Page 768 - Disaster Accident

Target blast kills 1 policeman in Pak

A remote-controlled bomb fitted to a motorcycle went off in restive northwestern Pakistan, killing one policeman and wounding 13 others, police said today. The blast occurred near a bus stand in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bannu district. The explosives hidden in a motorbike exploded as the police van reached the site. One policeman was killed and 13 were injured, police said. The injured, including civilians, have been shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Bannu, a media report said. Bannu district is located close to North Waziristan Agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas where security personnel are often killed in targeted attacks. On April 22, one security official was killed and three others were injured in an explosion in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan Agency. Another blast occurred on the same day in Miranshah in North Waziristan Agency, but there were no casualties.

Couple charred to death in Delhi house fire

A senior couple was charred to death after their house caught fire in New Delhi's Sudarshan park area on Friday.The police authorities said that 70-year-old Chedi Lal and his 62-year-old wife Laxmi died after the fire had broken out on the ground floor of their house.Two fire tenders reached the spot and doused the flames.The police department is investigating the cause of the fire.

Elderly couple dies in Delhi blaze

An elderly couple was burnt to death in a major fire that broke out at their residence in Moti Nagar here early on Friday, police said.

Indonesia volcano erupts, forces evacuation

Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted on Friday spewing 5,500-metre high column of volcanic ash, forcing residents to evacuate.

Compensation given to UP storm victims

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma on Thursday distributed cheques of relief and compensation to victims of recent storms that took a heavy toll of lives and prosperity.

Two killed in separate road accidents in Dwarka

Two persons, including a woman, were today killed in separate road accidents in Dwarka, police said. A 59-year-old woman was hit by a speeding bus when she had gone out for some work, they added. She was admitted to a hospital by the bus driver along with some locals where she was declared brought dead. The accused driver was arrested, police said. The victim was the wife of a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army. In another incident, a 20-year-old motorcyclist was killed after he was hit by a water tanker, they said. The victim, Aman, was admitted to a hospital where he was declared brought dead. The accused driver fled from the spot and police are on a lookout for him.

U.S. safety agency reviewing fatal Tesla crash in Florida

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday it was reviewing a Florida crash of a Tesla Inc vehicle earlier this week that killed two teenagers.

At least 41 dead as Kenya dam bursts after torrential rains

At least 41 people died after a dam burst in central Kenya, police said today, as residents described muddy waters ripping through their homes in what one survivor called "hell on earth". After a severe drought, weeks of torrential rains in Kenya have led to flooding and mudslides that have left 172 dead. The private Patel dam, used for irrigation and fish farming, burst its earthen banks on Wednesday evening in Solai, near the Rift Valley city of Nakuru, regional police chief Gideon Kibunjah told AFP. The raging waters wiped out two villages, a local resident said, while power lines were swept away, leaving many without electricity. The search for victims was interrupted on Thursday afternoon by heavy rains. "We have 41 people dead from this tragedy," Kibunjah said, adding 20 of them were children. He said the search was still going on. "It is a disaster because most people were asleep when the tragedy occurred and their houses were swept away." He said 36 people had been ...

Overhead wire falls on train engine; passengers safe

A major mishap was averted today due to alertness of the driver of a passenger train after an overhead wire snapped and fell on the train's engine in Jharkhand, a railway statement said. No damage was caused to the passengers. The wire snapped and fell on the engine of the Ranchi-Lohardaga passenger train near Nagjua station under Ranchi Division of the South Eastern Railway. Smoke was noticed on the engine roof soon after the train left Nagjua station in Lohardaga district this morning. However, the wire could be disconnected because of the promptness of the train driver, the release said. He, along with the crew members and station staff members, brought the fire under control with the fire-fighting equipment available in the train. The railway has ordered a probe into the incident.

6 die, 10 injured in Nor'wester

At least six persons died and 10 others injured in the Nor'wester that lashed West Bengal this morning, a senior official of the state disaster management department said. "All the deaths were due to lightning. No deaths were reported in any other districts hit by the storm," he told PTI. Four deaths were reported from Murshidabad district, while two persons died in South Dinajpur district, he said. Storms also lashed other districts such as Nadia, Birbhum and Jalpaiguri.

