CANADA
2 bodies found in rubble
Officials recovered two bodies after dismantling a piece of a partially collapsed Ontario shopping mall Wednesday and said they are confident no other victims are inside. The renewed rescue effort came after angry residents shouted down fears that the unstable structure made the work too risky to continue. Rescuers had not detected signs of life after detecting breathing inside the rubble early Monday, nearly two days after Saturday’s collapse. Work at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake resumed late Tuesday, with residents camping outside and watching a huge robotic arm strip away the mall’s facade.
MALI
Rebels’ truce falls apart
The tenuous truce between two of the rebel groups controlling northern Mali was shattered Wednesday, as the rebel faction bent on creating an Islamic state fought its way into the buildings used by a secular rebel group. The latter was forced to beat a retreat and one of their leaders was airlifted abroad after being shot in the leg.
PAKISTAN
Taliban claim grisly attack
The Taliban released a video Wednesday that they say shows the heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers captured in a cross-border raid from Afghanistan this week and beheaded. In violence Wednesday, a bomb in a railway station in Pakistan’s southwest killed at least five people, police said. Pakistan has criticized NATO and Afghan forces for not doing enough to stop the attacks, but it has received little sympathy. The Afghan government and its allies have long faulted Pakistan for failing to target militants who use Pakistani territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan.
BANGLADESH
91 killed amid monsoon
Landslides and floods caused by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 91 people in southern Bangladesh and many more were missing, the government said Wednesday. Officials said the landslides occurred mainly in remote villages with poor roads, making rescue work more difficult. At least 37 died in Cox’s Bazar, 33 in neighboring Bandarban and another 21 in Chittagong, mostly in a series of landslides, the Disaster Management Ministry said.
Compiled from wire reports.
