SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic: Rescue crews in the Dominican Republic on Thursday dug through the remains of a legendary nightclub whose roof collapsed earlier this week, killing at least 184 people, but hope of finding survivors was slim.
Meanwhile, dozens of people in the capital of Santo Domingo still searched for their loved ones, growing frustrated upon getting no answers after visiting hospitals and the country’s forensic institute.
Doctors warned that some of the two dozen patients who remained hospitalized were still not in the clear, especially the eight who were in critical condition.
“If the trauma is too great, there’s not a lot of time” left to save patients in that condition, said Health Minister Dr. Víctor Atallah.
He and other doctors said that injuries include fractures in the skull, femur and pelvis caused by slabs of cement falling on those attending a merengue concert at the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, where more than 200 were injured.
The government said Wednesday night that it was moving to a recovery phase focused on finding bodies, but Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Center of Emergency Operations, said crews at the scene were still looking for victims and potential survivors although no one has been found alive since Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re not going to abandon anyone. Our work will continue,” he said.
The legendary club was packed with musicians, professional athletes and government officials when dust began falling from the ceiling and into people’s drinks early Tuesday. Minutes later, the roof collapsed.
Victims include merengue icon Rubby Pérez, who had been singing to the crowd before the roof fell; former MLB players Octavio Dotel and Tony Enrique Blanco Cabrera; and Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northwestern province of Montecristi whose brother is seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star Nelson Cruz.
Also killed was a retired United Nations official; saxophonist Luis Solis, who was playing onstage when the roof fell; New York-based fashion designer Martin Polanco; the son and daughter-in-law of the minister of public works; the brother of the vice minister of the Ministry of Youth; and three employees of Grupo Popular, a financial services company, including the president of AFP Popular Bank and his wife.
Randolfo Rijo Gomez, director of the country’s 911 system, said it received more than 100 calls, with several of those made by people buried under the rubble. He noted that police arrived at the scene in 90 seconds, followed minutes later by first response units. In less than half an hour, 25 soldiers, seven fire brigades and 77 ambulances were activated, he said.
Crews used dogs and thermal cameras to search for victims, rescuing 145 survivors from the rubble, authorities said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the roof to collapse, or when the Jet Set building was last inspected.
The government said late Wednesday that once the recovery phase ends, it will launch a thorough investigation.
The club issued a statement saying it was cooperating with authorities. A spokesperson for the family that owns the club told said that she passed along questions about potential inspections.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Works referred questions to the mayor’s office. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Hope of finding survivors fades in aftermath of Dominican club roof collapse
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Hope of finding survivors fades in aftermath of Dominican club roof collapse
- Roof of legendary nightclub Jet Set collapsed earlier this week, killing at least 184 people
- Doctors warned that some of the two dozen patients who remained hospitalized were still not in the clear
Erdogan sees end in sight for US sanctions on Turkish defense sector
“We can easily say that there is a softening in CAATSA,,” he told reporters while returning from a European summit, referring to US sanctions legislation.
In 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on Ankara over its purchase of an S-400 Russian surface-to-air missile defense system under a 2017 law known as CAATSA, which aims to limit Russia’s military influence.
The move soured ties between the two NATO member countries.
It also booted Turkiye out of its F-35 program, with Washington saying the presence of the S-400 would allow the Russians to collect information on the stealth jet’s capabilities.
Erdogan said Turkiye had raised the sanctions issue with Trump and his newly-appointed envoy to Ankara, Tom Barrack
“With my friend Trump taking office, we have achieved a more open, more constructive and more sincere communication on these issues,” Erdogan added, saying Turkiye valued “every positive step in this direction.”
“I believe we will overcome the CAATSA process much faster. As two great NATO allies, there should be no restrictions or obstacles in the field of defense between us,” he said.
Turkiye’s partnership with the United States was “of vital importance for the establishment of stability in our region and the world” he said.
In March, Erdogan spoke to Trump about the need to finalize a deal to let Turkiye buy US F-16 fighter planes and be readmitted to the development program for F-35 warplanes.
Turkiye has been seeking to modernize its airforce, and has been seeking to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoons which are built by a four-nation consortium grouping Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy.
Militants kill at least 23 in Nigeria attack, security sources say
MAIDUGURI: At least 23 farmers and fishermen were killed and others abducted by suspected Islamist militants in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno state this week, security sources and local residents told Reuters.
Nigeria has been grappling with a long-running insurgency in its northeast, primarily driven by the Islamist armed group Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province.
The latest attack happened in the village of Malam Karanti on Thursday morning, the security sources and residents said.
A spokesman for Nigeria’s army did not respond to phone calls and text messages seeking comment.
Local resident Sani Auwal said by phone that militants had gathered farmers and fishermen near the village and killed 23 people, many of them bean farmers. They spared an elderly man who later alerted the community, he said.
Another local resident Usman Ali said the community had tried to recover the bodies of those killed but had been chased back by the militants.
Last month Borno’s governor acknowledged that Boko Haram had renewed attacks and kidnappings in the state, reversing previous gains by security forces.
India and US at odds on Kashmir truce with Pakistan — analysts
- Trump announced the truce after four days of missile, drone and artillery attacks from both sides, killing about 70 people
- President Trump’s rhetoric about the ceasefire is ‘irritating’ for India, an important ally for the US, an analyst says
NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump’s claim to have helped end fighting between arch-rivals India and Pakistan has driven a wedge between him and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, analysts say.
