Small plane crashes in Russia killing 10

A small propeller plane crashed in Russia's far east on Wednesday killing 10 of the 14 people on board, Russia's local emergency services said.

The Russian-design Antonov An-28 plane flown by two pilots was taking 12 passengers from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the provincial capital of Kamchatka, to the northern village of Palana when it crashed.

Heavy storm clouds and bad weather may have brought down the plane, a local air traffic control source told Interfax. The agency said one child was among the dead.

"Ten bodies were found at the scene of the crash and four injured passengers were being readied to be airlifted to the hospital," a spokeswoman for the local emergency services said.

Refuse from the plane crash was scattered across the wooded territory, Interfax reported.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/small-plane-crashes-in-russia-killing-10-507642

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Overcoming the aftermath of flash floods

PANO – Flash floods, landslide and torrential rains have claimed several lives and damaged local people’s properties and crops from Lao Cai, Yen Bai to the Central region in recent days.

Local troops and militia have been joining hands with locals to overcome the aftermath of the calamities, attempting to help locals return to normal life soon.

Bodies of victims being sanitized before a burial service

Searching for the missing after the landslide in Trong Pao Sang village, La Pan Tan commune (Yen Bai) PANO’s reporters and collaborators have taken some photos of this assistance as follows.

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Unrelenting rains kill up to 37 more in Sindh, eight in Punjab

DERA GHAZI KHAN / SUKKUR: As rains and floods continue to lash Sindh, at least 37 people lost their lives across the province on Tuesday while access to hundreds of coastal villages was cut off as several roads were washed away.

Over the past five days, Sindh has been hit by widespread rains with Jacobabad receiving 481mm, Larkana 215mm, Sukkur 206mm, Chhor 137mm, Badin108 mm and Hyderabad and Dadu recording 90mm of rainfall.

Like the past year, monsoon has left many low-lying areas in Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Thull, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Sukkur, Khairpur, and Larkana submerged.

In Kashmore, 17 people, including women and children, were killed as hundreds of katcha houses collapsed when the flash floods hit the area around midnight. According to the Met office, more rains are expected in parts of lower Sindh and southeast Balochistan over the next 24 hours.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has announced a grant of Rs5 million to each rain-affected district in the province.

Meanwhile, as floodwaters receded from the badly-hit Dera Ghazi Khan district on Tuesday, four bodies were recovered from Choti Zaireen over the last 48 hours. Small amounts of flooding continued to plague Rajanpur, Rojhan, Jampur and Dera Ghazi Khan.

In addition, another four people died in Rajanpur when a clash broke out between panicked residents trying to divert floodwater from a rural area, Sukhera. Police were unable to reach the spot and intervene in time because ground routes were blocked.

Although D G Khan’s urban area has been drained of water, inundated rural areas are still being cleared out by the district administration in coordination with the flood victims themselves. As many as 50,000 people have returned to the city in the last 24 hours after evacuating earlier. Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed that more troops had arrived to rescue people in the flooded regions.

Meanwhile, the D G link canal was in the process of being repaired. Three major breaches have been fixed while the other four are expected to be repaired by today at noon (Wednesday). Agricultural losses are estimated to have affected around 20,000 acres of rice, wheat, cotton, maize and other crops, according to the provincial agricultural minister. Makeshift medical camps have been set up on the National Highway since the major hospitals of the city, including the District Headquarters hospital, remain inundated.

According to district officials, as many as 2,000 houses have been affected in D G Khan, including those which have been completely destroyed – but losses are still building up. Heritage sites, including the mausoleums of Hazrat Bukhari and Jamalallah in Rajanpur, have also been badly damaged.

D G Khan’s tribal area has experienced the biggest devastation, where necessities are being provided via helicopters.

Infuriated residents, however, organised separate protests across the district to demonstrate over not being provided relief items. Demonstrators chanted against political leaders and complained that they needed aid, not statements and visits accompanied by a cohort of security vehicles.

In Balochistan, meanwhile, thousands remain stranded due to the disruption of electricity and communication lines, especially in Naseerabad and Jaffarabad. Blocked routes have led to a massive shortage of food and medicine while crops over thousands of acres have been destroyed and livestock lost. One man drowned in Bolan district’s Machh Nullah.

Moreover, cracks have appeared in the banks of the Pat Feeder canal at five different places which has exacerbated the flooding. The breaches have inundated dozens of low-lying villages, forcing hundreds of families to move to higher ground. The floodwater has also entered the Uch Power Plant due to which half of the plant has been closed, sources told The Express Tribune.

