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Heartbroken Dominicans on Thursday began burying loved ones who were among more than 200 victims of a nightclub rooftop collapse, even as dozens of people remained unaccounted for.More than 300 rescuers, aided by sniffer dogs, had worked tirelessly since disaster struck early Tuesday to pull survivors from the rubble of the Jet Set club in the Dominican Republic’s capital Santo Domingo.They called off the search for live victims on Wednesday night, and shifted their efforts to recovering bodies from the mounds of twisted steel, zinc and brick that remain of the structure.Local media had reported there were between 500 and 1,000 people at the club — which could hold 1,700 — for a concert by renowned merengue singer Rubby Perez, who was on stage when the roof came down, and died on site. His daughter made it out alive.Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Center for Emergency Operations, told reporters Thursday the official toll stood at 221. A total of 189 people were pulled out of the debris alive.A consolidated report of victims will be published in the coming hours, said Mendez.”Our rescue team is already concluding the search operations,” he added.Health Minister Victor Atallah said Thursday there might be more bodies under the rubble in the Caribbean nation’s worst tragedy in decades.”No one will be left unidentified. No one will be left without an answer,” he told reporters. “We are going to move every last stone that needs to be moved.”- ‘They are all dead’ -President Luis Abinader on Thursday attended a tribute to the singer Perez at the National Theater, which will be followed by a wake. Among the deceased are also the governor of the Monte Cristi province, Nelsy Cruz, as well as former Major League Baseball players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco.More than 500 people were injured.Families gathered at funeral homes Thursday to begin the mourning process, while others waited at hospitals desperate for news about loved ones still missing.”It has truly brought mourning to (the municipality of) Haina, it has brought mourning to our family, it has brought mourning to the country,” 47-year-old Jose Santana, who lost four family members in the accident, told AFP at the morgue.”This has been a very hard process, because yesterday we spent the day going from clinic to clinic, from hospital to hospital and also in front of the Jet Set, looking for our brothers with the hope of finding them alive,” he said.”Unfortunately, this morning we were told that they are all dead.”A list of names of deceased people was put up on a nearby tent full of victims’ loved ones.”No pathology institute has the capacity to handle so many bodies so quickly,” said Atallah, adding that temporary centers will be set up to speed up identification processes.The government said it will start an inquiry into the disaster as soon as the rescue operation is over.”It is not possible for us to be left with doubts,” said Atallah. “Every Dominican man, woman, or foreigner who was visiting will receive an answer.” – ‘I’ll be back’ -Aerial images of the site showed a scene resembling the aftermath of an earthquake, with a gaping hole where the roof of the club — a fixture of Santo Domingo’s nightlife for half a century — had been.A video posted on social media showed the venue suddenly plunged into darkness while Perez was singing, followed by crashing sounds and screams.Tributes to the singer, known for hits such as “Volvere” (I’ll be back) and “Enamorado de Ella” (In love with Her) poured in from across Latin America.The baseball world, meanwhile, mourned the death of Octavio Dotel, a 51-year-old baseball pitcher who won the World Series with the St Louis Cardinals in 2011, and Tony Blanco, 45, who also played in the United States.Abinader declared three days of national mourning.

