A round-up of other world news in brief
Tents banned after wedding deaths
KUWAIT –A Kuwaiti wedding tent, where 41 women and children died in a fire on Saturday, had only one exit, an official said, causing a stampede that compounded the death toll.
“Since the first spark of the fire, the attendees rushed to the tent’s exit and we found the bodies at the exit, it was a very painful scene,” said Col Mohammed al-Saber, interior ministry spokesman.
“The tent, which had 13 pillars and could seat more than 200 people, unfortunately had only one exit,” he said.
Kuwait banned wedding tents yesterday after the blaze tore through the women’s tent at the wedding in the al-Jahra district, west of Kuwait city. More than 70 people were injured in the blaze. Weddings in Kuwait are mostly segregated, with women seated separately from men. Tents are often erected especially for the occasion.
– (Reuters)
Six killed in Baghdad bomb blasts
BAGHDAD – At least six people were killed when two bombs exploded at a popular restaurant in a predominantly Shia Muslim neighbourhood of eastern Baghdad yesterday, Iraqi police said.
About 18 people were wounded when the two bombs planted inside and outside the restaurant exploded almost simultaneously, police said.
A string of bombings since US forces withdrew from Iraqi cities at the end of June has called into question the
ability of Iraqi security forces to protect the population from attacks by insurgents such as the Sunni militant group al-Qaeda.
The bombings in Baghdad and near the volatile northern city of Mosul have largely targeted the Shia majority, and appear aimed at reigniting the sectarian bloodshed between Sunnis and Shia that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.
– (Reuters)
Tropical storm threatens Florida
MIAMI – Tropical storm Claudette, third of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico, east of the heaviest cluster of US energy platforms, as two other storms, Ana and Bill, raced across the Atlantic.
The new system was expected to move ashore in the Florida panhandle, although at least one computer model showed it tracking farther west and hitting land near Mobile, Alabama. The greatest number of offshore oil and gas rigs span the coast from the mouth of Mobile Bay to Texas. – (Reuters)
Millions in debt
LONDON – Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey is millions of pounds in debt after a property scheme he invested in collapsed, it was reported yesterday.
The actor, who lives in Crouch End, north London, said he lost £2.5 million (€2.9 million) after investing in a string of hotels and pubs. He told the News of the Worldhe would not file for bankruptcy and intended to pay his creditors in full. – (PA)
Girl jumps as car plunges over cliff
LONDON – An 11-year-old girl had a narrow escape when she jumped from a moving car moments before it plunged over a cliff at a campsite in north Wales.
The girl accidentally disengaged the handbrake while she sat in the car listening to music on Saturday on the island of Anglesey, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution said. She threw herself clear a few feet from the edge of the cliff before it fell on to rocks 76 metres below and sank under water. She was treated minor injuries. – (Reuters)