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Geopolitics

Brazil Nightclub Fire Kills At Least 245 People

FOLHA DE S.PAULO, O GLOBO, ZERO HORA (Brazil)

Worldcrunch

SANTA MARIA – At least 245 people were killed early Sunday in a fire that swept through a popular nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, in the Southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, reports O Globo.

The fire broke out at around 2 a.m. after one of the bands performing on stage used pyrotechnics, authorities said.

According to witnesses, the fire swept the popular Kiss nightclub in three minutes, reports Porto Alegre based newspaper Zero Hora.

"We looked up at the ceiling in front of the stage and it was catching fire," 23-year-ol Luana Santos Silva told Brazil's Globo TV.

Thick smoke engulfed the venue after the acoustic insulation caught fire, officials said.

Students from the city's Federal University (UFSM) were holding their fresher's ball at the nightclub. The number of people who were inside the nightclub when the fire broke out has not yet been confirmed but the club has a capacity of 2,000.

Colonel Adilomar Silva, the regional coordinator of civil defense, said the death toll was likely to climb as firefighters were still pulling bodies from the venue. Most of the victims died of smoke inhalation, Silva said.

According to survivors, some security guards had tried to prevent people from leaving without paying, reports Zero Hora.

A temporary morgue has been set up in a local gym as the city's main morgue is unable to cope.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a series of meetings in Chile where she had been attending a regional summit. "The Brazilian people are the ones who need me today," she said. "I want to tell the people of Santa Maria in this time of sadness that we are all together." It is the second deadliest fire in the history of Brazil, reports Folha de S.Paulo.

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LGBTQ Plus

Why Is Homophobia In Africa So Widespread?

Uganda's new law that calls for life imprisonment for gay sex is part of a wider crackdown against LGBTQ+ rights that is particularly harsh on the African continent.

Photo of LGBTQ Ugandan group

LGBTQ group in Uganda

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

Uganda has just passed a law that allows for life imprisonment for same-sex sexual relations, punishing even the "promotion" of homosexuality. Under the authoritarian regime of Yoweri Museveni for the past 37 years, Uganda has certainly gone above and beyond existing anti-gay legislation inherited from British colonization.

But the country of 46 million is not alone, as a wider crackdown against LGBTQ+ rights continues to spread as part of a wider homophobic climate across Africa.

There is exactly one country on the continent, South Africa, legalized same-sex marriage in 2006, and another southern African state, Botswana, lifted the ban on homosexuality in 2019. But in total, more than half of the 54 African states have more or less repressive laws providing for prison sentences.

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