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BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityAsiaChinaIndiaTruong My Lan: Vietnamese billionaire sentenced to death for $44bn fraudPublished29 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Truong My Lan is accused of looting one of Vietnam’s largest banks over a period of 11 yearsBy Jonathan Head & Thu BuiIn BangkokIt was the most spectacular trial ever held in Vietnam, befitting one of the greatest bank frauds the world has ever seen. Behind the stately yellow portico of the colonial-era courthouse in Ho Chi Minh City, a 67-year-old Vietnamese property developer was sentenced to death on Thursday for looting one of the country’s largest banks over a period of 11 years.The numbers involved are dizzying. Truong My Lan was convicted for taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. Prosecutors said $27bn may never be recovered.The habitually secretive communist authorities were uncharacteristically forthright about this case, going into minute detail for the media. They said 2,700 people were summoned to testify, while 10 state prosecutors and around 200 lawyers were involved. The evidence was in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes. Eighty-five defendants were tried with Truong My Lan, who denied the charges. “There has never been a show trial like this, I think, in the communist era,” says David Brown, a retired US state department official with long experience in Vietnam. “There has certainly been nothing on this scale.”The trial was the most dramatic chapter so far in the “Blazing Furnaces” anti-corruption campaign led by the Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong. A conservative ideologue steeped in Marxist theory, Nguyen Phu Trong believes that popular anger over untamed corruption poses an existential threat to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power. He began the campaign in earnest in 2016 after out-manoeuvring the then pro-business prime minister to retain the top job in the party. Image source, Getty ImagesThe campaign has seen two presidents and two deputy prime ministers forced to resign, and hundreds of officials disciplined or jailed. Now one of the country’s richest women has joined their ranks. Truong My Lan comes from a Sino-Vietnamese family in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. It has long been the commercial engine of the Vietnamese economy, dating well back to its days as the anti-communist capital of South Vietnam, with a large, ethnic Chinese community. She started as a market stall vendor, selling cosmetics with her mother, but began buying land and property after the Communist Party ushered in a period of economic reform, known as Doi Moi, in 1986. By the 1990s, she owned a large portfolio of hotels and restaurants.Although Vietnam is best known outside the country for its fast-growing manufacturing sector, as an alternative supply chain to China, most wealthy Vietnamese made their money developing and speculating in property. All land is officially state-owned. Getting access to it often relies on personal relationships with state officials. Corruption escalated as the economy grew, and became endemic. By 2011, Truong My Lan was a well-known business figure in Ho Chi Minh City, and she was allowed to arrange the merger of three smaller, cash-strapped banks into a larger entity: Saigon Commercial Bank. Vietnamese law prohibits any individual from holding more than 5% of the shares in any bank. But prosecutors say that through hundreds of shell companies and people acting as her proxies, Truong My Lan actually owned more than 90% of Saigon Commercial. They accused her of using that power to appoint her own people as managers, and then ordering them to approve hundreds of loans to the network of shell companies she controlled.The amounts taken out are staggering. Her loans made up 93% of all the bank’s lending. Vietnam secret document warns of ‘hostile forces’Xi in Vietnam to rekindle a love-hate relationshipUS denies Cold War with China in historic Vietnam visitAccording to prosecutors, over a period of three years from February 2019, she ordered her driver to withdraw 108 trillion Vietnamese dong, more than $4bn (£2.3bn) in cash from the bank, and store it in her basement. That much cash, even if all of it was in Vietnam’s largest denomination banknotes, would weigh two tonnes. She was also accused of bribing generously to ensure her loans were never scrutinised. One of those who was tried used to be a chief inspector at the central bank, who was accused of accepting a $5m bribe.The mass of officially sanctioned publicity about the case channelled public anger over corruption against Truong My Lan, whose haggard, unmade-up appearance in court was in stark contrast to the glamorous publicity photos people had seen of her in the past. But questions are also being asked about why she was able to keep on with the alleged fraud for so long.Image source, Getty Images”I am puzzled,” says Le Hong Hiep who runs the Vietnam Studies Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “Because it wasn’t a secret. It was well known in the market that Truong My Lan and her Van Thinh Phat group were using SCB as their own piggy bank to fund the mass acquisition of real estate in the most prime locations. “It was obvious that she had to get the money from somewhere. But then it is such a common practice. SCB is not the only bank that is used like this. So perhaps the government lost sight because there are so many similar cases in the market.”David Brown believes she was protected by powerful figures who have dominated business and politics in Ho Chi Minh City for