'Oh my God, you're my brother': Man in his 70s discovers 6 unknown siblings
After receiving a DNA kit one Christmas from his son-in-law, Hugh McCormick soon discovered that he had six unknown siblings, with whom he shared the same birth parents.
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.
After receiving a DNA kit one Christmas from his son-in-law, Hugh McCormick soon discovered that he had six unknown siblings, with whom he shared the same birth parents.
Four years on, the controversy over whether airlines owed refunds to passengers after cancelling hundreds of thousands of flights during the pandemic continues to simmer, aggravated by a sluggish, opaque complaints process.
Many foods fall under the category of ultraprocessed foods, depending on their exact ingredients. This type of food has been studied a lot lately, and the results aren’t great.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
A new study projecting declining rates of cancer cases and deaths in Canada demonstrates the success of prevention and early detection programs, but also highlights areas where more work is needed to save and prolong lives, researchers say.
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial is set to take the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country's gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.