Railway tracks and highways in Jaffarabad and Naseerabad were inundated, cutting off rail links between the province and the rest of Pakistan for the third consecutive day.

While the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has already dispatched some trucks carrying tents and other food items to the affected areas, it is unable to match the needs of the affected people.

“We are stuck in Dera Murad Jamali and there’s water everywhere. We are sitting in the district commissioner’s office in stagnant water that’s two feet deep,” said a PDMA driver talking to The Express Tribune. He added said that some of the PDMA drivers were stranded in Jhal Magsi and contact couldn’t be established with them due to the disruption of phone networks.

According to Inter-Services Public Relation (ISPR) sources, the army has also kicked off relief efforts on a large scale following the orders of the Southern Command.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

http://tribune.com.pk/story/435267/unrelenting-rains-kill-up-to-37-more-in-sindh-eight-in-punjab/

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Floods in South Sudan suspected to have killed 15 people

Around twelve people in Western Equatoria State and three people from Awerial County in Lakes State are believed to have died due to floods and fast flowing rivers over the last two days, according to officials.

Western Equatoria State’s minister of information and communications, Charles Barnaba Kisanga, said in a statement on Tuesday that a whole vehicle - registration number CE515R - traveling from Yambio to Juba had been washed away at the at the Luri Bridge crossing of the Luri River at 8pm on Monday. All 12 passengers are believed to have died.

"We are deeply saddened by such event which shows the dangers of driving on our roads these days”, Kisanga said.

Heavy rains across South Sudan are making roads impassable and cutting off commercial activities and supplies from reaching towns and rural areas.

Minister Kisanga explained there was nothing much the state government could do to improve the situation since there was a lack of funds due to the austerity measures introduced after South Sudan stopped oil production in January as part of a transit fee dispute with Khartoum.

The cuts have crippled government plans to link the area to Juba and other towns and areas with well maintained roads.

“They have been cut and we can only advise drivers to take extra care. The Western Equatoria Government is currently mobilizing some resources for the part between Madebe and Ibba but it may not provide any immediate solution”, he said.

“We only advise drivers to exercise maximum care especially if deciding to use the Jambo-Juba Road. The advice is to use [the] Yei-Juba Road even though this is also in bad state and takes longer. Luri has become very hazardous”, he explained.

“The driver Joseph Peter survived the accident. We are still waiting on news update from Juba on the recovery of bodies. Our condolences to all relatives and friends of those who might have perished in the accident”, he said.

In Lakes State, the Awerial County commissioner David Mayom Riak, has reported that more than 2,000 people have been displaced and three people, including a nine-year-old child have died due to flooding.

Heavy rain caused the Gel River, which is located at the eastern part of the county, to overflow, Mayom said, adding that the floods had been a surprise.

Commissioner Mayom said that Dor, Bunagok, Alel and Magok payams [districts] were affected, asking humanitarian organizations, the state government as well national government in Juba to quickly intervene.

This is the first time serious floods have hit the county since South Sudan became independent last year.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article43864

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Pakistan factory fires kill 125

Factory fires have broken out in two major cities in Pakistan, killing 125 people and injuring dozens more, including some who had to break through barred windows and leap to the ground to escape the flames.

Workers recounted how their colleagues were trapped behind blocked exits, and firefighters said that one reason why the blazes were so deadly is that the buildings a shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore and a garment factory in the southern port of Karachi lacked clear escape routes.

Such safety issues are common throughout Pakistan, where buildings also lack emergency equipment like alarms and sprinklers and municipal rules are rarely enforced.

The most deadly blaze came in Karachi, the country's economic heart, killing at least 100 people.

Firefighters could be seen pounding on the metal grates covering some of the windows and pulling out smoke-covered bodies. Many of the workers were injured when they jumped from the burning building, said a doctor at the Civil Hospital in Karachi, Karar Abbasi.

An injured factory worker, Mohammad Ilyas, speaking from the hospital, said he was working along with roughly 50 other men and women on one of the floors when suddenly a fireball came from the staircase.

"I jumped from my seat as did others and rushed toward the windows, but iron bars on the windows barred us from escaping. Some of us quickly took tools and machines to break the iron bars," he said. "That was how we managed to jump out of the windows down to the ground floor."

Fire fighters were still trying to subdue the deadly blaze that broke out on Tuesday evening, and senior police official Amjad Farooqi.

