TOKYO: A Japanese cabinet official said on Sunday that victims of a fire in a clinic that claimed 24 lives last week were blocked from the only escape route, prompting an emergency inspection of similar buildings.
In an act of suspected arson, a man entered a fourth-floor clinic in the western city of Osaka carrying a bag of liquid that caught fire after he set it near a heater and kicked it, according to police.
“Based on the damage, it is thought that the fire broke out near the stairs, which was the only escape route,” Internal Affairs Minister Yasushi Kaneko told reporters, citing an ongoing investigation.
Fire departments across Japan have been directed to inspect some 30,000 multi-story commercial buildings that have only one staircase, he added.
The 61-year-old suspect was a patient of the clinic and is in a critical condition in hospital, public broadcaster NHK said. The man’s name has been released and published in Japanese media, an unusual step when there has not yet been an arrest.
The fire is among Japan’s deadliest in memory, following an arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto in 2019 that killed 36 people. A 2001 fire at a building in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people.
Japan investigators believe only escape route blocked in fatal clinic fire
https://arab.news/v6bjh
Japan investigators believe only escape route blocked in fatal clinic fire
- The fire is among Japan’s deadliest in memory, following an arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto in 2019 that killed 36 people
Energy shutdowns hit Ukraine after Russian attacks target infrastructure
- State-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo says shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers
- Sustained attacks on Ukraine’s power grid have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts
KYIV: Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province.
The shutdowns were in place in all but three regions of Ukraine following Saturday’s drone and missile attack on energy targets that injured at least 19 people.
Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers.
Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in recent weeks have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts. Without adequate air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs, though, the shortages could still worsen as need spikes in late summer and the bitter-cold winter.
Among the most significant recent strikes were an April barrage that damaged Kyiv’s largest thermal power plant and a massive attack on May 8 that targeted power generation and transmission facilities in several regions.
Following Saturday’s barrage, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday that air defenses had shot down all 25 drones launched overnight.
Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Umanske in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region.
Russia’s coordinated new offensive has centered on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, but seems to include testing Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk farther south, while also launching incursions in the northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions.
In Russia, six people were injured in shelling in the city of Shebekino in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Sunday. He also said that a local official, the deputy head of the Korochansky district, had been killed by “detonation of ammunition.” He gave no details.
In the neighboring Kursk region, three people were injured Sunday when an explosive device was dropped from a drone, according to acting regional head Alexey Smirnov.
Speaking at Asia’s premier security conference in Singapore, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused China on Sunday of helping Russia to disrupt an upcoming Swiss-organized peace conference on the war in Ukraine.
Sri Lanka monsoon floods kill 14, schools shut
- Sri Lanka faces more frequent floods as the world heats due to climate change
COLOMBO: Flash floods, mudslides and falling trees have killed at least 14 people in Sri Lanka as the island nation is battered by monsoon storms, the country’s disaster center said Sunday.
Some drowned, including three members of the same family swept away near the capital Colombo on Sunday.
Others were buried alive in mudslides, including an 11-year-old girl and a 20-year-old man, the Disaster Management Center (DMC) said.
Nine other people were crushed and killed when trees fell on them in seven districts since the monsoon intensified on May 21, the DMC said.
While Sri Lanka depends on the seasonal monsoon rain for irrigation as well as hydroelectricity, experts have warned that it faces more frequent floods as the world heats due to climate change.
The DMC said 20 out of the country’s 25 districts were affected by heavy rain and issued warnings to people living on the banks of main rivers to move to higher ground.
Flights arriving at Colombo’s main international airport were diverted to a smaller airport, and some key highways were flooded at several exits.
The government also ordered all schools to remain shut on Monday after the weekend holiday, as more rain was forecast.
“There could be more heavy rains accompanied by strong winds and thunder,” the DMC said.
Last week, wildlife authorities found seven carcasses of young elephants who drowned in the biggest single loss of the animals in five years.
The onset of the southwest monsoon triggered flooding in the elephant habitat in Dimbulagala, around 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Colombo.
French far right has big lead over Macron ally ahead of EU vote: poll
PARIS: France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party holds a commanding lead in voting intentions for upcoming European Parliament elections, according to an opinion poll published on Sunday.
Voting intentions remained “very volatile,” however, said the Elabe institute, which conducted the polls for broadcaster BFMTV and weekly La Tribune Dimanche.
“One in three voters could still change their minds before the election, especially on the left.”
