The world in brief

Thursday, February 6, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Violations must come to an end now.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, responding to a report that children in Syria have been abused and attacked by President Bashar Assad’s forces and recruited for combat by the rebels Article, this page

Wall’s collapse in Argentina fire kills 9

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Nine first responders were killed and seven others injured Wednesday as they battled a fire of unknown origin that destroyed an archive of corporate and banking industry documents in Argentina’s capital.

The fire at the Iron Mountain warehouse took hours to control and at least half of the sprawling building was ruined despite the efforts of at least 10 squads of firefighters.

The nine firefighters and civil-defense workers were crushed when a brick wall collapsed on top of a large group of first responders on the sidewalk and street outside. Tearful rescuers removed rubble by hand to reach their comrades.

Argentina Security Secretary Sergio Berni said Iron Mountain also had employees inside the building when the fire started early Wednesday, but all the employees and firefighters were accounted for by early afternoon.

The destroyed archives included documents stored for Argentine corporations and banks, said Buenos Aires security minister Guillermo Montenegro.

The cause wasn’t immediately clear. Berni said the company’s on-site firefighters shared some details with authorities, and Iron Mountain said it, too, will investigate.

Macedonia castration bill called lenient

SKOPJE, Macedonia - Macedonia’s parliament has adopted a bill imposing chemical castration on repeat offenders convicted of sexually abusing children - but the country’s leading child-protection group said Wednesday that the law is still too lenient.

The Megjasi child-protection group, which had campaigned for the procedure to be imposed on pedophiles, said the penalty should be mandatory even for first-time offenders. The procedure involves regular injections that decrease the production of testosterone.

Lawmakers voted Monday to make penalties harsher for convicted pedophiles, increasing the maximum sentence from 15 years to life imprisonment and imposing chemical castration on second-time offenders, with the procedure to be imposed on their release from prison.

It introduces a minimum 15-year prison term for severe sexual offenses against minors, while other sexual-related crimes against children are punishable by between three and 10 years in prison.

The legislation also offers reduced prison sentences to first-time offenders agreeing to undergo the procedure voluntarily.

Koreas set family reunions this month

SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korea agreed Wednesday to hold family reunions this month in which hundreds of elderly relatives separated by the Korean War would meet for the first time in six decades.

Under the deal struck during Red Cross talks on their border Wednesday, the two Koreas agreed to hold the reunions from Feb. 20 to Feb. 25 at the Diamond Mountain resort in southeast North Korea.

The two Koreas held their last family reunions in 2010, when the humanitarian program was halted amid souring relations. The revival of the reunions suggested that the governments were edging toward improving relations after military tensions incited by the North’s nuclear test last February and the more recent political uncertainty in Pyongyang in the wake of the purge and execution of Jang Song Thaek, the North’s No. 2 official.

Russia bomb suspect dies in shootout

MAKHACHKALA, Russia - Russian security forces on Wednesday killed a purported militant who is thought to have helped to train the two suicide bombers who struck the southern city of Volgograd, investigators said.

The bombings of a train station and an electric trolley bus Dec. 30 killed 34 people and heightened security fears ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics, which begin Friday.

Russian law-enforcement agencies have announced a series of developments in the case in recent days, including the identification of the bombing suspects and the arrests of two suspected accomplices.

Security forces Wednesday surrounded a group of militants holed up in the Dagestani town of Izberbash, said Rasul Temirbekov, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee, a federal agency.

In an exchange of gunfire, security forces killed 30-year-old Dzhamaldin Mirzayev, who was suspected of involvement in training the bombers and sending them to Volgograd, Temirbekov said.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/06/2014