Page 395 - Disaster Accident
Railways orders probe into Amritsar train tragedy
The railways on Friday ordered a probe into the Amritsar train tragedy in which 60 people were killed while watching a Dussehra function on October 19, officials said.
Lightning strike kills over 100 cattle in J-K's Rajouri
Over a hundred cattle died due to lightning that struck the mountainous belt of Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district Friday, police said. As many as 107 goats and sheep died while a dozen cattle were injured in the lightning that struck high altitude Alal Mangota area, they said. Rajouri Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Aijaz Asad has sent a police team to the spot for immediate assessment of the losses and further action, they added.
12 zones are now free of unmanned level crossings on broad gauge routes: Rlys
The railways said Friday it has eliminated all unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) on broad gauge route from 12 of its total 16 zones. Out of a total of 3,479 UMLCs on broad gauge routes still existing till April 2018, 3,402 have been eliminated in the last seven months. The balance 77 UMLCs have also been planned to be eliminated by December 2018, the railways said in a statement. Most of the UMLCs have been eliminated either by provision of subway, road under bridges or by manning. The national transporter declared Central Railway, Eastern Railway, East Central Railway, East Coast Railway, North Eastern Railway, North East Frontier Railway, Southern Railway, South Central Railway, South Eastern Railway, South East Central Railway and West Central Railway as UMLC-free on broad gauge route. As of October this year, accidents at UMLCs have reduced from 65 in 2009-2010 to three in 2018-2019, the ministry said.
12 people die in road accidents in Punjab daily
At least 12 people die daily in road accidents in Punjab, a book on road safety scenario of te state has revealed.
2 stabbed at Sony Music's London headquarters
Two people were stabbed at Sony Music's headquarters in west London on Friday, the police said.
Ebola death toll in DR Congo rises to 180
The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed 180 lives, according to the health ministry, with 10 more reported deaths in recent days. The ministry said Thursday that it had recorded 285 possible cases and 180 deaths. The latest outbreak is spreading in the highly-restive northeastern region of North Kivu, which is home to a clutch of armed groups. It is the 10th in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976. In mid-October, Congolese authorities said they were facing a "second wave" of the outbreak centred on Beni, a town near the border with Uganda. The epicentre had earlier been focused on Mangina, around 20 kilometres from Beni. Since a vaccination programme began on August 8, more than 25,000 people have been innoculated, the health ministry said.
UN agency says famine in Yemen endangering 2 million mothers
The UN Population Fund is warning that the looming famine in war-torn Yemen could put 2 million mothers at risk of death. UNFPA said late on Thursday that lack of food, displacement, poor nutrition, disease outbreaks and eroding health care have dramatically affected the health and well-being of 1.1 million malnourished women who are pregnant or are breast-feeding their newborns. Since March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition has waged war in Yemen against the country's Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, who toppled the internationally recognised government. Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which has killed over 10,000 people and sparked the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The UN has made no progress in attempts to get the warring sides to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
One of our islands is missing: Japan 'loses' a bit of land
Missing: A tiny island in northern Japan. Or so authorities fear, prompting plans for a survey to determine if the outcrop has been washed away, ever-so-slightly shrinking the country's territorial waters. The island, known as Esambe Hanakita Kojima was only officially surveyed and registered by Japan's coastguard in 1987, who couldn't even say exactly how big it was. Until recently, it rose 1.4-metres above sea level, and was visible from the very northern tip of Japan's northern Hokkaido island. But now, it has disappeared. "It is not impossible that tiny islands get weathered by the elements," a coastguard official told AFP. The disappearance of the island "may affect Japan's territorial waters a tiny bit," she added, but only "if you conduct precision surveys". Japan pours resources into protecting its outer islands, particularly the remote Okinotori islands in the Pacific, which secures a significant portion of the nation's exclusive economic zone. It is also locked in disputes ..
Lightning strikes livestock in J&K
Lightning killed over 100 sheep and goats on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, the administration said.
Drunk Japan Airlines pilot was 'almost 10 times over limit'
A Japan Airlines pilot who was arrested in Britain shortly before a flight for being drunk was almost 10 times over the legal blood alcohol limit for a pilot, London police said. The incident came a day after another Japanese carrier apologised for multiple delays after a hungover pilot called in sick. JAL executives told reporters in Japan that the co-pilot cleared an in-house breath test but aroused the suspicion of a bus driver taking him to the plane at Heathrow Airport on Sunday. The co-pilot, identified as Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, was arrested by British police and required to undergo a blood test that confirmed those results. He had reportedly consumed two bottles of wine and more than 1.8 litres (nearly four US pints) of beer over six hours on the night before the flight. "We are certain (the in-house breath test) wasn't conducted properly," JAL communications chief Muneaki Kitahara told reporters Thursday. A spokesman for the London police said a test on the co-pilot taken ..
Truth will now come out: Navjot Kaur on Amritsar train accident
Congress leader and Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who appeared before the inquiry commission probing the Amritsar train accident, on Friday expressed hope that the truth will now come out, claiming that many false facts have been reported about her.Divisional Commissioner (Jalandhar) B Purushartha who is conducting the inquiry into the train tragedy in which 60 people were killed on October 19, had summoned Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu, and had asked them to appear before the commission today. Earlier, organisers of the Dussehra event were also summoned as part of the investigation."Yes, it is a very important part of the process, there have been many false facts reported about me, so now truth will come out. Sidhu sahab (Navjot Singh Sidhu) is not in Punjab so he could not come, he has sent a letter," Navjot Kaur, who was the chief guest at the Dusshera celebrations where the tragedy took place, told reporters here.On ...
