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Powerful Blast, Fire at India Chemicals Warehouse Kills 12

People stand at the site of fire at a factory in an industrial area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on Nov 4, 2020. (AP)
People stand at the site of fire at a factory in an industrial area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on Nov 4, 2020. (AP)
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Powerful Blast, Fire at India Chemicals Warehouse Kills 12

People stand at the site of fire at a factory in an industrial area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on Nov 4, 2020. (AP)
People stand at the site of fire at a factory in an industrial area on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, on Nov 4, 2020. (AP)

A major fire and a powerful blast Wednesday rocked a cotton factory warehouse storing chemicals in western India and killed 12 people, a rescue official said.

Twelve bodies were recovered from the warehouse on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, according to National Disaster Response Force spokesman Krishan Kumar.

Television images showed several workers fleeing. Twenty-four fire engines and more than 50 firefighters doused the blaze after several hours, the fire control room said.

A portion of the warehouse collapsed, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "anguished by the loss of lives due to the fire in the warehouse in Ahmedabad."

Some nearby buildings also were damaged, the New Delhi television news channel said.

Poor safety standards are a frequent cause of fires in India.

Last December, a fire believed to be caused by an electrical short circuit engulfed a building in New Delhi, killing at least 43 people.

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More than 1,000 Syrians Have Withdrawn Asylum Applications in Cyprus, Hundreds Return Home

Cyprus' deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection Nicholas Ioannides, right, and the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner shake hands before their meeting at the Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP)
Cyprus' deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection Nicholas Ioannides, right, and the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner shake hands before their meeting at the Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP)
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More than 1,000 Syrians Have Withdrawn Asylum Applications in Cyprus, Hundreds Return Home

Cyprus' deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection Nicholas Ioannides, right, and the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner shake hands before their meeting at the Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP)
Cyprus' deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection Nicholas Ioannides, right, and the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner shake hands before their meeting at the Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP)

More than 1,000 Syrian nationals have withdrawn their applications for asylum or international protection because they intend to return to their homeland, while another 500 have already gone back, a Cypriot official said Friday.

Cyprus’ Deputy Minister for Migration and International Protection Nicholas Ioannides said after talks with European Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner that the development comes in the wake of the fall of the Assad government in Syria last month.

Cyprus has adopted tougher polices in the last few years to stem the arrival of thousands of migrants either by boat from neighboring Lebanon or Syria or from Türkiye via the island’s breakaway Turkish Cypriot north. Cypriot officials had said that the percentage of irregular migrants relative to the population had been as high as 6% — six times the European average.

The tougher policies have borne fruit, according to Ioannides. Speaking earlier this week, he said some 10,000 irregular migrants left Cyprus last year, either through voluntary returns, deportations or relocations to other European nations, making the island the European Union’s leader in departures relative to arrivals.

New asylum applications in 2024 amounted to 6,769 – a 41% drop from the previous year and about a third of those filed in 2022.

Ioannides had said the drop in new asylum applications has enabled authorities to more quickly process outstanding applications and offer the necessary support to those who qualify for international protection.

The minister said arrivals by boat in recent months — particularly from Lebanon — have dropped to nil, thanks to increased patrols and cooperation with neighboring governments and European and international authorities.

Last May, the EU unveiled a 1 billion euro ($1.03 billion) aid package for Lebanon to boost border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy.

But Cyprus has been called out for breaching the rights of migrants. Last October, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Cyprus violated the right of two Syrian nationals to seek asylum in the island nation after keeping them and more than two dozen other people aboard a boat at sea for two days before sending them back to Lebanon.