Official: 39 dead in fire at migrant facility in Mexico

Official: 39 dead in fire at migrant facility in Mexico
Image taken from a video showing ambulances and rescue teams staffers outside an immigration center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (AP Photo)
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Updated 28 March 2023

Official: 39 dead in fire at migrant facility in Mexico

Official: 39 dead in fire at migrant facility in Mexico

MEXICO CITY: An official with the National Immigration Institute say 39 people died and 29 were injured in a fire in an immigration detention facility in northern Mexico.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
Images from the scene showed rows of bodies lying under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue could also be seen.
The Diario de Juarez newspaper, which citied unnamed sources in the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office, said 39 people died in the fire, which broke out late Monday. Injured people have been taken to four hospitals, according to the newspaper.
Neither Mexico’s National Immigration Institute nor the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office responded immediately Tuesday to requests for confirmation.
Ciudad Juarez is a major crossing point for migrants entering the United States. Its shelters are full of migrants waiting for opportunities to cross or who have requested asylum in the United States and are waiting out the process.
Mexico’s attorney general’s office has launched an inquiry and has investigators at the scene, according to media reports.


UK commits to anti-Daesh funding at Saudi meeting

UK commits to anti-Daesh funding at Saudi meeting
Updated 14 sec ago

UK commits to anti-Daesh funding at Saudi meeting

UK commits to anti-Daesh funding at Saudi meeting
  • Global Coalition Against Daesh convenes in Riyadh at invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan
  • Efforts turn to humanitarian drive across liberated northeast Syria, Iraq

LONDON: The UK’s minister for the Middle East attended the Saudi-hosted Global Coalition Against Daesh ministerial-level meeting in Riyadh on June 8, and pledged funding for anti-terrorism and humanitarian efforts in Iraq and Syria.
Lord Ahmad, minister of state for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and UN, also highlighted the UK’s commitment to the coalition’s strategy of returning and reintegrating Iraqis displaced by Daesh violence.
The 86-member coalition met in Riyadh at the invitation of Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan.
Following the collapse of Daesh, the coalition’s efforts are now aimed at reintegrating internally displaced people through job training and anti-extremism drives, as well as meeting humanitarian challenges in Syria through direct funding.
Lord Ahmad outlined the UK’s commitment of £87.8 million ($110 million) toward countering Daesh over the next five years in northeast Syria and Iraq. The funding will support counterterrorism, stabilization and socioeconomic development in the region, a press release said.
As part of the UK’s efforts, the International Organization for Migration and the UN Development Program will both be supported in easing barriers to return for internally displaced Iraqis, including those in Syria’s Al-Hol camp.
Over the next two years, the UK will also provide £16 million to address the humanitarian disaster in northeast Syria, providing more than 75,000 people with aid, social support and programs to grant women access to education and jobs.
Lord Ahmad said: “Though territorially defeated, Daesh is a threat that continues to destroy lives — not only in liberated areas of Iraq and Syria, but also in Afghanistan and parts of Africa where its affiliates are active.
“I am proud of the UK’s continuing role in eradicating Daesh, including rebuilding communities affected by its terrorism, and leading global efforts against its poisonous propaganda.”
In a joint statement released by Prince Faisal and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the coalition highlighted its support for a lasting political settlement in Syria.
As part of maintaining stability in areas liberated from Daesh, “durable solutions” for former Daesh fighters detained in the Al-Hol and Roj camps must include humanitarian access and aid, the coalition added.
The UK’s funding commitment is part of a pledge drive launched by ministers targeting a goal of $601 million for liberated areas in Iraq and Syria.
Following the Riyadh meeting, Lord Ahmad will travel to Turkiye for a global diplomacy conference, marking the first UK ministerial visit to the country since the reelection of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 28.
The event in Turkiye will be chaired by Lord Ahmad’s counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar, and will include discussions on Syria, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Ukraine.
Lord Ahmad said: “I look forward to visiting Istanbul to strengthen the UK’s important partnership with Turkiye and to discuss a broad range of foreign-policy issues.”


France hails ‘hero with a rucksack’ who intervened in knife attack on very young children

France hails ‘hero with a rucksack’ who intervened in knife attack on very young children
Updated 50 min 14 sec ago

France hails ‘hero with a rucksack’ who intervened in knife attack on very young children

France hails ‘hero with a rucksack’ who intervened in knife attack on very young children
  • French media hailed Henri as “the hero with a rucksack” Friday after he was shown in a video grappling with the assailant and charging after him during the knife attack
  • Henri had a heavy rucksack on his back and was holding another in his hand when the attacker slashed at him

