Six In The Morning Sunday 30 October 2022

 

South Korea mourns after Halloween crush kills 154

Survivor: 'People were suffocating, screaming... falling'

Survivors have been speaking of their horror at watching friends and strangers suffocate in an alleyway as dance music blared into the night.

"People began pushing from behind, it was like a wave - there was nothing you could do," said Nuhyil Ahammed.

"I couldn't sleep last night. I can still see people dying in front of me."

The 32-year-old had been caught in the crush and says there was nothing anyone could have done to save others or themselves.

Nuhyil, an IT worker who lives in Seoul, said he had attended the Halloween party here for the last five years.

Summary

1. 154 people have died in a crush in South Korea's capital, Seoul
2. Another 133 were injured, Yonhap news agency reports
3. Twenty foreign nationals are among the dead, the government says
4. The jam of people developed as huge crowds gathered in Itaewon - a popular nightlife area - for Halloween
5. Most victims were teenagers and adults in their 20s, the fire service says
6. Reports say the crush began in a narrow alley when people in a crowd fell over
7. It was the first outdoor no-mask Halloween event since the pandemic

China braces for wave of workers fleeing iPhone factory in Covid-hit Zhengzhou

Cities near to the Foxconn plant have drawn up plans to isolate migrant workers who are returning to home

Agencies

Cities in central China have hastily drawn up plans to isolate migrant workers fleeing to their home towns from the country’s largest iPhone factory, amid fears they will spread coronavirus after leaving the plant in Covid-hit Zhengzhou.

Videos shared on Chinese social media showed people who are allegedly workers at the Foxconn plant climbing over fences and carrying their belongings along a road. It was previously reported that a number of workers had been placed under quarantine because of an outbreak of the disease.

Foxconn, a supplier to Apple that is headquartered in Taiwan, has about 200,000 workers at the Zhengzhou complex. It has not disclosed the number of infected workers, nor the number who have left, but said on Sunday that it would not stop them from departing.

Oil and gas giants making record profits during Ukraine war ‘given unprecedented access to EU leaders’

Exclusive: European Commission has held more than 100 meetings with fossil fuel representatives this year, anti-lobbying groups say

Andy Gregory

Oil and gas giants have enjoyed “unprecedented” access to European leaders while raking in record profits since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, campaigners have warned.

Lobbying watchdogs allege in a new report that fossil fuel firms have successfully used this “privileged access” and capitalised on divisions among member states in order to “delay and minimise any genuine political intervention” to keep soaring energy costs in check.

Energy giants have also “used the crisis to their own advantage by forcing” the European Union into more infrastructure investments, locking consumers into “a spiral of skyrocketing energy prices, fossil fuel addiction and climate disaster”, the groups claim.

Iran journalists demand release of jailed colleagues

Dozens of journalists have been arrested during widespread protests that were triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

More than 300 Iranian journalists on Sunday called for the release of colleagues who were detained amid nationwide demonstrations.

They signed a statement published in the Iranian Etemad and other newspapers in which they accused authorities of arresting members of the press and "stripping them of their civil rights."

"They did not have access to their lawyers, they were interrogated and charged before holding a public hearing," the statement said.

Brazil votes in heated Bolsonaro-Lula presidential runoff

Brazilians vote Sunday in a polarizing presidential runoff election that pits an incumbent vowing to safeguard conservative Christian values against a former president promising to return the country to a more prosperous past. 

The runoff shaped up as a close contest between President Jair Bolsonaro and his political nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Both are well-known, divisive political figures who stir passion as much as loathing.

Bolsonaro was first in line to cast his vote at a military complex in Rio de Janeiro. He sported the green and yellow colors of the Brazilian flag that always feature at his rallies.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

At least 30 people killed in bridge collapse in India: Reports

The 230-metre bridge was built during British rule in the 19th century and was recently reopened to the public after renovations.

At least 30 people were killed and dozens critically injured when a suspension bridge in India’s western Gujarat state collapsed on Sunday.

“We can confirm that 30 people have lost their lives, many have been rescued from the river, and some are still missing,” said Amit Jhala, a senior administrator at the state-run hospital to where victims were taken.

More than 400 people were on the bridge over the Machhu River in the town of Morbi at the time of the collapse, local TV channel Zee News reported.