Page 836 - Disaster Accident

UN provided support to over 31,000 Nepal families hit by floods

The United Nations Development Programme, with funding from the Chinese government, has provided recovery support to over 31,800 families in Nepal affected by the 2017 floods, the global body said here today. The UNDP Nepal had in January launched the post-flood recovery project in seven most-affected districts of Terai - Sunsari, Saptari, Sarlahi, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Rautahat and Parsa of Provinces 1 and 2 in southern part of the country following a USD 4 million grant agreement signed with the government of China. The assistance was provided under the framework of the Chinese South- South Cooperation Assistance Fund, the UNDP -- UN's global development network -- said in the statement. The agency announced the final achievements of the recovery project at a closing ceremony here in the presence of representatives from the Nepal government, the Chinese Embassy in the country and local governments of the project's target districts, it said. In August last year, the Terai region ...

Hasin Jahan to meet Shami after accident

Mohammed Shami's estranged wife Hasin Jahan is in Delhi to meet her husband post his road accident.Shami injured while travelling between Dehradun and New Delhi and hurt his head."I heard that he met with an accident. My daughter, who saw her father's pictures also wanted to meet him. Therefore, I came here," Jahan told reporters here."Yes, I spoke to him over the phone, but there is no question of a reconciliation," she added.Shami has been booked under various bailable and non-bailable offences, including an attempt to murder, after Jahan's complaint.

Centre gives nod for construction of 3.21 lakh houses under PMAY(U)

The Centre has approved construction of over 3.21 lakh houses for urban poor under its flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban), taking the tally to over 42.45 lakh houses, according to an official release today. The latest approvals entails an investment of Rs 18,203 crore, out of which the Centre will share Rs 4,752 crore, it added. The projects were sanctioned across 523 cities in various states. "The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has approved the construction of 3,21,567 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under PMAY(U) with an investment of Rs 18,203 crore, with central assistance of Rs 4,752 crore," the release said. In the latest approvals, Haryana was sanctioned the highest number of 70,671 houses for construction, followed by West Bengal 59,929 houses, Rajasthan 54,821 houses, Uttar Pradesh 39,683 houses, Gujarat 35,851 houses and Mizoram-15,798 houses. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Kerala each got between 5,000 and 12,000 ...

Angry Russians protest over shopping mall fire

Thousands of angry Russians took to the streets in the Siberian city of Kemerovo demanding a full investigation into a shopping mall fire that claimed the lives of 64 people -- 41 of them children.

Two killed in J&K road accident

Two persons were killed and four others injured in a road accident in Jammu and Kashmir's hilly Doda district on Tuesday, police said.

3 killed, 4 injured in two accidents in J&K

Three people were killed and four injured in two separate accidents in Doda and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir today, police said. A vehicle skidded off the road and rolled down a gorge in the Phagsoo area of Doda today killing two people, including a woman, and injuring four others, they said. The injured were taken to a nearby hospital, officials added. An 18-year-old man was severely injured after he slipped and fell from a moving bus in the Manjakote belt of Rajouri district, police said, adding that he succumbed to injuries on the way to the hospital.

Wedding hall gutted in fire

A fire today broke out at a wedding hall here but fortunately no one was inured in the blaze which was controlled by ten fire tenders, officials said. The tenders conducted 20 ferries, Fire Officer Jalaj Ghasia said. He said the structure of the marriage hall was gutted to fire. Fortunately, no function was scheduled at the venue, police said. DCP (West) Ashok Gupta said a short circuit appeared to be the cause of the fire.

Xi sends condolences to Putin over Russian mall fire

Chinese President Xi Jinping has condoled the fire incident at Russia's Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) shopping mall that claimed 64 lives.According to the People's Daily, President Xi sent a condolence message to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.He said, "On behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, and also in his own name, I deeply mourn those killed in the fire and show sympathy to the bereaved families and those injured."Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also sent a similar message to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.A major fire broke out on Sunday at the fourth floor of the shopping mall where victims were present inside a theatre.Over a 100 people had to be evacuated, while 12 injured were hospitalized. Thirty six persons received out-patient medical assistance.Around 660 emergency personnel were deployed to the location to conduct rescue operations that lasted for over 17 hours.A criminal investigation has also been launched in the case.

