Page 127 - Disaster Accident
Punjab: Amarinder orders completion of crop loss assessment at earliest
Amid fears of extensive crop damage due to unseasonal rains, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Thursday asked the chief secretary to complete the loss assessment exercise at the earliest. The chief minister also called for an urgent meeting of the disaster management committee to assess the extent of the losses while taking serious note of the crop damage caused by strong winds and unseasonable rains. High-speed winds and rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday damaged the Rabi crops in the state, prompting Singh to order a special 'girdawari' (crop loss assessment survey). On Thursday, Singh also asked the chief secretary to issue detailed guidelines to the district commissioners to enable completion of the special 'girdawari' on priority basis. Taking stock of the reports submitted by the agriculture department, the chief minister directed officials to ensure timely disbursement of compensation to the affected farmers as per government norms. The Shiromani Akali Dal has demanded that .
13 killed in Gujarat in unseasonal rain, dust storm
Unseasonal rain and severe dust storm in different parts of Gujarat over the last two days claimed 13 lives even as authorities Thursday predicted that temperatures that had fallen to less than 3 to 7 degrees below normal would rise from next week to mark a normal summer.
10,500 families of 700 Meghalaya villages affected by cyclone
Over 10,500 families in 700 odd villages of Meghalaya have been affected after a cyclonic storm ravaged the state in the past three days leaving many of them homeless, officials here said Thursday. Three persons suffered minor injuries during the storm on Wednesday in West Garo Hills district. About a 100 school buildings and few community halls were destroyed by the storm that lashed the districts along the Indo-Bangladesh border. Revenue Minister Kyrmen Shylla reviewed the situation at a high level meeting attended by Chief Secretary P S Thangkhiew on Thursday. "The total number of households affected by the cyclone is 10,554 in 700 villages," a senior revenue department official said after the meeting. Relief materials have been distributed to the affected families. Power supply in parts of West Garo Hills, South West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi districts has been disrupted and efforts are on to restore it, the official said. West Khasi Hills, East Jaintia and West Jaintia
ArcelorMittal offers help to rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris
The world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal Thursday said it has offered help to France to reconstruct the world heritage masterpiece Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. The steel giant has a major manufacturing presence in France. Notre-Dame, which was added to UNESCO's world heritage list in 1991, stands ravaged due to a colossal fire that swept through the famed building on Monday. "Following the fire that devastated Notre-Dame de Paris, a world heritage masterpiece, on 15 April 2019, ArcelorMittal, the global steel company with a major manufacturing presence in France, wishes to support the reconstruction of the cathedral," ArcelorMittal said in a statement. ArcelorMittal said: "The company is ready to donate steel as part of the reinforcing and reconstruction process." The company said it has also offered help to the authorities working on the reconstruction to provide its expertise and competencies in construction and architecture. Some 600 firefighters worked throughout the night .
Fire at Mumbai club, six injured
Six workers were injured in a fire at a club at Aarey Colony in suburban Goregaon Thursday, a fire brigade official said. A fire broke out at Emerald Club at Royal Palm Estate at 10.12 am, he said. A team of fire brigade personnel was sent immediately, but before they could douse the flames by 10.50 am, six people -- workers engaged in renovation job -- were injured, one of them suffering 80 per cent burn injuries, he said. All the injured were admitted to a hospital in Airoli, he said. "Prime facie the fire seems to have been caused by a short circuit," the official added. Two days ago, a massive fire had broken out at a 'sort centre' of e-commerce giant Amazon in suburban Andheri (East), though nobody was injured in the incident. Amazon India said in a statement that the fire was quickly extinguished, and out of caution it has closed the building for now and moved the operations to another building.
Boeing making 'steady progress' on certifying 737 Max software update: CEO Muilenburg
Boeing was making "steady progress" on the path to certifying of a crucial software update for the 737 MAX aircraft, CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said after two fatal crashes in recent months forced the grounding of the model, including by Indian carriers. He assured global airline industry that Boeing has also made the final engineering test flight before certification for the 737 MAX aircraft. The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) system of the 737 MAX aircraft has come under scrutiny from investigators reviewing two fatal crashes -- the Lion Air crash on October 29 and the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10. Boeing has been developing and testing a software change to the system that will now factor in input from a second sensor. "We're making steady progress on the path to certification for our 737 MAX software update thanks to the work of our Boeing pilots, engineers and technical experts," Muilenburg said in a video on his Twitter account. "Yesterday we ...
2 killed in road accident in Rajasthan's Kota
Two people were killed and two others severely injured Thursday after their car collided with a speeding truck in Rajasthan's Kota district, police said. The accident occurred near Cable Nagar on the Jhalawar-Kota highway around 8 am. The victims are teachers at a private university here, police said. Azaharuddin Ansari (34) and Aashish Goutam (36) died on the spot, while Lalit Shrivastav (35) and Aadil Kurashi (34) were taken to a hospital, where their condition is stated to be critical, Anantpura police station SHO Narendra Pareek said. He said a case of negligent driving has been registered against the truck driver, who left his tomato-laden vehicle at the spot and fled. The bodies were handed over to the family members after postmortem, Pareek said.
HC asks TMC to seal hospitals not having fire dept's NOC
The Bombay High Court Thursday directed the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) in Maharashtra to seal all private hospitals and nursing homes that were operating without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department. A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N M Jamdar said if the several notices served by the TMC and the Fire Department to hospitals, asking them to follow fire safety norms, did not work, it was better to shut down such healthcare facilities. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by RTI activist Sapan Shrivastav. The plea claimed a survey by the Thane Fire Department earlier this year revealed that more than 50 per cent of private hospitals and nursing homes in Thane were ill-equipped to deal with fire incidents. An affidavit filed by TMC's counsel Arvind Aswani stated that although the civic body's health department renewed registration of over 380 hospitals last year, only 181 hospitals were issued an NOC from the Fire ...
