Sierra Leone mudslide toll over 1,000?
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — More than 1,000 people have died from the mudslide and flood that hit Sierra Leone’s capital nearly two weeks ago, a local leader and a minister said Sunday during services honoring the disaster’s victims.
The government had earlier put the death toll for the Aug. 14 mudslide at 450 dead, while rescuers and aid groups warned that many of the more than 600 people missing would likely not survive.
Hundreds of burials have taken place, while rescue and recovery efforts have continued through rain that could bring fresh tragedy due to unsafe housing conditions.
Thousands living in areas at risk during heavy rains have been evacuated. Aid groups are delivering supplies and helping provide clean water.
Spain death toll rises
MADRID — A 51-yearold German woman died Sunday from injuries suffered in the Aug. 17 vehicle attack in Barcelona, raising the overall death toll in Spain’s recent attacks to 16, health officials in Catalonia said.
The woman died in the intensive care unit of Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, according to the regional health department.
The latest death raises the toll to 14 in the van attack in Barcelona’s popular Las Ramblas boulevard. Another man was stabbed to death in a carjacking that night as the van driver made his getaway, and another woman died in an Aug. 18 vehicleand-knife attack in the nearby coastal town of Cambrils.
More than 120 people were wounded in the attacks. Authorities say 24 remain hospitalized, five of them in critical condition.
In a first for a Spanish monarch, King Felipe VI joined a public demonstration, walking in Barcelona along with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other officials. A separate anti-violence rally was held in the northern town of Ripoll, home to many of the attackers.
Eight suspects are dead, two are jailed under preliminary charges of terrorism and homicide and two more were freed by a judge but will remain under investigation.
Southern China storm
HONGKONG — A second tropical storm in days swept into southern China on Sunday, lashing Hong Kong and Macau with heavy rain and strong wind as the region reels from the strongest typhoon in decades that left at least 22 dead.
Severe Tropical Storm Pakhar made landfall west of the Chinese casino hub of Macau in the early morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 55 mph and gusts of up to 65 mph.
Forecasters in Hong Kong and Macau raised a storm signal two notches below the maximum, forcing the city to mostly shut down.
The storm is expected to move farther inland and gradually weaken later Sunday.
Also in the world ...
The Lebanese Army and its Syrian and Hezbollah allies separately declared a cease-fire with the Islamic State after a weeklong joint campaign against the militant group along the border with Syria in northern Lebanon, the Hezbollah-controlled television channel Al Manar said Sunday. ... The governing party won the most parliamentary seats in Angola’s election, the electoral authorities said Friday, empowering it to replace José Eduardo dos Santos, the longtime president who is stepping down after nearly four decades. ... A bitter exchange of words erupted between France and Poland on Friday after French President Emmanuel Macron sharply criticized Poland’s opposition to plans to change European Union rules on “posted workers” — the cheap labor from eastern countries sent to more prosperous EU nations.