In a dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East, Israel has reportedly launched airstrikes targeting Iran’s Isfahan, a city that houses a key nuclear research centre.

In response, Iran fired a series of missiles early in the morning aimed at central Israel, igniting a fire in the city of Holon.

The exchange marks a significant intensification in hostilities between the two nations.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reaffirmed that Iran’s nuclear programme remains peaceful and that the country is still open to diplomatic efforts.

He, however, stressed that Israel’s attacks must cease before any meaningful dialogue can proceed.

With inputs from news agencies

MSH

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).