While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Feb 23
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Two people wait to be rescued from a fire at a 14-storey residential building in Valencia, eastern Spain.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Fire ravages residential high-rise in Spain’s Valencia
Spanish firefighters were battling high winds to put out a huge fire that gutted a multi-storey apartment block in the eastern port city of Valencia on Feb 22, the emergency services said.
At least 13 people have been injured, including a minor and six firefighters, emergency services and regional officials said, without providing details on the extent of the injuries.
Images showed flames and vast clouds of black smoke engulfing the building in the Campanar neighbourhood in western Valencia, with 22 teams of firefighters called in to fight the fire which also spread to a neighbouring building.
Spain’s TVE public television said there were more than 130 flats in the 14-storey building which had been rapidly “reduced to a skeleton”.
Biden meets late Navalny’s wife, daughter
US President Joe Biden on Feb 22 met the wife and daughter of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died last week, “to express his heartfelt condolences”, the White House said.
During the meeting in California, Mr Biden expressed his admiration for Navalny’s “extraordinary courage and his legacy of fighting against corruption and for a free and democratic Russia in which the rule of law applies equally to everyone”, the White House said in a statement.
Mr Biden also affirmed that the United States will announce major new sanctions against Russia on Feb 23 in response to Navalny’s death, Russia’s repression and aggression, and its war in Ukraine, it added.
Navalny’s mother says she’s being pressured into ‘secret’ burial
PHOTOS: REUTERS, EPA-EFE
The mother of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main opponent who died in an Arctic prison last week, said on Feb 22 that officials are pressuring her into a “secret” burial for her son.
Mrs Lyudmila Navalnaya said she had been shown his body in the morgue in Salekhard, the nearest town to the remote prison, after several days of being barred from seeing her son.
“Yesterday evening, they secretly took me to the morgue where they showed me Alexei,” she said, in a video released on social media by Navalny’s team.
Bobi loses ‘world’s oldest dog’ title, posthumously
REUTERS
The Guinness World Records has revoked the title of the “world’s oldest dog” it awarded a now-deceased Portuguese canine named Bobi in 2023, as it found no conclusive evidence that it had, in fact, lived for more than 31 years.
Following complaints by some veterinarians who raised doubts over Bobi’s age, Guinness in January started a formal review of the title issued in February 2023, when it said Bobi was about 30 years old, breaking a record held since 1939 by an Australian cattle-dog that died at 29 years and five months.
Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro Alentejano which spent its life in a village in central Portugal, died in October, supposedly at the age of 31 years and five months. Its breed, traditionally used as sheepdogs, usually has a life expectancy of 12 to 14 years.
Czech teen Mensik stuns top seed Rublev at Qatar Open
Czech teenager Jakub Mensik stunned top seed Andrey Rublev in straight sets at the Qatar Open on Feb 22 to reach his maiden ATP semi-final and guarantee a spot in the world’s top 100 for the first time.
The 18-year-old came through 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) against the fifth-ranked Rublev, a day after defeating three-time Grand Slam title winner Andy Murray.
“It’s just been an incredible week. From the beginning I played very well and I knew I could play with the big players. It’s an amazing feeling to reach the semi-finals after beating those good players,” said wildcard Mensik who arrived in the Gulf ranked at 116.
