4 people killed in building collapse
WARSAW, Poland -- An apartment building collapsed Sunday in Poland's western city of Poznan, killing four people and injuring 24 others, officials said as firefighters and rescuers combed the rubble in search of more victims.
The building contained 18 apartments and housed 40 residents, according to firefighters spokesman Slawomir Brandt.
Polish TV channel TVP INFO showed part of a four-story building in a heap, with rescuers checking the debris in subfreezing weather.
Police and prosecutors questioned witnesses at the site.
"We heard this loud bang and then terrible cries from people: 'Save us! Save us!,'" ground-floor resident Krzysztof Sledz told the state news agency PAP. "My wife and I dressed and left the apartment to help the neighbors."
Displaced residents were offered shelter and food at a nearby hotel. Officials said the remaining part of the building was unsafe and would be torn down.
Zbigniew Hoffman, the regional governor, said it was too early to determine the cause of the collapse.
Slayings spark call for Slovak changes
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- Slovak President Andrej Kiska on Sunday called for substantial changes in the country's coalition government or for an early election to resolve the "serious political crisis" resulting from the slayings of an investigative reporter and his fiancee.
His rival, Prime Minister Robert Fico, dismissed the president's proposals.
In his last, unfinished story, 27-year-old Jan Kuciak reported on the influence of the Italian mafia in Slovakia and its possible ties to people close to the prime minister. The journalist and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, were found fatally shot in their house on Feb. 25.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched in dozens of Slovak cities Friday to honor Kuciak, with some demanding the resignation of Fico's government.
"There's a huge public distrust of the state," Kiska said in a televised speech Sunday.
"This distrust is justified," he said.
Hours after Kiska's address, Fico said any changes in the current three-party coalition government would have to be approved by the coalition members and that the president has no say in the matter.
An early election would have to be approved by parliament.
Vietnam port call set for U.S. carrier
BANGKOK -- For the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, a U.S. aircraft carrier is scheduled today to make a port call in Vietnam.
The vessel, the USS Carl Vinson, will anchor off Danang, the central Vietnam port city that served as a major staging post for the U.S. war effort in the country.
"It's a pretty big and historic step, since a carrier has not been here for 40 years," said Rear Adm. John Fuller, the commander of the Carl Vinson strike group, whose father served in Vietnam.
"We hope to continue the same issue that we've always had," he said, "and that's to promote security, stability and prosperity in the region."
The arrival of the Carl Vinson strike group's 5,500 sailors will mark the first time such a large contingent of U.S. soldiers has landed on Vietnamese soil since the last of the U.S. troops withdrew in 1975.
During the four-day port call, the aircraft carrier's personnel will visit an orphanage and a center for victims of Agent Orange, the defoliant used by the U.S. military that is blamed, through a toxic contaminant, for poisoning generations of Vietnamese.
Carrier sailors will also play basketball and soccer with Vietnamese counterparts.
A Section on 03/05/2018