Russian psychiatric ward fire kills 23

Twenty-three patients, most of them elderly, died when a fire ripped through a psychiatric hospital in southern Russia Saturday night, in the latest tragedy to hit the country's mental health infrastructure. President Vladimir Putin on Sunday expressed deep condolence to the relatives of those who died in the blaze, while a powerful panel questioned whether officials had learnt from past disasters.
The fire broke out shortly before midnight (2100 GMT) Saturday at the hospital in the village of Alfyorovka, in the southern Voronezh region. Seventy patients and four nurses were in a Soviet-era ward when the blaze occurred. Twenty-three patients died, and 23 people were hospitalised.