Page 6 - aruba-today-20220525

A6 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 25 May 2022
Iran building collapse kills 11 as mayor and others detained

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Res- Lawmakers opened a sep-
cuers dug through de- arate parliament inquiry
bris Tuesday of a building into the case Tuesday,
collapse in southwestern trying to determine why
Iran that killed at least 11 the building on Amir Kabir
people, fearful that many Street collapsed during a
more could still be trapped sandstorm. However, there
beneath the rubble as au- was no major earthquake
thorities arrested the city’s recorded Monday near
mayor in a widening probe Abadan, some 660 kilome-
of the disaster. ters (410 miles) southwest of
The collapse Monday of an Tehran.
under-construction 10-story A local journalist in Abadan
tower at the Metropol Build- had repeatedly raised
ing exposed its cement concerns about the build-
blocks and steel beams ing’s construction, begin-
while also underscoring ning from last year, pub-
an ongoing crisis in Iranian lishing images that he said
construction projects that showed sagging floors at
has seen other disasters in the first tower. He also al-
this earthquake-prone na- leged corruption in the
tion. In this photo provided by Tasnim News Agency, debris hangs from the Metropol buildin,g a 10-story building permits process.
Video from the initial col- commercial building under construction, in the southwestern city of Abadan, Iran, Tuesday, May Later Tuesday, the state-run
lapse Monday showed 24, 2022. IRNA news agency quoted
thick dust rise over Abadan, Associated Press Faramarz Zoghi, a con-
a crucial oil-producing city struction expert and ad-
in Khuzestan province, near clear if that figure included Mayor Hossein Hamidpour not be immediately recon- viser to Iran’s construction
Iran’s border with Iraq. The those already pulled from immediately after the col- ciled. engineers league, as say-
Metropol Building included the rubble. At least 39 peo- lapse, according to the Authorities offered no im- ing that “definitely nation-
two towers, one already ple were injured, most of semiofficial ILNA news mediate word on wheth- al construction measures
built and the other under them lightly, officials earlier agency and online videos. er those detained faced were not observed” at the
construction, though its said. Police later arrested charges and it wasn’t im- site. Authorities also de-
bottom commercial floors Aerial drone footage aired Hamidpour and nine oth- mediately clear if lawyers clared a one-day mourn-
had finished and already Tuesday showed the floors ers, Iranian media reported represented them. ing period Wednesday
had tenants. had pancaked on top of Tuesday. Initially, authorities Iranian President Ebrahim over the disaster.
On Tuesday, an emergen- each other, leaving a pile said the building’s owner Raisi offered his condolenc- Abadan became the fo-
cy official interviewed on of dusty, gray debris. A and its general contractor es and appealed on the lo- cus of development by the
state television suggested construction crane stood had been arrested as well, cal authorities to get to the British beginning in 1909 as
that some 50 people may still nearby as a single back- though a later report from bottom of the case. Iran’s they built what became
have been inside of the hoe dug. State TV said at the judiciary’s Mizan news vice president in charge of the world’s largest oil refin-
building at the time of the least 11 people had been agency said Tuesday that economic affairs, Mohsen ery at the time. Iran later
collapse, including people killed. the two men had been Razaei, and Interior Minister nationalized its oil industry
moving into its basement An angry crowd at the site killed in the collapse. The Ahmad Vahidi visited the in the decades before the
floors. However, it wasn’t chased and beat Abadan conflicting reports could site. 1979 Islamic Revolution.q

Boat carrying Rohingya fleeing Myanmar capsizes, killing 16

said Tuesday. persecuted in Myanmar. living in crowded refugee
There were 35 survivors of More than 700,000 Rohing- camps in Bangladesh.
Saturday’s accident that ya have fled the country Groups of Rohingya from
took place Saturday off to neighboring Bangladesh camps in both countries
Myanmar’s southwestern since August 2017 to es- embark on hazardous voy-
coast and four people cape the brutal counter- ages to the Muslim-majority
were missing, the officials insurgency campaign of countries of Malaysia and
said. Myanmar’s military follow- Indonesia to seek a better
UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee ing an attack by a Rohing- living.
agency, expressed shock ya insurgent group in Rakh- “Some 630 Rohingya have
and sadness about the ac- ine State. attempted sea journeys
cident in a statement and Myanmar’s government across the Bay of Bengal
said at least 17 Rohingya, has denied accusations from January to May 2022,”
including children, had that security forces com- the UNHCR statement said,
died. mitted mass rapes and kill- with women and children
Rohingya refugees bathe at a hand water pump at Kutupalong The boat left the western ings and burned thousands making up 60% of those try-
refugee camp, where they have been living amid uncertainty
over their future after they fled Myanmar to escape violence a state of Rakhine last Thurs- of homes, but the U.S. gov- ing to flee.
year ago, in Bangladesh, Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018. day and encountered bad ernment recently labeled The statement added: “The
Associated Press weather two days later off actions by the country’s risk of abuse at the hands
Ayeyarwaddy Region on military as genocide. of smugglers and the peril
By GRANT PECK died after a storm capsized Myanmar’s southwestern There are more than of the sea journey itself are
Associated Press the boat they were travel- coast, causing it to capsize, 100,000 Rohingya left in both exacerbated during
BANGKOK (AP) — At least ing on to seek refuge in an- the statement said. Myanmar, confined in prolonged journeys, when
16 people from Myanmar’s other country, officials and The Rohingya, a Muslim squalid displacement a safe harbor for disembar-
Rohingya minority have a recovery team member minority, have long been camps, along with those kation cannot be found.”q