UP storm toll rises to 18, fresh storm warning

The death toll in the storm that hit parts of Uttar Pradesh last night has risen to 18, an official said today as the Met office issued another bad weather alert for the state. Five deaths people died in Etawah district, three each in Mathura, Aligarh and Agra, two in Firozabad and one each in Hathras and Kanpur Dehat last night, an official spokesperson said. Twenty-seven others were injured in the calamity which affected nine districts, mostly in western Uttar Pradesh that had also borne the brunt of a previous storm on May 2-3. The official said seven houses were damaged in last night's storm. Thirty-seven head of cattle perished. Two of the three deaths in Mathura district took place when electricity poles collapsed on the victims. Another person was killed when a tractor-trolley filled with hay toppled on him during the storm. Two victims were from the district's Mant tehsil. The state government has given their families Rs 4 lakh each as compensation, Deputy Chief Minister ...

Quake jolts Kashmir

A day after a 6.1 quake shook Jammu and Kashmir, the state again experienced tremors from a 5.4 magnitude earthquake on Thursday, an official said. There was no report of any casualty or damage to property.

Moderate intensity quake hits NW Pakistan

A moderate intensity earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale today jolted parts of northwest Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, but there were no reports of any casualty or damage to properties, an official said. The quake, which shook parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Punjab and Islamabad, this evening 19.09 hours (local time), a Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD) official said. This is the third quake that shook the northwest Pakistani cities since yesterday. Two strong earthquakes with one measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale yesterday had jolted parts of northwest Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, injuring at least nine children and causing panic among the residents. The epicentre of the quake was on Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region, at the depth of 187 km. The tremors were also felt in Islamabad, Malakand, Chitral, Peshawra, Swabi, Malakand, Kohat, Mardan and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Last month, a ...

At least 41 killed, several missing as dam bursts in Kenya, say officials

Nearly 170 people have now died since March from floods caused by seasonal rains, according to Kenyan authorities

Four army trucks burnt in fire on goods train

Four army trucks were burnt to ashes in a fire on a goods train, which was also carrying ammunition and explosives, on Thursday on the Bhopal-Nagpur stretch in Madhya Pradesh, officials said.

Hry minister announces Rs 20 L ex-gratia to Khedar thermal plant victims

Haryana Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar today announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 20 lakh each to the family members of deceased and Rs 10 lakh to the injured in a blast at Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant (RGTPP) in Khedar. In addition, job in Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited would be given to one member from the family of those deceased or injured in the accident, he said. He stated that a Special Investigation Team has been formed comprising the DSP Headquarters, one inspector and one sub inspector, to thoroughly investigate the cause behind the incident. Panwar further assured the victims' family members to chargesheet and transfer the superintending engineer, executive engineer and the SDO of the power plant, an official statement said here. The minister also assured that the expense on the treatment of those injured would be borne by the government. On May 8, two labourers had died of burn injuries and four others sustained serious injuries in the incident at .

Truck overturns on van in Pak, 10 killed, 5 injured

At least 10 people were killed and five others injured when a truck overturned on a passenger van in northwestern Pakistan on this evening, officials said. The incident occurred near Sabzi Mandi Morr in Garrison District Abbottabad of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A truck overturned on a passenger van with more than 15 passengers onboard killing 10 people and injured five others, Rescue officials said. The injured were shifted to a hospital where the condition of some of the injured is said to be critical, they added.

Autopilot was not engaged during Florida Model S crash - Tesla

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc's autopilot system was unlikely to have been a factor in a Florida car crash this week which killed two teenagers, the electric carmaker said in a statement issued late on Wednesday.

Plea in HC claims Jet Airways cleared suspended pilots for flight duties

A plea was today moved in the Delhi High Court alleging that Jet Airways had cleared two of its pilots to continue flying despite aviation regulator DGCA suspending their license for allowing unauthorised entry into the cockpit of a flight operated by them. The matter was initially mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, which asked the petitioner to file an application. Subsequently, the petitioner, journalist Rajneesh Kapur, filed an application alleging that Jet's Vice President (Operations), in contravention of the order of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), had directed that both the suspended pilots be used for flight duties. The application, filed through advocate Nikhil Borwankar, also claims that one of the two pilots had also undertaken a flight while his license was suspended. The plea also questioned the appointment of the VP (Operations), alleging that his nomination to the post has not been confirmed by the .

4 killed, 12 injured in road accident in UP

A jeep carrying pilgrims collided with a truck, killing four and injuring 12 people near Pura Uttam village here, police said today. The incident occurred late last night under Madiyahon Police Station area when the jeep was on its way to Vindhyachal shrine in the state, ASP (city) Anil Pandey said. Both the vehicles fell into a 20-feet deep ditch The pilgrims, Radhika Gupta (45), Lali Devi (42) and Kamala Devi (52) including the jeep driver, Badama Yadav (55), died on the spot, the ASP said, adding that the injured were admitted to the district hospital.