International news

Thailand will restore confidence in its critical tourism sector, officials said on Wednesday, a day after a shooting spree at a luxury shopping mall in which two foreigners were killed clouded hopes for a recovery in overseas visitors.

Heavy rain hampered the search for 23 Indian troops reported missing on Wednesday after a flash flood in northeastern Sikkim state, with the capital city of Gangtok cut off by road, defence officials said.

At least 21 people died on Tuesday and 18 were injured after a bus carrying tourists to a campground crashed off an overpass near Venice in northern Italy and caught fire, city officials said.

Typhoon Koinu grinded towards southern Taiwan on Wednesday bringing heavy rain and winds and causing the cancellation of 70 domestic flights and suspension of work and schools in urban areas in southern parts of the island from the evening.

Three Filipino fishermen died after their fishing boat was rammed by a still unidentified foreign commercial vessel while crossing the South China Sea, the Philippine coastguard said on Wednesday.

Pakistan has ordered all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghan nationals, to leave the country by November 1 or face expulsion.

Thai police arrested a teenage gunman suspected of killing two foreigners and wounding five people on Tuesday in a shooting spree at a luxury Bangkok mall.

Indian police raided the office of a news portal and the homes of journalists and writers linked to it on Tuesday as part of an investigation into suspected illegal foreign funding of the media company, two government officials said.

Scientists Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics for creating incredibly short pulses of light that can capture processes inside atoms and molecules, in work that could advance medical diagnostics and electronics.

Two earthquakes rocked western Nepal on Tuesday, injuring one person, damaging homes and triggering a landslide that blocked a major highway, authorities said, sending tremors as far away as the Indian capital.

Russia on Tuesday blamed a malfunction in an on-board control unit for causing its first lunar mission in 47 years to crash into the moon in August.

Ukraine destroyed 29 of 31 drones launched by Russia and one cruise missile, its air force said on Tuesday, most of them targeting the regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

The death toll from the collapse of a church roof during a Sunday Mass in northern Mexico has risen to 11, with around 60 others injured, officials said on Monday, as local authorities began wrapping up search and rescue efforts.

Ukraine's eastern metropolis of Kharkiv will build the country's first fully underground school to shield pupils from Russia's frequent bomb and missile attacks, the city's mayor said.

The carcasses of 120 river dolphins have been found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River over the last week in circumstances that experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat.

A civil fraud trial that could deal a major blow to Donald Trump's real estate empire began on Monday, with a New York state lawyer accusing the former president of generating more than $1 billion by lying, and Trump blasting the case as a "scam."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended on Monday the use of a second malaria vaccine to curb the life-threatening disease spread to humans by some mosquitoes.

Scientists Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that enabled the development of effective vaccines against COVID-19, the award-giving body said on Monday.

A church roof collapsed during Sunday mass in a northern Mexican city killing at least nine people and injuring 40, authorities said, as rescuers worked into the night, desperately looking for another 30 people believed to be trapped under the rubble.

Donald Trump and his family business are set to stand trial in New York on Monday in a civil fraud case that could deal a major blow to the former US president’s real estate empire.

Turkish air strikes in north Iraq late on Sunday "neutralised" many Kurdish militants and destroyed their depots and shelters, Turkey's defence ministry said, hours after a Kurdish group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in Ankara.

At least 10 Cuban migrants died and 17 others were seriously injured when a cargo truck ferrying them had an accident in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, Mexico's migration institute said on Sunday.

At least nine people have been killed in a fire in a nightclub in Murcia in southeast Spain.

A rubber boat washed up on a beach in Israel on Sunday with no one on board, only what appeared to be the belongings of would-be migrants.

Turkey's interior minister said on Sunday that two "terrorists" carried out a bomb attack in front of the ministry buildings in Ankara, adding one of them died in the explosion and the other was "neutralised" by authorities there.

The US Congress passed a stopgap funding bill late on Saturday with overwhelming Democratic support after Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy backed down from an earlier demand by his party's hardliners for a partisan bill.

More than 100,000 refugees have now arrived in Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh, the head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said.

Italy's coast guard rescued 177 people including 27 crew from a ferry that caught fire travelling from the Italian island of Lampedusa to Porto Empedocle in Sicily, it said on Saturday.

Ukraine's air force shot down 30 out of 40 Iranian-made "Shahed" drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on central and southern regions, regional and military officials said on Saturday.