FSSAI to reclassify food businesses to align with GST

Food safety authority FSSAI today said it will reclassify food businesses on the basis of turnover to align with the goods and services tax (GST). Under the GST regime, implemented from July 1, 2017, businesses with an annual turnover of over Rs 20 lakh are required to pay GST. "We are in the process of amending the licensing and registration norms. Under this, we are going to reclassify the kind of food businesses (KoB) on the basis of turnover to align with GST and MSME norms," Food and Safety Standards Authority (FSSAI) CEO Pawan Kumar Agarwal told reporters. Accordingly, the number of KoBs will be reduced from the current 17 to 8. For instance, a category of food businesses whose annual turnover is Rs 12 lakh will be increased to Rs 20 lakh, he added. Alongside, FSSAI is developing an e-system to monitor if food businesses are complying with safety norms. The compliance monitoring system will be ready in the next 2-3 months. "A track record of each food business will help while ...

Fire kills five in displaced persons' camp in Nigeria

Five people were killed when a fire broke out in a camp housing thousands displaced by Boko Haram violence near the Nigerian border with Cameroon, military and civilian sources said. The incident happened yesterday in a camp for around 55,000 internally displaced persons (IDP) in the town of Rann, 175 kilometres (105 miles) east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, they said. "There was a fire outbreak in the IDP camp... which killed five people, three women and two children," a senior military officer in the town said. Several people suffered burns, dozens of livestock were lost and around 200 makeshift tents were destroyed, the officer said. A civilian guard assisting the military in the town said the blaze was caused by flying embers from open fires. "The fire started in the morning while residents of the camp were making breakfast in the open and the morning breeze carried some splinters to the shelters," the militiaman, Kaka Ari, told AFP. Rann, where nearly 80,000 people ...

Fire in room inside premises of DCP's office in Rohini

A minor fire broke out today in a room located inside the premises of the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Rohini, a Delhi Fire Services official said. A call was received at 6.30 AM informing about the fire and three fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire was doused by 6.55 AM, the official said. A police officer said that it was a minor fire in a room on the second floor of the office premises. It is suspected that it was caused due to a short-circuit. No injuries were reported due to the fire.

Nine Kerala districts to be declared drought-hit: Govt

The Kerala government today decided to declare nine of its 14 districts as drought-hit in view of scarcity of rains, shortage of surface and ground water and intrusion of saline water. A meeting of the state disaster management authority presided over by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to declare the districts of Kannur, Alappuzha, Idukki, Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur and Waynad as drought-hit, an official release said. The official declaration in this regard would be made by the State Relief Commissioner, it said. Besides Vijayan, who is also the authority chairman, Revenue Minister E Chandrasekharan, Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar and Chief Secretary Paul Antony were among those who took part in the meeting. It was also decided at the meeting that immediate steps would be taken for distribution of drinking water through tankers and kiosks to tide over the drought situation, the release added. According to the Central Meteorological

Putin calls mall fire 'criminal negligence', vows pinishment

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the shopping mall fire that claimed 64 lives, including those of 41 children, was caused by "criminal negligence" and all those responsible for it would be punished.

Russian mall fire: Putin indicates criminal negligence

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday termed the Russia's mall fire which killed 64 people as 'criminal negligence', as per media reports.Putin held an unplanned meeting with the members of a civic action group at Kemerovo and assured punishment to those responsible for the massive fire hazard, as reported by the Russian news agency, TASS.The meeting was attended by the civic workers and the families of the deceased and those were injured in the incident."A 100-member investigative group is working here, headed by the Investigative Committee chief. Rest assured, all those responsible will be punished," TASS quoted Putin as saying.Putin further refuted the rumors surrounding the figures of the casualties and said that the official figure of the deceased are correct.He further blamed the Kemerovo's mayor for lack of safety checks in the building and pointed out that " there were no checks in the past two years though it was necessary to ensure safety".Putin also met the injured ...

