As Kenya police probe blaze that killed 21 schoolboys, another fire breaks out at school for girls

Update As Kenya police probe blaze that killed 21 schoolboys, another fire breaks out at school for girls
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Officers from the office of government pathologist carry bodies of pupils who died after a fatal fire at the Hillside Endarasha Academy, Kieni, Nyeri County, Kenya, on September 7, 2024. (REUTERS)
Update As Kenya police probe blaze that killed 21 schoolboys, another fire breaks out at school for girls
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Officers from the office of government pathologist walk outside the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County, Kenya,on September 7, 2024, after a fatal fire killed and injured several pupils. (REUTERS)
Update As Kenya police probe blaze that killed 21 schoolboys, another fire breaks out at school for girls
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Parents of pupils of the Hillside Endarasha Academy sit as they wait for counselling sessions, after a fatal fire outside the school, in Kieni, Nyeri County, Kenya, September 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 08 September 2024
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As Kenya police probe blaze that killed 21 schoolboys, another fire breaks out at school for girls

As Kenya police probe blaze that killed 21 schoolboys, another fire breaks out at school for girls
  • The flames engulfed a dormitory at the primary school where more than 150 boys aged between nine and 13 were sleeping
  • Another fire broke out on Saturday night at Isiolo Girls High School, about 140 kilometers to the northeast.

ENDARASHA, Kenya: Kenyan police stepped up their investigations Saturday into a prime school dormitory blaze that has now cost the lives of 21 boys, as families faced an agonizing wait for news of their missing loved ones.

“It is a catastrophe beyond our imagination,” government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said at a press briefing at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in the central county of Nyeri, where the fire struck around midnight Thursday.

The flames engulfed a dormitory at the primary school where more than 150 boys aged between nine and 13 were sleeping.

Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said a total of 19 bodies had been recovered from the site and another two had died in hospital, up from a previous toll of 17 given by President William Ruto on Friday.

Earlier Saturday, the nation’s top prosecutor said he had instructed police to look into whether the deadly inferno had been caused by negligence or recklessness.

Of the total 156 boys in the dorm at the time, 139 had now been accounted for, either at home or in hospital, he added.

The charred bodies of the victims, which police had said were burnt beyond recognition, were found in the dormitory, now a blackened shell with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.




A general view of the body bags of pupils who died after a fatal fire at the Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri County, Kenya, on September 7, 2024. (REUTERS)

Homicide teams and forensic experts stepped up their investigations at the school on Saturday, with DNA tests to be conducted to identify the victims

Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor said postmortems would begin on Tuesday.

Fire hits school for girls

As the victims' families mourned, another fire broke out on Saturday night at Isiolo Girls High School, about 140 kilometers (90 miles) to the northeast.
Isiolo County communications director Hussein Salesa told AFP that two or three buildings had caught fire. “There are some injuries but we cannot confirm the exact figure at the moment.”
National police spokeswoman Resila Onyango said in a statement the flames had been contained with help from the army, and that there had been “no injuries” among students and staff.
Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga has instructed police to investigate what caused the Endarasha fire and “assess whether or not the tragedy may have resulted from negligence and/or recklessness of any responsibility holders,” his office said in a statement.
“Any person found culpable toward the fire tragedy shall be expediently taken through the due process of a criminal trial.”
The blaze has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar disasters over the years.
Kenya’s National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the dorm was “overcrowded, in violation of safety standards.
“This incident raises serious concerns about children’s rights to safety in educational institutions,” the NGO Vocal Africa said in a statement on X.

3 days of mourning

President William Ruto has declared three days of national mourning from Monday after what he described as an “unfathomable tragedy.”
He has called for a full investigation into the disaster and vowed that “all relevant persons and bodies will be held to account.”

Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” at the loss of young life and expressed his “spiritual closeness to all who are suffering the effects of this calamity, especially the injured and the families who grieve.”
Many families had been waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones, with one mother at the school angrily crying: “We don’t want the food donations. We want our children.”
The Kenya Red Cross was offering psychological counselling sessions to traumatized children and relatives, setting up white tents in fields outside the school gates.
Muchai Kihara, 56, said he was lucky to find his 12-year-old son Stephen Gachingi alive after rushing to the school around 1:00 am on Friday.
“I cannot begin to imagine what he went through,” he told AFP.
“I am happy he is alive but he had some injuries at the back of his head and the smoke had affected his eyes.”
 


