Subway rider fatally pushed into N.Y. train

A woman was killed Saturday after she was pushed in front of an oncoming subway train at the Times Square station in New York City, police said.

The woman was standing on the platform around 9:30 a.m. waiting for the train when she was shoved onto the tracks and struck by it, police said. The woman was Asian. But the police said the attack might have been random, and there was no indication that she had been targeted because of her race or ethnicity.

The man identified by authorities as the one who pushed her onto the tracks — Simon Martial, 61 — turned himself in about 30 minutes later. Officials said he is homeless and that he has had at least three previous encounters with authorities related to mental health problems.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats, have said that the more than 2,000 officers who are assigned to patrol the system will lead more frequent sweeps of subway platforms and trains as they attempt to ease concerns of crime.

Unprovoked attacks on Asian Americans during the pandemic, including several in the subway system, have also stoked fear and anger in New York and elsewhere, with activists and elected officials pointing both to mental illness and to the impact of rhetoric blaming the coronavirus on China.

NEW JERSEY Chemical plant catches fire

An enormous New Jersey chemical plant fire that posed the threat of evacuations was contained before the flames could reach buildings with the most noxious substances, officials said Saturday.

“As a direct result of the remarkable response, we were able to contain the fire and it did not reach the main chemical plant,” Passaic Mayor Hector Lora said. “After an assessment of the air quality as we continue battling the fire, there is no need for an evacuation.”

Residents who live near the Qualco Inc. warehouse were still being asked to keep their windows shut as a precaution.

The fire erupted around 8 p.m. Friday. Shortly later, several buildings in the plant complex were ablaze. Flames could be seen and smelled for miles.

Qualco specializes in marketing swimming pool chemicals. Its products include chlorine, which can be toxic to humans.

Frigid weather froze water from hydrants and hoses, hampering boats trying to draw water from the Passaic River and causing firefighters to slip and fall, Lora said. One firefighter went to the hospital with an eye injury, he said.

KAZAKHSTAN Death toll soars in protests

A top law-enforcement official in Kazakhstan said Saturday that 225 people died during the violent demonstrations that shook the country this month, a significantly higher number than previously announced.

Serik Shalabayev, head of the criminal prosecution service in the general prosecutor’s office, said 19 police officers or servicemen were among the dead, news reports said. More than 4,300 people were injured, he said. The previous official death toll was 164.

Demonstrations started on Jan. 2 in the oil and gas-rich Central Asian nation to protest a sharp rise in fuel prices. They quickly spread nationwide, widened into a general protest against the country’s authoritarian government and descended into violence within several days, especially in Almaty, the country’s largest city. Protesters stormed government buildings and set them ablaze.

At the request of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization sent a force of more than 2,000 soldiers, mostly Russians, to act as peacekeepers. The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that its troops had returned home.

LEBANON Groups call off Cabinet boycott

Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group and its main Shiite ally said Saturday they are ending their boycott of Cabinet meetings after a threemonth deadlock that has worsened the small nation’s unprecedented economic meltdown.

The two Shiite groups said in a joint statement they would attend Cabinet sessions to approve a new budget and measures for dealing with the two-year crisis, and to discuss a recovery plan. They said they would attend because of the accelerated economic deterioration in recent weeks.

The two groups had boycotted the Cabinet since October, demanding changes in the national probe of the devastating August 2020 explosion in Beirut’s port and effectively paralyzing the government.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the decision of two groups to end their Cabinet boycott. He said earlier this month the state budget should be ready for discussion within days.

A government-approved recovery plan is a prerequisite for resuming discussions with the International Monetary Fund. Lebanese officials had said a deal would be possible by the end of January, a timeline unlikely now after weeks of no government meetings.

An IMF delegation is expected in Lebanon soon.

Anne-Marie Caruso / Bergen Record Smoke and flames fill the sky from a large chemical fire in Passaic, N.J., on Friday. The plant, which held chlorine products, continued to burn into Saturday before it was contained. No evacuations were ordered.