Hardline Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Friday rejected a bill proposed by their leader to temporarily fund the government, making it all but certain that federal agencies will partially shut down beginning on Sunday.

Two explosions ripped through two mosques in Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 57 people and injuring more than 60, as many gathered to mark Prophet Muhammed's birth anniversary.

The death toll from an explosion and fire at a fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh has risen to 170, the Armenpress news agency reported on Friday citing local officials in the breakaway region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was on Friday shown meeting one of the most senior former commanders of the Wagner mercenary group and discussing how best to use "volunteer units" in the Ukraine war.

At least a dozen Niger soldiers were killed following an attack by hundreds of armed insurgents on motorbikes in the country's southwest on Thursday morning, the West African nation's defence ministry said in a statement.

At least 10 people were injured on Thursday when Indian security officials used tear gas and batons to disperse protesters trying to storm the home of the chief minister of Manipur state, defying a curfew, a senior police officer said.

Republicans leading an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden detailed foreign payments to members of his family in their first hearing on Thursday, but did not provide evidence that the Democratic president had personally benefited.

A number of people were killed in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on Thursday afternoon after a man went on a shooting spree, local police said.

US Army Private Travis King landed at an American military base in Texas early on Thursday after being expelled from North Korea following his surprise dash across the heavily militarized Korean border in July.

Indian agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan, who ushered a "Green Revolution" nearly six decades ago that helped end famine and transformed the country as a top producer of wheat, died on Thursday aged 98.

More than half the 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh have left in less than four days after Azerbaijan seized control of the mountain enclave where they had managed to defend their autonomy for three decades.

India imposed curfew in the capital and some areas of its restive state of Manipur on Thursday, after scores of students were injured in violence following protests against the alleged abduction and murder of two students, authorities said.

 A teenager on Thursday stabbed three teachers and at least one pupil in a high school in Jerez de la Frontera, southern Spain, police told Reuters.

Ukraine's Air Force said on Thursday its air defence systems shot down 34 of 44 Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight, military and regional officials said the attack caused no casualties.

More than 10,000 people have fled their homes in parts of Haiti's central department, the United Nations' migration agency said on Wednesday, after a series of gang attacks in recent days including in a hospital north of the capital.

A judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's request that she step aside from the federal case accusing him of illegally attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, rejecting arguments that she has shown bias against him.

Travis King, the American soldier who ran into North Korea in July, is in US custody and heading home after being expelled by North Korea into China.

The Biden administration announced that it is admitting Israel into the United States Visa Waiver Programme (VWP), allowing visa-free entry to Israeli citizens from November 30.

More than 100 people were killed and 150 injured in a fire at a wedding party in Hamdaniya district in Iraq's Nineveh province that left civil defence searching the charred skeleton of a building for survivors into the early hours of Wednesday.

US astronaut Frank Rubio, who broke the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by an American, and two Russian cosmonauts began their journey back to Earth on Wednesday from the International Space Station (ISS), six months late.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians rushed on Wednesday to flee the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia after a lightening military operation by Azerbaijan that has recast the contours of the post-Soviet South Caucasus.

A New York judge found Donald Trump and his family business fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and other assets, in a major defeat for the former US president that could severely hamper his ability to do business in the state.

Russia's most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, lost his appeal on Tuesday against a new 19-year prison term that extends his total sentence to more than 30 years.

India's foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said on Tuesday that India has told Canada it was open to looking into any "specific" or "relevant" information it provides on the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The main political party representing Serbs in northern Kosovo declared three days of mourning on Tuesday for people killed in a gunbattle with Kosovo police, after the worst violence for years in the contested area.

As thousands of Armenians fled their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh saying they feared ethnic cleansing, the US called on Azerbaijan to protect the rights of civilians and allow in humanitarian and monitoring missions.

Police detained protesters on Tuesday in India's tech hub of Bengaluru while demonstrating against the sharing of water from a river that flows through two states.

Ukraine's special forces said on Monday they had killed Moscow's top admiral in Crimea along with 33 other officers in last week's missile attack on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol.

Mexico's government sent over 1,500 security officials including National Guard, army and police to the south of the country on Monday in a bid to shore up security in an area under increasing pressure from organised crime.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted talks on Monday with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan at which he hinted at the prospect of creating a land corridor between their two countries via Armenia, which opposes the idea.

