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 Death toll from Los Angeles wildfires hits 16

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• Ruins after the fire
• Ruins after the fire

The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office on Saturday evening said the confirmed death toll from the area’s wildfires has risen to 16, up from the previous confirmed 11.

Five of the new total were from the Palisades Fire and 11 from the Eaton Fire, according to the coro­ner’s office statement.

Firefighters raced on Saturday to get in front of the largest and most destructive fire burning in Los Angeles as it shifted directions and grew by about 400 hectares. The Santa Ana winds that fuelled the blazes are forecast to return.

“We need to be aggressive out there,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) Operations Chief Christian Litz told reporters at a Saturday briefing.

The National Weather Service predicted winds picking up Sat­urday night into Sunday morning in the area and again late Monday through Tuesday morning, with sustained winds up to 48 kph and gusts up to 112 kph.

The toll stood at 11 people killed, at least 13 missing and more than 12,000 structures destroyed on Saturday. Officials have warned that the death toll could increase.

Planes and helicopters worked together on Saturday in an aerial assault, dropping water to aid the firefighters working on the ground in Mandeville Canyon and to keep the Palisades Fire from continuing to spread, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The shift of the Palisades Fire, the largest of five, prompted evacuation orders, including the Brentwood and Encino neighbor­hoods and the foothills of the San Fernando Valley. The fire is threat­ening the J. Paul Getty Museum and University of California, Los Angeles campus. If it jumps In­terstate 405, the densely populated Hollywood Hills and San Fernando Valley would be in danger.

Cal Fire official Todd Hopkins told reporters on Saturday that 11 per cent of the Palisades Fire is contained. The second-largest blaze, the Eaton fire, was 15 per cent contained, according to the department.

The Palisades and Eaton fires already rank as the most destructive in Los Angeles history. Together, they have burned through about 145 square kilometres of land and destroyed or damaged about 12,000 structures.

Cal Fire is fighting five active wildfires in the Los Angeles area: the Palisades, Eaton, Hurst, Lidia and Kenneth fires. As of Saturday, the Kenneth fire was 80 per cent contained, the Hurst fire was seven per cent contained, and the Lidia fire was 100 per cent contained, according to the Times.

Even as the fires are being fought, investigations have begun. Chief among them is why the Santa Ynez Reservoir in the Palisades was empty and closed for repairs, according to the Times, and why fire hydrants did not have water.

“When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there’s going to be water,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said, faulting city leadership and citing budget cuts.

California Governor Gavin New­som ordered a “full independent review” of the city’s utilities on Friday, saying in an open letter the lack of water supplies during the initial fires was “deeply troubling” and that answers were needed to learn “to how that happened.”

President Joe Biden spoke by phone on Saturday with Los An­geles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and Ventura County Supervisor Kelly Long to discuss the latest updates on the wildfires across Los Angeles, a White House statement said. -Voanews.com

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 Drug violence in Brussels: House shot at 23 times in Anderlecht

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• The scene after the gunshots

 A house in the Brussels mu­nicipality of Anderlecht was shot at in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The shooting occurred at 1:40 a.m. on the facade of a building, com­posed of a professional room and a dwelling, near Place Lemmens in Anderlecht, the Brussels Public Pros­ecutor’s Office has now confirmed.

Initial reports suggested that the shooting took place on the corner Place Clemenceau, but the scene was later confirmed to be about a ten minutes’ walk away.

The Brussels Public Prosecutor also confirmed that 23 bullet holes and two failed molotov cocktails had been found at the scene. Initial unconfirmed reports suggested 15 shots and one molotov cocktail had been found.

It is not yet known whether there is a link with the shootings that took place in the past few days on Saint-Guidon Square, or with pre­vious shootings at the Clemenceau metro station and in the Peterbos neighbourhood in Anderlecht.

Since the beginning of February, those shootings, linked to the drug environment, have already left two dead and three wounded.

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 Passengers on crashed Toronto plane offered US$30,000 each

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 DELTA Air Lines is offer­ing US$30,000 (£23,792) to each person on board a plane that crash-landed in Toronto on Monday – all of whom survived.

As it landed in the Canadian city, the plane skidded along the runway in flames before flipping over and coming to a halt upside down. Passengers described their amaze­ment as most of them walked away without injuries.

It remains unclear what caused the inci­dent, which is under investigation.

There were 76 passengers and four crew on the flight, which had travelled from the US city of Minneapolis before making its crash-landing in Canada.

A spokesperson for Delta said the money offer had no strings attached and did not affect customers’ rights.

The plane crew and emergency respond­ers were praised for their quick work in removing people from the wrecked vehicle. The plane’s various safety features have also been credited for ensuring no loss of life.

All but one of the 21 passengers who were taken to hospital had been released by Wednesday morning, the airline said.

Delta’s chief told BBC’s US partner CBS News that the flight crew were experienced and trained for any condition.

The airline’s head Ed Bastian told CBS the plane crew had “performed heroically, but also as expected”, given that “safety is embedded into our system”. He said Delta was continuing to support those affected.

Several theories about what caused the crash have been suggested to the BBC by experts who reviewed footage, including that harsh winter weather and a rapid rate of descent played a role.

One passenger recalled “a very forceful event”, and the sound of “concrete and met­al” at the moment of impact. Another said passengers were left hanging upside down in their seats “like bats”.

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been recovered from the wreckage. The investigation is being led by Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB), supported by US officials.

The accident was the fourth major air in­cident in North America in a space of three weeks – and was followed on Wednesday by a crash in Arizona in which two people lost their lives when their small planes collided.

Experts continue to insist that air travel is overwhelmingly safe – more so than other forms of transport, in fact.

That message was emphasised by US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who told CBS on Wednesday there was no pattern behind the incidents, each of which he said was “very unique”. -BBC

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Peru declares state of emergency ….following bomb attack against Public Ministry

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Peru declared a state of emer­gency on Monday, following the detonation of explosives attacking the Public Ministry of Tru­jillo. Monday’s incident marks the second attack in Trujillo this year.

During the emergency state de­clared by President Boluarte to stop delinquency, the Presidency of Peru stated that “the Armed Forces and the police will take control of the city due to the state of emergency.” The Superior Court of Justice of La Libertad declared its commitment to “not succumb to any acts of violence.”

An unidentified individual posing as a delivery driver attacked the Pub­lic Ministry of Trujillo by leaving a package with explosive material that later detonated. Two explosions were detected, one originating from the package, which led to another car explosion.

Public Minister Delia Espino­za said in an interview that initial signs link the tragedy with illegal mining. Espinoza also revealed that days earlier, someone threatened a comptroller working on an orga­nized crime case.

According to Espinoza, these events show that the Minister of Interior makes promises he cannot fulfil, stating, “Constitutionally, the labor of prevention is for the police, there is no police intelligence.” Recent research shows that the disapproval of the current Minister of Interior, Juan José Santiváñez, peaked at 80 per cent in December 2024.

Former minister of Interior Oscar Valdés criticised the low efficiency of the state of emergency because of the intelligence system, argu­ing that the government failed to address illegal mining and drug trafficking as the real threats to the country.

Illegal mining has been a contro­versial issue in Peru. On December 1, 2024, the Peruvian Congress ex­tended temporary permits for “in­formal miners,” which critics argue are a part of systemic corruption that legitimised illegal mining and helped circumvent environmen­tal regulations. In April 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights also found that Peru’s failure to regulate mining activities violated inhabitants’ basic right to a healthy environment.

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