Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Friday 24 January 2020

Women gather their belongings salvaged from the shacks they
lived in near the airport in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Thursday Jan.
23, 2020.
Associated Press
Ivory Coast clears

homes near airport In this undated photo released from the Rural Fire Service, a C-130 Hercules plane called "Thor"

after stowaway death drops water during a flight in Australia. Officials in Australia on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, searched
for a water tanker plane feared to have crashed while fighting wildfires.
Associated Press

By ALEXIS ADELE tions Minister Sidy Toure Firefighting plane crashes in
Communica-
problems,"
Associated Press
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) said after a cabinet meet-
— Construction crews ing earlier this month. Australia, killing 3 Americans
began leveling homes The boy's lifeless body
deemed too close to the was found after the flight
airport in Ivory Coast's com- landed at Paris' Charles de SYDNEY (AP) — Three large fireball associated (25.7 million acres), an area
mercial capital on Thurs- Gaulle Airport, Air France American crew members with that crash," said Rural bigger than the U.S. state of
day, part of a crackdown said in a statement, ex- were killed Thursday when Fire Service Commissioner Indiana.
on informal settlements pressing its "deepest sym- a C-130 Hercules aerial wa- Shane Fitzsimmons. Coulson grounded other
after a teenage boy died pathy and compassion for ter tanker crashed while Foreign Minister Marise firefighting aircraft as a
earlier this month as a flight this human tragedy." battling wildfires in south- Payne said she had con- precaution pending inves-
stowaway. While some of the 25,000 eastern Australia, officials veyed Australia's condo- tigation, reducing planes
The tragedy involving an Air residents of the area were said. lences to U.S. Ambassador available to firefighters
France jet bound for Paris given 45 days notice to New South Wales Premier Arthur Culvahouse Jr. in New South Wales and
underscored the risks that move, demolition crews Gladys Berejiklian con- "Our hearts go out to their neighboring Victoria state.
many in the West African began taking down homes firmed the crash deaths in loved ones. They were The four-propeller Hercules
nation are willing to take closest to the airport on the state's Snowy Monaro helping Australia, far from drops more than 15,000 li-
for a chance to live in Eu- Thursday. region, which came as their own homes, an em- ters (4,000 gallons) of fire
rope when they lack visas The crews even destroyed Australia grapples with an bodiment of the deep retardant in a single pass.
and the financial means to the neighborhood mosque, unprecedented fire season friendship between our Australian Transport Safety
take commercial flights. Imam Issa Sankoudouma that has left a large swath two countries," she said in a Bureau, the national air
Authorities said the evic- said. of destruction. statement. crash investigator, and
tions would help to estab- "We said at least leave Coulson Aviation in the U.S. "Thank you to these three, state police will investigate
lish a 200-meter (yard) safe- the mosque, smash the state of Oregon said in a and to all the brave fire- the crash site, which fire-
ty buffer around the airport homes, but they smashed statement that one of its fighters from Australia and fighters described as an
in Abidjan. Many of the af- everything," he said. "So Lockheed large air tankers around the world. Your ser- active fire ground.
fected residents pleaded the mosque has gone, we was lost after it left Rich- vice and contribution are "There is no indication at
for a grace period to allow are here, we got what we mond in New South Wales extraordinary. We are ever this stage of what's caused
their children to complete could from our homes." with retardant for a fire- grateful," she added. the accident," Fitzsimmons
the current school year in Bernard Assamoi, a bombing mission. It said the The tragedy brings the said.
July, but government offi- 56-year-old electrician who accident was "extensive" death toll from the blazes Also Thursday, Canberra
cials said their homes were faces eviction, said resi- but had few other details. to at least 31 since Sep- Airport closed temporar-
illegal. dents can't afford decent "The only thing I have from tember. The fires have also ily because of nearby wild-
"These occupations pose housing. "Our daily life is the the field reports are that destroyed more than 2,600 fires, and residents south of
air safety and security search for food. q the plane came down, it's homes and razed more the city were told to seek
crashed and there was a than 10.4 million hectares shelter. q