A man convicted of the 2004 murder of an off-duty police officer is to be put to death by firing squad Friday in South Carolina, the second such execution in the US state this year.Mikal Mahdi, 42, is to be executed at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at a prison in state capital Columbia for the murder of James Myers.Myers, a 56-year-old police captain, was shot nine times after he found Mahdi hiding in a shed on his property. His body was then set on fire.Mahdi also pleaded guilty to murdering a convenience store clerk three days before he killed Myers.South Carolina gives Death Row inmates a choice between lethal injection, the electric chair or the firing squad. Mahdi chose the firing squad.The first execution by firing squad in the United States in 15 years was carried out in South Carolina on March 7, when a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents was put to death.A three-person squad of Department of Corrections volunteers opens fire on the condemned man, who is restrained in a chair with a hood over his head 15 feet (five meters) away.Mahdi has requested clemency from Governor Henry McMaster but South Carolina’s Republican chief executive has not granted any previous clemency petitions.”Mr. Mahdi’s life is a tragic story of a child abandoned at every step,” his lawyers said in a statement.When Mahdi was four years old his mother fled her abusive husband and the boy was raised by his volatile mentally ill father, they said.”Between the ages of 14 and 21, Mikal spent over 80 percent of his life in prison and lived through 8,000 hours in solitary confinement,” his lawyers said.”Now 42, Mikal is deeply remorseful and a dramatically different person from the confused, angry, and abused youth who committed the capital crimes.”There have been 11 executions in the United States so far this year. There were 25 last year.The vast majority of US executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 have been performed using lethal injection.Alabama has carried out four executions using nitrogen gas, which has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”Attorney General Pam Bondi announced last week that federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, charged with the high-profile December 4 murder in New York of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The Republican-led US House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would add proof-of-citizenship requirements to voter registration, in a vote designed to mobilize supporters concerned about election security that has little chance of becoming law.The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act is backed by President Donald Trump, who dominates the House Republicans and continues to claim falsely that he was cheated by voter fraud in the 2020 election.”This bill is very, very simple. It ensures that only American citizens can vote in our federal elections. It isn’t hard,” said Florida Republican Kat Cammack ahead of the bill’s passage.”Eighty-seven percent of Americans believe only Americans should vote in our elections.”  But it has little hope of making it through the Senate, where the 60-vote threshold for passing legislation means the 53-47 Republican majority requires cooperation from the opposition.With the campaign for 2026 midterm elections fast approaching, Democrats say the bill is merely an attempt to lend a patina of credibility to bogus claims of voter fraud. Worried about millions of eligible voters being blocked from voter rolls or otherwise deterred, the party opposes the SAVE Act, noting that noncitizen voting is already illegal and that it almost never happens.Trump — who has claimed for years that US elections are rife with illicit voting by foreigners — urged Republicans to shut down the government over the issue last year.But they rebuffed the president, removing the 2024 incarnation of the SAVE Act from a larger government funding bill.The legislation would require all Americans to prove their citizenship status by presenting documentation in person when registering to vote or updating their voter registration information. Opponents say more than 140 million American citizens do not possess a passport and as many as 69 million women who have taken their spouse’s name do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name.The Center for American Progress said the bill would prevent Americans from being able to register to vote by mail, end voter registration drives nationwide and eliminate online voter registration. The Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal public policy institute, says just 4.4 million voters registered at an elections or registrar’s office in the two years leading up to the 2022 midterms.”There’s a direct relationship between the ease of registration and the number of voters on the rolls,” the organization said in analysis of the SAVE Act.”Some American citizens — even those who can access citizenship documents — will not register, and will not turn out to vote, if they can’t register online or by mail.”

The US-China trade war intensified Thursday, sending the global economy into unknown territory and dampening relief after President Donald Trump’s earlier climbdown from a wider tariff onslaught against the rest of the world.The White House clarified that Trump’s big hike in tariffs on China announced 24 hours earlier had actually taken his total levies this year on imports from the world’s second biggest economy to a staggering total of 145 percent — not the previously reported 125 percent.This was because latest tariff hike comes on top of a 20 percent tariff already imposed earlier. China has retaliated with levies of 84 percent on US imports.The superpower confrontation threw a deep shadow over jubilation that Trump was retreating from threats to impose punishing tariffs on dozens of other countries — everywhere from European Union allies to Asian manufacturing hubs like Vietnam and even tiny, remote ocean islands.Trump maintained a blanket 10 percent tariff on most countries. However, his retreat from more damaging levies against European countries prompted the EU to pause plans for its own retaliation.Amid relief, Asian and European stock markets rocketed, with Tokyo closing 9.1 percent higher.But realization that Trump’s splashy about-face on Wednesday masked the reality of a surging trade war with China dampened spirits.The Dow Jones in New York fell more than three percent and the S&P dropped 4.5 percent in morning trading. Gold prices hit a record high as the US dollar crumbled.- EU wants negotiations -Trump says he wants to use tariffs to reorder the world economy by forcing manufacturers to base themselves in the United States.Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary, was bullish, posting on social media Thursday that “the Golden Age is coming. We are committed to protecting our interests, engaging in global negotiations and exploding our economy.”Amid questions over how far Trump is ready to push, the European Union welcomed the US president’s partial row-back on his original threat to impose 20 percent tariffs against the bloc.The 27-nation grouping responded with its own olive branch, suspending for 90 days tariffs on 20 billion euros’ worth of US goods that had been greenlit in retaliation to duties on steel and aluminum.”We want to give negotiations a chance,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.She warned, however, that “if negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in” and that all options remain on the table.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump’s reversal a “welcome reprieve” and said Ottawa would begin negotiations with Washington on a new economic deal after elections on April 28.Vietnam said it had agreed with the United States to start trade talks, while Pakistan is sending a delegation to Washington.In its latest measure, Beijing announced it would reduce the number of Hollywood films imported, but said it remained ready for dialogue.”We hope the US will meet China halfway, and, based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation,” Commerce Ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said.burs-sms/bgs

The United States on Thursday exchanged a sanctions-busting suspect for a ballet dancer held by Russia, the second swap under President Donald Trump as Moscow and Washington push to rebuild ties.Moscow released a Los Angeles-based ballet dancer convicted in Russia of “treason” over a one-time donation worth around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity. Ksenia Karelina holds dual US-Russian nationality.Washington released Arthur Petrov, a Russian-German national accused of illegally exporting US-made electronics to manufacturers supplying the Russian military.The exchange took place at an airport in Abu Dhabi, where a dozen people wearing suits were present, video posted by Russia’s FSB security service showed.Trump has sought to reset ties with Moscow since taking office, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago plunged bilateral relations to their lowest point since the Cold War.”American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media platform X.”She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year.” Trump will “continue to work for the release of ALL Americans,” Rubio added.The FSB video showed Petrov seated on a plane after he was freed, telling an unseen interviewer that he had not slept for two days but otherwise had no complaints.Petrov, arrested in Cyprus in 2023 and extradited to the United States, was facing 20 years in a US jail for violating export controls.- ‘Positive’ step -CIA Director John Ratcliffe was the key negotiator for the swap, working with Russian intelligence and foreign partners, the CIA said. Ratcliffe in a statement thanked the UAE “for enabling this exchange.””While we are disappointed that other Americans remain wrongfully detained in Russia, we see this exchange as a positive step and will continue to work for their release,” a CIA spokesperson said.Asked about the exchange in a daily briefing with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment.Russian and US officials have held several meetings since Trump took office in January.As the prisoner swap took place, delegations from the two sides were holding talks in Istanbul on restoring embassy staffing levels after years of diplomat expulsions.The State Department said after the meeting that Washington renewed concern about rules that prohibit local staff from working for US missions in Russia.The two sides also moved to formalize an agreement on banking access for their diplomats, despite the US sanctions on Russia, the State Department said.- Prisoner swaps -Karelina, 33, was serving a 12-year prison sentence for having donated around $50 to a pro-Ukraine charity.She was arrested in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in January 2024 while on a trip to visit her family and charged with “treason.”Russia’s Federal Security Service accused her of collecting funds for Ukraine’s army used to purchase “equipment, weapons and ammunition” — charges she denied. Her supporters say she had donated to a US-based organization that delivers humanitarian aid to Ukraine.Petrov was accused by US authorities of having illegally exported electronic components to Russia for military use, in violation of Washington’s sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine war.In mid-February, following a call between Putin and Trump, Russia released Kalob Wayne Byers, a 28-year-old US citizen arrested at a Moscow airport for transporting cannabis gummy sweets.Washington and Moscow also exchanged US teacher Marc Fogel for Russian computer expert Alexander Vinnik in early February.The largest US-Russia prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War took place on August 1, 2024. It involved the release of journalists, including WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, and dissidents held in Russia in exchange for alleged Russian spies held in the West.Several American citizens remain incarcerated in Russia. Washington has accused Moscow of using them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians held in the United States.burs-cad-sct/md