"There were no safety measures taken in the building design. There was no emergency exit. All the people got trapped," Farooqi said.

In Lahore, the fire swept through a four-story shoe factory and killed 25 people, some from burns and some from suffocation, said senior police officer Multan Khan. The factory was illegally set up in a residential part of the city.

It broke out when people in the building were trying to start their generator after the electricity went out. Sparks from the generator made contact with chemicals used to make the shoes, igniting the blaze. Pakistan faces widespread blackouts, and many people use generators to provide electricity for their houses or to run businesses.

One of the workers, Muhammad Shabbir, said he had been working at the factory for six months along with his cousin. He said all the chemicals and the generator were located in the garage, which was also the only way out of the building. When the fire ignited, there was no way out. Shabbir said he had just gone outside the factory when the fire started, but his cousin was severely burned and died at the hospital.

A firefighter at the scene, Numan Noor, said the reason most of the victims died was because the main escape route was blocked.

"The people went to the back side of the building but there was no access, so we had to make forceful entries and ... rescue the people," said Noor.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a statement expressed his shock and grief over the deaths in both cities.

Woensdag 12 September 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/12/pakistan-factory-fires-karachi?newsfeed=true

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Rain, flash floods kill 78 in Pakistan

Heavy monsoon rains which began falling last week destroyed more than 1,600 houses while damaging a further 5,000, Irshad Bhatti, a spokesman for the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) told AFP.

“A total of 78 people have died and 68 injured in rains and flash floods in the country so far,” he said, adding that the casualties were caused mostly by houses collapsing and people being caught in floods.

The worst-hit region was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where 32 people have died and 26 were injured in several districts, he said, adding that 83 houses were totally destroyed and another 4,200 were partially damaged, he said.

In the northwestern district of Swabi eight Afghan refugees were killed when the roof of their mud house collapsed overnight, police official Mohammad Ali said.

The dead, who were members of the same family, included two women and six children aged between one and 12 years he said.

In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, flash flood killed at least 31 people, Bhatti said. Rains killed at least 26 people in that region last month.

Monday 10 September 2012

http://www.thefrontierpost.com/news/8012/

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29 killed in landslides and flooding in Vietnam

Landslides and flooding caused by heavy rains have killed 29 people and left four missing in northern and central Vietnam.

Disaster official Ngo Van Hung of northern Yen Bai province said that 16 villagers from the mostly poor Hmong ethnic minority group died in a landslide while they were illegally collecting tin ore from a mine operated by a private company.

Authorities are searching for two other people missing from the incident, he added.

The government disaster agency said flooding killed another 13 people and left two missing in central Vietnam over the past week.

The agency says on its website that flooding caused by heavy rains has caused an estimated 22 million US dollars in damage to rice crops and infrastructure.

Monday 10 September 2012

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/29-killed-in-landslides-and-flooding-in-vietnam-8120967.html

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Tractor full of workers hit by train. Eight people killed

Eight people were killed and one was severely injured on Saturday in an accident neat Chilieni, Covasna County. A tractor with trailer carrying 12 people was hit by a train. Upon impact, the people in the trailer were thrown 30 meters away. The vehicle was hit by a train going between Targu Mures and Brasov.

A spokesperson for the Covasna Police, Iulia Grigoras, told Mediafax Saturday afternoon that there were seven people killed in the accident. The injured woman who had goine into cardiac arrest could not be resuscitated, despite intervention teams’ efforts. Grigoras said the tractor driver, 78, failed to check for incoming trains, although the railway crossing was properly signaled.

Grigoras added that the driver was not injured in the accident. One of the injured people was taken by a SMURD helicopter to Targu Mures and another was to be taken to Sfantu Gheorghe Hospital by ambulance.

A total of eight people, six women and two men, were killed in the accident. Railway traffic was stopped in the area for several hours.

Saturday 9 September 2012

http://www.bucharestherald.ro/dailyevents/41-dailyevents/36733--terrible-accident-tractor-full-of-workers-hit-by-train-eight-people-killed

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Argentina torture victim identified as Chilean

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA -- Forensic scientists have finally identified a mutilated corpse that washed up on the shore in 1976 as that of a Chilean leftist who was among the first victims of the Argentine dictatorship.

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team used genetic evidence and fingerprints taken by Uruguay's military government at the time to identify the body as Luis Guillermo Vega Ceballos, an activist with Chile's Revolutionary Workers Party.

