Fire At Iraqi Covid Hospital Kills More Than 80, Sparks Anger By Ammar Karim and Salam Faraj
04/25/21 AT 6:38 AM
A fire that ravaged a Covid-19 hospital in Iraq s capital killed 82 people pre-dawn Sunday, sparking angry calls for officials to be sacked in a country with long-dilapidated health infrastructure.
Many of the victims were on respirators when the blaze at Baghdad s Ibn al-Khatib hospital started with an explosion caused by a fault in the storage of oxygen cylinders , medical sources told AFP.
Flames spread quickly across multiple floors in the middle of the night, as dozens of relatives were at the bedsides of the 30 patients in the hospital s intensive care unit where the most severe Covid-19 cases are treated, a medical source said.
Indonesia submarine: Race against time to find vessel as crew oxygen due to run out
The country s navy has been searching for the vessel ever since it
went missing during a training exercise in waters north of the island of Bali.
The 43-year-old sub was conducting a torpedo drill on Wednesday but failed to relay the results as expected and has been silent ever since.
Yudo Margono, the navy chief of staff, has warned there is only enough oxygen for the sailors to last until 3am on Saturday local time - 8pm on Friday GMT.
Search helicopters and more navy ships left Bali and a naval base in Java at first light and headed to the area where contact was lost.
Russian Ruble At More Than 4-week High Versus U.S. Dollar After Russia Rate Hike
MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - The Russian Ruble drifted higher against the U.S. dollar in the European session on Friday, after Russia s central bank raised its key rate amid rising inflationary expectations.
The Board of Directors, led by Governor Elvira Nabiullina decided to lift the benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 5.00 percent. Economists had forecast a quarter point hike.
The bank observed that recovery in demand is becoming more and more resilient and in a number of sectors is outstripping the possibility of increasing output. In these conditions, the balance of risks is shifted towards pro-inflationary ones, the bank said.
United Airlines To Add More Than 480 Daily Flights To Its U.S. Schedule
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - United Airlines (UAL) said, in June, the company is adding more than 480 daily flights to its U.S. schedule to offer an average of over 3,100 total daily domestic flights to more than 240 U.S. destinations. This includes the addition of new flights to Hawaii, Alaska and Montana.
United will fly over 40 flights to the Hawaiian Islands on peak days in June. The airline will operate over 500 daily flights to 66 national park destinations.
Ankit Gupta, vice president of domestic planning and scheduling at United, said: June is historically the beginning of the peak summer travel season and ramping up to over 3,500 total daily flights across the system this June underscores the continued demand for leisure travel and our responsiveness to meeting that demand.
U.S. New Home Sales Rebound Much More Than Expected In March
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After reporting a sharp pullback in U.S. new home sales in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Friday showing a substantial rebound in new home sales in the month of March.
The report showed new home sales skyrocketed by 20.7 percent to an annual rate of 1.021 million in March after plunging by 16.2 percent to a revised rate of 846,000 in February.
Economists had expected new home sales to spike by 14.3 percent to a rate of 886,000 from the 775,000 originally reported for the previous month.