Beijing police said yesterday they had detained a senior staff member at China’s state television station and 11 other people over a fireworks show that set part of its new headquarters ablaze.
The 12 are suspected of having caused Monday night’s blaze that consumed an almost-completed building that was to house the Mandarin Oriental hotel, and which led to the death of one firefighter, a police statement said.
Among those detained was Xu Wei (徐威), 50, who was in charge of construction at China Central Television’s (CCTV) new site.
“Twelve people including CCTV construction office director Xu Wei have been detained by Beijing police on suspicion of creating a disturbance with dangerous materials,” the statement faxed to reporters said.
Citing police, Xinhua news agency reported separately that three other CCTV employees and eight people the station hired to set off the fireworks were also under detention, without providing further details.
The eight fireworks operators, from a fireworks company based in Hunan Province, fled the scene once the blaze began, Xinhua said.
They were caught by police in the city of Langfang, about two hours’ drive south of Beijing.
Fire authorities said previously the blaze was caused by fireworks that CCTV had illegally set off at its new headquarters to celebrate the end of Lunar New Year festivities.
CCTV used fireworks far more powerful than the public were allowed to buy, and ignored police orders for them not to be set off.
The fire engulfed a 30-story cultural center that was to house the Mandarin Oriental, as well as a television studio and an IT center.
Chinese bloggers have defied censorship efforts and ridiculed CCTV over the debacle, with some celebrating the fire as a deserved punishment for the station’s propaganda mission.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS