Chinese building fire kills 39, injures 9
BEIJING -- A fire broke out in a commercial building in China's southeastern Jiangxi province on Wednesday, killing at least 39 people and injuring nine others, state media said.
Officials for the Yushui district of Jiangxi province said that the fire broke out in the basement of a shopping area in the afternoon. In addition to rescue workers, firefighters and police, local government officials were deployed to the scene.
State broadcaster CCTV later reported that rescue operations were complete and that no people remained trapped in the building, which it said housed an internet cafe in the basement and tutoring centers on upper floors.
Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a statement about the blaze, noting that it was yet another safety tragedy. He called on the government and Communist Party to "resolutely curb the frequent occurrence of various safety accidents, and ensure the safety of people's lives and property and overall social stability."
The statement included orders for the State Council's Work Safety Committee to close any gaps in safety measures.
The local government said that the cause of the fire was under investigation.
Migrants rescued at sea near Cyprus
NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Cypriot police rescued 60 Syrian migrants from a rickety wooden boat that had been at sea for six days, and five minors had to be hospitalized, three of them in intensive care, authorities said Wednesday.
The migrants were found some 34 miles off the island nation's southeastern tip and appeared to have run short of food and water, officials said.
Police and army helicopters initially flew three children and an adult to a hospital after a passing merchant ship notified Cypriot authorities of the boat's presence off the island's coast in pre-dawn hours.
Health Services spokesman Charalambos Charilaou told The Associated Press that three minors were in critical condition and two were listed as serious. The adult who was flown to a hospital was treated for hypothermia and released.
Three other adults who had broken bones were treated by officers aboard a patrol vessel that intercepted the migrant boat, police said.
The boat was towed to harbor and the remaining migrants received medical care.
Authorities said the boat had set sail from Lebanon on Jan. 18.
A Lebanese lawyer who follows migrant issues in his country said the boat had gone missing since its departure until it reached Cyprus. He said the migrants were in bad shape because they hadn't eaten for days.
Earthquake aftershocks rock China
UCHTURPAN, China -- Aftershocks from a magnitude 7.1 earthquake continued to rock western China on Wednesday, while more than 12,000 displaced people relying on tents and shelters lit bonfires to fend off freezing weather.
The quake early Tuesday in a remote part of China's Xinjiang region killed three people and left five injured, owing both to the sparse population and efforts in recent years to improve the durability of housing around the epicenter in Uchturpan county, near the border with Kyrgyzstan.
But at least several hundred livestock, key to local livelihoods, were killed.
Footage shown by state broadcaster CCTV showed evacuees eating instant noodles in tents, with bonfires providing heat. Local officials said they planned to check houses for stability before people could return.
Towns and villages were scattered across an otherwise barren landscape. A two-lane highway runs about 78 miles from the nearest city of Aksu, with power lines and an occasional cement factory virtually the only signs of human presence.
Two of the three people who died were members of a Kyrgyz sheep herding family who had brought their flock up a mountain and spent the night in their rest hut, said Shi Chao, the Communist Party head of Kulansarike township.
Mongolian explosion kills 3 firefighters
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia -- A truck carrying 60 tons of liquefied natural gas and a car collided at an intersection in the Mongolian capital early Wednesday, causing a massive fireball and a series of explosions that killed three firefighters and injured 11 people, officials said.
Images showed the huge blaze at the scene of the crash outside a shopping center, close to an apartment building and an international school in Ulaanbaatar. The 12-story apartment building caught fire, with firefighters working until early morning to extinguish the flames.
Mongolia's Emergency Management Office told The Associated Press that a total of three explosions occurred after the crash, the last of which killed the three firefighters. The authority expressed condolences to the firefighters' families in a Facebook post.
Ten people were taken to a hospital to be treated for burns and another person was being treated at a poison center, authorities said. Forty-three people were evacuated from the burning apartment building.
More than two dozen cars caught fire in the explosions.
Firefighters work at the site of a building fire in Xinyu City, east China's Jiangxi Province, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Chinese state media say at least 39 people died and nine others were injured after a fire broke out in southeastern Jiangxi province. State broadcaster CCTV reported that local authorities said that the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon. The building houses an internet cafe in the basement and tutoring centers on upper floors. Local government officials were deployed to the scene in addition to first responders. (Zhou Mi, Xinhua via AP)