Maldives | Parliament impeaches VP accused of plotting to kill president

Maldives’ Parliament voted overwhelmingly yesterday to impeach the country’s vice president, who is accused of plotting to kill the president. Ahmed Adeeb is the second vice president to be impeached in three months. He has been arrested for allegedly planning to kill President Yameen Abdul Gayoom in an explosion on his speedboat on Sept. 28. The impeachment motion received 61 votes in favor and none opposed in the 85-member Parliament. The main opposition group, the Maldivian Democratic Party, abstained. The president declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, saying the explosion and subsequent discovery of arms posed a threat to national security. Adeeb, 33, who was once Gayoom’s trusted protege, became vice president in July after the impeachment of his predecessor, Mohamed Jameel, who had fallen out of the president’s favor.

Pakistan | Death toll in factory building collapse rises to 18

A Pakistani official says the death toll in the collapse of a factory building under construction in the eastern city of Lahore has risen to 18. Jam Sajjad Hussain from the state rescue agency said yesterday that about 50 people have been injured in the incident. Hussain says rescuers worked overnight and saved over 102 people from the rubble of the building, which collapsed Wednesday on the outskirts of Lahore city. Another government official Abdul Qadir says several workers are still buried under the debris. Over 200 workers were inside the building when it caved in. The cause of the collapse is yet to be determined. It happened just over a week after a magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit Pakistan, killing 273 people and damaging nearly 75,000 homes.