China is to give unusually large payouts to the families of firefighters killed in giant explosions in Tianjin last month, local media reported, after the disaster raised questions over whether the young men’s training was inadequate.
Each family is to receive 2.3 million yuan (US$360,000) in compensation, a payment that includes extra money for “martyrdom,” the Beijing News reported late on Wednesday.
The death toll from a series of explosions on Aug. 12 rose to 164 yesterday, Tianjin authorities said, 97 of them firefighters.
Nine people are still missing.
The compensation amount is more than double the US$145,000 given to the families of each of the victims of a 2011 train crash outside the city of Wenzhou.
Of the 2.3 million yuan, 940,000 yuan is a “martyrdom payment,” while most of the rest is 30 times the average annual urban salary, for lost income due to death.
The standard compensation for accident victims in China is 20 times the average salary.
The relatively large amount might be an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to quell criticism after questions were raised over whether poorly trained firefighters could have contributed to the detonations in Tianjin.
Reports said emergency workers responding to a blaze at a hazardous goods storage facility could have sprayed water over calcium carbide, listed as being at the site.
The two substances react to produce highly combustible acetylene gas.
Nearly all of China’s firefighters are contract laborers — young, poor men from the countryside, who receive limited training, provoking public concern over the professionalism and capabilities of the service.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
RSS