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A heatwave in Quebec in eastern Canada has now been blamed for 70 deaths, officials said Monday. Thirty-four of the fatalities were recorded in Montreal, the provincial health ministry told AFP. Previously, the toll was 54 dead. 

The heatwave has hit eastern Canada since early July but only Quebec has recorded a rise in deaths linked to the scorching temperatures. In 2010 around 100 people in the Montreal area died because of stifling heat.

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More than two dozen pro-government fighters were killed in northwestern Syria overnight in a joint attack by rebel and Islamist forces, a monitor said on Tuesday. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the surprise offensive late Monday targeted a pair of villages and observation points in the coastal province and regime stronghold of Latakia, near the Turkish border. 
"At least 27 regime forces and allied fighters, including eight officers, were killed in fierce clashes and shelling in the village of Al-Ateira," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. 

"They took Al-Ateira and kicked out regime forces from several observation points after killing or wounding them." Another 40 government loyalists were wounded and six rebels were killed, he said.The death toll made the attack the bloodiest opposition assault on the area in three years, according to the Observatory. 

Al-Ateira lies about two kilometres (just over a mile) south of the Turkish border. The Britain-based Observatory said the opposition fighters included local rebels from Latakia as well as more hardline forces. 
Latakia is a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is home to the Hmeimim airbase, where Russian troops and warplanes have been based since 2015

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But forces opposed to Assad have repeatedly attacked the province since the uprising broke out in March 2011. They hold a northeastern sliver of territory bordering the neighbouring province of Idlib.That area falls under a de-escalation deal agreed last year between Russia, fellow regime backer Iran, and rebel ally Turkey. 

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Twenty-four people were killed and hundreds injured when a train packed with weekend passengers derailed in northwest Turkey due to ground erosion atfer heavy rains, officials said Monday. 

The train, with over 360 people on board, was travelling from the Edirne region on the Greek and Bulgarian borders to Istanbul's Halkali station on Sunday when six carriages derailed in the Tekirdag region. 

Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said 24 people died, in a sharp rise from the previous toll of 10. 
The state-run Anadolu news agency quoted Akdag as saying search operations through the derailed train carriages had been completed Monday morning. 

Turkish media quoted Health Minister Ahmet Demircan as saying 338 people required hospital treatment after the accident with 124 still hospitalised. The transport ministry said that the train, carrying 362 passengers, had derailed as recent heavy downpours caused the ground beneath the track to erode away. 

Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan said that the latest checks on the rails had been made in April, Anadolu reported.Turkish media, including the Hurriyet daily, published pictures showing the erosion had been so bad that part of the track had been in the air with no ground left to support it. 

Television pictures showed several train carriages sprawled on their sides, and shocked injured passengers being taken away on stretchers as rescue workers picked through the wreckage. 
The train derailed outside the village of Sarilar in the Corlu district of Tekirdag. 

Every available means

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his condolences over those who lost their lives in the accident that he said has "deeply upset the whole nation". 

The accident, one of Turkey's worst train disasters of recent years, threatens to cast a shadow over a lavish ceremony scheduled in Ankara later Monday to mark the inauguration of Erdogan for a new presidential mandate and the transition to a new system of government. 

Erdogan said all state institutions were "using every means available to help", vowing that there would be a comprehensive investigation into the "tragic accident", the presidency said. 

Turkey's audiovisual authority RTUK later said the government had issued a temporary ban on broadcasting images from the scene. This was lifted on Monday morning.Turkish authorities under Erdogan have over the last years sought to modernise Turkey's once ramshackle rail network, building several high speed inter-city lines. 

Turkish passengers have in general preferred taking planes or buses for inter-city travel but this has been changing with the new high-speed lines. The train involved in the accident appeared to be one of the slower passenger trains travelling on a single track line.Turkey's rail network has been hit by several fatal accidents in recent years. 

In January 2008, nine people were killed when a train derailed in the Kutahya region south of Istanbul due to faulty tracks. 

And in Turkey's worst recent rail disaster, 41 people were killed and 80 injured in July 2004 when a high-speed train derailed in the northwestern province of Sakarya. AFP

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The Department of Immigra­tion has prevented two North Korean women on expired visas from entering Nepal. According to the country’s Immigration laws, for­eigners on tourist visa cannot stay in Nepal for over 150 days in a year. The North Korean women, who had already stayed in Nepal for 150 days in 2018, had gone to China on June 24. They were detained at the airport when trying to reenter Nepal on June 25. The two women will not be allowed into Nepal in 2018. Although both the women request­ed visa renewal, the Immigration officers declined.

Why the women wanted to stay in Nepal even after the expiry of their visa is unclear. The two were found to be illegally employed at the Pyongyang Arirang Restau­rant in Durbarmarg. Under the protection of the North Korean embassy in Nepal, North Korean nationals have been operating the restaurant at Durbarmarg, as well a hospital at Damauli, Tanahun and an Information Technology-related company in Kathmandu.

Previously, the Metropoli­tion Crime Division of Nepali Police had raided the Pyongyang Arirang restaurant and arrested 11 North Koreans working there without permits.

The two North Koreans in ques­tion—Ji Yun Gyong and Kim Un Hye—who deported by the Immigra­tion department on June 25, were also among those arrested in the previous raid.

“We found out that they had gone to China for a night, hoping that their visas would be renewed when they came back to Nepal,” said an employee at the immigration office in the Tribhuvan International Airport.

By SHAMBHU KATTEL