Page 876 - Disaster Accident
Rs 6,000 crore approved for disaster-hit states
A high level committee on Monday approved a central assistance of around Rs 6,000 crore for nine states which suffered from natural calamities last year, an official said.
Five dead in UK building blast; Police rules out terror angle
A powerful explosion ripped through a three-storey building killed at least five people and injured five others in Leicester, police said today but ruled out a terror link to the "earthquake-like" blast in the English city, home to a large number of people of Indian-origin. Police updated the death toll after finding another body among the rubble before they were forced to pause rescue efforts amid fears a neighbouring property could collapse. Police declared a "major incident" after the explosion occurred last evening on a stretch of road containing commercial and residential properties in Hinckley Road area of Leicester, some 140 km away from London. The city has a large Gujarati-origin population. Five others were taken to hospital, one of whom remains in critical condition, after local police declared a "major incident" and evacuated nearby businesses and homes in Hinckley Road area of Leicester - a city with a large Gujarati-origin population. "Although the cause of the explosion
Safety, minimum wages at coal mines of utmost importance: Goyal
The government will be mindful of minimum wages provisioning of health services and safety yardsticks at coal mines in the upcoming bidding process, coal minister Piyush Goyal said today. "Ensuring safety at work place, proper health facilities to coal mine workers and also ensuring minimum wages to the workers has to be given due importance to instill safety- culture in all our coal mines, particularly in view of the future mechanization of our operations," Goyal was quoted as saying in a official statement. "The yardstick of safety, provisioning of health services and minimum wages will be kept in mind during the forthcoming bidding process," the minister said at the meeting of the Standing Committee on Safety in Coal mines here. The minister also advised the officials to ensure that due help is provided to the dependents of victims of coal mine tragedies to file their claims promptly. Goyal stressed that the management should compassionately and proactively ensure disbursal of the
Driver killed, 35 passengers injured as bus falls in gorge in HP
A private bus today fell into a deep gorge in Sundernagar in Mandi district, killing its driver and injuring 35 passengers, police said. In the accident, five infants, who were also travelling in the bus, had miraculous escape and were unhurt, they said. The ill-fated bus was on its way from Chai ke Dohra to Sundernagar when it fell into a gorge, the police said, adding the cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained. There were about 40 passengers in the bus including women and children. The injured people were rushed to a hospital at Sundernagar and the district administration has given immediate relief of Rs 20,000 to kin of the deceased, Rs 10,000 to seriously injured people and Rs 5000 to those who sustained minor injuries, the police said. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has expressed deep shock over the accident and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family members of the deceased and wished early recovery to injured people.
Over Rs 2,700 cr grant for flood-affected Bihar, Gujarat
The Centre today approved assistance of Rs 1,711 crore and Rs 1,055 for flood-affected Bihar and Gujarat respectively, according to an official statement. A decision in this regard was taken during a meeting of a High Level Committee (HLC) to decide on the grant. The panel is headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "The HLC approved assistance of Rs 1711.66 crore in respect of state of Bihar. The HLC also approved assistance from National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) amounting to Rs 1055.05 crore for the state of Gujarat, Rs 169.63 crore for the state for Kerala, Rs 420.57 crore for the state of Rajasthan, Rs 133.05 crore for the state of Tamil Nadu and Rs 420.69 crore for the state of Uttar Pradesh," the home ministry statement said. The committee also approved Rs 838.85 crore for West Bengal, Rs 395.91 crore for Chhattisgarh and Rs 836.09 crore for Madhya Pradesh, it said. Bihar, Gujarat and Rajasthan were affected by floods during 2017-18, while Kerala was affected by cyclone ..
CS row: Bureaucrats skip meeting called by AAP minister
Many senior officers of the city administration today abstained from a meeting chaired by Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot. The minister had called a meeting of State Road Safety Council for a discussion on proposed road safety policy at the Delhi Secretariat today, but most of bureaucrats, including Transport Commissioner Varsha Joshi and PWD Principal Secretary Renu Sharma, who are members of the Council, skipped it. IAS and DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) have been boycotting meetings with AAP ministers including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal since the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by ruling AAP MLA at the CM's residence last week. The officers are only maintaining written communication and even not attending calls made by any of the Delhi ministers in solidarity with the chief secretary. "In view of the decision of joint forum of Delhi government employees, I did not attend the meeting of Delhi Road Safety Council today. Other ...
