34 h. ago Galloping horses theme of Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year fireworks display

The coming Lunar New Year fireworks display in Hong Kong will feature the theme of galloping horses to welcome the Year of the Horse, with the Jockey Club sponsoring the event for the first time. Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said on Friday that the fireworks show, titled “Prosperity gallops across Hong Kong”, would be a part of a year-long campaign by the betting giant to celebrate the equine zodiac with a series of events from races to museum exhibitions. “For the...

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1 week ago Raw emotion as mourners pay tribute to victims of Swiss ski resort fire

A heavy pall of grief hung over Crans-Montana on Sunday as more than a thousand mourners walked in silence through the Swiss ski resort to remember those killed and injured in a horrific New Year’s Eve fire. A total of 40 people died in the tragic blaze at Le Constellation. The bar’s owners are under criminal investigation. A mass dedicated to the victims was held at a small chapel some 300 metres down the road from the gutted bar, outside which well-wishers have left an abundance of flowers,...

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2 w. ago Owner of Swiss bar where New Year fire killed 40 insists safety norms were followed

The owner of the bar in a Swiss ski resort town ravaged by a deadly fire during New Year’s Eve celebrations insisted to Swiss media on Friday that safety norms had been followed. Jacques Moretti, a Frenchman who manages the Le Constellation bar with his wife Jessica, told the Tribune de Geneve daily that the establishment had faced “three inspections in 10 years”. “Everything was done according to the regulations,” he said. The question of whether safety standards were respected has raged ever...

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2 w. ago Champagne sparklers blamed for Swiss bar fire that killed 40

Investigators said on Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire at a Swiss ski resort when they came too close to the ceiling of a bar crowded with New Year’s Eve revellers. Authorities planned to look into whether the material on the ceiling that was designed to muffle sound conformed with regulations. The candles, which give off a stream of upwards-shooting sparks, were the same type that is commonly available for parties, officials said. Forty...

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2 w. ago Swiss ski resort bar inferno joins long list of world’s worst club fires

A fire at a bar in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana in the early hours of New Year’s Day has left dozens of people presumed dead and around 100 injured, according to authorities. Here is a look at some other nightclub, bar and music venue fires that have led to significant death tolls: December 2025: A fire ripped through a popular nightclub in Arpora village, in India’s Goa state, killing 25 people, including kitchen workers and tourists. March 2025: A fire and ensuing stampede at the...

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2 w. ago Several dead in explosion and fire at Swiss ski resort bar, police say

Several people were killed and others injured when an explosion ripped through a bar in the luxury Alpine ski resort town of Crans-Montana, Swiss police said early Thursday. “There has been an explosion of unknown origin,” Gaetan Lathion, a police spokesman in Wallis canton in southwestern Switzerland said. “There are several injured, and several dead.” He said the explosion took place at around 1.30am in a bar called Le Constellation, which is popular with tourists, as revellers rang in the new...

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2 w. ago Dozens feared dead in explosion and fire at Swiss ski resort bar during New Year celebrations

Dozens of people are feared to have been killed and around 100 others injured after an explosion tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale ski resort of Crans-Montana in southwestern Switzerland, Swiss police said on Thursday. Police had earlier said many people were being treated for burns. Police, firefighters and rescuers rushed to the popular resort, one of the top-ranked ski destinations in Europe. The “fire of undetermined origin” broke out in a bar...

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2 w. ago Dozens dead and 115 injured in fire at Swiss Alpine bar during New Year’s celebration

About 40 people were killed and another 115 injured, most of them seriously, after a fire ripped through a bar’s New Year celebration in a Swiss Alpine resort less than two hours after midnight on Thursday, police said. Authorities did not immediately have an exact count of the deceased. The Crans-Montana resort is best known as an international ski and golf venue, and overnight, its crowded Le Constellation bar morphed from a scene of revelry into the site of one of Switzerland’s worst...

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