Sixteen students and workers have been freed after they were kidnapped by gunmen who attacked their university in northwest Zamfara state last week, university authorities said on Monday.

Ethnic Serb gunmen in armoured vehicles stormed a village in north Kosovo on Sunday, battling police and barricading themselves in a monastery in a resurgence of violence in the restive north that killed four people.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, queuing up for fuel and jamming the road to Armenia after their decades-old separatist state was defeated by Azerbaijan in a lightning military operation.

One woman was injured and buildings and port infrastructure were severely damaged in Russia's overnight missile and drone attack on the port of Odesa in southern Ukraine, Ukraine's military said on Monday.

Sixteen people were killed in a coal mine accident in Panzhou city in southern China's Guizhou province on Sunday, according to a filing by the mine's owner, Guizhou Panjiang Refined Coal Co, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Monday.

A NASA space capsule carrying the largest soil sample ever scooped up from the surface of an asteroid streaked through Earth's atmosphere on Sunday and parachuted into the Utah desert, delivering the celestial specimen to scientists.

Danish Toymaker Lego has abandoned its effort to ditch oil-based plastics from its bricks after finding that its new material led to higher carbon emissions, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

France will pull its soldiers out of Niger following a July coup in the West African country, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, dealing a huge blow to French influence and counter-insurgency operations in the Sahel region.

The 120,000 ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh will leave for Armenia as they do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and fear ethnic cleansing, the leadership of the breakaway region told Reuters on Sunday.

A NASA capsule carrying the largest soil sample ever collected from an asteroid is due to return to Earth on Sunday, expected to streak through the atmosphere and parachute into the Utah desert to deliver its celestial specimen to scientists.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy awarded two Polish volunteers state awards during a stopover on Saturday, but did not meet any officials as relations between the two countries are strained over grain imports.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to promote cooperative relations with China in a letter to President Xi Jinping, the North's state media KCNA reported on Sunday.

A group of about 30 "heavily armed" men opened fire at Kosovo police in a northern Kosovo village early on Sunday, killing a policeman, and the same armed men also stormed a nearby Serbian Orthodox monastery in the first such major regional violence since May.

US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen confirmed that "shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners" had informed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the possible involvement of Indian agents in the murder of a Canadian citizen in June.

China is willing to work with South Korea to promote a strategic partnership to develop with the times, President Xi Jinping told South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Saturday, amid rising tensions surrounding Russia, the United States and North Korea.

The Lebanese army said on Saturday that it had fired tear gas at Israeli forces in response to attacks by smoke bombs fired by the Israelis in the Bastra area of southern Lebanon.

Norwegian police have arrested a former commander of the Wagner mercenary group on suspicion that he tried to illegally cross the border back into Russia after seeking asylum in Norway earlier this year.

A large chunk of a motorway in southwest Sweden collapsed overnight, causing three people to be taken to hospital with light injuries, police said on Saturday.

South Korea's opposition leader ended a 24-day hunger strike on Saturday, a party spokesperson said, two days after parliament voted to let prosecutors serve an arrest warrant against him for alleged bribery.

The increased frequency of China's military activities around Taiwan recently has raised the risk of events "getting out of hand" and sparking an accidental clash, the island's defence minister said on Saturday.

At least one Ukrainian missile struck the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea navy in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Friday, and a major cyberattack interrupted internet services on the peninsula, Russian-installed officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday makes his first visit to close ally Canada, where he is guaranteed a warmer welcome than he received from some US politicians sceptical about providing more military aid.

A small but restive volcano near the Philippine capital Manila spewed above average sulfur dioxide and volcanic smog on Friday, prompting authorities to close schools in dozens of cities and towns and to urge people to stay indoors.

India on Thursday suspended new visas for Canadians and asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence in the country, sharply escalating a spat triggered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's accusations linking New Delhi to a Sikh separatist's murder.

US President Joe Biden is establishing a new office of gun violence prevention at the White House to implement existing laws and work with local authorities to pass gun safety legislation at the state level.

Azerbaijan envisages an amnesty for Karabakh Armenian fighters who give up their arms, though there have been some Karabakh military units that have said they will continue their resistance, an Azeri presidential adviser told Reuters.

A Russian attack on a town west of Donetsk near Ukraine's eastern front has injured 13 people, including one pulled out from under rubble, an official from the area was quoted as saying early on Friday.

A bus carrying members of a high school marching band on a trip to a music camp ran off a highway and tumbled down a steep ravine in New York state on Thursday, killing two people and injuring dozens of others, several of them severely.

