The director of a Moscow market where the snow-laden roof collapsed, fatally crushing workers, has been detained, the chief city prosecutor said on Friday. Meanwhile, Moscow's mayor said the death toll had reached 61.
The prosecutor, Anatoly Zuyev said the suspect, Mark Mishiyev, had been charged with negligence leading to deaths. He also said prosecutors had ordered an analysis by explosives experts, and that a comprehensive construction analysis would follow.
Luzhkov was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying more bodies may yet be found under the massive debris of the Basmanny market in east-central Moscow. There were sharply contrasting reports on how many people were injured in the collapse and how many of the injured were in life-threatening condition.
Luzhkov said 60 victims remained in hospitals, three of them in severe condition, according to ITAR-Tass. Yevgeny Yevdokin, the city's chief anesthesiologist, said earlier in the day that 21 people were hospitalized all of them in intensive care. A duty officer at the Emergency Situations Ministry said late on Friday that 24 victims were in hospital.
Hundreds of workers were laboring around the clock to clear the enormous mound of concrete and steel at the market, using power shovels and other heavy equipment in an indication that they held essentially no hope of anyone being alive underneath.
Earlier on Friday, Luzhkov said "Maybe there is some kind of zone where there may be people, but the probability of this is very small."
Virtually all the victims were workers from the former Soviet republics, among the thousands who have poured into the Russian capital to fill low-paying jobs such as those at the city's produce and housewares markets.
At least 22 of the victims were from Azerbaijan, said Shamil Kasayev, an Azerbaijani Embassy official at the morgue near the market. ITAR-Tass quoted an unnamed leader of the Azerbaijani Diaspora in Moscow as saying that the number was closer to 40.
Kasayev said the government would cover all the costs of transporting the bodies.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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