Shallow 6.1-magnitude quake hits off eastern Indonesia: USGS
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Indonesia late today, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said, but no tsunami warning was issued. The quake had a depth of 11.9 kilometres and its epicentre was in the Seram Sea around 194 kilometres northwest of Ambon, capital of Maluku province, according to USGS. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Eight dead in collision between jeep and truck in Gujarat
Eight people were killed and over a score injured today after their jeep was hit by a speeding truck near Kundla village in Vijaynagar taluka in Sabarkantha district, police said. An official from Vijaynagar police station said that the jeep, carrying 31 farm labourers on their way to work at a potato farm, was going from Khedbrahma to Idar. A speeding truck, coming from the opposite direction, rammed into the jeep killing three people instantly, the official said. Five others died while undergoing treatment at hospitals in Khedbrahma and Himmatnagar, he informed. All the eight who died are from Navabhaga village, the official said. He added that the truck driver had fled the scene and a search was on for him.
Here's how to manage in-flight medical emergencies
Physicians have developed recommendations for managing in-flight medical emergencies.In an answer to the call "Is there a doctor on board?", the researchers have formed a guide for managing such medical emergencies while onboard an airplane.Physicians at St. Michael's Hospital have developed practical recommendations for in-flight medical emergencies for healthcare professionals.More and more people are travelling by plane each year, with approximately 2.75 billion passengers flying on commercial airlines annually, according to the authors.In Canada, there were 133.4 million airline passengers in 2015, a 27 percent increase from 2009, they said.This increase in patient traffic, along with longer flights that increase the stress of flying on the body and a greater proportion of older passengers and those with pre-existing medical conditions, have led to an increase in in-flight medical emergencies in recent years, according to the authors."Every health-care professional is likely to ...
Alonso crashes McLaren 45 minutes into F1 winter testing
Spanish Formula One driver Fernando Alonso of team McLaren got off to an unlucky start to the pre-season on Monday, skidding into the gravel after his right rear wheel came off just 45 minutes into the first day of winter testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
Swedish PM unhurt in snowstorm smash-up
A car transporting Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven careened off the E4 autoroute north of Stockholm today during a blizzard, smashing into a guardrail though Lofven was unhurt, officials said. "There was some damage to the body of the car but nobody was injured," said Karl Melin, a spokesman for Sweden's security and intelligence service (Sapo), which is responsible for Lofven's security detail. Lofven was on his way to Uppsala, 70 kilometres north of the capital, where he was to hold a speech at the Akademiska Hospital when the accident happened. Sapo called a second car to the scene to replace the damaged one and the prime minister was able to continue on his way. Road conditions were poor in the area amid heavy snowfall. Earlier Monday, more than 20 cars were involved in a pile-up on the same autoroute, causing several light injuries.
Bees kill man in UP
A 60-year-old man died and his wife was critically injured when a swarm of honey bees attacked them in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday, police said.
Bird flu outbreak at Dutch farm
More than 36,000 animals have been slaughtered after an outbreak of highly contagious bird flu was detected at a Dutch poultry farm, the agriculture ministry said today. "An outbreak of a variant of H5 bird flu has been detected in a poultry farm in Oldekerk, Groningen province," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it is "likely a highly pathogenic variant". To prevent the virus spreading, the ministry ordered an immediate ban on the transportation of poultry, eggs, meat and manure within a ten-kilometre zone around the farm in the north of the country. The government has ordered poultry farmers to keep their livestock indoors since December, when a bird flu outbreak at another farm led to the slaughter of 16,000 birds. Dutch poultry farmers, already reeling from a contaminated egg scandal, were also hit by another outbreak in December which saw thousands of hens destroyed.
