Nation & World Glance

Turkey probes contractors as earthquake deaths pass 33,000

ANTAKYA, Turkey – Turkish authorities are targeting contractors allegedly linked with buildings that collapsed in the powerful Feb. 6 earthquakes as rescuers found more survivors in the rubble Sunday, including a pregnant woman and two children, in the disaster that killed over 33,000 people.

The death toll from the magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes that struck nine hours apart in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria rose to 33,185 and was certain to increase as search teams find more bodies.

As despair bred rage at the agonizingly slow rescues, the focus turned to assigning blame.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 131 people were under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. While the quakes were powerful, many in Turkey blame faulty construction for multiplying the devastation.

Turkey’s construction codes meet current earthquake-engineering standards, at least on paper, but they are rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings toppled over or pancaked down onto the people inside.

Russia continues to shell Ukraine amid grinding push in east

KYIV, Ukraine – Russian forces over the weekend continued to shell Ukrainian cities amid a grinding push to seize more land in the east of the country, with Ukrainian officials saying that Moscow is having trouble launching its much-anticipated large-scale offensive there.

One person was killed and one more was wounded on Sunday morning by the shelling of Nikopol, a city in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Serhii Lysak reported. The shelling damaged four residential buildings, a vocational school and a water treatment facility.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, one person was wounded after three Russian S-300 missiles hit infrastructure facilities overnight, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. The Russian military said they hit armored vehicle assembly workshops at the Malyshev machinery plant in the city.

Ukrainian forces also downed five drones – four Shahed killer drones and one Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone – over the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions on Saturday evening, Kyiv’s military reported.

Overall, Russian forces carried out 12 missile and 32 air strikes in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, as well as over 90 rounds of shelling from multiple rocket launchers, Ukraine’s General Staff reported in its daily update.

Phoenix police investigating death of man who was in custody

PHOENIX — Phoenix police detectives in conjunction with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating an in-custody death.

A 40-year-old man died Saturday night on the way to a hospital, according to police.

They said officers responded to a damage incident around 6 p.m. when a caller said a man was allegedly breaking windows and acting erratic.

Police detained a man who matched the description of the caller and leg restraints also were used due to the man’s erratic behavior.

While the man was on the way to the hospital, police say he became unresponsive and lifesaving measures were performed by paramedics. The man died at the hospital.

His name hasn’t been released and police say the cause and manner of death will be determined by the medical examiner’s office.

Police said it’s being treated as a critical incident and will be the subject of both an administrative and criminal investigation.