decades. And he sees a bigger factor in play in the way this trial is being run: a bid to reassert the authority of the Communist Party over the free-wheeling business culture of the south.”What Nguyen Phu Trong and his allies in the party are trying to do is to regain control of Saigon, or at least stop it from slipping away. “Up until 2016 the party in Hanoi pretty much let this Sino-Vietnamese mafia run the place. They would make all the right noises that local communist leaders are supposed to make, but at the same time they were milking the city for a substantial cut of the money that was being made down there.”At 79 years old, party chief Nguyen Phu Trong is in shaky health, and will almost certainly have to retire at the next Communist Party Congress in 2026, when new leaders will be chosen. He has been one of the longest-serving and most consequential secretary-generals, restoring the authority of the party’s conservative wing to a level not seen since the reforms of the 1980s. He clearly does not want to risk permitting enough openness to undermine the party’s hold on political power. But he is trapped in a contradiction. Under his leadership the party has set an ambitious goal of reaching rich country status by 2045, with a technology and knowledge-based economy. This is what is driving the ever-closer partnership with the United States. Yet faster growth in Vietnam almost inevitably means more corruption. Fight corruption too much, and you risk extinguishing a lot of economic activity. Already there are complaints that bureaucracy has slowed down, as officials shy away from decisions which might implicate them in a corruption case.”That’s the paradox,” says Le Hong Hiep. “Their growth model has been reliant on corrupt practices for so long. Corruption has been the grease that that kept the machinery working. If they stop the grease, things may not work any more.”Related TopicsVietnamAsiaMore on this storyVietnam’s president out after just year in officePublished21 MarchPower shift in Vietnam as president quitsPublished17 January 2023Top StoriesBiden vows ‘ironclad’ support for Israel amid Iran attack fearsPublished10 minutes agoDazzling artwork found at ancient city of PompeiiPublished3 hours agoPressure grows to rethink rough sleeping clampdownPublished9 hours agoFeaturesHow gang violence gripped a tourist havenWhat is the minimum salary UK visa applicants need?Arizona pushes abortion to centre stage of 2024The Papers: ‘Iron clad’ Biden support and ‘radical NHS plan’All you need to know for tonight’s Bafta Games AwardsListen: How will Labour plug the gap in NHS funding?AttributionSoundsWas South Korea’s president thwarted by a spring onion?The Indian men traumatised by fighting for RussiaLocal elections 2024: Is there an election in my area?Elsewhere on the BBCA man from 1979 takes on the modern worldSurely things can’t have changed that much? 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[ad_1] Truong My Lan started life as a market trader. Now, she has been convicted of stealing billions.
![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityBusinessMarket DataEconomyYour MoneyCompaniesTechnology of BusinessCEO SecretsAI BusinessMcDonald’s: Behind the fast-food firm’s boycott controversyPublished1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, EPABy Chris NewlandsBusiness reporterThe sudden decision by McDonald’s to take over ownership of its branches in Israel has thrust the franchise company Alonyal and its chief executive Omri Padan into the spotlight.McDonald’s will buy back all of its Israeli restaurants after global sales slumped due to a boycott of the brand over its perceived support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.The fast-food giant uses a franchise system which means that individual operators are licensed to run outlets and employ staff. But the broader company came in for criticism after Mr Padan offered free meals to Israeli forces around the start of the Israel-Gaza war on 7 October.A boycott was sparked after Muslim-majority countries such as Kuwait, Malaysia and Pakistan issued statements distancing themselves from the firm for what they saw as support of Israel.Mr Padan, however, is not new to controversy related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the 30 years the businessman has been operating restaurants for McDonald’s in Israel, he has been at the centre of a number of disputes.Image source, Getty ImagesIn 2013, the Israeli businessman angered Israel’s settler movement when he refused calls to open a branch of the fast-food chain in the settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank. Mr Padan’s company Alonyal was asked to set up a restaurant in a shopping centre but declined, saying the firm had a policy of staying out of the occupied territories. At the time, the firm said the decision had not been co-ordinated with McDonald’s headquarters in the US.Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land the Palestinians want as part of a future state – in the 1967 Middle East war.The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.Mr Padan is one of the founders of the group Peace Now, which opposes all settlements and views them as obstacles to peace. Peace Now says he is no longer a member of the group, which was founded in 1978. A leader of the Yesha Council, the settlers’ umbrella organisation, said at the time that McDonald’s had gone from being a for-profit company to one with an “anti-Israeli political agenda”.Alonyal’s decision resurfaced in 2019 when McDonald’s won a tender to run a restaurant and hot dog stand at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport. In response, several letters of protest were sent by settlement leaders in the West Bank that called on the finance and transportation ministries, as well as the Israel airport authority, to block the move. Protests were also held outside the fast-food chain’s restaurants in Tel Aviv.And on Thursday, it was abruptly announced that Alonyal would sell the sprawling franchise back to the US food giant.The terms of the deal were not disclosed by McDonald’s, although a reputation management expert, who has worked on behalf a number of large companies but did not want to speak on the record, said that those outraged by the decision to offer free meals to Israeli forces may be “angry that this deal makes Mr Padan possibly a very rich man”.They might be pleased though, about the effect the boycott has had. Mr Padan’s departure comes after McDonald’s said that the Israel-Gaza conflict had “meaningfully impacted” performance in some overseas markets in the fourth quarter of 2023.For the unit that includes the Middle East, China and India, sales growth stood at 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023 – far below market expectations.At the start of the year, McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski blamed the backlash on “misinformation”.The boycott was also described as “disheartening and ill-founded” by the firm, which relies on thousands of independent businesses to own and operate most of its more than 40,000 stores around the world. About 5% are located in the Middle East.The brand management expert said: “I get it. They are buying back the franchises to regain control but I’m not sure they have.”They also questioned where the company might draw a line: “Does this mean [McDonald’s] will now need to act and offer deals in other areas where reputational damage has been caused?”On Thursday, McDonald’s said that it “remains committed to the Israeli market and to ensuring a positive employee and customer experience in the market going forward.” It also thanked Alonyal for building the brand in Israel, while Mr Padan said: “We are encouraged by what the future holds.”BBC News did not receive further comment from Mr Padan or Alonyal through McDonald’s.Related TopicsCompaniesMcDonald’sMore on this storyMcDonald’s to buy back Israeli stores after boycottPublished1 day agoMcDonald’s sales dented by Israel-Gaza boycottsPublished5 FebruaryMcDonald’s hit by Israel-Gaza ‘misinformation’Published4 JanuaryTop StoriesJeremy Bowen: Obstacles to peace seem larger than everPublished3 hours agoLive. 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![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaThe blind Ukrainian amputee whose wife’s voice kept him alivePublished15 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsWar in UkraineBy Keiligh BakerBBC NewsAs Serhiy slowly began to regain consciousness in his hospital bed in Kyiv, he realised he couldn’t see, speak, or feel his legs – but he could hear his wife Valeria’s voice. Comforted, he lost consciousness again.It was a pattern that lasted weeks. The severely injured Ukrainian soldier would wake up to darkness and panic, unable to communicate because of the tube down his throat – but every time he heard Valeria, he settled down.”That’s what kept me fighting,” he tells the BBC’s Ukrainecast podcast. “Until then, I only had nightmares. Terrible dreams in which I was being demolished, destroyed, chewed over – and then the light in regaining consciousness was her voice… Because I wanted to come back to her. To fight through this, to be with her.”Serhiy, 27, suffered catastrophic injuries when his vehicle hit a Russian anti-tank mine on Ukraine’s frontline near Mariinka, nine months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his country. As a soldier already serving before the war, he had been thrown straight into the thick of the fighting from its first day, in February 2022. He often went weeks without speaking to Valeria, who remained in their home city of Kyiv.Image caption, Serhiy pictured before his injuriesHe was travelling with seven other soldiers on November 2022 when the vehicle was hit. The force of the blast broke his spine, pelvis, nose, eye sockets, gave him an open-skull brain injury, severe burns to his face and body, fractured his thigh and blew off both his lower legs. The flames from the blast cauterised his wounds, inadvertently saving his life.Two years into Russia’s invasion, exhausted Ukrainians refuse to give upIs Russia turning the tide in Ukraine?Inside Ukraine’s struggle to find new men to fightHe can’t remember anything from that day – but Valeria will never forget it.”I didn’t expect he would come back from the war with both his legs,” Valeria says. “But even I wasn’t prepared for the extent of his wounds when I saw him.””My first thought was just relief that he was alive because, by the description of what happened to him, it was not clear that he would ever regain consciousness. So I went to the hospital and I saw my beloved, full of different tubes, totally unresponsive. And that was scariest part.”Serhiy regained consciousness after 20 days in a coma. He then spent another week in intensive care, another two weeks in the traumatic injuries unit and then months in rehabilitation. He has a stoic approach to his injuries, and says that, for him, losing two legs is better than losing one arm. Valeria takes a similarly pragmatic approach: “A blind, legless husband – it’s not so bad,” she laughs, adding that as a former dentist she’s just relieved he didn’t lose his teeth.Last week, after travelling to the US in the hope of saving a fraction of the sight in his remaining eye, he was told the devastating news that it couldn’t be saved – that he had fully lost