Deadly gas station blast; Petrol station blast in Accra, Ghana; China crews to begin righting capsized cruise ship; Hong Kong marks Tainanmen Square anniversary
GORANI: Well, they were seeking protection from torrential rains and flooding only to get caught in a horrific disaster. At least 76 people were killed in Accra, the capital, when a massive explosion ripped through a gas station. The blast was so powerful - victims had no time to escape. Christian Purefoy has more.</s>CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN INTERRNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They came looking for shelter from torrential rain under cover of a petrol station. Disaster struck - the reasons as yet unknown. The petrol on the surface of the flood waters caught fire and exploded with deadly results.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I count my friends, I lost almost seven - and four of my families - three friends, four siblings. I lost them this morning. It's very hard, you know. I don't know what to say. The construction they are doing there will bring a lot of problems</s>PUREFOY: Emergency services rushed to the scene on Wednesday night as the fire threatened to engulf neighboring buildings. Victims who were lucky enough to survive have been taken to hospital. There have been heavy rains across the capital of Ghana for three days now. But instead of helping to quench the fire, the floods only hinder the rescue efforts.</s>JOHN MAHAMA, PRESIDENT OF GHANA: We'll leave this to the authorities and emergency services to continue to do their work.</s>PUREFOY: But those that survived will have the scars for the rest of their lives. Christian Purefoy, CNN, Lagos, Nigeria.</s>GORANI: A respiratory disease that has no cure is spreading in South Africa (ph) and now has some people worried. Officials have confirmed five new cases of MERS, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. It brings the total number of people infected to 35. Three people have died. Nearly fourteen hundred others are in quarantine. Now, officials are worried that the outbreak could get worse after news that doctor infected with MERS attended a symposium in Seoul potentially, therefore, exposing more than a thousand people. We'll keep our eye on that. In China, 77 people are now confirmed dead in the cruise ship disaster on the Yangtze River. But officials say their decision to begin righting the ship is an acknowledgement at this point that it's very unlikely anyone is alive inside. CNNs David McKenzie got an up-close look at the massive operation.</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Passing through the final military checkpoint. We're getting an up-close look at the frantic rescue efforts on the Yangtze River. We're heading to the staging area of the search and rescue on a government trip. And we're going through to a boat to try and get a sense of just the sheer scale of this rescue effort as it tries to find survivors. More than a hundred ships, hundreds of divers and 500 tons of equipment scramble to the sea to try and save lives. But the elements are working against the rescue. The first thing I notice is how swiftly this river is moving and just how dirty the water is. This is an incredibly dangerous and difficult operation. More than 450 - mostly elderly Chinese - were on board. So far, only 14 escaped alive. The death toll here could be staggering. This is quite an extraordinary scene. We're approaching the Eastern Star. And you can see the rescuers on top of the hull clamoring on - drilling into the hull - trying to find any sign of life. They've been cutting into the hull in a last-ditch effort to pull survivors out. But they've had no signs of life and hope is fading fast. They're giving the rescue operations 72 hours out of respect for the families. But soon they'll have to take more drastic steps. You see these giant cranes. They will overturn the ship, and they will try to bring out the bodies of the hundreds who are still missing. As we leave the scene of the search and rescue operation, you can't help thinking of the families - hundreds of them - come from all over this region of China with some kind of hope that their loved ones are alive. But as they ready the tents to receive the souls from the Eastern Star, the days ahead will be grim indeed. David McKenzie, CNN, on the Yangtze River.</s>GORANI: Well, 26 years ago a massacre took place in Beijing's Tainanmen Square. And Hong Kong has remembered that tragic day with a candlelight vigil. Some astonishing footage marked the event as tens of thousands observed the anniversary. China has never released an official toll of how many were killed on June 4th, 1989, when China's military smashed a massive student protest - certainly not acknowledged within the country or tolerated in terms of what's going on in Hong Kong. Coming up - Greece decides to bundle this month's IMF payments. What does this mean for its already contentious debt talks? I asked the head of Athens Chamber of Commerce. And a look at the FBIs investigations into FIFA. We speak with a former deputy counsel for the FBI about how that agency set up a case of this magnitude.