NEW DELHI: A major fire in a 19-story residential building killed at least six people and injured 15 others on Saturday in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, officials said.
The fire was caused by a short-circuit in an air conditioner in one of the apartments, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said.
Residents said the fire started on the 15th floor and a big column of black smoke soon enveloped the building. More than 90 people escaped the building on their own or helped by neighbors, they said.
Ganesh Purnaik, a spokesman for the city government, said the fire left six people dead and 15 hospitalized with injuries.
Four of the injured were in critical condition, said police officer Saurabh Tripathi.
Nearly two dozen fire engines extinguished the blaze and controlled the smoke after a two-hour effort, media reports said. Firefighters rushed the injured to two nearby hospitals.
Pednekar said some of the injured needed oxygen support because they had inhaled smoke.
Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents.
In August, a fire killed eight coronavirus patients at a hospital in Ahmedabad, a major city in Gujarat state. In December 2018, a late-night fire in a Mumbai restaurant killed 15 people.
Fire in residential building kills 6, injures 15 in Mumbai
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Fire in residential building kills 6, injures 15 in Mumbai
- The fire was caused by a short-circuit in an air conditioner in one of the apartments
- Nearly two dozen fire engines extinguished the blaze and controlled the smoke after a two-hour effort
Number of new German citizens hits 20-year high as many Syrians naturalized
Preliminary figures show that about 168,500 people were granted German citizenship in 2022, the Federal Statistical Office said. That was the highest number since 2002.
Of those, 48,300 — or 29 percent — were Syrian citizens. That was more than double the previous year’s figure and seven times as high as in 2020, as increasing numbers of people who migrated to Germany between 2014 and 2016 fulfill the requirements for citizenship.
Those include a working knowledge of German and proof that they can support themselves financially.
In principle, there is a requirement for people to have lived in Germany for at least eight years, though that doesn’t apply to spouses and children. It can be reduced to six years for people who show “special integration accomplishments” such as very good knowledge of the language, professional achievements or civic engagement. There were 23,100 such “early” naturalizations last year, nearly twice as many as in 2021 and 60 percent of them Syrians.
Turkish citizens were the second-biggest group of people gaining German citizenship last year — 14,200 of them, a 16 percent increase compared to 2021, and with an average of more than 24 years living in Germany.
The statistics office said that 5,600 Ukrainians gained German citizenship last year, nearly three times as many as the previous year. They had spent an average 13.3 years in Germany, compared with 6.4 years for their Syrian counterparts.
Germany’s socially liberal government plans to ease the rules for obtaining citizenship, reducing to five years from eight the number of years people are supposed to live in the country before gaining a German passport. People with “special integration accomplishments” would be eligible after three years.
The government also plans to axe restrictions on holding dual citizenship. In principle, most people from countries other than European Union members and Switzerland currently have to give up their previous nationality when they gain German citizenship.
Conservative and far-right opposition parties have assailed those plans. It isn’t yet clear when parliament will consider them.
Germany has about 84 million inhabitants.
Italy arrests a minor belonging to international network of young Daesh supporters
- The minor, identified as an Italian citizen of foreign origin, was arrested in the province of Bergamo
- Italian authorities said others in the network of young Daesh supporters were arrested last week in Europe and the United States
MILAN: Italian authorities have arrested a minor suspected of being a supporter of the Daesh terror network who was allegedly planning an explosive attack in the area where he lived, police said Tuesday.
The minor, identified as an Italian citizen of foreign origin, was arrested in the province of Bergamo on suspicion of association with the aim of terrorism, terrorist training, extolling the virtues of terrorism and instigation to commit a crime.
Italian authorities said others in the network of young Daesh supporters were arrested last week in Europe and the United States, but did not provide further details.
Investigators said that the suspect, who had been under surveillance by Italian intelligence, had quickly become radicalized, publishing terrorist propaganda online, and initiating plans for an explosive attack.
The arrest, approved by a court for minors in Brescia, was carried out last Friday. The suspect had in his possession videos of executions, weapons manuals and instructions on how to build explosive devices, which he was passing along to a network of young Daesh supporters in other countries, encouraging them to take violent action, investigators said.
Italy police arrest 40 mafia suspects for drug smuggling via Chinese money brokers
- The breakthrough comes less than a month after an operation in which European police arrested more than 100 mafia suspects
- Police were executing 40 arrest warrants, including for four Albanians and two Chinese suspects
MILAN: Italian police arrested 40 people on Tuesday in a new crackdown targeting the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, with suspects accused of drugs trafficking with counterparts in Latin America using shadow networks of Chinese money brokers.
“Today’s raid is a crucial operation that showed how the ‘Ndrangheta is an octopus that a everywhere with interconnections all over the world,” Guardia di Finanza police captain Angelo Santori said.
The breakthrough comes less than a month after an operation in which European police arrested more than 100 mafia suspects in a major operation against drugs and weapons smuggling.
Santori, who led the latest investigation in the northern city of Bologna, said police were executing 40 arrest warrants, including for four Albanians and two Chinese suspects, as well as restricting the movements of suspected Calabrian mafia members in seven Italian regions.
