World News
Apocalyptic scene: at least 25 dead and more than 50 missing in a landslide in Venezuela
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Eva Deschamps / October 10, 2022
Rescue teams were still searching Monday for the 52 people missing in a mudslide that killed at least 25 people in the small town of Las Tejerias in northern Venezuela.
Despite the night, rescue workers, using searchlights and working with dogs and drones among others, were looking for possible survivors or the bodies of the missing.
“We are working to find the people who are still missing, this is our main task right now and we have to focus on it,” Interior Minister Remigio Ceballos told officials in the region.
Earlier, Ceballos said that “a record amount of rainfall” had fallen on the city, ensuring that the average volume of water that usually falls in a month had fallen in one day.
“These heavy rains have saturated the soil,” the minister added, attributing the rainfall to “climate change” and the passage of Hurricane Julia in northern Venezuela.
Heavy rains in recent days have caused streams to overflow and landslides that have swept away everything in Las Tejerias, a town located on the side of a mountain. Many houses and businesses have been destroyed while streets have been invaded by the mudslide that has carried trees, debris and cars for hundreds of meters.
The latest official toll is 25 dead and 52 injured. “Five streams have overflowed” and “we are seeing very significant damage”, said Vice President Delcy Rodriguez on Sunday.
Thirteen other people died in different regions of the country, also due to this atypical rainy season.
Access to Las Tejerias was blocked on Sunday evening by a large military and police deployment.
Authorities have set up several shelters for affected families in Maracay, the capital of Aragua state where Las Tejerias is located, said Ceballos, who told AFP on Sunday that about 1,000 officials were involved in the relief effort.
Teams of workers equipped with machines were clearing roads covered with debris from the floodwaters with a constant ballet of trucks at the entrance to the city.
The army also announced that it would participate in the efforts.
“The city is lost, Las Tejerías is lost,” lamented Carmen Melendez, 55, one of the residents.
Residents were trying to shovel out the tons of mud that had invaded their homes.
The president Nicolás Maduro decreed three days of national mourning in solidarity with the victims.
The Tigres de Aragua baseball team (the national sport) offered its stadium as a collection center for donations. In the capital, the Leones de Caracas team has also announced that it is collecting mineral water, non-perishable goods and clothing for the survivors.
Venezuela has been facing heavy and exceptional rains for several weeks.
In addition to the Las Tejerias disaster, floods and landslides occurred in several other parts of the country over the weekend, including in the state of Zulia, Venezuela’s oil cradle, or in Choroni on the coast.
In 1999, some 10,000 people died in a major landslide in the northern state of Vargas.
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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
World News
Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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