The Republican-led US Congress adopted a budget Thursday that unlocks trillions of dollars for President Donald Trump’s agenda, jump-starting what Democrats say is a plan to dismantle social welfare in favor of tax cuts for the rich.House Speaker Mike Johnson said the blueprint would deliver on promises Trump made in his election campaign, including “historic” spending reductions, as well as an extension of his expiring 2017 tax relief.”We want to make government more efficient, effective and leaner for the American people, and I think that will serve every American of every party, and we’re happy to do that,” Johnson told reporters in a briefing at the US Capitol.But opponents say the framework will trigger a major downsizing of essential services, after Trump’s tech billionaire advisor Elon Musk led a campaign of slashing federal agencies.The budget resolution raises the country’s borrowing limit by $5 trillion to cover a renewal of Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts through 2034, expected to add roughly the same amount to the country’s debt.Democrats say it is the opening salvo in long-held Republican plans — spelled out last year in the conservative Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” manifesto — to drastically rein in the federal bureaucracy. The budget blueprint, which passed the House after getting the green light Saturday in the Senate, sets targets for overall spending and mandates $4 billion in cuts.But Republican leaders in both chambers are eyeing much more ambitious savings of $1.5 trillion, including $880 billion that opponents say would have to come mostly from the Medicaid health care program for low income families. Democrats have voiced fears that Trump will also break his promise not to touch Social Security — the federal welfare program for seniors and the disabled that makes up more than fifth of federal spending.- ‘Massive tax breaks’ -They argue that Trump’s 2017 tax cuts disproportionately benefited wealthy individuals and corporations, and extending them would compound inequality.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Republicans for what he called “the largest Medicaid cut in American history in order to pass massive tax breaks for your billionaire donors like Elon Musk.””House Republicans broke their promise to address the high cost of living and they lied about their intention to enact their extreme Project 2025 agenda,” he said in a letter to his members.”The harm being unleashed by Donald Trump and the (Republicans) is staggering.” The two sides of Congress were required to adopt identical versions of the budget before lawmakers can move on Trump’s domestic agenda, led by the tax relief, beefed-up border security and boosted energy production.It advanced from the Senate with votes to spare but barely made it through the rubber-stamp vote in the House, put in jeopardy by a rank-and-file rebellion over spending cuts.Both chambers of Congress are Republican-led but right-wing fiscal hawks in the House were furious over what they saw as insufficient cuts in the final version, after it was amended by the Senate.Johnson vowed to pursue his much more ambitious $1.5 trillion spending cuts figure, and this public commitment appeared to have assuaged some on his back benches.Final passage of the budget will be a relief to Trump, after opposition within his party exposed limits to his iron grip and raised doubts over the Republicans’ ability to coalesce around his agenda.

Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI has filed counterclaims against multi-billionaire Elon Musk, accusing its former co-founder of waging a “relentless campaign” to damage the organization after it achieved success without him.In legal documents filed Wednesday in northern California’s federal court, OpenAI alleges Musk became hostile toward the company after abandoning it years before its breakthrough achievements with ChatGPT.”Musk could not tolerate seeing such success for an enterprise he had abandoned and declared doomed,” OpenAI said in the filing.The lawsuit is the latest round in a bitter feud between the generative AI (genAI) start-up and the world’s richest man, who sued OpenAI last year, accusing the company of betraying its founding mission.In its countersuit, the company alleges Musk “made it his project to take down OpenAI, and to build a direct competitor that would seize the technological lead — not for humanity but for Elon Musk.”Musk founded his own genAI startup, xAI, in 2023, and has invested tens of billions of dollars to compete with OpenAI and the other major AI players.OpenAI was established in December 2015 as a nonprofit research lab with the mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) — the term used for human-level AI — would “benefit all humanity.”Musk was among its initial backers alongside CEO Sam Altman, giving a key investment to get the project up and running.According to the counterclaims, Musk’s involvement was short-lived.The filing alleges that in 2018, Musk departed after OpenAI’s leadership refused “to bow to Musk’s demands for control of the enterprise or, alternatively, its absorption into Musk’s electric car company, Tesla.”OpenAI also contends that Musk never fulfilled his financial commitment to the organization, delivering “not even close” to a promised $1 billion.The company is now valued at $300 billion after its latest funding round of $40 billion, the biggest capital-raising session ever for a startup.OpenAI claims that Musk’s assault has included press attacks and malicious campaigns broadcast to Musk’s more than 200 million followers on X, the platform he owns, as well as “a sham bid for OpenAI’s assets.”The legal battle between Altman and Musk has intensified amid OpenAI’s plans for a restructuring that would transform the company into a public benefit corporation while maintaining the nonprofit parent organization.OpenAI claims Musk is deliberately misrepresenting this move as a full conversion from nonprofit to for-profit status.The AI lab is seeking an injunction to halt Musk’s “further unlawful and unfair action” and compensation for damages allegedly caused by his actions.OpenAI on Monday said it raised $40 billion in a new funding round that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion, the biggest capital-raising session ever for a startup.