The investigation, spanning late 2019 to July 2022, traced the traffic of 1.2 tons of cocaine, 450 kg of hashish and 95 kg of marijuana, Guardia di Finanza police said in a statement.
The network was able to handle drug shipments with powerful South American cartels, including the Brazilian Primeiro Comando da Capital, and Colombian, Peruvian, Mexican and Bolivian criminal organizations, police said.
The ‘Ndrangheta, which has its roots in the southern Italian region of Calabria, has surpassed Cosa Nostra as the most powerful mafia group in the country, and one of the largest criminal networks in the world.
“An active role was played by a network of Chinese subjects through the so-called ‘fei ch’ien’, an informal money transfer system with which more than 5 million euros ($5.50 million) was laundered,” Santori added.
According to Italian police, after receiving the cash, the Chinese money brokers forwarded it to trading companies in China and Hong Kong. The companies then delivered the money to the drug brokers and the South American cartels themselves through agents based abroad.
Several recent investigations have shown how drugs cartels in Italy are increasingly using shadow networks of unlicensed Chinese money brokers to conceal cross-border payments.
The investigation was helped by accessing encrypted chats on a platform that was dismantled in 2021 by a Europol Joint Investigation Team, and cooperation with the US Homeland Security Investigations, the Italian police statement said. ($1 = 0.9084 euros)
Pakistan’s Khan gets bail on new charge of abetting violence – lawyer
- Former prime minister is embroiled in a confrontation with the powerful military
- Bail until June 2 on the new charge means he will not be detained on that charge
LAHORE, Pakistan: Pakistani former prime minister Imran Khan was on Tuesday granted bail on a new charge of abetting violence against the military by his protesting supporters after he was arrested and detained on May 9 in a corruption case, his lawyer said.
The embattled Khan, who says the corruption charges have been concocted, is embroiled in a confrontation with the powerful military, which has ruled Pakistan directly or overseen civilian governments throughout its history.
His May 9 arrest sparked widespread protests by his supporters who ransacked various military facilities, raising new worries about the stability of the nuclear-armed country as it struggles with its worst economic crisis in decades.
Khan, 70, was later freed on the orders of a court.
His lawyer, Intezar Hussain Punjotha, said an anti-terrorism court confirmed the bail on the new charge after the former premier appeared before it and submitted surety bonds.
Khan has denied the charge saying he was in detention when the violence took place.
The bail until June 2 on the new charge means he will not be detained on that charge.
The former international cricket star became prime minister in 2018 with the tacit support of the military, though both sides denied it at the time.
He later fell out with generals and was ousted as prime minister after losing a confidence vote in 2022.
Khan has since then been campaigning for a snap election, with rallies with his supporters across the country, but the prime minister who replaced him, Shahbaz Sharif, has rejected the call for an election before it is due late this year.
The turmoil has exacerbated Pakistan’s economic crisis with inflation at record highs, growth is anemic amid fears of a sovereign default on external debts unless the International Monetary Fund (IMF) unlocks delayed disbursements.
Dozens of Khan’s supporters have been handed over to army authorities for trial in military courts.
A team of investigators looking into the May 9 violence summoned Khan on Tuesday for questioning but Punjotha said a member of his legal team would go instead.
Khan has appealed for talks to end the crisis. The government has rejected his call.
NATO seeks to narrow differences over Ukraine membership bid
- NATO has not acceded to Ukraine’s request for fast-track membership
- Western governments are wary of moves that could take the alliance closer to entering an active war with Russia
BRUSSELS: NATO foreign ministers will seek to narrow divisions over Ukraine’s membership bid at a meeting in Oslo this week, with allies at odds over calls to grant Kyiv a road map to accession at their July summit.
NATO has not acceded to Ukraine’s request for fast-track membership as Western governments such as the US and Germany are wary of moves that they fear could take the alliance closer to entering an active war with Russia.
However, both Kyiv and some of its closest allies in eastern Europe have been pushing for NATO to at least take concrete steps to bring Ukraine closer to membership at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12.
“It would be very sad if in any way anyone could read the outcome of the Vilnius summit as a victory of Russia in precluding Ukraine to join NATO one day,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said on Friday.
Last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made it clear that Ukraine will not be able to join the alliance as long as the war against Russia continues.
“To become a member in the midst of a war is not on the agenda,” he said. “The issue is what happens when the war ends.”
NATO agreed at its 2008 summit in Bucharest that Ukraine will join eventually.
However, leaders have since stopped short of steps such as giving Kyiv a membership action plan that would lay out a timetable for bringing the country closer to NATO.
On the sidelines of their Oslo meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, foreign ministers are also expected to touch on the search for a new NATO chief, with Stoltenberg due to step down in September.
Meanwhile, President Tayyip Erdogan’s election victory in Turkiye has brought fresh momentum to efforts to break a deadlock over the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership, held up by objections from Turkiye and Hungary.
Any progress in Oslo is unlikely, however, as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will not be there, Sweden said, although talks between him and Sweden’s Tobias Billstrom will nevertheless take place “soon.”