Fist fight caused deadly China bus crash
A scuffle between a driver and a passenger caused their bus to plunge from a bridge into a river in southwest China, killing at least 13 people, police said Friday. Dramatic video footage of Sunday's crash shows a woman striking the driver over the head with an object, prompting him to hit back with one hand. The woman then lashes out once more. The driver then suddenly yanks the wheel hard to the left and the bus veers onto incoming traffic, striking a car before breaking through the rails of the bridge crossing the Yangtze River, in the southwest city of Chongqing. Thirteen bodies have been pulled out of the river, but two remain missing. A total of 15 people were on board the bus. Local police say the female passenger involved in the fight, a 48-year-old local, went up to the driver and asked to be let out after missing her stop. When the driver refused, the two began shouting and using "aggressive language", police said on their Weibo account -- China's equivalent of ...
Jaidev withdraws suit challenging father Bal Thackeray's will
Jaidev Thackeray Friday withdrew his suit filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the will of his late father Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray. Jaidev had challenged the will of December 13, 2011, in which the Sena patriarch had not left a farthing for his estranged son. The suit was filed after Bal Thackeray's death in November 2012. He disputed the will, saying his father was of "unsound mind" and that the Sena chief's other son, Uddhav Thackeray, had influenced him. Besides Jaidev, the Sena patriarch had also not left anything for his third son, Bindumadhav Thackeray (who died in a road accident) or his family. In an affidavit filed Friday, Jaidev said he wanted to close his suit opposing probate of the will in favour of Uddhav Thackeray and four other family members. He did not assign any reason for withdrawing his suit. Justice Gautam Patel, who has been hearing the suit, accepted the affidavit and directed the HC registry to issue by November 26 probate of the will in ...
New details highlight Lion Air jet's problems before crash
New details about the crashed Lion Air's jet previous flight have cast more doubt on the Indonesian airline's claim to have fixed technical problems as hundreds of personnel searched the sea a fifth day Friday for victims and the plane's fuselage. The brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane plunged into the Java Sea early Monday, just minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. Herson, head of Bali-Nusa Tenggara Airport Authority, said the pilot on the plane's previous flight on Sunday from Bali requested to return to the airport not long after takeoff but then reported the problem had been resolved. Several passengers have described the problem as a terrifying loss of altitude. Lion Air has said the unspecified problem was fixed after Sunday's flight, but the fatal flight's pilots also made a "return to base" request not long after takeoff. "Shortly after requesting RTB, the pilot then contacted the control tower again to inform that the ...
Qatar Airways clarifies, water tanker hit their plane
Qatar Airways has clarified that their plane, which was parked at Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Airport, was hit by a water-servicing truck on Thursday.Earlier, the officials had reported that the plane hit a water tanker during its arrival from Doha.However, in an official statement, Qatar Airways specified that the aircraft was parked at its designated gate when a truck hit itThe statement read, "Qatar Airways flight QR 541, scheduled to fly from Kolkata to Doha on 1 November, was stationary and parked at its designated gate when a water servicing truck came into contact with the aircraft prior to boarding."No passenger or crew member was injured in the incident. "All passengers and crew were accommodated in hotels and are being assisted to ensure smooth onward connections to their final destinations. We regret any inconvenience caused and are doing our best to have passengers on their way," the statement further added.
Two killed, seven injured in road accident in UP
Two persons were killed and seven others injured in a collision between a tempo traveller and a tractor here, police said Friday. The incident occurred Thursday night, they said. Babu (22) and Shahbaz (24), travelling on the tempo died on the spot while seven other passengers were injured in the accident, police said. They said the injured were taken to a hospital here, where the condition of three people was stated to be critical. The tractor driver fled the spot, they said, adding police has launched a hunt to nab him.
Fistfight leads to deadly China bus plunge
A fistfight between a passenger and a bus driver was found to have caused a bus to plunge into the Yangtze river in China's Chongqing earlier this week killing 13 people, authorities said on Friday.
Search teams recover seats, wheels from Indonesia jet crash site
Seats, wheels and other parts of a crashed Indonesian Lion Air jet were hauled from the depths Friday, as authorities analysed black box data that may explain why the new plane plummeted into the Java Sea, killing 189 people. Search teams have been scouring the seabed for the fuselage of the Boeing-737 MAX 8, which plunged into the waters off Indonesia's northern coast shortly after takeoff Monday despite only having been in service a few months. "Today we will start diving (again) at the spot where we think the plane crashed," said Isswarto, commander of the Indonesian navy's search-and-rescue division. "There is a lot of little debris, plane wheels, and seats -- all totally destroyed and in pieces." Divers were searching an area about 25-35 metres deep, but have been finding fewer body parts than earlier in the week, he added. "They're scattered everywhere and some may have been washed away by the current." Dozens of body bags containing remains have been recovered from the crash ...
Japan Airlines pilot admits being 10 times over alcohol limit
A Japan Airlines pilot has admitted to failing a breath test shortly before he was due to fly from London to Tokyo, the police said.
Japanese maker of train in deadly Taiwan crash finds design flaw
TOKYO/TAIPEI (Reuters) - The Japanese manufacturer of a train that derailed in Taiwan killing 18 people said it had discovered a design flaw that failed to alert the central control system that an automatic safety feature had been turned off.