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A10   WORLD NEWS
                  Monday 9 deceMber 2019
            Devastating factory fire kills at least 43 in Indian capital




            By SHEIKH SAALIQ                                                                                                    smoke and flames shooting
            ASHOK SHARMA                                                                                                        out of a building near Sadar
            Associated Press                                                                                                    Bazaar.  Inside,  he  found
            NEW DELHI (AP) — A fire be-                                                                                         the fourth floor engulfed in
            lieved to be caused by an                                                                                           flames. One floor below, he
            electrical  short  circuit  en-                                                                                     saw “20 to 25 people lying
            gulfed a building in India’s                                                                                        on the floor.”
            capital  on  Sunday  where                                                                                          “I  don’t  know  if  they  were
            handbags and other items                                                                                            dead  or  unconscious,  but
            were  made  by  workers                                                                                             they  were  not  moving,”
            earning as little as 2 dollars                                                                                      Naushad said.
            per  day,  killing  at  least  43                                                                                   He said he carried at least
            people.                                                                                                             10 people out of the flames
            The  blaze  in  New  Delhi’s                                                                                        on  his  shoulders  and  into
            Karol  Bagh  neighborhood,                                                                                          the arms of emergency re-
            a  warren  of  narrow  alley-                                                                                       sponders.
            ways  with  electrical  wiring                                                                                      Maisuma  Bibi,  a  day  la-
            strung  helter-skelter,  was                                                                                        borer making plastic hand-
            the second major fire there                                                                                         bags,  survived  the  blaze.
            this year.                                                                                                          She  said  she  was  sleeping
            In  February,  17  people                                                                                           in  a  room  with  about  18
            were  killed  in  a  blaze  that                                                                                    other women and children
            started  in  a  six-story  build-                                                                                   on  the  building’s  first  floor
            ing’s illegal rooftop kitchen.                                                                                      when  she  woke  to  find  a
            Karol  Bagh  contains  the                                                                                          bag full of plastic parts on
            city’s   largest   wholesale   A fire engine stands by the site of a fire in an alleyway, tangled in electrical wire and too narrow   fire. Her brother-in-law car-
                                          for vehicles to access, in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019.
            market     for   household                                                                         Associated Press  ried her to safety, she said.
            goods,  known  as    Sadar                                                                                          Outside  a  mortuary  that
            Bazaar.                      fire appears to have been    common.                      broke out in one of the ar-  was guarded by dozens of
            The  area’s  aging  buildings  caused by an electric short   The building’s owner, Rihan,  ea’s  many  alleyways,  tan-  police officers, some of the
            are  stacked  with  apart-   circuit,”  adding  that  au-  who  goes  by  one  name,  gled  in  electrical  wire  and  workers’ relatives said they
            ments,  shops,  storage  fa-  thorities  were  investigating   was detained on suspicion  too  narrow  for  vehicles  to  had  received  phone  calls
            cilities  and  manufacturing  whether  the  factory  was   of  culpable  homicide  not  access, authorities said.   from  the  men  trapped  in-
            units.                       operating legally.           amounting  to  murder,  Mit-  A resident of the area, Mo-  side, who begged them to
            Assistant  New  Delhi  po-   Building  laws  and  safety   tal said.                   hammed Naushad, said he  call the fire brigade.
            lice  commissioner  Anil  Ku-  norms are routinely flouted   Firefighters  had  to  fight  was woken by people wail-  Family  members  identified
            mar  Mittal  said  that  “the  in  New  Delhi,  making  fires   the  blaze  from  100  meters  ing at around 4:30 a.m.   the  dead  from  photos  on
                                                                      (yards)  away  because  it  He  went  outside  to  find  police officers’ phones.q


                                                                       Main Lebanon PM candidate

                                                                       withdraws from consideration



                                                                       Associated Press
                                                                       BEIRUT  (AP)  —  A  pos-
                                                                       sible candidate for prime
                                                                       minister  of  Lebanon  said
                                                                       Sunday  he  is  withdraw-
                                                                       ing from consideration for
                                                                       the  post,  prolonging  the
                                                                       country’s political crisis.
                                                                       Samir  Khatib  said  the
                                                                       country’s  top  Sunni  reli-
                                                                       gious  authority  told  him
                                                                       the  community  supports
                                                                       resigned  Prime  Minister
                                                                       Saad  Hariri  to  take  back
                                                                       the post.                   In this photo released by the Lebanese Government, Lebanon’s
                                                                       Under  Lebanon’s  sectar-   outgoing  Prime  Minister  Saad  Hariri,  right,  meets  with  Samir
                                                                       ian-based  political  sys-  Khatib, the head of a major contracting and construction and
                                                                       tem,  the  prime  minister   once  considered  a  favorite  candidate  for  the  post  of  Prime
                                                                       comes  from  the  Sunni     Minister, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019.
                                                                       Muslim  community,  while                                           Associated Press
                                                                       the  president  is  chosen
                                                                       from  the  Maronite  Chris-  came hours before he was  Hariri  resigned  Oct.  29
                                                                       tian community. The par-     expected to be named as  amid  nationwide  protests
                                                                       liament speaker is chosen    the  official  candidate  fol-  in  which  demonstrators
                                                                       from  the  ranks  of  Shiite   lowing  consultations  be-  accused the political elite
                                                                       Muslims.                     tween  the  president  and  of  corruption  and  mis-
                                                                       Khatib’s  announcement       major parliamentary blocs.   management. q
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