15 killed in road accident near Gulbarga

Fifteen persons including five women and three children were killed and 11 others injured in an accident involving a Mahindra Bolero Mini Truck and a NEKRTC bus on the Waghdhari-Ripponpalli inter state highway 6 km away from Aland town near Kodalhangarga village in Gulbarga district in the early hours of Monday.

All the victims hailed from Tadwal village, 25 km from Akkalkot, in Maharashtra and were travelling in the mini truck. The victims included the driver of the mini truck. While 13 persons were killed on the spot, one died on the way to the Government General Hospital in Gulbarga and another died in the government hospital.

The condition of one of the 11 injured was stated to be very serious. The injured included the driver and the conductor of the NEKRTC Bus.

Municipal Administration and Waqf Minister Qamar ul Islam who was in the town rushed to the spot and also visited the Government Hospital at Aland, where the bodies of the 13 of the victims were kept, and consoled the family members of the victims. Rs 1 lakh each to the family of the victims from the state was announced as compensation. Besides this the NEKRTC has released a sum of Rs 15,000 to family of each of the victims as funeral expenditure and another Rs 35,000 would also be paid to each of the victims family immediately by the NEKRTC.

Mr. Islam who spoke to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the accident. The Chief Minister while expressing his grief over the accident announced the compensation from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The Minister said that he would also speak to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and the Minority Affairs Minister in Maharashtra and would appeal to them to announce adequate compensation to the family of the victims.

According to the relatives who were brought by the police from the Tadwal village to identify the victims, the victims numbering more than 26 were on their way to perform “Haqeeqa”(Tonsoring ceremony) of a child at the famous Khaja Banda Nawaz Darga in Gulbarga City on Monday. They had left the village at 1.30 am and the accident took place around 4.35 am.

Sunday 02 June 2014

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/15-killed-in-road-accident-near-gulbarga/article6074783.ece

Death toll in Pyuthan bus accident rises to 16

At least 16 people were killed when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims, including Indians, fell into a river in western Nepal today.

Unconfirmed reports said that 11 Indians were among those killed when the bus rolled down a mountain road while returning from Pyuthan district, 250 kms from Kathmandu at about 5:30 pm (local time).

The bus was returning to Kapilavastu from the Swargadwari temple. Police said it was carrying around 60 passengers, the Himalayan Times reported.

Rescue teams recovered at least 10 unidentified bodies from the accident site. Seven of the deceased are women.

Around 20 persons were rescued alive from the accident site and were taken to different hospitals in the area.

Police say that the death toll may rise.

Presently, locals and police personnel are carrying out rescue operations.

Sunday 02 June 2014

http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/16-Killed-in-Nepal-Bus-Accident-Indians-Feared-Dead/842987

Officials say search for missing Mt. Rainier climbers too risky

Park officials say it's currently too risky to send people in search of six climbers who likely fell thousands of feet to their deaths while attempting to scale 14,410-foot Mount Rainier.

Under safer conditions, crews could go in after the bodies. "The families, I'm sure, would like that closure," park spokeswoman Patti Wold said Sunday. But continuous falling ice and rock make the avalanche-prone area too dangerous for rescuers.

"People are very understanding that we cannot risk another life at this point," she said.

Park officials say that as in the case of some others who have died on the mountain, there's a possibility the two guides and four climbers believed to have fallen 3,300 feet from their last known location may never be found.

The climbers were last heard from at 6 p.m. Wednesday when the guides checked in with their Seattle-based company, Alpine Ascents International, by satellite phone. The group failed to return Friday as planned.

They are presumed dead in one of the worst alpine accidents on Rainier since 1981, when 11 people were struck and killed by a massive ice fall on the Ingraham Glacier.

Family and friends of the dead climbers arrived at the mountain Sunday to meet with park officials, but declined to speak with media that had gathered at the park's headquarters.

"They're just devastated," Wold said.

It's unclear whether the climbers were moving or camping at the time of the accident, Wold said. Searchers located camping and climbing gear and detected signals from avalanche beacons buried in the snow at the top of the Carbon Glacier at 9,500 feet in elevation.

