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A30 world news
Diasabra 9 aPriL 2022

Missile kills at least 50 at crowded Ukrainian train station

nounced as yet another war prosecutor-general said.
crime in the 6-week-old Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional
conflict came as workers un- governor of Donetsk, which
earthed bodies from a mass Ukrainian President Volody- lies in the Donbas, said that
grave in Bucha, a town near myr Zelenskyy and other 50 people were killed, includ-
Ukraine’s capital where doz- leaders accused Russia’s mili- ing five children, and many
ens of killings have already tary of deliberately attacking dozens more were wounded.
been documented following the station. Russia, in turn,
a Russian pullout. blamed Ukraine, saying its “There are many people in
forces don’t use the kind of a serious condition, without
Photos from the station in missile that hit the station arms or legs,” Mayor Olek-
Kramatorsk showed the dead — a contention experts dis- sandr Goncharenko said.
covered with tarps on the missed. Even with 30 to 40 surgeons
ground and the remnants of working to treat them, the lo-
a rocket with the words “For “Without the strength or cal hospital was struggling to
the children” painted on it courage to stand up to us cope, he said.
(AP) — A missile hit a women and children try- in Russian. About 4,000 ci- on the battlefield, (Russian
train station where thou- ing to flee a new, looming vilians were in and around troops) are cynically destroy- Britain’s Defense Minis-
sands of Ukrainians had Russian offensive in the the station at the time of the ing the civilian population,” ter Ben Wallace denounced
gathered Friday, killing country’s east, Ukrainian strike, heeding calls to leave Zelenskyy said on social me- the attack as a war crime,
at least 50 and wound- authorities said. the area before fighting in- dia. “This is an evil without and U.N. Secretary-General
ing dozens more in an at- tensifies in the Donbas re- limits. And if it is not pun- Antonio Guterres called it
tack on a crowd of mostly The attack that some de- gion, the office of Ukraine’s ished, then it will never stop.” “completely unacceptable.”

Puerto Rico struggles to emerge from outage as anger builds

(AP) — Shuttered businesses. been working nonstop. to Puerto Rico’s power company in out. The store runs on a small gen-
Sleepless nights. Canceled class- September 2020 to rebuild the grid, erator that keeps the lights on but
es. Hundreds of thousands of “The system is extremely fragile,” but that it has not yet received any doesn’t have the power to keep large
people across Puerto Rico re- said Shay Bahramirad, an engineering transmission and distribution proj- refrigerators running.
mained without power on Friday, vice president with Luma. ects for evaluation and approval of
nearly two days after a fire at a construction funds. “Ýou’re working under a lot of stress
main power plant sparked an is- The company has said that a circuit- when you have no lights,” she said as
land-wide outage. breaker failure could have caused In addition, the Costa Sur generation she grabbed large bunches of green
the blackout after a fire erupted late plant, one of four main ones on the plantains and placed them on worn
Crews have restored power to some Wednesday at the Costa Sur power island, was damaged during a series of shelves.
650,000 customers out of nearly 1.5 plant in southern Puerto Rico, but strong earthquakes that struck south-
million, but people in several neigh- that it will be weeks before they’ll ern Puerto Rico in recent years. Many are now worried about the state
borhoods have complained that the know the exact cause of the interrup- of the electrical grid just two months
electricity went out once again as tion. Kevin Acevedo, a vice president for before the Atlantic Hurricane season
the island struggles to emerge from Luma, said Friday that the compa- starts.
the blackout that also left more than Meanwhile, the lack of power ny hopes to have restored power to
160,000 clients without water. prompted at least one city to dis- 1 million customers by late Friday Josué Colón, executive director of
tribute food to the elderly and ice to night. Puerto Rico’s power company, said
The outage forced the government to those with health conditions includ- those concerns are legitimate: “It’s
cancel classes and shutter agencies for ing diabetes as many wonder when Those who have power back said still a system that is not in prime con-
the second day in a row on this U.S. exactly they’ll have lights again. they are relieved but worry about dition. It’s still a system that has to be
territory of 3.2 million people as frus- the impact the outage had on shrink- rebuilt.”
tration and anger bubbled over. “I haven’t slept,” said Fernando Gar- ing budgets already hard hit by the
cía, a 51-year-old construction work- island’s more than decade-long eco- The outage comes as Puerto Rico’s
“This is unbearable,” said Maribel er who is more worried about not be- nomic crisis. electric power company tries to
Hernández, 49, as she wiped her ing able to find work in the past two emerge from bankruptcy and restruc-
forehead with a small blue washcloth days given the outage. “I don’t have a Felicia Serrano, manager of a small ture some $9 billion in public debt.
that she hung over her left shoulder. budget right now.” grocery store in a community called The company has long struggled with
Barrio Obrero in the capital of San corruption, mismanagement and a
Hernández, who is recovering from García stood outside a small outdoor Juan, said she lost $2,000 worth of lack of investment into aging infra-
cancer, has been sleeping on the con- cafeteria selling eggs and greasy turn- merchandise as a result of the black- structure.
crete floor in her home’s narrow out- overs known as empanadillas, grateful
door patio with only a sheet because that the owner allowed him to charge
her mattress doesn’t fit there. She his phone for the day as he continued
worries about being mugged because to look for work.
she lives in a working-class neighbor-
hood with a high crime rate, but the Luma CEO Wayne Stensby has called
heat inside her house is overwhelm- the outage “very unusual” and said it
ing. demonstrated the fragility of Puerto
Rico’s electrical grid, which Hurri-
“Those who have generators are do- cane Maria razed in 2017 as a pow-
ing well, but what about people like erful Category 4 storm. Emergency
us?” she said, adding that she’s been repairs were made at the time, but re-
forced to throw out all her food. construction efforts have yet to start
on the crumbling electrical grid that
Officials with Luma, which took over has caused weekly outages in dozens
transmission and distribution from of communities
Puerto Rico’s Electric Power com-
pany last year, have said they don’t Late Thursday, the U.S. Federal
know exactly when power would be Emergency Management Agency said
fully restored but note crews have it had approved nearly $9.5 billion