Officials blame driver for deaths at event
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Mexican government officials and event organizers Monday blamed the driver of a monster truck for losing control and plowing into a crowd of spectators, killing eight and injuring 79. Motor-sports experts, however, pointed at the organizers, saying the setup of the state-sponsored show was blatantly deficient and life-threatening.
Organizers of the “Extreme Aeroshow” said that hundreds of families had gathered without permission in what was supposed to be the pit area of the makeshift arena in a park in the capital of the border state of Chihuahua. One organizer said the spectators weren’t moved because “crowd management is very difficult.”
The pit area was unprotected by any barrier and sat feet from where the monster truck known as “Big Show” was crushing a pair of old cars, leaping into the air and rolling over their hoods and roofs. Video of the accident shows the truck coming down hard off the second car, bouncing, then speeding out of control into the crowd.
It was the second disaster in less than a month to focus attention on Mexico’s patchy and loosely enforced system of consumer safety. Experts widely blamed much of the billions of dollars’ worth of damage from Tropical Storm Manuel and Hurricane Ingrid, which killed 157 people and displaced thousands, on the government’s failure to prevent home construction in floodplains and enforce building standards for highways and bridges.
Progress on Syria arms draws praise from Kerry
BALI, Indonesia – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the United States and Russia are “very pleased” with the progress made so far in destroying Syria’s chemical weapons stocks. And, he offered some rare, if qualified, U.S. praise for Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Kerry, speaking at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said the Assad regime deserves credit for its speedy compliance thus far with the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the elimination of the weapons. However, Kerry stressed that Assad is not off the hook yet and needs to continue to comply with U.N. demands.
“Let me be crystal clear,” Kerry said, “we’re very pleased with the pace of what has happened with respect to chemical weapons.” He noted that Sunday, just over a week after the Security Council and the international chemical weapons watchdog acted, experts had started the process of destroying the stockpiles.
“I think that was a terrific example of global cooperation, of multilateral efforts to accomplish an accepted goal and they have moved with equal speed to get on the ground in Syrian and begin the operations,” he said.
Italian divers recover more bodies from ship
LAMPEDUSA, Italy – Deep sea divers “unpacked a wall of people” from the hull of a smuggler’s trawler on the sea floor near this Italian island on Monday, gingerly untangling the dead would-be migrants in the latest and most painstaking phase of a recovery operation after their ship’s fiery capsizing.
It was the first time the divers had been able to reach the hull, and authorities said 38 more bodies were recovered, raising the death toll from last Thursday’s tragedy to 232. Scores more are believed missing; most, if not all, were Eritreans trying to reach Europe in search of asylum and a better life.
“They unpacked a wall of people,” said Navy Capt. Paolo Trucco of the deep sea specialists. The bodies “were so entwined, one with the other, it is indescribable. They were so trapped they were difficult to pull out.”
Associated Press
