Indonesia prison fire kills 41 inmates
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A fire raged through an overcrowded prison near Indonesia's capital early Wednesday, killing at least 41 inmates, two of them foreigners serving drug sentences, and injuring 80 others.
Firefighters battled through the early morning hours to extinguish the flames as black smoke billowed from the compound of the Tangerang prison on the outskirts of Jakarta.
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After the blaze was extinguished, ambulance after ambulance filled with body bags containing the victims were driven by Red Cross workers to the morgue of a hospital, where they were stacked wall to wall on the floor of a room awaiting transport to a larger facility for identification.
Relatives of prisoners trickled in to the prison throughout the day to check whether their loved ones were among those killed.
Most of the 41 killed were drug convicts, including a man from South Africa and a man from Portugal, while other victims included a terrorism convict and a murderer, Indonesia's Law and Human Rights minister Yasona Laoly told reporters.
The fire broke out at 1:45 a.m. in Block C2 of the prison, where the 19 cells that were built to hold 40 inmates were stuffed full with more than triple that number. The cause of the blaze appears to have been an electrical short circuit, according to initial findings, Jakarta Police Chief Fadil Imran said.
Quake-shaken Acapulco cleaning up
ACAPULCO, Mexico -- Residents of Acapulco began cleaning up broken glass and chunks of plaster Wednesday as they took in the full impact of a magnitude-7 earthquake centered nearby that shook most of southern Mexico, killing one person.
Many people slept outside overnight as more than 150 aftershocks rattled the hills around the beachside destination.
The quake struck shortly before 9 p.m., sending panicked people into the streets in Acapulco as well as in Mexico City, where it swayed buildings nearly 200 miles from the epicenter.
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The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 10 miles northeast of Acapulco.
"Fortunately, there was not greater damage," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday. "So far [there was] one victim, a young man who was driving a motorcycle and lost his life" in nearby Coyuca de Benitez.
The temblor caused landslides, but major highways were open. The Acapulco airport suspended operations, but the company operating it said that it planned to resume normal operations Wednesday.
Rumors of a possible tsunami caused fear in some low-lying neighborhoods immediately after the earthquake, driving some to higher ground, but an alert was never issued and no change in the sea level recorded.
Work-for-welfare proposed in Denmark
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The Danish government presented a proposal Tuesday to get foreigners and people with immigrant backgrounds to work 37 hours a week in exchange for welfare benefits.
The proposal by the minority Social Democratic government said "there are still too many people, especially with non-Western backgrounds, who do not have a job to get up to" in the morning. It claimed that many women of foreign descent remain outside the labor market, especially those with roots in the Mideast, North Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey.
"If you come to Denmark, you have to work and support yourself and your family," the proposal said. "If one cannot support oneself, one must have a duty to participate and contribute what is equivalent to a regular working week to receive the full welfare benefit."
The program would start with those who have some Danish proficiency and skills training will be done by municipalities.
No date has yet been set for the 179-seat parliament to vote on the proposal. Although the Social Democrats do not have a majority, they would likely get support from center-right lawmakers to pass it.
Pope-backed bishop to lead in Wuhan
ROME -- The Catholic diocese of Wuhan, China -- where the coronavirus was first detected -- has a new bishop who was nominated by the pope according to the Vatican's controversial accord with China, the Holy See said Wednesday.
Bishop Francis Cui Qingqi, a Franciscan, is the sixth bishop nominated and consecrated according to the 2018 deal on bishop nominations.
Francis had named Cui bishop on June 23 and his consecration occurred Wednesday in Wuhan, in Hubei province, according to a statement from the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni.
Details of the 2018 accord have never been released, though officials have said it envisages a process of dialogue in selecting bishops. Pope Francis has said he has the final word.
The Vatican signed it in hopes that it would help unite China's Catholics, who for seven decades have been split between those belonging to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to Rome.
The deal was renewed in October, despite objections from some Catholic commentators and members of the hierarchy who have termed it a betrayal of the underground faithful and a sellout to Beijing as it cracks down on religious minorities.