his eyesight. Although the couple were disappointed, they remain hopeful for the future and Serhiy now wants to spend his life advocating for and helping his fellow injured soldiers.”I have so many plans that one lifetime isn’t enough for all of it,” he says. “I definitely will go back to Ukraine. That’s my country. I fought for it. I sustained [my] wounds for it.”Image caption, Serhiy has vowed to launch organisations that help injured veteransHe plans to launch two organisations, he says, both aimed at helping wounded veterans, including one to build infrastructure for their life after the war.Both Ukraine and Russia refuse to release figures of their wounded and dead soldiers, but US officials, quoted by the New York Times, put the number at 70,000 dead and as many as 120,000 injured, as of August 2023. While Serhiy maintains that his injuries haven’t changed him, Valeria disagrees.”He has become more responsible. He was responsible before, but it was his family, his military unit,” she explains. “But now he feels responsible for the whole country, for all of Ukraine.”Additional reporting by Arsenii SokolovRelated TopicsWar in UkraineDisabilityUkraineVeteransMore on this storyTwo years into Russia’s invasion, exhausted Ukrainians refuse to give upPublished18 hours agoRosenberg: How two years of war have changed RussiaPublished2 days agoIs Russia turning the tide in Ukraine?Published17 FebruaryInside Ukraine’s struggle to find new men to fightPublished12 FebruaryTop StoriesLive. Trump defeats Haley in South Carolina primary – US mediaTories suspend MP over ‘Islamists’ commentsPublished4 hours agoNavalny’s body returned to mother, spokeswoman saysPublished7 hours agoFeaturesHow a gay TV drama changed people’s livesThe Creator’s Gareth Edwards on shaking up HollywoodThe ‘strange’ story of man who killed a familyIs this the most chaotic by-election ever? 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![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaTrump calls on Alabama to protect IVF treatment after court rulingPublished3 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingRelated TopicsUS election 2024Image source, EPABy Lisa LambertBBC News, WashingtonDonald Trump has said he supports the availability of IVF treatment, joining a growing number of Republicans who are seeking to distance themselves from an Alabama court ruling on the issue.The state’s top court ruled last week that frozen embryos have the same rights as children and people can be held liable for destroying them.At least three clinics paused IVF treatment in the wake of the ruling.On Friday, Mr Trump called on lawmakers to find “an immediate solution”.”We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every State in America,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social platform.”[Like] the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby,” he added.His comments were his first on the issue, and signalled his opposition to a ruling which some Republicans fear could harm them electorally by hindering plans to win back suburban women as well as swing voters.What does Alabama ruling mean for fertility patients?IVF row an election-year political bombshellMr Trump is the front-runner to win the Republican nomination for November’s election and arguably the leading voice in the party. In a further sign of the party’s efforts to distance itself from the Alabama ruling, the National Republican Senate Committee, which helps members get elected to Congress, sent out a memo to candidates on Friday which directed them to express support for IVF and “campaign on increasing access” to the treatment. “There are zero Republican Senate candidates who support efforts to restrict access to fertility treatments,” the committee’s executive director, Jason Thielman, wrote in the memo which was obtained by the BBC’s US partner CBS.The memo also cited polling that claimed access to IVF is overwhelmingly popular.A number of Senate candidates, including Kari Lake in Arizona, came out to publicly support access to the treatment after the memo was circulated.Mr Trump’s only challenger for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley, initially appeared to back the ruling after she said she considers frozen embryos to be babies. She later denied that she supported the court’s decision.While the Alabama ruling does not ban or restrict IVF, several medical providers in the state cited fears of legal repercussions as they paused fertility services in recent days.It was made by the state’s Supreme Court and all of its justices are Republican.Democrats are already depicting the Alabama case as what they see as a portent of further assaults on women’s rights if their rivals make headway in the coming general election.Mr Biden said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the Alabama decision was only possible because of the 2022 ruling by the US Supreme Court – which has three Trump appointees – to nullify abortion rights.While many conservatives celebrated the end of Roe v Wade, it proved a potent get-out-the-vote motivator for Democrats and a messaging nightmare for Republicans.Related TopicsUS election 2024AlabamaDonald TrumpUnited StatesMore on this storyAlabama IVF row an election-year political bombshellPublished10 hours agoWhat does Alabama ruling mean for fertility patients?Published1 day agoTop StoriesWW2 bomb taken through city and out to seaPublished46 minutes agoTrump calls on Alabama to protect IVF treatmentPublished3 minutes agoSpanish police search gutted flats after nine killedPublished13 minutes agoFeaturesWhy jet streams mean ‘piggy-backing’ planes can fly across the Atlantic faster. 