LE PECQ, France: The attacker slashed at the 24-year-old man with the knife that he used to savagely stab one young child after another. But rather than run, Henri held his ground — using a weighty backpack he was carrying to swing at the assailant and parry his blade.
French media hailed Henri as “the hero with a rucksack” Friday after he was shown in a video grappling with the assailant and charging after him during the knife attack that critically wounded four children between the ages of 22 months and 3 years old, and also injured two adults.
Henri had a heavy rucksack on his back and was holding another in his hand when the attacker slashed at him. Even after being slashed at, Henri still continued to harass the attacker by pursuing him inside a playground — where the man repeatedly stabbed a child in a stroller — and then out of the park again, carrying his rucksacks all the while. He appeared to hurl one of the sacks at the assailant at one point and then pick it up again to take another swing.
Henri’s father, François, said he believed that his son’s dogged pursuit helped dissuade the attacker from stabbing more victims before police wrestled him to the ground.
“He took a lot of risks – when he wasn’t armed, with just his rucksacks,” the father told The Associated Press. “He didn’t stop running after him for many minutes, to stop him from coming back and massacring the kids even more. I think he prevented carnage by scaring him off. Really very courageous.”
François asked that their last name not be published, expressing concerns about their family being thrust suddenly and inadvertently into the public eye at a time of shock and outrage in France provoked by the viciousness of Thursday’s attack and the helplessness of its young victims.
The profile of the suspected attacker, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee, also fueled renewed political debate about French migration policies. Critics on the right and far-right of French politics quickly dusted off their arguments that French migration controls are too lax.
For his part, Henri shied away from the “hero” label. He said he “tried to act as all French people should act, or would act.”
“In that moment, you unplug your brain and react a bit like an animal by instinct,” he told broadcaster BFMTV. “It was impossible for me to witness that without reacting.”
“I am far from alone in having reacted. Many other people around started, like me, to run after him to try to scare him, push him away. And other people immediately went over to the children to take care of the injured.”
“I remember there was also a municipal worker who arrived from the right with a large plastic shovel to try to hit him,” Henri said.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Friday that all four children underwent surgery for their life-threatening knife wounds and “are under constant medical surveillance.”
“Their situation is stable,” she said.
Government spokesman Olivier Veran, a medical doctor by training, said that two of the children remain in critical condition.
President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte traveled to a hospital treating three of the four children. Motives for the attack in and around a children’s lakeside playground in the Alpine town of Annecy remained unexplained. The suspect, who has refugee status in Sweden, remains in custody. Psychiatrists are evaluating him, Veran said.
Henri’s father said that in phone conversation after the attack, his son “told me that the Syrian was incoherent, saying lots of strange things in different languages, invoking his father, his mother, all the Gods.”
“In short, he was possessed by who knows what, but possessed by folly, that’s certain,” the father told the AP.
He said he did not show the disturbing video of the attack to his other children and his wife, and added that he and his wife had trouble sleeping even after learning that Henri was safe.
“We thanked providence and his guardian angels.,” he said.
Most of the children were rushed to a hospital in the French Alpine city of Grenoble — the first stop for Macron and his wife on Friday morning. They didn’t speak to reporters as they went inside.
The fourth wounded child was being treated in Geneva, in neighboring Switzerland.
Two of the four children are French and the other two were tourists — one British, the other Dutch.
Two adults also suffered knife wounds — life-threatening for one them, authorities said. One of the adults was injured both with a knife and by a shot fired by police as they were detaining the suspected attacker.
Portugal’s foreign ministry said that a Portuguese citizen was one of the two adults wounded.
“In the course of the tragic event, a Portuguese citizen, while trying to stop the attacker from fleeing from the police, was seriously injured and is now out of danger. For this act of courage and bravery, we thank him profoundly,” the ministry said.
French authorities said the suspect had recently been refused asylum in France, because Sweden had already granted him permanent residency and refugee status a decade ago.
Lead prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said the man’s motives were unknown, but didn’t appear to be terrorism-related. He was armed with a folding knife, she said.


Russia says ‘repelled’ several Ukrainian attacks

Russia says ‘repelled’ several Ukrainian attacks
Updated 09 June 2023

Russia says ‘repelled’ several Ukrainian attacks

Russia says ‘repelled’ several Ukrainian attacks
  • The statement came after Russian war correspondents had reported "active combat" in the southern Zaporizhzhia region
  • The Russian army said it had repelled four attacks "carried out by forces of up to two battalion tactical groups, reinforced with tanks" near the village of Levadnoye