The poll was conducted among 1,803 people between May 29 and 31.
The extreme-right RN’s top candidate, Jordan Bardella, is credited with 32.5 percent of voting intentions in the poll,
Valerie Hayer, an ally of center-right President Emmanuel Macron, came second with 16 percent, followed by center-left Socialist candidate Raphael Glucksmann with 13.
While the standing of the main candidates was broadly unchanged from a similar poll a week ago, left-wing parties France Unbowed, the Greens and Communists made slight gains.
The right-wing opposition Les Republicains and the extreme-right Reconquete were, meanwhile, below the five percent threshold needed for representation in the European Parliament.
In France, the European Parliament elections are primarily seen as a key gauge of national politicians’ popularity.
Bardella was later on Sunday to hold a final election rally in Paris.
Around 5,500 supporters and RN party heavyweight Marine Le Pen were expected to attend.
Opinion polls show far-right parties making gains in several European Union countries in the elections on June 6-9.
Businesswoman set to become Iceland’s next president
- Halla Tomasdottir was officially credited with 34.6% of votes, after 71.6% of ballot papers had been counted
- Iceland’s president holds a largely ceremonial position in the parliamentary republic
REYKJAVIK: Businesswoman Halla Tomasdottir was set on Sunday to become Iceland’s new president, election results showed, beating former prime minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, who critics said was too political for the post.
Jakobsdottir conceded defeat early on Sunday and congratulated Tomasdottir, the CEO of The B Team, a global non-profit co-founded by UK business tycoon Richard Branson to promote business practices focused on humanity and the climate.
Iceland’s president holds a largely ceremonial position in the parliamentary republic, acting as a guarantor of the constitution and national unity.
He or she does however have the power to veto legislation or submit it to a referendum.
Tomasdottir, 55, was officially credited with 34.6 percent of votes, after 71.6 percent of ballot papers had been counted on Sunday.
The 48-year-old Jakobsdottir, who stepped down as prime minister of a left-right government in April to run in Saturday’s election, garnered 25 percent.
The results showed Tomasdottir with much stronger support than opinion polls had suggested in the run-up to the election, where the two candidates had been seen running neck-and-neck.
The final results were likely to change somewhat but Jakobsdottir conceded defeat in the early hours of Sunday before the last votes were in.
“It seems to me that Halla Tomasdottir is quickly heading toward becoming the next president of Iceland.
“I congratulate her on that and know that she will be a good president,” Jakobsdottir told national broadcaster RUV at an election night rally.
Tomasdottir meanwhile told daily Morgunbladid during her election rally she was “just trying to breathe.”
“I feel incredibly good. I know it’s not over until it’s over. So I’m also just trying to stay calm and breathe,” she said.
Tomasdottir is also the founder of Audur Capital, an investment firm created in 2007 aimed at promoting feminine values in the financial sector.
No one central issue dominated the campaign, where candidates traditionally run as independents without party affiliations.
In the country of 380,000 people, any citizen gathering 1,500 signatures can run for office.
While Jakobsdottir was at times seen as the favorite, political observers had suggested that her background as prime minister could weigh against her.
Among the other main candidates in the field of 13 were a political science professor, a comedian, and an Arctic and energy scholar.
Tomasdottir is set to be the second woman to serve as Iceland’s president.
In 1980, Vigdis Finnbogadottir became the world’s first woman democratically elected as head of state.
The businesswoman is set to succeed the hugely popular Gudni Johannesson, who has held the job since 2016.
He announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election.
Jakobsdottir, party leader for the Left Green Movement from 2013 until her presidential bid, has been hailed for her handling of the resurgence in volcanic eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula since December.
The five eruptions, including one last week, have sparked a series of evacuations as well as the state’s acquisition of homes from residents evacuated from the threatened fishing town of Grindavik.
Rescue crews work to free people trapped under a collapsed apartment building in Istanbul
ISTANBUL: Emergency workers were trying to rescue people trapped under a collapsed apartment building in Istanbul on Sunday.
TV images showed firefighters shifting rubble by hand from the flattened three-story building in Kucukcekmece on the city’s European side. Two injured people were pulled from the debris, broadcaster CNN Turk reported.
The Istanbul governor’s office said the structure collapsed at 8:40 a.m. local time (0545 GMT). The cause was not immediately clear.
More than 59,000 people were killed last year when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck parts of southern Turkiye and neighboring Syria. The disaster highlighted the poor enforcement of building regulations in Turkiye.
