Rink roof collapses; 10 believed dead
Bad Reichenhall, Germany An ice rink roof collapsed onto dozens of skaters after heavy snowfall in the Bavarian Alps on Monday, and at least 10 people were believed dead, with other victims feared trapped between debris and the frozen surface of the rink.
Parents called out their children’s names, and rescue workers swarmed around the building. Doctors set up a makeshift infirmary at a sports hall next door, where injured people lay with intravenous hookups, and fire crews worked to shovel away debris.
At least four children were among the victims of the collapse, which occurred at 4 p.m. on Monday with about 50 people inside. Police said 18 people were hurt while 16 people escaped without injury.
10 die in gunbattle at Ivory Coast barracks
Abidjan, Ivory Coast Gunmen attacked the two main military barracks in Ivory Coast’s largest city Monday, setting off a battle with security forces that killed 10 people, officials said.
Armed forces chief Gen. Phillipe Mangou went on state television to reassure nervous residents after an hour of gunfire, saying military forces had repulsed the attack at Camp Akuedo in northeastern Abidjan.
Army spokesman Col. Hilaire Gohourou Babri said seven of the attackers and three security forces were killed in the battle and that dozens of the attackers had been arrested. He ruled out rumors there had been a mutiny, but there was still no word on who carried out the assault, the first since a new national unity government took office last week to help steer the country toward elections later this year.
Syria president on list in assassination inquiry
Beirut, Lebanon A U.N. commission said Monday it had asked a second time to question Syria’s president about the assassination of a former Lebanese leader, turning up the pressure on Damascus after a former top government official said President Bashar Assad had issued a threat before the killing.
The commission’s spokeswoman, Nasra Hassan, said it also wants to interview former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam “as soon as possible.” Khaddam, a one-time stalwart of Syria’s ruling party, said in a television interview last week that Assad had threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri several months before Hariri’s Feb. 14 truck-bomb assassination in Beirut.
Emergency decree in France to be lifted
Paris President Jacques Chirac plans to lift the state of emergency imposed in the autumn to halt a frenzy of rioting and car burning, his office said Monday.
The three weeks of unrest, which erupted in late October, was concentrated in poor suburbs where many North and West African immigrants live with their French-born children.
Before this weekend, the conservative government feared the unrest might flare up again during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Revelers burned 425 vehicles – up from 333 the year earlier – but there were no major clashes, and the national police chief said Sunday that France had been spared a revival of the unrest.
Chirac plans to lift the state of emergency this week, more than six weeks earlier than originally planned, his office said without giving a reason.