Fire in Chinese shopping centre claims 16 lives amidst construction work

It happened while you were sleeping. Here is what global agencies reported overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.

• At least 16 people died in a fire at a shopping centre in Zigong, a city in Sichuan Province in southwestern China - Reuters reported, citing local media. The fire occurred in a 14-storey building in the advanced technology zone in Zigong, about 180 kilometres south of Sichuan's capital, Chengdu. According to preliminary investigation findings, the cause of the fire, which erupted between the ground floor and the fifth floor, was irregularities during construction work.

• Croatian energy transmission system operator HOPS announced a new record for electricity consumption. According to N1 television, on Tuesday, energy consumption reached 3341 megawatt-hours. This is related to the extreme heat that has prevailed in the tourist paradise for many days.

• Kenyan President William Ruto appointed Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi as the temporary head of all ministries. Previously, all other ministry heads were dismissed following violent protests.

• Imprisoned in Havana, the capital of Cuba, opposition member Onaikel Infante Abreu painted anti-government slogans on the prison wall using his blood, the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Speech and Press (ICLEP) reported on Wednesday. "Freedom. Homeland and Life. Freedom for political prisoners. No more hunger for the people!" - wrote the regime opponent on the prison wall in Havana, for which he was punished. The inmate's wife informed ICLEP management that among the sanctions imposed on Abreu for painting anti-government slogans was torture, including permanent restraint with handcuffs on both of his hands and legs.

• Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the late president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, who has been serving a long-term prison sentence for several crimes, is being specially treated and enjoying privileges not available to other inmates - reported Radio Free Europe. Women who have served time in the same prison in the Tashkent region claim that Karimova, among other things, has a uniform made from a unique, breathable material. She is also allowed to wear non-regulation shoes with laces. Islam Karimov's daughter has "four beds that she has separated with sheets from the others in the cell [so she has privacy]."