Most of Canada to receive emergency alert test today
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Dozens of Chinese officials have been punished over their response to devastating floods that killed hundreds last July, after a government investigation found authorities had under-reported deaths and deliberately withheld information.
The flooding in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of central Henan province, left 398 people dead or missing. Torrential rains submerged entire neighborhoods and subway stations, drowning many people in vehicles and underground spaces, while others were caught in landslides and house collapses.
The Chinese Communist Party launched an investigation after the disaster and released its findings on Friday, concluding the city's government and other local bodies were "guilty of negligence and dereliction of duty."
Zhengzhou authorities "concealed or delayed the reporting of those killed and missing in the disaster," according to state news agency Xinhua. "They did not tally and report casualties on a daily basis as required, and have deliberately impeded and withheld reports of up to 139 cases."
Different departments in Henan illegally reported false numbers of missing people and blocked the reporting process, said the report, which was overseen by the Party's Central Committee and the State Council.
China's top-down system frequently punishes local officials for high-profile disasters and other perceived failures.
Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, local governments have faced increasing pressure to implement party policy, resulting in occasional attempts to conceal problems.
In recent months, hundreds of local officials have been fired or punished for failing to contain outbreaks of Covid-19.
According to the Henan floods report, a total of 89 civil servants were punished, including the mayor of Zhengzhou and three deputy mayors. Xu Liyi, the Zhengzhou Party Secretary and the city's top official, was removed from his position and given "a serious warning within the party."
Police detained and will pursue criminal charges against eight other people.
The Zhengzhou investigation also found authorities did not have sufficient disaster preparation in place, and "seriously lacked risk awareness regarding extreme-weather disasters," Xinhua reported.
Once the disaster hit, authorities mishandled the emergency response and moved too slowly, hampered by unnecessary bureaucracy and "formalities for formalities' sake."
The scale of the disaster also highlighted major issues with Zhengzhou's infrastructure and urban planning that had been overlooked during the city's rapid development, the report found. For instance, it has only 2,400 kilometers (1,491 miles) of storm sewer pipelines -- about half that of similar sized cities.
The report pointed to two deadly events that went viral on social media and drew widespread horror: the flooding of a subway station, with some passengers trapped in train cars for hours up to their necks in water, and the flooding of an underground tunnel where travelers were trapped in their cars.
These incidents were preventable "casualties that shouldn't have happened," exacerbated by authorities' delayed response, the investigation committee said.
The flooding also hit smaller cities and villages, with rivers swelling beyond warning levels and numerous reservoirs overflowing. In total, nearly 14.8 million people across the province were affected by the disaster, the report found.
The federal government will test its capacity to issue emergency alerts today, with the exception of Ontario, where the test will take place on May 15.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has made headlines with his recent arrival in the U.K., this time to celebrate all things Invictus. But upon the prince landing in the U.K., we have already had confirmation that King Charles III won't have time to see his youngest son during his brief visit.
An Ontario man found out that a line of credit he thought was insured actually isn't after his wife of 50 years died.
After more than a century, Boy Scouts of America is rebranding as Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
In March, Indonesian officials and local fishermen rescued 75 people from the overturned hull of a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Until now, little was known about why the boat capsized.
An Ontario woman said it would have been impossible to buy a house without her mother – an anecdote that animates the fact that over 17 per cent of Canadian homeowners born in the ‘90s own their property with their parents, according to a new report.
Canadian immigrants threatened by hostile regimes are urging parliamentarians to quickly pass the 'Countering Foreign Interference Act' so they can feel safe living in their adopted home.
A long-simmering feud between hip-hop superstars Drake and Kendrick Lamar reached a boiling point in recent days as the pair traded increasingly personal insults on a succession of diss tracks. Here’s a quick overview of what’s behind the ongoing beef.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.