A week since Trump announced a surprise truce between India and Pakistan to end a brief but intense conflict, New Delhi and Washington differ about the way it was achieved.
The US administration thought “an intervention at this stage might give them some basic benefit in terms of highlighting Trump’s role,” Indian foreign policy expert Harsh V. Pant told AFP.
“That... became the driver and in a sense the hurry which with Trump announced the ceasefire,” said Pant from the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think tank.
Fighting began when India launched strikes on May 7 against what it called “terrorist camps” in Pakistan following an April militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the militants it claimed were behind the attack, which Pakistan denies.
Trump announced the truce after four days of missile, drone and artillery attacks from both sides, killing about 70 people, including dozens of civilians, and sent thousands fleeing.
He later boasted about bringing India and Pakistan “back from the brink,” telling Fox News on Friday it was “a bigger success than I’ll ever be given credit for.”
New Delhi however shrugs off these claims, which go against decades-long Indian policy that opposes foreign mediation in conflicts with Islamabad.
India and Pakistan claim the currently divided Kashmir in full. New Delhi considers the Himalayan region an internal matter, with politicians long viewing external mediation as a sign of weakness.
Modi’s first speech since the ceasefire did not mention US involvement and his government has since insisted that talks with Pakistan are “strictly bilateral.”
India was also quick to dismiss Trump’s suggestion that trade pressures hastened a truce.
“The issue of trade did not come up” in discussions with US officials, the Indian foreign ministry said this week.
According to ORF fellow Manoj Joshi, Trump’s rhetoric is “irritating” for India — whose strategic location and massive market size have made the country an important ally for the United States.
But India is being “very cautious” because it is in negotiations for a trade deal with Washington to avoid steep tarriffs, he said.
“We (India) would like the agenda to go in a different direction,” said Joshi.
It is also a thorny matter domestically.
Main opposition Congress party said Trump’s announcement had “upstaged” the Hindu nationalist leader’s “much-delayed address.”
It also demanded an all-party meeting to ask whether India is changing its policy on “third-party mediation” for Kashmir, disputed between Pakistan and India.
The two South Asian rivals had in the 1970s agreed to settle “differences by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations.”
Modi has previously poked fun at former Congress governments for “weak” responses against Pakistan in various skirmishes.
“So India would obviously respond to that and deny that... about as politely as they feel they can get away with,” said South Asia researcher Pramit Pal Chaudhuri of political consultancy Eurasia Group.
Trump’s claimed mediation was welcomed by Islamabad, which “needed an American intervention to give them the off-ramp they needed to get out of a conflict,” Chaudhuri added.
On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reaffirmed that “where Pakistan is concerned, our relations, our dealings with them will be bilateral, and strictly bilateral.”
But the same day, speaking from Qatar, Trump repeated claims of brokering a ceasefire and using trade as a tool.
“(I said) let’s do trade instead of war. And Pakistan was very happy with that, and India was very happy with that,” Trump said in his speech.
It has been a decade since Modi last met a Pakistani leader. Since then, relations have deteriorated, coming to a head when India unilaterally revoked in 2019 limited autonomy of the part of Kashmir it administers.
According to Joshi, “the hyphenation of India and Pakistan” is also “irritating” for New Delhi, which has tried to carve out a separate identity on the global stage.
“The optics of Trump hammering it day after day... is politically damaging for Modi,” Sushant Singh, a former Indian soldier and South Asian studies lecturer at Yale University, wrote on X.
“[Modi] can’t personally counter Trump, and despite attempts by India’s big media to play it down, social media amplifies Trump,” Singh said.
British police charge three Iranians in counter terrorism probe
British police have charged three Iranian men with offenses under the National Security Act after a major counter-terrorism investigation, the police said on Saturday.
British counter-terrorism police arrested eight men including seven Iranians earlier this month in two separate operations in what the British interior minister called some of the biggest investigations of their kind in recent years.
Mostafa Sepahvand, Farhad Javadi Manesh, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori were charged with engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024, and February 16, 2025, the police said in a statement.
The foreign state to which the charges relate is Iran, they added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said he was “disturbed” to learn that Iranian citizens had been arrested by British authorities.
The British government has placed Iran on the highest tier of its foreign influence register, requiring Tehran to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK.
Police investigate disappearance of Melania Trump’s statue in her native Slovenia
LJUBLJANA, Slovenia: Police in Slovenia are investigating the disappearance of a bronze statue of US first lady Melania Trump that was sawed off and carried away from her hometown.
The life-size sculpture was unveiled in 2020 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office near Sevnica in central Slovenia, where Melanija Knavs was born in 1970. It replaced a wooden statue that had been set on fire earlier that year.
Police spokeswoman Alenka Drenik Rangus said Friday that the police were informed about the theft of the statue on Tuesday. She said police were working to track down those responsible.
According to Slovenian media reports, the bronze replica was sawed off at the ankles and removed.
Franja Kranjc, who works at a bakery in Sevnica that sells cakes with Melania Trump’s name in support of the first lady, said the stolen statue won’t be missed.
“I think no one was really proud at this statue, not even the first lady of the USA,” he said. “So I think its OK that it’s removed.”
The original wooden statue was torched in July 2020. The rustic figure was cut from the trunk of a linden tree, showing her in a pale blue dress like the one she wore at Trump’s presidential inauguration in 2017. The replica bronze statue has no obvious resemblance with the first lady.
