Six In The Morning Saturday September 12

Mecca crane collapse: Saudi inquiry into Grand Mosque disaster

Saudi Arabia has begun an investigation into why a crane collapsed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, killing at least 107 people.

The huge red crane crashed into a part of the Grand Mosque as it was filled with worshippers.

Officials say strong winds and heavy rains caused the crane to fall.

Correspondents say there have previously been concerns about safety records on Saudi construction sites.

The Grand Mosque, known as the Masjid al-Haram, is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds Islam's holiest place, the Kaaba.

At least 230 people were injured in the incident. It is unclear how many people were hurt by the collapse or the stampede that followed it.

Tianjin explosion: China sets final death toll at 173, ending search for survivors 

Authorities call off search for remaining eight missing in a massive chemical warehouse explosion last month, declaring them dead

Associated Press in Beijing

Saturday 12 September 2015 06.08 BST

Chinese authorities ended the search for the remaining eight missing in a massive chemical warehouse explosion last month, setting the final death toll at 173 in China’s worst industrial disaster in years.

The announcement by the Tianjin city government said there was no hope of finding the eight people and the court would start issuing death certificates.

“After thorough investigations by all parties it is certain that there is no possibility of survivors,” said a statement on Friday night.

World War II: Soviet envoy's book reveals missed opportunities to pre-empt Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union

Ivan Maisky’s personal account of his years in London has been rediscovered - as have new facts about one of the most important events in world history

ANDY MCSMITH 

 

 

Saturday 12 September 2015

Lord Beaverbrook, the founder of the Daily Express, claimed during the war that there was no politician in Britain who was a better friend to the USSR than he. But the public thought that honour belonged to the Labour MP Stafford Cripps, whom Churchill had appointed ambassador to Moscow in 1940, and who returned in February 1942 claiming credit for bringing the USSR into the war.

When Cripps joined the War Cabinet, Beaverbrook resigned. It infuriated the vain press baron that anyone should think the swap was a gain for the Soviet Union, so the following week, he hosted a dinner party at his home, Cherkley Court, near Leatherhead in Surrey.

Guests included the US ambassador, Averell Harriman, and his lover and future wife, Pamela Churchill, the Prime Minister’s daughter-in-law; the 29-year-old editor of the Beaverbrook-owned Evening Standard, Michael Foot; and Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador.

People smuggling is a booming business in the Balkans

It is easy for local criminals to fleece migrants along their route to Western Europe

Daniel McLaughlin in Nickelsdorf, Austria

Now he was finally in Austria, Ahman Urabi realised how close he had been to doing something that would have left him penniless, and could have been deadly.

“I have passed the toughest point in my journey now,” he said, as he and thousands of other refugees and migrants rested at a vast, windblown customs area on Austria’s border with Hungary, awaiting buses to take them farther west.

“Yesterday, at the [train] station in Budapest, I was ready to pay the ‘mafia’ to take me to Austria,” he said, using the term most migrants use for people smugglers.

“The price was not fair – they wanted €750 in advance – but I was almost ready to do it. My family wired money to me in Budapest. But I changed my mind and now I am here,” he said, after Hungary had provided buses to take migrants to Austria.

French honorary consul in Turkey suspended over selling rubber dinghies to migrants

Latest update : 2015-09-12

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday suspended an honorary consul in Turkey for selling rubber dinghies and life jackets to refugees risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

"The minister has just ordered her suspension," foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told AFP following a television report showing the woman in her sailing goods shop in the southwestern Turkish resort town of Bodrum, with a French flag and plaque reading "Consular agency of France" hanging outside.

"Francoise Olcay has been informed of her suspension by France's consul general in Istanbul to which she belongs," Nadal added.

Olcay has held the position since October 2014.

In the footage, which was secretly filmed by France 2 television, she can be seen selling inflatable dinghies and life jackets to migrants and refugees hoping to reach the Greek islands.

Why Singapore's election matters, even if it's predictable

Singapore's general election Friday was widely expected to keep its leading political party in power. So why did more than 2 million voters still come out?

By Michelle Toh, Staff writer

Singaporeans headed to the polls Friday to vote in a general election that was already largely decided.

Preliminary sample counts of 100 ballots showed that the People’s Action Party was set for reelection, continuing its control as Singapore’s leading political party since the country’s independence in 1965. Out of 89 parliament seats, the count indicated the PAP would be taking 83, according to the Elections Department.

Yet more than 2.1 million Singaporeans had cast their votes at 830 polling stations by early Friday evening, the country’s elections department said.

Voter turnout was almost unprecedented, with people coming out in every district for the first time since independence, according to Bloomberg.