Vega Ceballos had been detained in Buenos Aires on April 9, 1976, along with his pregnant Argentine wife Laura Gladis Romero, whose body has never been found. The human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo believes she was among hundreds of dissidents killed after giving birth in captivity, and whose babies were raised by military or police families. The child would be turning 36 years old this month.

The discovery was announced Thursday night in Uruguay, where Peace Commission Secretary Graciela Jorge said "it closes a small chapter" in the history of the dirty wars that right-wing militaries fought against leftist revolutionaries in the 1970s.

Vega Ceballos' corpse showed clear signs of torture when it washed up on the coast of neighboring Uruguay, which also was ruled by a dictatorship, from 1973-1985. He had been mutilated and his hands were tied. Still, Uruguayan authorities followed their laws and took fingerprints that eventually enabled forensic scientists to identify the body.

In all, eight bodies that had washed up on the coast and been buried in a cemetery in Colonia, Uruguay were sent this year to the forensics team in Argentina. Of them, three others have been identified: Argentines Horacio Adolfo Abeledo and Roque Montenegro, and Uruguayan Alberto Mechoso Mendez, she said.

Abeledo was a 22-year-old salesman who was detained on July 21, 1976, according to Argentina's official registry of the disappeared. Montenegro disappeared along with his wife, Hilda Torres Montenegro, six weeks before Argentina's March 24 coup.

Their daughter, Victoria Montenegro, learned in May that her birth father had been identified. She recovered her true identity in 2000 with the help of the Grandmothers, and it was her blood that provided the match to her father's remains.

"No word exists to describe my feelings," she wrote in an open letter months ago. She described "the sadness of knowing my father's final destiny," along with "this feeling of peace that only comes with the truth."

She thanked the rights activists and forensics team for enabling her to recover her father's dignity, "so that he would no longer be an unknown body in a grave on the coast of Uruguay," and pleaded with other relatives of the disappeared to donate their blood to Argentina's genetic database.

"It makes us better, as Argentines, each time we can identify them and sing more strongly, 'we have not been beaten'," she wrote.

Rights activists suspect the victims were thrown from Argentine military planes into the wide Rio de la Plata that separates Uruguay and Argentina. Witnesses in Argentina have described torture victims being drugged and flown alive into the sea on the so-called "death flights."

Alberto Breccia, secretary to Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, said the identifications disprove critics who complain of misspent efforts to identify dirty war victims. He said Uruguay's program includes 35 people whose work includes unearthing cadavers, updating archives and adding to a database that now includes genetic information from 85 percent of the families of Uruguay's disappeared.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/07/3802021/argentina-torture-victim-identified.html#storylink=cpy

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10 miners die in latest China coal mine accident Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/08/3803259/10-miners-die-in-latest-china.html#storylink=cpy

BEIJING -- Ten miners have died after a platform overturned in a coal mine in northwest China.

China's official Xinhua News Agency says the accident happened Thursday night in Gansu province in a mine that was under construction.

Xinhua says the last body was pulled from the mine Saturday morning. It says the miners were plunged into water when the platform overturned. No other details were given.

China has the world's deadliest coal mine industry. Safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years, but safety rules are often ignored and accidents are still common.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/08/3803259/10-miners-die-in-latest-china.html#storylink=cpy

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China earthquake death toll rises in Yunnan and Guizhou

At least 80 people are now known to have died in a series of earthquakes in south-western China, as rescuers struggle to reach remote areas.

More than 730 people were injured after the quakes hit Yunnan and Guizhou provinces on Friday, state media say.

The tremors struck mostly mountainous areas, causing landslides that blocked some roads.

The US Geological Survey registered the two strongest of the quakes at 5.6 magnitude.

Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to arrive in the area shortly.

China's Xinhua news agency quoted officials in Yunnan as saying 6,650 houses had been destroyed in the province and 430,000 others damaged.

More than 100,000 people have already been evacuated, said Xinhua, and the Red Cross has sent 650 tents and 3,000 quilts to the region.

The authorities have deployed the army to assist rescue teams in the rough terrain.

"Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb the mountains to reach hard-hit villages," Li Fuchun, head of Yunnan's Luozehe town, was quoted as saying.

Mobile and regular phone service in the area was experiencing disruption, according to reports.

Most of the deaths were in Yunnan's Yiliang county, said officials.

Television footage from state-run broadcaster CCTV showed hundreds of local residents gathering on streets littered with bricks and rocks.

Users of the Twitter-like wesbite Weibo reported people rushing out of shaking office buildings, and photos posted online also showed streets strewn with rubble.

