Turks dig for quake's trapped; toll at 29
ANKARA, Turkey -- The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Turkey climbed to 29 on Saturday night as rescue crews searched for people who remained trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, officials said.
[Video not loading above? Click here to watch » arkansasonline.com/126turkey]
About 1,243 people were injured, with 34 of them in intensive care but not in critical condition, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.
On Saturday afternoon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the hardest-hit areas and attended the funeral of a mother and son killed in the quake. He warned people against repeating "negative" hearsay about the country being unprepared for earthquakes.
"Do not listen to rumors, do not listen to anyone's negative, contrary propaganda, and know that we are your servants," Erdogan said.
Various earthquake monitoring centers gave magnitudes ranging from 6.5 to 6.8. for the earthquake, which hit Friday night near the Elazig province town of Sivrice, the Turkish disaster agency said.
It was followed by 398 aftershocks, the strongest of them with magnitudes 5.4 and 5.1, the disaster agency said.
Australia recovers U.S. firemen's bodies
CANBERRA, Australia -- The bodies of three U.S. flying firefighters and the cockpit voice recorder from the water bomber in which they died battling Australia's unprecedented wildfire crisis were recovered Saturday as their grieving families arrived in Sydney, officials said.
Ian McBeth of Great Falls, Mont., Paul Clyde Hudson of Buckeye, Ariz., and Rick DeMorgan of Navarre, Fla., died when their C-130 Hercules tanker crashed Thursday after dumping fire retardant on a blaze northeast of the town of Cooma in southern New South Wales state.
The device that records the last two hours of the cockpit conversation as well as the bodies were recovered Saturday from a still-active fire zone, police and crash investigators said.
The plane was not equipped with a flight data recorder, which is mandatory for airliners.
The Americans' relatives who began arriving Saturday will be offered an opportunity to visit the hillside crash site, officials said.
Crash investigators have yet to explain why the four-propeller plane crashed in a ball of fire shortly after dumping its load in turbulent conditions. The plane was contracted from Coulson Aviation in Canada, which is sending executives to Sydney.
Bulgarians suspect graft in water crisis
SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Residents of a Bulgarian city experiencing a severe water shortage for months gathered in front of the government headquarters Saturday demanding urgent measures to address what they described as a looming humanitarian crisis.
Protesters voiced suspicions that bribery and incompetence were behind the water shortage in the industrial city of Pernik. They warned that the reservoir at Studena Dam, the city's only water source, would be empty in two weeks.
The water crisis in Pernik, which is 20 miles west of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, peaked in November when authorities imposed water rationing as supplies from the nearby dam ran low.
Earlier this month, Bulgaria's environment minister was detained and could face up to eight years in jail if found guilty of allowing water to go to industrial facilities despite knowing that it would jeopardize drinking water for nearly 100,000 people.
Struggling Pernik residents have been protesting the water shortage for weeks.
Their anger has been fueled by the mayor's decision to cancel a big international dance festival for the first time in six decades because of the water crisis. The festival attracts thousands of visitors to Pernik every year and is a major source of revenue for many residents.
The political opposition in Bulgaria's parliament last week filed a motion accusing the government of being responsible for the water crisis.
India building collapse crushes students
NEW DELHI -- A building that was being expanded in the Indian capital collapsed Saturday, killing five people on the main floor, including four students, an official said.
The students were attending a coaching class on the first floor of the building in New Delhi's Bhajanpur area when the roof crashed down, fire officer Umesh Garg said.
He said eight injured students were hospitalized after they were rescued from the rubble. Their injuries were not life-threatening, Garg said.
He said the building was having a second floor added at the time of the collapse.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the building collapse.
Building collapses are common in India as many are poorly constructed of cheap materials and builders have ignored safety guidelines to cut costs.
In July, 14 people were killed when a dilapidated four-story building collapsed in India's financial capital of Mumbai. Also in Mumbai, 72 people were killed when a residential building being constructed illegally collapsed in 2013.
A Section on 01/26/2020