Digest

China

Shanghai high-rise blaze kills dozens

Fire engulfed a high-rise apartment building under renovation in China's business center of Shanghai on Monday, killing 53 people and sending residents scrambling down scaffolding to escape, city authorities said.

The official Xinhua News Agency cited a witness saying the blaze began when building materials caught fire. The flames spread to scaffolding and then to the 28-story apartment block itself, which houses a number of retired teachers, it said.

The government said more than 100 firetrucks were called to battle the blaze, and streams of water could be seen flowing into the building, which was shrouded in plumes of thick black smoke. The fire was largely put out about four hours later, the government said. Firefighters could be seen taking bodies from the building.

- Associated Press

India

Building collapses in crowded New Delhi

A four-story building collapsed in a congested neighborhood of New Delhi on Monday, killing at least 51 people and injuring 76 others, a top police official said.

Many more people were trapped under debris at the site on the Indian capital's east side, said B.K. Gupta, New Delhi's police commissioner.

The building housed about 200 people, mostly migrant workers and their families.

After it collapsed into a mountain of concrete slabs, iron rods, bricks and mortar, area residents were the first to reach the scene and used their bare hands to scoop away mud and mortar and pull out survivors. Emergency efforts were hampered as fire engines found it difficult to navigate the narrow alleys of the residential area of Lalita Park.

New Delhi's top elected official, Sheila Dikshit, promised to order an inquiry.

- Associated Press

Serbia

U.N. official: Mladic may have left country

The chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia left open Monday for the first time the possibility that Europe's most wanted fugitive, Ratko Mladic, may be hiding outside Serbia.

The prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said Serbia remains responsible for arresting Mladic, the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander, who is wanted on charges of genocide. Mladic has been on the run since 1995.