Russian military says 2 dead, 4 injured by rocket explosion

00:23, August 09, 2019

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  2 injured in downtown Bangkok explosion

  Photo taken on Aug. 2, 2019 shows a platform screen door cracked after an explosion happened near BTS Chong Nonsi station downtown Bangkok, Thailand.

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  5 Russian nuclear engineers buried after rocket explosion

  In this grab taken from a footage provided by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM press service, people gather for the funerals of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by a rocket explosion in Sarov, the closed city, located 370 kilometers (230 miles) east of Moscow, Monday, Aug. 12, 2019. (Photo: AP)Thousands of Russians attended the funerals Monday of five Russian nuclear engineers killed by an explosion as they tested a new rocket engine, a tragedy that fueled radiation fears and raised new questions about a secretive weapons program.The engineers, who died Thursday, were laid to rest Monday in Sarov, which hosts Russia’s main nuclear weapons research center, where they worked. Flags flew at half-staff in the city, located 370 kilometers (230 miles) east of Moscow, which has served as a base for Russia’s nuclear weapons program since the late 1940s. The coffins were displayed at Sarov’s main square before being driven to a cemetery.The Defense Ministry initially reported that the explosion at the navy’s testing range near the village of Nyonoksa in the northwestern Arkhangelsk region killed two people and injured six others. The state-controlled Rosatom nuclear corporation then said over the weekend that the blast also killed five of its workers and injured three others. It’s not clear what the final toll is.The company said the victims were on a sea platform testing a rocket engine and were thrown into the sea by explosion.Rosatom director Alexei Likhachev praised the victims as “true heroes” and “pride of our country.”“Our further work on new weapons that we will certainly complete will be the best tribute to them,” Likhachev said during the funeral, according to Rosatom. “We will fulfill the Motherland’s orders and fully protect its security.”Rosatom said the explosion occurred while the engineers were testing a “nuclear isotope power source” for a rocket engine. Local authorities in nearby Severodvinsk, a city of 183,000, reported a brief spi...

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  Huge explosion at military base rocks southern Baghdad

  (Photo: Agencies)BAGHDAD, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- A powerful explosion rocked a military base in southern Baghdad on Monday evening, wounding several civilians outside the base, a source from Iraqs Interior Ministry said.An ammunition warehouse exploded inside a federal police military base, named Falcon, in Owerij area near the southern district of Doura, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.The blast was followed by a series of explosions at the warehouse, the source said, adding that fire engines and civil defense forces rushed to the scene to extinguish the fires in and around the scene.The huge blast, which sent large amount of shrapnel to nearby houses, resulted in the wounding of several civilians and caused damages to the buildings, the source said.The blast was heard in several neighborhoods in southern Baghdad and a huge plume of smoke could be seen rising in southern the city.There is no immediate report about casualties among the security forces inside the base, the source added.