Lawmakers in India's upper house of Parliament on Thursday gave final consent to a bill to reserve 33 per cent seats in the lower house and state assemblies for women a day after the landmark legislation was approved by the lower house.

Russia launched a massive air attack on the capital Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Thursday, injuring at least 18 people and damaging infrastructure facilities across the country, officials said.

India has suspended visa services for Canadian citizens from Thursday, visa consultancy service provider BLS International said on its website, citing a notice from the Indian mission.

Azerbaijan said on Thursday that Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh had arrived for talks after the breakaway region was forced into a ceasefire that stoked calls for the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Former US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that if elected again he would shift resources from federal law enforcement agencies and send thousands of overseas-based troops to the US-Mexico border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appearing in-person at the United Nations Security Council for the first time since the conflict with Russia, sought to shore up support for Kyiv's right to defend itself during a contentious meeting on Wednesday.

Indian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of a landmark bill to reserve a third of the seats in the lower house of parliament and state assemblies for women.

India on Wednesday urged its nationals in Canada, especially students, to exercise "utmost caution" as ties deteriorate after each nation expelled one of the other's diplomats in an escalating row over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader.

Ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan's breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh agreed to a Russian proposal for a ceasefire on Wednesday, 24 hours after Azerbaijan began an offensive to take control of the enclave that killed dozens and injured hundreds.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy implored world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly to stand united against Russia's invasion and said Moscow had to be pushed back so the world could turn to solving pressing global challenges.

India's opposition Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has offered unequivocal support to a bill reserving a third of seats in the lower house of the parliament and state assemblies for women, a day after it was introduced into parliament.

Strong winds and a rare, intense heatwave in early spring fanned dozens of bushfires across Australia's southeast, prompting extreme fire danger warnings on Wednesday for the greater Sydney region, home to more than 5 million people.

A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck near Geraldine in the centre of New Zealand’s South Island on Thursday, government seismic monitor Geonet said, but initial reports indicate no injuries or significant damage.

The Brazilian Navy said on Tuesday it had seized 3.6 metric tons of cocaine on a boat off the coast of northeastern Pernambuco state, in the largest single off-shore capture of the drug by Brazil.

US President Joe Biden appealed to world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to stand with Ukraine against Russian invaders, hoping Republicans in Congress will also take notice.

US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, will plead not guilty to federal gun charges, his attorney said in a court filing on Tuesday.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday disclosed a hacking incident, a breach at one of the world's most high-profile international institutions.

Russia struck three industrial warehouses in a drone strike on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv early on Tuesday, causing a huge fire and killing at least one person, local officials said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday the cabinet had approved a bill to reserve one-third seats in the lower house of parliament and state assemblies for women, reviving a proposal that has been hanging for decades.

Hundreds of people protested in the eastern Libyan city of Derna on Wednesday, venting anger against authorities and demanding accountability one week after a flood killed thousands of its residents and destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

India has expelled a Canadian diplomat with five days' notice to leave the country, just hours after Ottawa expelled the South Asian nation's top intelligence agent and accused it of a role in the murder of a Sikh separatist leader.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) agreed with Japan on its continuous safety review of the discharge of treated water from the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the IAEA said on Monday in New York.

One of Sudan's main landmarks, a skyscraper that towered over the River Nile and housed the headquarters of a major oil company, has been reduced to a smouldering wreck amid heavy fighting between rival military factions in the capital.

There has been some improvement in safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi told Russia's RIA news agency in remarks published early on Tuesday.

At least 24 people were killed in a passenger bus accident in Peru on Monday, according to the company operating the vehicle.

People whose homes were swept away by flooding in Libya's eastern city of Derna a week ago faced the dilemma on Sunday of whether to stay and risk infection or flee through areas where landmines have been displaced by the torrents.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces had recaptured an eastern village on the southern flank of Bakhmut, in what would be Ukraine's second significant gain in three days in its grueling counteroffensive against the Russian army.

A spring heat wave across large parts of Australia's southeast, including Sydney, will intensify on Monday, the weather bureau said, with temperatures expected to peak up to 16 degrees Celsius above the September average.

Thousands of protesters kicked off "Climate Week" and filled the streets of Midtown, Manhattan, on Sunday ahead of the UN General Assembly this week, calling for President Joe Biden and world leaders to end fossil fuel use.