UN: Nearly 40% of 3.4 million displaced in Myanmar are children

UN: Nearly 40% of 3.4 million displaced in Myanmar are children
Updated 21 November 2024
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UN: Nearly 40% of 3.4 million displaced in Myanmar are children

UN: Nearly 40% of 3.4 million displaced in Myanmar are children
  • Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in 2021
  • The fighting, as well as severe climate events like Typhoon Yagi, have had a ‘devastating impact’ on children

WASHINGTON: Children made up nearly 40 percent of the more than 3.4 million people in Myanmar displaced by civil war and climate change-driven extreme weather, the UN agency for children said Thursday.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in 2021 and launched a crackdown that sparked an armed uprising against the junta’s rule.
The Southeast Asian nation was also battered by Typhoon Yagi in September, triggering major floods that killed more than 400 people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
“The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is reaching a critical inflexion point, with escalating conflict and climate shocks putting children and families at unprecedented risk,” UNICEF deputy executive director Ted Chaiban said in a statement on Thursday.
“Over 3.4 million people have been displaced across the country, nearly 40 percent of whom are children.”
The junta is battling widespread armed opposition to its 2021 coup, and its soldiers have been accused of bloody rampages and using air and artillery strikes to punish civilian communities.
The fighting, as well as severe climate events like Typhoon Yagi, have had a “devastating impact” on children, Chaiban said, leaving them displaced, vulnerable to violence and cut off from health care and education.
He said seven children and two other civilians were killed on November 15 in a strike that hit a Kachin church compound where children were playing football.
Myanmar’s northern Kachin state is the homeland of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of the various ethnic minority armed groups that hold territory in the north and are battling the junta.
At least 650 children have been killed or wounded in violence in the country this year.
Minors also made up about a third of the more than 1,000 civilian casualties from land mines and explosive remnants of war, according to Chaiban.
“The increasing use of deadly weapons in civilian areas, including airstrikes and land mines hitting homes, hospitals, and schools, has severely restricted the already limited safe spaces for children, robbing them of their right to safety and security,” he said.
Eleven people were killed last week when a teashop in Myanmar was hit by a military air strike in the town of Naungcho in northern Shan state, a local ethnic armed group said.


Philippine woman saved from Indonesia death row ‘elated’

Philippine woman saved from Indonesia death row ‘elated’
Updated 21 November 2024
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Philippine woman saved from Indonesia death row ‘elated’

Philippine woman saved from Indonesia death row ‘elated’
  • Mary Jane Veloso was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 carrying a suitcase lined with 2.6 kilograms of heroin
  • Her family and supporters said she was innocent and had been set up by an international drug syndicate

INDONESIA: A Philippine woman sentenced to death in Indonesia on drug charges said Thursday that she was “elated” to be returning home, after a deal brokered between the two nations.
Mary Jane Veloso was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 carrying a suitcase lined with 2.6 kilograms of heroin and later sentenced to death by firing squad.
The mother-of-two’s case sparked an uproar in the Philippines, with her family and supporters saying she was innocent and had been set up by an international drug syndicate.
On Wednesday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said she would be handed over to Manila following years of “long and difficult” negotiations.
“I am very elated to hear there is an opening chance for my hope to return home and be with my family,” Veloso said in a written statement read by the prison warden Evi Loliancy on Thursday.
“I’m grateful and would like to thank everybody who keeps making efforts so I can return to my country,” she said.
The 39-year-old said she would utilize skills she has learned in prison, including local cloth-dying techniques, to earn money for herself and her family.
Veloso’s family maintained that she was duped into signing up for a non-existent job abroad as a domestic worker and was not aware the suitcase given to her by the recruiter contained hidden drugs.
The Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for Veloso in 2015 after a woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking in a case in which Veloso was named as a prosecution witness.
Indonesia’s law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said President Prabowo Subianto had “approved the transfer,” which is expected to happen next month.
Philippine leader Marcos on Wednesday posted a message thanking his Indonesian counterpart.
He said Veloso’s “story resonates with many: a mother trapped by the grip of poverty, who made one desperate choice that altered the course of her life.”


ASEAN defense chiefs discuss regional security with US, China and other partner nations

ASEAN defense chiefs discuss regional security with US, China and other partner nations
Updated 21 November 2024
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ASEAN defense chiefs discuss regional security with US, China and other partner nations

ASEAN defense chiefs discuss regional security with US, China and other partner nations
  • The US and China have been working to improve frayed military-to-military communications
  • ASEAN meetings come as member nations are looking warily toward the change in American administrations