OSH Bangladesh and IFSEC Bangladesh Expos Mark Their Debut in Dhaka Today
/ -- Two distinctively designed expos focused on - Occupational Safety and Health - Security, Civil Protection and Fire safety UBM India, India's leading exhibitions organiser, launched the preview editions of Occupational Safety & Health Bangladesh (OSH) and International Fire Security Exhibition and Conference (IFSEC Bangladesh)in Dhaka today. Held at ICCB between 18th - 20th April, the co-located expos brought together internationally renowned exhibitors, consultants, industry experts and key government officials on a single platform to exchange global best practices and seek solutions for challenges pertaining to occupational health and safety, security, civil and fire protection industries. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/675607/UBM_Logo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/873967/OSH_Bangladesh_Logo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/873968/IFSEC_Bangladesh_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/873969/IFSEC_Bangladesh_Image.jpg ) The
Madeira mourns after 29 German tourists die in bus crash
The Portuguese island of Madeira began three days of mourning on Thursday after 29 German tourists died when their bus spun off the road and tumbled down a slope before crashing into a house. Drone footage showed the mangled wreckage resting precariously on its side against a building on a hillside near the town of Canico, the vehicle's roof partially crushed and front window smashed. Rescue workers attended to injured passengers in the undergrowth where the bus came to a halt, some of them bearing bloodied head bandages and bloodstained clothes, others appearing to be more seriously hurt. Local authorities said most of the dead were in their 40s and 50s. There were 11 men and 18 women were among the victims and all of them were German. They were among the more than one million tourists who visit the Atlantic islands off the coast of Morocco each year, attracted by their subtropical climate and rugged volcanic terrain. "It is with sadness and dismay that I think of our compatariots ...
Squall death toll rises to 22 in MP
The squall death toll in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday increased to 22. Thunderstorm, hail and dust-storm had lashed the state on Tuesday night.
Squall death toll rises to 20 in MP
The squall death toll in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday increased to 20. Thunderstorm, hail and dust-storm had lashed the state on Tuesday night.
'We are there,' Sushma assures Indian stranded in Saudi
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday assured all help from the Indian Embassy in Riyadh to a man who talked about committing suicide if he was unable to return to India from Saudi Arabia.
Strong 6.1-magnitude quake hits Taiwan, injuring 17 people
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted Taiwan on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, disrupting traffic and injuring 17 people. In the capital Taipei, highrises swayed while some panicked schoolchildren fled their classrooms in eastern Yilan county, according to reports. The quake was felt across the island and a highway connecting Yilan and Hualien was shut down, authorities said. An official at the Hualien county fire department told AFP that two people were injured by falling rocks. The National Fire Agency said one, a Malaysian male tourist, had been rushed to hospital in a critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest, a leg fracture and head injuries. The agency added that there were also 15 injuries reported around Taipei and that two buildings in the city were temporarily evacuated due to structural damages after the tremor. Taipei's metro system was closed for over an hour for safety checks following the quake, while the Taiwan Railway Administration also suspended some
28 killed in Portugal island accident
At least 28 people were killed and another 28 injured when a bus crashed on Portugal's Madeira Island, authorities said.
6.1 quake causes light damage in Taiwan capital, east coast
A strong earthquake rattled eastern Taiwan early Thursday afternoon, causing scattered light damage in the capital and the eastern coast region. The 6.1 magnitude quake was centered northwest of the city of Hualien and almost 19 kilometers (12 miles) deep, Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said. Water pipes at the city's train station burst and rail traffic was briefly suspended. Schools along the east coast were evacuated, with students holding their backpacks over their heads for protection. TV footage showed at least one landslide in a lightly populated area. Two hikers in the famed Taroko Gorge national park, including one from Malaysia, were injured by falling rocks, the Hualien government reported. In Taipei, about 115 kilometers (71 miles) from the epicenter, people felt buildings shake, and one multi-story building was leaning against its neighbor after its foundation shifted. The city's subway system suspended service. At the leaning building in downtown Taipei, area resident ..
Boeing conducts final test flight of 737 MAX with software fix
Boeing has conducted a final test flight of a 737 MAX model with an updated anti-stall system prior to its certification by aviation authorities, the aerospace manufacturer has said. CEO Dennis Muilenberg Wednesday tweeted a video where he said the test flight was carried out on Tuesday, adding that test pilots have completed 120 flights totalling more than 203 hours of airtime with the software fix for the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). Investigators have zeroed in on the system as a factor behind the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes in October and in March respectively, killing nearly 350 people in total. In both cases, the planes nose-dived shortly after takeoff, signalling a problem in a system that was deployed to correct for an aerodynamic issue that tended to cause the plane's nose to pitch up. "More than 85 per cent of the 50-plus MAX operators around the globe also have had the opportunity to see the update in action during simulator sessions,"
6.1-magnitude earthquake strikes Taiwan
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck near the Taiwanese city of Hualien on Thursday.
6.1 magnitude quake jolts Taiwan
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale jolted Taiwan on Thursday noon, according to the United States Geological Survey.The quake hit a depth of 10 kilometres and took place at 5:05 a.m. (UTC time).The epicentre of the earthquake was located 13 kilometres northeast of Hualian City on the east coast of Taiwan, the USGS said.The state media reported that there were no immediate casualties or damage. No tsunami warning has been issued.
14 bus passengers shot dead in Pakistan
At least 14 passengers were offloaded from a bus on a highway in Pakistan's Balochistan province and shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, officials said.