The EU paused plans for retaliatory tariffs on US goods Thursday after President Donald Trump abruptly suspended higher US duties on the bloc and other countries, leaving China in the crosshairs of his trade war.Trump’s about-face on Wednesday triggered a massive market rebound but Wall Street’s rally fizzled on Thursday and the dollar slumped, as investors remain on edge over the outlook for the world economy.The US president halted steep tariffs on scores of nations for 90 days. But he kept a global baseline tariff of 10 percent intact and punished Beijing for retaliating by slapping a 125 percent duty on its goods.The European Union, which had faced a 20 percent tariff, welcomed Trump’s U-turn, saying it was an “important step towards stabilising the global economy”.The 27-nation bloc responded with its own olive branch, suspending for 90 days tariffs on 20 billion euros’ worth of US goods that had been greenlit in retaliation to duties on steel and aluminium.”We want to give negotiations a chance,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.She warned, however, that “if negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in” and that all options remain on the table.Other countries are also lining up to bargain.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump’s reversal a “welcome reprieve” and said Ottawa would begin negotiations with Washington on a new economic deal after elections on April 28.Vietnam said it had agreed with the United States to start trade talks, while Pakistan is sending a delegation to Washington.- China hits Hollywood -But there was no let-up in Trump’s trade war with China, which said the US tariffs policy “goes against the will of the world and goes against the whole world”.The heightened tariffs against China took effect at the same time as retaliatory levies of 84 percent imposed by Beijing on US imports.Beijing added Hollywood to its target list on Thursday as it announced it would “moderately reduce” the number of US films it imports.But China’s commerce ministry said the door remained open for dialogue.”We hope the US will meet China halfway, and, based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation,” Commerce Ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said.Trump has predicted that trade deals will be made with all countries, including China, which has for now refused to roll back retaliatory tariffs on US goods.”A deal’s going to be made with China. A deal’s going to be made with every one of them,” Trump said at the White House. However,  China’s leaders “don’t quite know how to go about it”.Trump believes his policy will revive America’s lost manufacturing base by forcing companies to relocate to the United States.The billionaire former property tycoon has particularly raged against China, accusing it of excess production and “dumping” inexpensive goods on other economies.- ‘A little queasy’ -Markets have been on a roller-coaster ride since Trump announced his tariff plans last week, with the 10 percent global levy taking effect on Saturday and the higher ones on Wednesday before the pause.Investors also began to dump US government bonds — a major economic red light since American sovereign debt is normally seen as a haven for investors in troubled times.”I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy,” Trump said Wednesday, though he denied that he backtracked on the tariffs.Wall Street’s main index were all down more than two percent as trading resumed on Thursday, a day after the tech-heavy Nasdaq soared 12 percent higher and the S&P 500 surged 9.5 percent.Asia and Europe caught up on Thursday, with Tokyo closing 9.1 percent higher as the Japanese government welcomed the tariff pause but demanded that other levies be halted.Paris and Frankfurt were up more than five percent in afternoon deals while London rose 4.5 percent.”This will go down in American history as the greatest trade negotiating day we have ever had,” said Trump’s senior trade advisor Peter Navarro.”We’re in a beautiful position for the next 90 days” to seek trade deals with partners, he told ABC News, adding that more than 75 have sought to negotiate with Washington.burs-oho-lth/phz

US consumer inflation cooled last month on plunging gas prices, according to government data published Thursday, as consumers and businesses waited nervously for President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs to come into effect.The US leader last week announced levies as high as 50 percent on imports from some countries, sending stock markets tumbling and bond yields rising — only to abruptly change course on all nations except China on Wednesday. Ahead of the dramatic market movements that accompanied those levies, the consumer price index (CPI) cooled to 2.4 percent in March from a year ago, the Labor Department said in a statement — lower than economists’ estimates. On a monthly basis, inflation actually contracted 0.1 percent from a month earlier, helped by a 6.3 percent drop in gasoline prices, which aided a 2.4 percent contraction in the energy index. The food index rose 0.4 percent in March.”What a difference 24 hours makes,” Northlight Asset Management chief investment officer Chris Zaccarelli wrote in a note to clients. “Not only is the immediate tariff threat pushed off for 3 months, but imminent inflation threat has been avoided for now.”He added that the data is “welcome news for the Federal Reserve, which would like to cut rates if significant damage is done to the economy through increased tariffs, but otherwise would be reluctant to cut rates in the face of an inflation threat.”