MOSCOW: The Russian army on Friday said it had repelled several attacks on the southern Ukrainian front, where fighting sharply intensified this week amid expectations of a major Kyiv offensive.
The statement came after Russian war correspondents had reported “active combat” in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
“Over the past day, the armed forces of Ukraine continued attempts to conduct offensive operations in the South-Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia directions,” the Russian army said.
It said they were “decisively” pushed back by Russian troops and planes.
The Russian army said it had repelled four attacks “carried out by forces of up to two battalion tactical groups, reinforced with tanks” near the village of Levadnoye in the Zaporizhzhia region and in Novosleka village in the Donetsk region.
The other two attacks were near the Novodanilovka and Malaya Tokmachka in Zaporizhzhia.
There are expectations of a major Ukrainian offensive, with some analysts saying it has already begun.
“At the moment, active combat is ongoing in the region between Orekhovo and Tokmak,” Vladimir Rogov, an official with Russian occupation authorities, wrote on the Telegram messaging service, referring to a locality known in Ukrainian as Orikhiv.
Alexander Sladkov, a Russian war correspondent, wrote on Telegram of “intense fighting” in the area.
“The enemy is undertaking incredible efforts, attacks. In vain. Our forces are holding on. The front line is stable,” he wrote.
This could not be independently verified.
The Ukrainian army meanwhile said only “the adversary remains on the defensive” in Zaporizhzhia.
It said it destroyed four missiles and 10 drones, out of some 20 that Russia had fired at “military installations and critical infrastructure.”


UAE Foreign Minister meets Japan Prime Minister, seeks stronger ties

UAE Foreign Minister meets Japan Prime Minister, seeks stronger ties
Updated 09 June 2023

UAE Foreign Minister meets Japan Prime Minister, seeks stronger ties

UAE Foreign Minister meets Japan Prime Minister, seeks stronger ties
  • Prime Minister Kishida said that he is looking forward to working closely with the UAE
  • Sheikh Abdullah stated that the UAE attaches importance to the rule of law and would like to work together with Japan on various matters

TOKYO: United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan paid a courtesy call on Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on Friday and expressed his hopes for strengthening bilateral ties with Japan.
Prime Minister Kishida said that he is looking forward to working closely with the UAE, the foreign ministry said.
Kishida also stated that at the recent G7 Summit in Hiroshima, the leaders of the G7, and various invited countries shared a basic understanding on the rule of law and the non-permissibility of unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force.
Sheikh Abdullah stated that the UAE attaches importance to the rule of law and would like to work together with Japan on various matters, including cooperation in the UN Security Council.
Kishida said he was delighted to meet Sheikh Abdullah for the first time in six years. He added that Japan would like to further strengthen cooperation with the UAE in various fields under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Initiative.


’Our house was carried away’ — flood survivors in Russian-held Ukraine speak of their escape

’Our house was carried away’ — flood survivors in Russian-held Ukraine speak of their escape
Updated 09 June 2023

’Our house was carried away’ — flood survivors in Russian-held Ukraine speak of their escape

’Our house was carried away’ — flood survivors in Russian-held Ukraine speak of their escape
  • "The water in the house was at waist level. At midnight everything had been dry - both inside and outside," said the 73-year-old
  • Russian forces took control of Hola Prystan last year as part of what Moscow calls its "special military operation"

HOLA PRYSTAN, Ukraine: Pensioner Maria Mikhailovna says she was woken by her husband in the middle of the night to find their belongings underwater after the collapse of Ukraine’s giant Nova Kakhovka Dam.
“The water in the house was at waist level. At midnight everything had been dry — both inside and outside,” said the 73-year-old, who walks slowly with the help of a stick.
“We can hardly walk. We went outside and were lucky that there were passers-by. They helped us to get to the ‘Vostok’ shop. Then we limped on to our friends,” she told Reuters.
With water snapping at their heels, she and her husband then moved on from place to place, she said in the town of Hola Prystan in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, adding that she was grateful to her rescuers.
They were brought to safety with other pensioners on Thursday in a rubber boat crewed by rescuers from Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry.
Russian forces took control of Hola Prystan, a town where around 13,000 people once lived, last year as part of what Moscow calls its “special military operation.”
After the vast Soviet-era Kakhovka Dam crumbled on Tuesday — a human and ecological disaster which Russia and Ukraine have blamed on each other — rubber dinghies have replaced cars in the town’s streets.
Animals and people sheltered on roofs on Thursday: in one surreal scene a small group of goats and hens stood on what looked like part of a roof surrounded by floodwater as rescuers in dinghies passed by.
The first one or two storys of houses and people’s yards were underwater and an emerald green church was semi-submerged, with the tops of trees poking out from the water in places.
Rescuers in boats scoured the town for survivors, shouting out the addresses they had checked to one another.
Many of those rescued appeared elderly but small children and their mothers were also among those helped to safety.
One woman had her pet cat in their bag and one elderly lady clutched a birdcage as she was ferried to dry land.
A woman who gave her name as Oksana held back tears as she and her daughter were evacuated in a boat with their two pet dogs.
“We ended up at the kindergarten because our house was carried away by a torrent of water,” said Oksana, as her daughter turned her head away to sob.