Half a million students drop out in Yemen war: UNICEF

Close to half a million Yemeni children have dropped out of school since 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in the country's civil war, UNICEF said today. That brings the number of children without access to education to two million, as minors are increasingly recruited in the fighting, according to the UN children's agency. "An entire generation of children in Yemen faces a bleak future because of limited or no access to education," said Meritxell Relano, UNICEF's Yemen representative. "The journey to school has also become dangerous as children risk being killed en route," Relano said. "Fearing for their children's safety, many parents choose to keep their children at home. The lack of access to education has pushed children and families to dangerous alternatives, including early marriage, child labour and recruitment into the fighting." At least 2,419 children have been recruited by armed groups since 2015, according to UNICEF. Another 4.5 million risk losing access .

Uber self-driving car tests suspended in Arizona

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has suspended ride-hailing giant Uber's self-driving vehicle tests following a fatal accident at a suburb in state capital Phoenix.

Thousands in Russian city rally after shopping mall fire

Thousands of angry residents are rallying in the Russian city of Kemerovo to demand a full probe following a fire in a shopping mall that killed at least 64 people, many of them children. The protesters are disputing the official death toll, saying that the authorities are hiding the real scale of the disaster. The blaze engulfed the Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo on Sunday, the first weekend of the school recess, trapping dozens of parents and children. Eyewitnesses reported that fire alarms were silent and many doors were locked. President Vladimir Putin has flown to Kemerovo but has not spoken to the protesters yet.

UAE says Qatar fighter jets intercept civilian flights

The United Arab Emirates said two Qatari fighter jets "dangerously approached" two passenger flights, the third such incident between the Gulf rivals. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have clashed repeatedly over alleged airspace violations this year, as a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf enters its 10th month. The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority condemned the "reckless manner in which two Qatari fighter jets dangerously approached two UAE-registered commercial aircraft while flying over Bahraini airspace today, in a flagrant and serious threat to civil aviation and air navigation safety". One of the aircraft was forced to "do an emergency manoeuvre to avoid colliding with the Qatari jets," the aviation authority said in a statement published by the official WAM news agency. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt cut all ties with Qatar in June over Qatar's alleged ties to Islamist extremists and Shiite Iran. Qatar, which denies the accusations, is barred from using the airspace

UN chief condoles death of 64 people in Russian mall fire

UN chief has expressed his deepest condolences to the families and friends of the 64 victims who were killed in a major fire at a busy shopping mall packed with children and their parents in Russia's Kemerovo city. The fire at the Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometres east of Moscow, was doused yesterday. Russian television showed images of thick black smoke billowing out of the roof of the shopping centre. Emergency services minister Vladimir Puchkov said on Russian television: "We have recorded that unfortunately as a result of the accident 64 people died." "The Secretary-General is saddened to learn about the deadly fire at a shopping mall in the city of Kemerovo in the Russian Federation," a statement issued by his spokesman said. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres wished speedy recovery to the wounded and extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and government of Russia. Russia's Investigative Committee said the ...

N Korean boat skipper gets suspended jail term in Japan

A North Korean fishing boat captain was handed a suspended prison sentence by a Japanese court today for stealing items including electronic appliances after being rescued from his stranded vessel last year. The 45-year-old was among 10 North Koreans spotted aboard a tiny wooden boat struggling in bad weather off the northern island of Hokkaido in late November. They were rescued from the vessel, and some crew members were subsequently arrested over the theft of items ranging from home appliances to solar panels. Some of them admitted taking items from a local fishery cooperatives facility on the remote island where they took refuge. The captain was arrested and indicted last year for taking the lead in stealing some 40 items worth 5.65 million yen ($53,000), local media reported. Eight other crew members were deported home via China last month, while a ninth has been in hospital with tuberculosis. Today, the Hakodate District Court in Hokkaido issued the captain a suspended jail term