It's also not known what caused the climbers to fall from their last known whereabouts at 12,800 feet on Liberty Ridge, whether it was rock fall or an avalanche.

Glenn Kessler, the park's acting aviation manager, said "they are most likely buried," making recovery efforts even more challenging. They may be in an area too hazardous for rescuers to reach on the ground.

The area will be checked periodically by air in the coming weeks and months, Wold said. They will also evaluate the potential for a helicopter-based recovery as snow melts and conditions change.

Wold initially said that the park on Sunday would release the names of the six who died but later said the park cannot release the names for privacy reasons.

Rob Mahaney told The Associated Press that his 26-year-old nephew, Mark Mahaney, of St. Paul, Minnesota, was among those presumed dead. He said the climber's father and brother flew to Seattle on Saturday after learning what happened.

Mahaney said his nephew had climbed Rainier before.

"He just loved to climb, he loved the outdoors, he loved the exhilaration of being in the wide open," Rob Mahaney said. "Even as a toddler he was always climbing out of his crib. His parents couldn't keep him anywhere -- he'd always find a way to get out of anything."

Last year, about 10,800 people attempted to climb the 14,410-foot glaciated peak southeast of Seattle, but only 129 used the Liberty Ridge route, according to park statistics. The vast majority use two other popular routes.

Gordon Janow, director of programs for Alpine Ascents International, said the group was on a five-day climb of the Liberty Ridge route.

The climbers had to meet certain prerequisites, and their ice and technical climbing skills as well as their biography were evaluated by a three-person team, Janow said.

The company's brochure says, at a minimum, those interested in the guided climb were required to be able to physically carry a 50-pound backpack on steep snow and icy slopes, ranging from 30 to 50 degrees in slope.

The guiding service lost five Nepalese guides in a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest in April that killed 16 Sherpa guides.

Sunday 02 June 2014

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/02/officials-say-search-for-missing-mt-rainier-climbers-too-risky/

12 confirmed dead, 3 missing in Russian helicopter crash

Russian rescuers retrieved 12 bodies while three remained missing on Monday after a helicopter carrying senior regional officials crashed into a remote northern lake.

The Mi-8 helicopter carrying 17 passengers and crew including top regional officials and businessmen, crashed into the Munozero lake in the far northern Murmansk region on Saturday.

Two survived the crash.

"There were 17 people on board. The bodies of 12 dead have been raised to the surface, the fate of three people remains unknown," the head of the emergency ministry's national crisis management centre, Viktor Yatsutsenko, was quoted as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

The two survivors were in a "satisfactory condition" in hospital after being found floating in the lake still strapped to their chairs, Yatsutsenko said.

Ten out of the 12 dead have been identified, including the deputy governor of the Murmansk region, Sergei Skomorokhov, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a law enforcement source.



The search for the missing was hampered by poor weather conditions with high winds and waves, rescuers told RIA Novosti.

The number of people on board was initially reported as 18, but fell to 17 as it emerged that one crew member did not board the helicopter.

"According to updated data, one of the crew members, a technician... did not fly," a source from law enforcement told ITAR-TASS.

Investigators said that possible causes of the crash were aircraft malfunction and bad weather conditions.

"The pilot found himself in difficult meteorological conditions, lost his sense of direction and hit the surface of the water," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

PhosAgro, one of the world's top producers of phosphate fertilisers, said that the trip was organised by one of its subsidiaries to help regional authorities to develop the region's tourism potential and attract investors.

Ten victims of the crash of a helicopter Mil Mi-8 on Verkhneye Munozero Lake in northern Russia’s Murmansk Region have been identified, the Russian Investigative Committee (IC) told ITAR-TASS on Monday.

“Twelve bodies were recovered, and ten of them have been identified as of now,” the IC said.

Official identification procedure will be finalized when helicopter crash victims are brought to the city of Murmansk.

Sunday 02 June 2014

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1066280

http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/734285