Building collapse toll is 53 as rescue effort ends
Changsha: A total of 53 people died and 10 were rescued after last week’s building collapse in central China, the country’s state media has said.
Authorities said yesterday the search had ended for people trapped from the collapse.
The last survivor was pulled out shortly after midnight on Thursday, five-and-a-half days after the residential and commercial building in the city of Changsha caved in on April 29.
At least nine people have been arrested in connection with the collapse on suspicion of ignoring building codes or committing other violations.
All of the survivors were reportedly in good condition after being treated in a hospital.
The arrested include the building owner, three people in charge of design and construction and five others who allegedly gave a false safety assessment for a guest house on the building’s fourth to sixth floors.
Minsk: A woman who ran a Belarusian opposition messaging app channel and was arrested along with her activist boyfriend when a plane they were on was forced to land in Belarus has been convicted of charges that included inciting social hatred.
Following her conviction, Sophia Sapega was sentenced to six years in prison. She is a Russian citizen and her lawyer Anton Gashinsky said she would appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene.
She and Roman Protasevich were flying from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, a year ago when their plane was ordered to land in Belarus accompanied by a fighter jet because of an alleged bomb threat.
Mr Protasevich was the editor of Nexta, a popular channel on the Telegram messaging app that was a key factor in organising protests in Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko won a disputed sixth term in August 2020.
Ms Sapega ran another Telegram channel that published the personal data of civil servants and military personnel who took part in mass repressions of the protests.
Nashville: The city’s Public Library has responded to censorship in the state of Tennessee with a campaign to distribute 5,000 library cards bearing the slogan “I read banned books” this month.
The library lists some books that have been banned or cited for a potential ban across the country. The list includes the seven books in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Book banning put Tennessee in the spotlight recently after a rural school board in Mcminn County voted unanimously to remove Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, from the district’s curriculum.
Guatemala: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador started a five-day tour to four Central American countries and Cuba by lashing out at the US Government.
Mr Lopez Obrador criticised US officials sharply for being quick to send billions to Ukraine while dragging their feet on development aid to Central America.
On his first stop in neighbouring Guatemala, Mr Lopez Obrador demanded US aid to stem the poverty and joblessness that sends tens of thousands of Guatemalans north to the US border.