NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY MARCH 9, 2007
TRAGEDY
Children perish in blaze
New York's deadliest fire in two decades claims 8 children, one adult
Frank Franklin II/Associated Press
Frank Tranauer is a Associated Press记者.
Pedestrians look on as others leave messages and gifts for the 9 people who died in a fire Thursday,
in the Bronx borough of New York.
BY VERENA DOBNIK ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Screams poured from the burning building along with smoke and flames "Help me! Help me! Please! Please!" Bystanders looked up to see a woman toss two children out the window one at a time to those below.
The scene unfolded early Thursday during New York's deadliest fire in nearly two decades — a blaze that killed eight children and one adult, part of an extended family led by African immigrants who shared a row house near Yankee Stadium.
The children tossed from the three-story building survived, authorities said. The woman who threw them jumped but survived.
The fire was sparked by an overheated space heater near a mattress in a basement bedroom, then raced up a stairway pushed by air from broken back windows, said Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano. Most of the 22 residents — 17 of them children — were stranded on the upper floors as the blaze raged for two hours.
"I can't recollect a fire where we
"I can't recoile lost eight children". Cassano said.
Neighbor Edward Soto ran toward the fire, then stared in disbelief as an infant was tossed from the building.
there was no evidence of a crime.
"All I see is just a big cloud of white dust
The dead were found throughout the house, mostly on the upper floors, with babies still in their cribs. The victims included five children from one family, along with a wife and three other children from a second family.
"I can't recollect a fire where we lost eight children."
SALVATORE CASSANO
Fire Chief
and out of nowhere comes the first baby," said Soto, who caught the child while with another neighbor. Moments later, he caught a second child. At least one of the children was not breathing.
Firefighters worked for two hours in freezing predawn temperatures to bring the flames under control. The home had two smoke alarms, but neither had batteries. Police said
Word of the fire spread grief across two continents, from the Bronx to villages in Mali, a West African country about twice the size of Texas and one of the poorest nations in the world.
"I don't know what I'm going
to do," said a devastated Mamadou Soumure, a livery-cabdriver whose wife, son and 7-month-old twins died in the blaze. "I love her. I love my wife."
Soumare was driving through Harlem when he received a frantic cell phone call from his wife, Fatoumata, who relatives said died in the fire. "She said, We have a fire," Soumare recalled. "She was
screaming."
Soumare rushed home in his cab, only to helplessly watch as their home turned into a fiery tomb.
Moussa Magassa, an official of the New York chapter of the High Council for Malians Living Abroad, was headed back to the city from a business trip to Mali after receiving the grim news that nearly half of his 11 children were dead, said council representative Bourraine Niamble.
"He's the best in our community," said Imam Mahamadou Soukina, a Muslim cleric and family friend. "It's very, very, very sad what has happened to us today."
Magassa arrived in New York about 15 years ago, friends said. One neighbor said Magassa and Mamadou Soumare were brothers. Fatoumata Soumare was from the village of Tasauirga and left Mali for the Bronx about six years ago, friends said.
The death toll might have been higher if not for the efforts of Soto and another neighbor, David Todd.
Todd, 40, who lived next door, said one child was already on the ground in the yard when he arrived with Soto outside the burning home. "Please God, help my children!" the woman inside screamed while tossing the children out — and then jumping from the window.
Paul Sakuma/Associated Press
BY KOZO MIZOGUCHI
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Japan investigates sex crimes
The fire was New York City's deadliest since the 1990 Happy Land social club blaze in the Bronx that killed 87 people.
》 WWII
TOKYO — Under intense pressure from Asia and the United States, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that ruling party lawmakers will conduct a fresh investigation into the Japanese military's forced sexual slavery of women during World War II.
Man behind Mario
Abe triggered outrage in China, North and South Korea and the Philippines last week by saying
Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo Corp's top game designer, gives a keynote address as the game Mario Brothers plays in background at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco on Thursday.
there was no proof the women were coerced. He said Monday that Japan will not apologize again for the Japanese military's "comfort stations"
The government is ready to cooperate with the investigation. Abe said Thursday, amid calls for a review from conservatives who question many of the claims by victims and others who say the government kidnapped the women and forced them into sex slavery.
wartime brothels, Japanese leaders apologized in 1993 for the government's role, but the apology was not approved by Parliament. Abe said Thursday that he "basically stands by the 1993 apology."
"I was told the party will conduct an investigation or a study, so we will provide government documents and cooperate as necessary." Abe told reporters.
Abe also faces pressure from the United States, where the House is considering a Japan to formali
"I was told the party will conduct an investigation or a study, so we will provide government documents and cooperate as necessary."
misrepresented by the U.S. media, and that Tokyo would soon issue a rebuttal.
"My remarks have been twisted in a sense and reported overseas, which further invites misunderstanding." Abe said. "This is an extremely unproductive situation."
SHINZO ABE Japanese Prime Minister
Historians say that about 200,000 women — mostly from Korea and China — served in Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Accounts of abuse by the military have been backed up by witnesses, and even former Japanese soldiers.
where the House of Representatives is considering a resolution urging Japan to formally apologize for its
We offer both 9-week and 17-week sessions General education courses transfer to Kansas Regents schools.
Abe's statement contradicted evidence in Japanese documents, unearthed in 1992, that historians said showed that military authorities had a direct role in working with contractors to forcibly procure women for the brothels.
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japans position on the coercion of women into sex slavery during the war had been misinterpreted and
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The top government spokesman said earlier Thursday that on the coercion of slavery during the uninterrupted and
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But prominent Japanese scholars and politicians routinely deny direct military involvement or the use of force in rounding up the women, blaming private contractors for the abuses.
The fallout from the remarks continued to build Thursday.
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