VIENTIANE, Laos: Southeast Asian defense chiefs met Thursday with China, the United States and other partner nations in Laos for security talks, which come as Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance in its claim to most of the South China Sea is leading to more confrontations.
The closed-door talks put US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun in the same room a day after Dong refused a request to meet with Austin one-on-one on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meetings.
The US and China have been working to improve frayed military-to-military communications and Austin said he regretted Dong’s decision, calling it “a setback for the whole region.”
The ASEAN meetings come as member nations are looking warily toward the change in American administrations at a time of increasing maritime disputes with China. The US has firmly pushed a “free and open Indo-Pacific” policy under outgoing President Joe Biden and it is not yet clear how the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will address the South China Sea situation.
In addition to the United States and China, other nations attending the ASEAN meeting from outside Southeast Asia include Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.
The meetings with the ASEAN dialogue partners were also expected address tensions in the Korean Peninsula, the Russia-Ukraine war, and wars in the Middle East.
Before heading to Laos, Austin concluded meetings in Australia with officials there and with Japan’s defense minister. They pledged to support ASEAN and expressed their “serious concern about destabilizing actions in the East and South China Seas, including dangerous conduct by the People’s Republic of China against Philippines and other coastal state vessels.”
Along with the Philippines, ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims with China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely as its own territory.
Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are the other ASEAN members.
As China has grown more assertive in pushing its territorial claims in recent years, it and ASEAN have been negotiating a code of conduct to govern behavior in the sea, but progress has been slow.
Officials have agreed to try to complete the code by 2026, but talks have been hampered by thorny issues, including disagreements over whether the pact should be binding.
Chinese and Philippine vessels have clashed repeatedly this year, and Vietnam in October charged that Chinese forces assaulted its fishermen in disputed areas in the South China Sea. China has also sent patrol vessels to areas that Indonesia and Malaysia claim as their exclusive economic zones.
Another thorny regional issue is the civil war and humanitarian crisis in ASEAN member Myanmar. The group’s credibility has been severely tested by the war in Myanmar, where the army ousted an elected government in 2021, and fighting has continued with pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic rebels.
More than a year into an offensive initiated by three militias and joined by other resistance groups, observers estimate the military controls less than half the country.
Myanmar military rulers have been barred from ASEAN meetings since late 2021, but this year the country has been represented by high-level bureaucrats, including at the summit in October.
At the defense meetings, the country is represented by Zaw Naing Win, director of the Defense Ministry’s International Affairs Department.
Meetings on Wednesday also discussed military cooperation, transnational haze, disinformation, border security and transnational crimes such as drugs, cyberscams and human trafficking, Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Thanathip Sawangsang said.


American and Australian tourists die, raising toll to 4 in Laos alcohol poisoning incident

American and Australian tourists die, raising toll to 4 in Laos alcohol poisoning incident
Updated 21 November 2024
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American and Australian tourists die, raising toll to 4 in Laos alcohol poisoning incident

American and Australian tourists die, raising toll to 4 in Laos alcohol poisoning incident
  • The two Australian women fell ill on November 13 after a night out drinking with a group
  • They are believed to have consumed drinks tainted with methanol

VIENTIANE, Laos: An Australian teenager has died after drinking tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng, Laos, Australia’s prime minister said Thursday, and the US State Department confirmed an American also died in the same party town, bringing the death toll to four in the poisoning incident.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Parliament that 19-year-old Bianca Jones had died after being evacuated from Laos for treatment in a Thai hospital. Her friend, also 19, remains hospitalized in Thailand.
Meantime, the State Department confirmed that an American tourist had also died, but said it had no further comment out of respect to the families.
“This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Albanese told lawmakers, adding “we also take this moment to say that we’re thinking of Bianca’s friend Holly Bowles who is fighting for her life.”
The two Australian women fell ill on Nov. 13 after a night out drinking with a group. They are believed to have consumed drinks tainted with methanol, which sometimes used as the alcohol in mixed drinks at disreputable bars and can cause severe poisoning or death.
New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday one of its citizens was also unwell in Laos and could be a victim of methanol poisoning. Denmark’s Foreign Ministry, when asked about the poisoning incident, said Wednesday that two of its citizens had died in Laos but would not provide further details.
“We have updated our travel advisory for Laos to note that there have been several cases of suspected methanol poisoning after consuming alcoholic drinks,” New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry said. “Travelers are advised to be cautious about consuming alcoholic beverages, particularly cocktails and drinks made with spirits that may have been adulterated with harmful substances.”


US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials

US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials
Updated 21 November 2024
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US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials

US charges billionaire Gautam Adani with defrauding investors, hiding plan to bribe Indian officials
  • Gautam Adani, 62, was charged with securities fraud in an indictment unsealed Wednesday 
  • Several other people connected to Adani, his businesses and the project were also charged

NEW YORK: An Indian businessman who is one of the world’s richest people has been indicted in the US on charges he duped investors in a massive solar energy project in his home country by concealing that it was facilitated by alleged bribery.
Gautam Adani, 62, was charged in an indictment unsealed Wednesday with securities fraud and conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud.
He is accused of defrauding investors who poured several billion dollars into the project by failing to tell them about more than $250 million in bribes paid to Indian officials to secure lucrative solar energy supply contracts.
Several other people connected to Adani, his businesses and the project were also charged.
Gautam Adani is a power player in the world’s most populous nation. He built his fortune in the coal business coal in the 1990s. His Adani Group grew to involve many aspects of Indian life, from making defense equipment to building roads to selling cooking oil.
In recent years, Adani has made big moves into renewable energy.
Last year, a US-based financial research firm accused Adani his company of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” The Adani Group called the claims “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations.”
The firm in question is known as a short-seller, a Wall Street term for traders that essentially bet on the prices of certain stocks to fall, and it had made such investments in relation to the Adani Group.