Power plants face coal shortage, may affect energy supply
Power sector seems to be facing coal shortage again as 46 coal-fired power plants reported stocks of less than a week, according to official data. According to the daily coal stock report of 113 power plants monitored by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), six plants have coal stocks for zero day and eight plants have stocks of just one day to generate electricity as on February 22, 2018. Industry sources said coal supplies have not improved since the monsoon season last year when some of the coal-fired power plants had faced acute shortage. Power, coal and railway ministries had taken a series of measures to improve coal supplies to power plants after power prices crossed Rs 11 per unit at energy exchanges in September last. The CEA report stated that there are 12 non-pithead power plants which are facing super critical coal stock situation or in other words these have coal stocks for less than four days. Besides there are six such plants that have coal stock of less than seven ...
UP assembly pays tributes to MLA killed in accident, adjourned till Mar 5
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly was today adjourned till March 5 after paying tributes to BJP MLA from Noorpur Lokdendra Singh, who died in a road accident last week. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath informed the House about Singh's death in a road accident in Sitpaur on February 21. Condoling his death, the chief minister termed it a loss not only for the government and the party but also of the people. Leader of Opposition Ram Govind Chowdhury, BSP and Congress legislative party leaders Lalji Verma and Ajay Kumar Lallu respectively, and others also condoled the untimely death of the legislator. Later, Speaker Hriday Narain Dixit adjourned the House till March 5. Singh and four others were killed in an accident in Sitapur when he was coming to Lucknow to attend a summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had condoled Singh's death by tweeting, "Anguished by the demise of BJP MLA from Noorpur, Shri Lokendra Singh Ji due to an accident. His service towards society and role in building the BJP in ..
Four of family killed in car mishap in Tirupur district
Four members of a family were killed when their car turned turtle near Kangeyam in neighbouring Tirupur district today. The family from Thittuparai in Tirupur was returning home after visiting Palani temple this afternoon, police said. When the vehicle approached Thittuparai, the driver lost control of the vehicle and it overturned. All four occupants died on the spot, they said. Further investigation is on, they added.
Fire breaks out in chawl in Thane
A fire broke out in 10 hutments at a chawl at Thane's Sainath Nagar on Monday.The incident happened at around 11:00 a.m. at Sainath Nagar.Four fire tenders, a rescue vehicle and a water tanker were dispatched to douse the flames.No casualties have been reported so far. However, some buildings are said to have been gutted in the fire.According to the preliminary information, the fire was caused due to a blast in an LPG cylinder which spread after the flames came in contact with three other cylinders which are suspected to be leaking.
Four killed as car rams into truck
Four people were killed and two injured when a car rammed into a trailer truck in Rajasthan's Sriganganagar district,police said today. The accident occurred on the national highway under Lalgarh Jatan police station area, they said. A speeding car going to Suratgarh town from Sriganganagar rammed into a trailer truck late yesterday night, investigating officer in the case Dharmendra Singh said. In the severe collision, car passengers Rakesh Bishnoi (22), Devraj Saharan (23), Amit Tarad (27) died on the spot whereas Praveen Bishnoi (22) died on way to a hospital, he added. Two injured were undergoing treatment, the officer added. Bodies were handed over to family members after post-mortem and a case was registered,he said.
Famine again a threat in South Sudan, new report says
One year after South Sudan briefly declared a famine, more than half of the people in the world's youngest nation face extreme hunger amid civil war and famine could return, a new report says. More than six million people, up about 40 per cent from a year ago, are at threat without aid, according to the report released today by the United Nations and South Sudan's government. It says 150,000 people in 11 counties in Jonglei, Upper Nile, Unity and Western Bahr el Ghazal states could slip into famine this year. "These are unprecedented levels of food insecurity," Ross Smith, senior program officer for the U.N's World Food Program, told The Associated Press. He said a political solution in South Sudan is needed so that its people can rebuild their lives. Five years of fighting have devastated the East African nation. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million have fled the country. A year ago South Sudan declared famine in two counties where 100,000 people ...
4 dead in Leicester explosion: Police
At least four people have died in a massive explosion at a shop in the central British city of Leicester, the police said on Monday.