- Under pressure -The Trump administration has been under pressure in recent weeks to explain how consumers will benefit from its tariff plans — which many economists and Federal Reserve officials say will stoke inflation and cool growth.The data published Thursday only shows the period in the run-up to the imposition of tariffs, and does not paint a picture of either the immediate or longer-term effects of those levies, which currently sit at a 10 percent baseline for all countries except China, with additional duties on specific goods.”Inflation is down, jobs are up, and the Golden Age of America is underway,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a social media post. “We are committed to protecting our interests, engaging in global negotiations and exploding our economy,” Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote in a separate post.- Core prices cool -Excluding volatile food and energy costs, inflation inched up by 0.1 percent in March from a month earlier, and by 2.8 percent over the past 12 months. This was “the smallest 12-month increase since March 2021,” the Labor Department said. It also came in below the median estimates of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal. “President Trump continues to undo the damage done by Joe Biden, and core inflation declined for the second month in row -– great news for American families and businesses,” Karoline Leavitt said, referring to Trump’s Democratic predecessor. The dollar fell further on Thursday after the CPI data was published, accelerating losses caused by the fallout from the stop-start tariff rollout.The data is good news for the Fed, which is grappling with inflation that remains stuck above its long-term two percent target, according to its preferred gauge of price increases. At the same time, the unemployment rate remains close to historic lows, leaving the US central bank in no hurry to cut rates until price pressures cool further — as long as Trump’s tariffs do not cause a sharp contraction in growth, which would likely weigh on employment. Financial markets see a roughly 80 percent chance of the Fed doing nothing at its next interest meeting in May, according to CME Group data. 

The death toll after a roof collapsed at a crowded nightclub in the Dominican Republic has climbed to 218, the head of rescue operations said Thursday, in the Caribbean nation’s worst disaster in decades.Rescuers had worked frantically since the collapse in the early hours of Tuesday to dig out survivors from the rubble of the popular Jet Set club in Santo Domingo.Among the dead were famed merengue singer Rubby Perez, who was performing on stage as the roof caved in, as well as two former Major League Baseball players and a local politician.”Unfortunately and with regret, (there are) 218 people dead as preliminary data,” Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the Emergency Operations Center (COE), told reporters.He said that 189 people had been “rescued alive” since the collapse. More than 500 people were injured in the incident. Up to 1,000 people could have been inside the club at the time of the accident, local media has reported, though no official figure has yet been given. “Our rescue workers are already concluding the search,” Mendez said.”We are saddened by this tragedy that has so saddened the Dominican people.”Authorities ruled out the possibility of finding any more survivors late Wednesday. The government said it will open an inquiry into the disaster as soon as the rescue operations have been completed.Over 300 rescue workers, aided by sniffer dogs, had spent two days combing through mounds of fallen bricks, steel bars and tin sheets, supported by firefighters from Puerto Rico and Israel.Aerial images of the site showed a scene resembling the aftermath of an earthquake, with a gaping hole where the roof of the club — a fixture of Santo Domingo’s nightlife for half a century — had been.A video posted on social media showed the venue suddenly plunged into darkness while Perez was singing.Tributes to the singer, known for hits such as “Volvere” and “Enamorado de Ella,” poured in from across Latin America.The baseball world meanwhile mourned the death of Octavio Dotel, a 51-year-old baseball pitcher who won the World Series with the St Louis Cardinals in 2011, and Tony Blanco, 45, who also played in the United States.President Luis Abinader declared three days of national mourning.Relatives were still waiting desperately for news Wednesday of their loved ones outside the ruined club, at hospitals and at the local morgue.Antonio Hernandez, whose son worked at the Jet Set nightclub, told AFP Wednesday his hopes of finding his son alive had begun fading as he watched more and more bodies, but no survivors, being retrieved.The remains in one body bag resembled his son’s height and build, said Hernandez, but he did not investigate. “I don’t have the stomach to find out the worst yet.”