3 Killed in Fire at Philippine Hotel

Firemen battle a fire at the Manila Pavilion Hotel. (AP)
Firemen battle a fire at the Manila Pavilion Hotel. (AP)
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3 Killed in Fire at Philippine Hotel

Firemen battle a fire at the Manila Pavilion Hotel. (AP)
Firemen battle a fire at the Manila Pavilion Hotel. (AP)

Three people were killed on Sunday in a fire that broke out in a hotel in the Philippine capital, Manila.

Nearly two dozen people were injured in the blaze at the Manila Pavilion Hotel, said police and rescue officials.

The death toll had been reduced from four to three, said Johnny Yu, chief of the Manila Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office.

"The smoke is very heavy and, second, there's the wind that we're trying to overcome," Yu said. "Our firefighters are having a lot of difficulty."

Two employees of a casino at the hotel were missing and rescue operations were ongoing, Manila Police District spokesman Erwin Margarejo told Reuters.

Police said it remains unclear if the fire at the hotel, which was still raging after seven hours, started in the casino in the lower floors or in an area of the hotel that was under renovation.

TV footage showed dark gray smoke billowing from the first and second floors of the hotel as rescuers brought people out of the building.

Police and firefighters blocked off the areas around the hotel, which lies in the heart of Manila's tourist district, to allow dozens of firetrucks to approach and help fight the blaze.



First White South Africans Fly to US Under Trump Refugee Plan 

White South Africans demonstrate in support of US President Donald Trump in front of the US embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP)
White South Africans demonstrate in support of US President Donald Trump in front of the US embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP)
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First White South Africans Fly to US Under Trump Refugee Plan 

White South Africans demonstrate in support of US President Donald Trump in front of the US embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP)
White South Africans demonstrate in support of US President Donald Trump in front of the US embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP)

The first 49 white South Africans deemed victims of racial discrimination and granted refugee status under an offer by US President Donald Trump were flying to the US on Monday in a move deepening friction between the two nations.

The US government has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but is prioritizing Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers.

Giving refugee status to white South Africans has been met with a mixture of alarm and ridicule by South African authorities, who say the Trump administration has waded into a domestic political issue it does not understand.

It comes at a time of heightened racial tensions in South Africa over land and jobs that has divided the ruling coalition.

The charter plane carrying the 49 from Johannesburg was expected to arrive at Washington Dulles airport on Monday morning.

"The government unequivocally states that these are not refugees," South African foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri told local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.

"But we are not going to stand in their way."

WEALTH INEQUITIES

Since Nelson Mandela brought democracy into South Africa in the 1994, the once-ruling white minority has retained most of the wealth amassed under colonialism and apartheid.

Whites still own three-quarters of private land and have about 20 times the wealth of the Black majority, according to international academic journal the Review of Political Economy.

Less than 10% of white South Africans are out of work, compared with more than a third of their Black counterparts.

Yet the claim that minority white South Africans face discrimination from the Black majority has become an established trope in right-wing online chatrooms, and has been echoed by Trump's white South African-born ally Elon Musk.

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has cut all US financial assistance to South Africa last month, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington's ally, Israel.