actually were in Virginia,” Hur added. Biden had told his ghostwriter he had found “classified stuff” in a Virginia home he rented until 2019. 

Since he was imprisoned in 2021, Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine via social media and encouraged anti-war protests across the country.

The reported death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most high-profile critic punctuates a crackdown on dissidence in Russia that has accelerated during the war.

Here’s the latest on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

Attacks continue: At least five people were killed and five injured in Russian attacks in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions of Ukraine in the past 24 hours, local officials said Friday.

Frontline battle: Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade said at least 15,000 enemy troops are fighting on the front line in the town of Avdiivka, located in the eastern Donetsk region. Russia has been pummeling the town with airstrikes and artillery, while launching wave after wave of ground assaults by armored vehicles and soldiers. Ukraine’s new army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov this week visited soldiers on the front lines there.

A senior US defense official said Friday that Ukrainian forces fighting in Avdiivka are “running short on critical supplies, particularly ammunition.”  

Uncertain future: The senior US defense official issued a stark warning on Friday that if Congress does not approve more funding for security assistance to Ukraine, the US will not be able to provide Ukraine more air defenses, which will lead to more cities being “bombarded.”

Cost of war: The US estimated the war in Ukraine has cost Russia up to $211 billion in efforts to upkeep operations, a senior defense official told reporters on Friday, and it has cost Russia an expected $1.3 trillion in lost economic growth. 

All of that is in addition to personnel losses, the official said. Officials estimate Russian forces have lost 315,000 people. The official also said Ukrainian forces have “sunk, destroyed, or damaged” at least 20 “medium-to-large Russian Federation Navy vessels” and one Russian tanker in the Black Sea.

Agreement with Germany: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday secured new military aid and signed a long-term security agreement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin. The security agreement, which will last for 10 years, commits Germany to supporting Ukraine with military aid and hitting Russia with sanctions and export controls, and ensuring that Russian assets remain frozen.

The latest battleground map:

Editor’s Note: This timeline is not all-inclusive. Selected rail incidents with at least 200 fatalities are listed, plus US incidents.

CNN
 — 

Here’s some background information about major rail accidents since 1900.

January 1915 – Guadalajara, Mexico: More than 600 people die when a train derails into a ravine during a steep descent.

May 22, 1915 – Gretna, Scotland: The United Kingdom’s worst rail disaster occurs when three trains collide at Quintinshill, resulting in 227 deaths, many of whom were soldiers of the Royal Scots.

June 1915 – Montemorelos, Mexico: A military train derails into a canyon, killing more than 300.

December 12, 1917 – Modane, France: 427 people die when a train carrying more than 1,000 soldiers derails in the French Alps.

January 16, 1944 – León Province, Spain: A train wrecks in the Torro tunnel, killing more than 500 people.

March 2, 1944 – Near Salerno, Italy: At least 521 people die from carbon monoxide fumes when a train stalls in a tunnel.

October 22, 1949 – Poland: More than 200 are killed when the Danzig-Warsaw express derails.

April 3, 1955 – Guadalajara, Mexico: About 300 die when a night express train derails into a canyon.

September 29, 1957 – Montgomery, western Pakistan: 250 die when a passenger train collides with a cargo train.

February 1, 1970 – Buenos Aires, Argentina: The worst train disaster in Argentina’s history occurs when an express train crashes into a standing commuter train, killing 236.

October 6, 1972 – Saltillo, Mexico: 208 people die after a train traveling at excessive speed derails and catches fire.

June 6, 1981 – Bihar, India: India’s worst rail accident to date occurs during inclement weather when a train derails and plunges into a river in the state of Bihar, killing 800 and injuring more than 100.

January 13, 1985 – Near the town of Awash, Ethiopia: The government says that 392 people died when a passenger train derailed while crossing a bridge over a ravine.

June 4, 1989 – Ural Mountains, Soviet Union: 575 people die when a gas pipeline leaks, causing two passenger trains to explode.

January 4, 1990 – Sindh province, Pakistan: More than 210 people are killed after the Zakaria Bahauddin Express passenger train crashes into a stationary freight train.

September 22, 1994 – Tolunda, Angola: 300 die after malfunctioning brakes cause a train to derail and fall into a ravine.

August 20, 1995 – Firozabad, India: 358 are killed after an express train collides with another train that had stalled after striking a cow.

October 28, 1995 – Baku, Azerbaijan: A subway fire kills about 300 passengers and injures more than 200.

August 2, 1999 – India: Brahmaputra Mail train en route to New Delhi slams into the idle Awadh-Assam Express at Gaisal Station in West Bengal, killing 285 and injuring more than 300.

February 20, 2002 – Egypt: 361 people are killed when a fire breaks out on a train traveling from Cairo south to Luxor.

June 24, 2002 – Tanzania: A runaway passenger train collides with a freight train and then derails, resulting in 281 deaths.

February 18, 2004 – Near the town of Neyshabur, Iran: A runaway 51-car chemical train derails and explodes, causing at least 320 deaths and hundreds of injuries to residents in the area.

December 26, 2004 – Sri Lanka: Between 1,500 to 1,700 passengers aboard the Samudradevi, or Queen of the Sea, train, are believed dead when the tsunami sweeps their train off the tracks.

June 2, 2023 – Odisha, India: More than 280 people are killed and over 1,000 injured in a three-way crash involving two passenger trains and a freight train in eastern Odisha state.

March 1, 1910 – Wellington, Washington: An avalanche pushes a passenger train and a mail train into a ravine, killing 96 people.

July 9, 1918 – Nashville, Tennessee: Considered the worst rail disaster in US history, two passenger trains collide on Dutchman’s Curve, resulting in 101 deaths.

November 1, 1918 – Brooklyn, New York: At least 90 are killed when a Brighton Beach Train of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company derails inside the Malbone Street tunnel.

Doctors and medical officials in Gaza say Israeli snipers have shot dead a number of people as they tried to leave the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza over recent days.

A trauma surgeon at the hospital said he was eyewitness to the shootings and said at least two people were killed by snipers on Tuesday, with more shot and injured.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have ordered hospital staff and patients inside the medical complex to evacuate and said it had “opened a secure route” for civilians to leave.

But at least eight people trying to escape along the route came under gunfire on Tuesday, said the surgeon, who asked not to be named for security reasons.

In a series of voice notes, the surgeon said medical teams at the hospital have been under intense bombardment for at least three days. His testimony was shared with CNN by his colleague.

Among those injured, the surgeon said, was a 16-year-old boy shot with four bullets at the hospital gate.

The Nasser Medical Complex is the largest remaining functioning medical facility in Gaza.

Reached for comment late Wednesday, the IDF confirmed to CNN that Israeli troops are operating in the area of the Nasser Medical Complex and said they will get back to CNN if anything changes, but did not respond directly to the allegations.

Israel has repeatedly said that its military forces do not target civilians.