Lee made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone packing hurricane-force winds in Canada's Nova Scotia province, flooding roads, downing trees and cutting out power for tens of thousands of people along the North Atlantic coast.

The chief of the World Health Organisation urged Beijing to offer more information on the origins of COVID-19 and is ready to send a second team to probe the matter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Russia said it had thwarted a coordinated Ukrainian attack on Crimea early on Sunday, while drones also targeted Moscow, disrupting air traffic in the capital, and causing a fire at an oil depot in the southwest of the country.

At least 11,300 people have died and another 10,100 are missing from the coastal city of Derna one week after Storm Daniel hit northeastern Libya, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.

Fourteen people on a small jet died when the plane crashed in Brazil's northern Amazonas state on Saturday, the state's governor said.

Russia launched a combined drone and missile attack on Ukraine early on Sunday, targeting chiefly the southern parts of the Odesa region and hitting an agriculture facility there, Ukraine's Air Forces said on the Telegram messaging app.

A train with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on board has left the railway station in Russia's Far Eastern city of Artyom bound for home, wrapping up his visit to Russia, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Ankara could "part ways" with the European Union if necessary when asked about the contents of a European Parliament report on Turkey.

Germany has decided to keep taking in migrants and refugees arriving in Italy, the interior minister said late on Friday, two days after it announced the suspension of a voluntary agreement with Rome to receive new arrivals.

A man was arrested in the earlier hours of Saturday morning after being spotted climbing into the Royal Mews adjacent to Buckingham Palace in London, police said.

Moscow has dismissed the conviction of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in a US court for participating in a US$93 million (AED 341.59 million) insider-trading scheme as "politically motivated".

Iranian security forces released Mahsa Amini's father on Saturday after briefly detaining and warning him against marking the anniversary of her death, a human rights group said.

Ovidio Guzman, the son of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was extradited to the United States on Friday to face fentanyl trafficking charges, in a boost for the Biden administration's push to curb the spread of the deadly opioid.

Libyans from across the fragmented country have driven through old front lines regardless of bitter enmities to deliver aid to flood-stricken Derna this week, putting aside years of conflict between their leaders.

British police said on Friday they had charged three people with the murder of 10-year-old girl Sara Sharif found dead at her home last month, including her father.

Ukraine's military said on Friday that its troops have captured a village near Bakhmut, the eastern city that fell into Russian hands in May after being besieged for many months.

A UNESCO committee has decided not to add Venice to the organisation's World Heritage List in Danger, disregarding a recommendation from experts and sparing the Italian government from an embarrassing verdict on the city's condition.

Villagers in some of the most isolated areas hit by Morocco's earthquake were still living in makeshift tents and relying on donkeys to bring vital supplies on Thursday as they waited for state aid to reach them nearly a week after the disaster.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a sanctioned fighter jet plant in Russia on Friday as part of a rare visit that the US and its allies fear could strengthen Russia's military in Ukraine and bolster Pyongyang's missile programme.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is releasing $2 million from its emergency fund to support the victims of floods in eastern Libya, its director general said on Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to his country during their talks in Russia, state media reported on Thursday, with Kim expected to continue his trip with visits to military production facilities.

A luxury cruise ship that ran aground this week in a remote Greenland location with 206 people on board was pulled free by a fishing trawler on Thursday, a passenger and Denmark's armed forces said.

Experts have fanned out in India's southern state of Kerala to collect samples of fluid from bats and fruit trees in a region where the deadly Nipah virus has killed two people and three more have tested positive.

Ukraine said on Thursday it downed 17 out of 22 Russian drones attacking its territory overnight, and that a child was killed in the country's south by artillery shelling.

Survivors of a flood that swept away the centre of a Libyan city picked through the ruins on Thursday in search of loved ones from among thousands of dead and missing, while authorities feared an outbreak of disease.

At least 30 people have been killed in a fire at an apartment block in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, local media reported on Wednesday, citing the city's police.

Authorities closed down some schools and offices and declared more than seven villages as containment zones in the southern Indian state of Kerala after it recorded two deaths from the rare and deadly brain-damaging Nipah virus.

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan's jail detention related to charges of leaking state secrets was extended for another two weeks, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, will be boarding Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity and blasting off to space on Sunday.

Singapore is reviewing penalties for violent offences following an outcry over a 12-day prison sentence for a student who strangled his girlfriend until she blacked out.