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![BBC HomepageSkip to contentAccessibility HelpYour accountLiveNotificationsHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeMore menuMore menuSearch BBCHomeNewsSportWeatheriPlayerSoundsBitesizeCBBCCBeebiesFoodClose menuBBC NewsMenuHomeIsrael-Gaza warCost of LivingWar in UkraineClimateUKWorldBusinessPoliticsCultureMoreTechScienceHealthFamily & EducationIn PicturesNewsbeatBBC VerifyDisabilityWorldAfricaAsiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastUS & CanadaValencia fire: Ten bodies found as Spanish police search gutted flatsPublished6 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Reuters/Eva ManezImage caption, It was not until after midday on Friday that firefighters were able to enter the charred ruin of the flatsBy Paul Kirby in London & Mark Lowen in ValenciaBBC NewsFirefighters and forensic authorities in Spain say 10 bodies have been recovered from the ruins of a 14-floor apartment complex after fire tore through it in Valencia.The cladding attached to the outside of the building as well as high winds are being blamed for the flames taking hold of the building in a matter of minutes.Authorities say no-one else is missing. They have also refused to answer questions on the cause of the fire.Three days of mourning will be held.A young couple with two young children and two elderly people were earlier said to be among the missing.”We can confirm that in an initial inspection forensic police have determined 10 bodies, 10 fatalities, who coincide with the 10 people that we have as unaccounted for,” Pilar Bernabé, the Spanish government’s representative in the Valencia region told reporters.Ms Bernabé did not take questions on the cause, citing the secrecy of the investigation.But it is already clear that the flames burned at a terrifying pace through a layer of polyurethane cladding, attached to the building under a very thin layer of aluminium. The College of Industrial Technical Engineers of Valencia said that was one of the possible causes of the fire, coupled with the strong winds and high temperatures in Valencia on Thursday evening. “The reason the [building] burned so fast is because of this type of cladding,” said Esther Puchades, the college vice president who said she had previously inspected the building.Although the aluminium-covered panels were not considered combustible, that type of cladding was allowed under building regulations at the time of the building, which was finished in 2008, but has since been banned.But there was no programme to strip the banned cladding away, which was what happened in the UK following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, where the process continues.The fire is thought to have taken hold on the fourth floor of the larger of the two 14-storey blocks, engulfing it in minutes and then spreading to the adjacent one. Firefighters were unable to reach higher than the 12th floor.The charred shells of the two adjoining buildings in the Campenar neighbourhood were all that remained as investigators searched the interior. Initially on Friday they had to use drones until the temperatures had cooled down. Wisps of smoke could still be seen coming out from the top of the ravaged apartment blocks.This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Media caption, Watch: Firefighters In the Spanish city rescued some of those trapped, but were unable to save othersAs the scale of the tragedy was confirmed, stories emerged of individual heroism as the fire tore through the facade of the building leaving residents trapped.One of the caretakers, a man named only as Julián, was widely praised for rushing from door to door as the fire took hold in an attempt to get people to safety.One resident called Manuel said he had been at home in the block of flats when he saw the fire spread.”When I saw the flames passing through the sheet metal and told my mother and the neighbours inside who didn’t know. We all went down the stairs,” he told Spanish TV.Within 10 to 15 minutes they had become shrouded in a black cloud, he said.Among the 15 people hurt, several were firefighters and by Friday evening two of them remained in hospital, although their lives were not in danger.Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited the site of the gutted blocks of flats promising aid to local authorities in their response to the tragedy. “We would like to express our solidarity, love and empathy to the families of the victims of this terrible fire,” he said.Science Minister Diana Morant added: “We are here for whatever is needed.”The head of the Valencia regional government Carlos Mazón said he was working with the city authority to provide housing and basic needs to those whose homes have been destroyed.In all, 138 flats housing 450 people were devastated by the fire.Valencians have been gathering food, clothing and toiletries for the displaced survivors of the fire. Saturday’s La Liga match at Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium has been postponed as a mark of respect for the victims. The club said it was devastated by the terrible fire on the city’s Avenida Maestro Rodrigo.Related TopicsSpainValenciaMore on this storyValencia game called off after deadly fire in cityAttributionSportPublished2 hours agoDid cladding help Valencia fire spread? What we knowPublished7 hours agoTop StoriesLive. WW2 bomb found in Plymouth garden now in sea, police sayBody found in Thames confirmed as Clapham suspect EzediPublished54 minutes agoShamima Begum loses bid to regain UK citizenshipPublished57 minutes agoFeaturesWhy jet streams mean ‘piggy-backing’ planes can fly across the Atlantic faster. 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