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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AFP) – A huge fire destroyed a large part of South Africa’s parliament on Sunday, as police said a suspect will appear in court in the week and firefighters struggled to bring the blaze completely under control. Dozens of crews battled throughout the day to extinguish the fire which broke out at about 0300 GMT in the parliament complex’s oldest wing, which was completed in 1884 and has wood-panelled rooms. As […]
A major fire broke out at South Africa’s seat of parliament in Cape Town early Sunday, sending a thick column of smoke into the sky and threatening the National Assembly building. The fire was believed to have started in one of the older buildings in the parliament precinct, leading to a security cordon nearby the cathedral where anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu was buried just hours before. “The roof has caught fire and the National […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Thousands of people were told to flee fast-moving wildfires in the US state of Colorado on Thursday, as flames tore through areas desiccated by a historic drought. Powerlines toppled by gusting winds sparked a number of small blazes which took hold of the tinder-dry landscape in Boulder County. The 20,000-strong city of Louisville, along with the 13,000 residents of Superior have been told to get out, with the National […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A 61-year-old man suspected of starting a fire at a Japanese mental health clinic that claimed 25 lives died in hospital on Thursday, local media said. Morio Tanimoto had been in critical condition due to burns and carbon monoxide poisoning following the deadly attack in Osaka on December 17. Tanimoto, a former patient of the clinic, died without being interrogated by police, public broadcaster NHK said, citing investigative sources. An Osaka […]
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) – Bangladesh police on Monday arrested the owner of an overcrowded ferry that caught fire and killed at least 39 people last week, after investigators blamed the toll on a disregard for safety. The blaze broke out in the middle of the night on Friday when many of the ferry’s 700 passengers were sleeping near the southern district of Barguna. Survivors relayed harrowing stories of having to jump into the Sugandha river from […]
by Shafiqul ALAM Agence France Presse DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) — At least 37 people died when an overcrowded night ferry caught fire in Bangladesh on Friday, police said, as terrified passengers leaped overboard to escape the blaze. The latest maritime tragedy to hit the impoverished low-lying nation happened in the early hours in a river near Jhalokathi, 250 kilometres (160 miles) south of Dhaka. “We have recovered 37 bodies. The death toll may rise. […]
by Harumi OZAWA with Hiroshi HIYAMA in Tokyo Agence France Presse OSAKA, Japan (AFP) — At least 24 people were killed after a blaze gutted a mental health clinic in a commercial building in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, local media said, with police reportedly considering it a possible arson case. The fire broke out mid-morning and raged for half an hour on the fourth floor of the clinic, which also provided […]
MAGARET RIVER, Australia (AFP) — Australia battled twin natural disasters Friday, with bushfires cutting through a picturesque west coast region, while serious flooding and heavy rains lashed the country’s east. After weeks of high temperatures, fires flanked the western tourist hotspot of Margaret River — famed for its fine wine and big surf. No homes have been damaged or injuries reported, but flames have been seen over a wide area, sending smoke billowing high into […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — A massive fire tore through an overcrowded prison in Burundi before dawn on Tuesday, killing dozens of inmates and seriously injuring many more, the country’s vice president said. Many prisoners were still asleep when the blaze took hold in a penitentiary in Burundi’s political capital Gitega, witnesses said/ Some survived only by clambering out — completely naked — to safety through the roof. Much of the facility was destroyed, with images […]
BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – A fire ripped through an abandoned bank occupied by squatters in central Barcelona on Tuesday, killing four people, including a baby and a three-year-old boy, Spanish firefighters said. “While we were battling the fire, we found four people. Emergency services tried to revive them but unfortunately they failed, they could not do anything to save them,” the head of the firefighting operation, Angel Lopez, told reporters. Firefighters rescued four other people who […]
HONIARA, Solomon Islands (AFP) — Several buildings were set alight in the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara Thursday as thousands of protestors swarmed the city’s Chinatown district in a second day of anti-government riots. Eyewitnesses and local media reported crowds had defied a government lockdown to take to the streets. Live images showed several buildings engulfed in flames and plumes of thick black smoke billowing high above the capital. © Agence France-Presse
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AFP) — Three patients died in a fire that broke out early Sunday on a coronavirus ward in a hospital in southeast Bulgaria, the rescue services said. The three male patients, aged 66, 70 and 81, were all ill with Covid-19 and died on the fourth floor of a hospital in the city of Sliven, the head of the local rescue services, Vladimir Demirev, told Bulgarian television. Six other patients on neighbouring […]
