Taiwan construction fire leaves 9 dead Burkina Faso releases 4 French nationals 20 bodies recovered from Tunisia sinking Uzbek citizen charged in Russia bombing

In this image taken from video, rescuers work at the scene of a fire in Taichung, central Taiwan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (EBC via AP)
In this image taken from video, rescuers work at the scene of a fire in Taichung, central Taiwan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (EBC via AP)

Taiwan construction fire leaves 9 dead

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Nine people died Thursday in a fire in central Taiwan at a huge food-processing building that was under construction, news reports said.

Video posted on social media showed a wall of dark gray smoke and orange flames billowing out of one end of the five-story building in the city of Taichung. The cause of the fire was undetermined but the Taichung government said it spread rapidly because of a large quantity of foam panels on site.

One person died after jumping from the third floor and the other victims were found by firefighters in a search that extended into the evening, Taiwanese media said. Nineteen people were rescued.

The building was being constructed for the PX Mart supermarket chain.

Burkina Faso releases 4 French nationals

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso -- Burkina Faso's junta-led government said Thursday that it had released four French nationals it called spies, after Morocco-mediated negotiations with France.

The West African nation's information agency said in a statement that Capt. Ibrahim Traore, the country's president, welcomed Morocco's diplomatic efforts and noted that France and Burkina Faso's relations had soured in recent years.

In a post on the social media platform X Thursday, France's Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu described the detainees as French armed forces members.

The four were arrested in Ouagadougou in December 2023 on what Jeune Afrique and French media reported as espionage-related charges. Their detention came at a low point in France's relations with its former colonies in the Sahel, including Burkina Faso. After two coups, the landlocked nation of 20 million people expelled French forces and turned to Russia for security support.

The ruling junta has since joined forces with neighboring countries to form the Alliance of Sahel States. The alliance's three countries -- Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso -- have each struggled to contain the security and humanitarian crises.

France's Elysee Palace said in a statement that President Emmanuel Macron had thanked Morocco's King Mohamed VI for mediating discussions that led to their release.

Morocco, which has made efforts to expand its role in the Sahel, lauded its own role in mediating between the two countries. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the negotiations a "humanitarian initiative."

20 bodies recovered from Tunisia sinking

TUNIS, Tunisia -- Tunisian authorities recovered the bodies of 20 people who appeared to have drowned after a shipwreck off the country's Mediterranean coastline, near a popular point of departure for migrants attempting to reach Europe by boat.

The country's National Guard said in a statement on Wednesday that coast guard members dispatched to the sinking ship rescued five people and retrieved the bodies of 20 others 15 miles off the coast north of Sfax.

The National Guard said that it continued to search for missing people and did not indicate how many may have been on board when the ship set off.

With assistance from Europe, authorities in Tunisia have strengthened the policing of their borders in an effort to prevent deaths at sea and combat smugglers and migrants crossing illegally to southern Europe. Yet drownings and corpses washing ashore are regularly reported, including last week when authorities found the bodies of nine people who appeared to have drowned at sea along the same stretch of coastline.

Uzbek citizen charged in Russia bombing

MOSCOW -- An Uzbek citizen accused of acting on behalf of Ukraine has been charged by Russian authorities with this week's assassination of a senior Russian general and his assistant in an electric scooter bombing claimed by Ukraine's security services, Russian state media said Thursday.

Akhmadzhon Kurbonov was ordered detained by a Moscow court until at least Feb. 17 in Tuesday's bombing that killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of Russia's Radiation, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, the Tass state news agency reported.

Kurbonov was charged with the killings, carrying out a terrorist act and illegally manufacturing explosives, the news agency said.

Kirillov was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine's security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, also was killed.

Kurbonov, previously referred to by news agencies as Akhmad Kurbanov, was detained by Russian security services Wednesday. Shortly after he was detained, Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, which did not identify him, said he was born in 1995 and was recruited by Ukraine's security service. The Associated Press could not confirm the conditions under which the suspect spoke to the FSB.

The suspect said he had been promised $100,000 and resettlement in a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov, according to the FSB.

-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

  photo  In this image taken from video, smoke rises from a food-processing building following a fire brokeout in Taichung, central Taiwan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (EBC via AP)
 
 
  photo  In this image taken from video, smoke rises from a food-processing building following a fire brokeout in Taichung, central Taiwan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (EBC via AP)
 
 
  photo  In this image taken from video, rescuers rush to the scene of a fire in a food-processing building in Taichung, central Taiwan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (EBC via AP)
 
 
  photo  In this image taken from video, rescuers and firefighters work at the scene of a fire in a food-processing building in Taichung, central Taiwan, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (EBC via AP)
 
 

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