Aid agencies said they were concerned about the plight of children in the two provinces following the quakes.

"We are especially worried about those who may have been separated from their parents, as more aftershocks are expected to hit the area," Save the Children in China Country Director Pia MacRae said.

The largest of the quakes was also felt in the neighbouring province of Sichuan, where a 7.8 magnitude quake in 2008 left tens of thousands dead.

Saturday 8 September 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19527695

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Police use sketches to ID disaster bodies

Facial sketches have helped identify some of the people killed in the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, with 15 people identified since May from sketches drawn by police based on photos of the bodies.

According to the National Police Agency, 223 of the 15,802 bodies found in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures after the Great East Japan Earthquake remained unidentified as of Sept. 5.

The identities of 2,814 bodies--about 20 percent--were confirmed through DNA examination. Police are utilizing traditional techniques as well as modern scientific methods to identify the bodies about 1-1/2 years after the disaster.

The identities of 15,576 bodies, or 98.6 percent of those found in the three prefectures as of Aug. 8, have been confirmed. Soon after the disaster, bodies were identified mainly through their physical characteristics. About six months after the disaster, it became difficult to identify bodies through examination, so police have had to rely more on DNA tests.

However, it was difficult for the police to secure DNA samples of missing people for verification, such as hair or oil left on combs, as most of the missing people's houses were washed away. Samples from only 120 missing people have been obtained from items left in houses.

Since May 2011, the NPA has beefed up efforts to secure DNA samples through other channels, such as asking the Japanese Red Cross Society to provide blood samples of missing people who had donated blood. The NPA also asked medical institutions to provide cells from missing people collected during biopsies.

For those who left no DNA samples, the NPA has collected cheek swabs from relatives of missing people in hopes of a DNA match. Combining the results with other clues, such as teeth and other bodily characteristics, the agency has succeeded in identifying some of the unidentified bodies.

Since May, the prefectural police headquarters of Miyagi and Iwate have released 96 sketches of dead people, which were drawn from pictures of the dead bodies. Many of the bodies' eyes were closed and their faces were damaged, but police artists recreated the faces as if they were alive. The sketches were decisive in identifying the bodies of 15 people.

In June, a man from Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, was able to identify the body of his father-in-law, who was 79 years old when he was killed, from a facial sketch posted on a Miyagi prefectural police website.

"I visited the morgue where his body was many times, but I couldn't identify it and even seeing a picture didn't help. However, the facial sketch was identical to his face when he was alive," the man said.

A senior NPA official said: "People seem more comfortable looking at the sketches rather than shocking pictures of dead bodies. We can also alter the the sketches if we don't receive many tips."

About 1 million police officers--counting those who made multiple visits--from around the country have visited the three prefectures to search for those missing after the disaster. However, only 16 bodies were discovered in the six months up to Aug. 31. According to police, 2,925 people remain missing.

Friday 8 September 2012

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120907003565.htm

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Flash Flood In Pakistan-Administered Kashmir Kills 13

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN — Thirteen people were killed on Wednesday when a group of people was washed away by a flash flood in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, emergency officials said on Thursday, raising the death toll as a result of recent monsoon rains in northern Pakistan to 46.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said heavy monsoon rains triggered a flash flood in Machiara Nullah, around 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Muzaffarabad, in the Azad Kashmir region which is administered by Pakistan. The floods washed away at least eighteen people.

Five people were injured and taken to medical facilities while rescue teams had recovered four bodies by Thursday, with the remaining nine people still missing and presumed to have drowned. “Efforts (are) on to recover the remaining dead bodies,” an NDMA official said, identifying the nine missing as six men and three women.

In other rain-triggered incidents on Wednesday, sixteen people were injured when a road collapsed as a bus drove over it in the Kotli district of Azad Kashmir. Landslides also killed two people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, one in Abbottabad district and the other in Mansehra district.

Heavy monsoon rains in northern Pakistan have killed at least 51 people in recent weeks, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The worst-hit area is Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where emergency officials have reported that at least 31 people were killed and 32 others were injured.

Earlier this year, the Pakistani government warned that nearly 30 million people across the country could be affected by flooding this year, advising local government officials and local citizens for adequate preparedness. Millions of people were also affected by the monsoon season last year, killing more than 300 people. Some areas saw the worst rainfall since at least 1936.

In late July 2010, above-average heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions killed approximately 2,000 people and affected around 20 million others as floods covered about a fifth of the country. Torrential rains overflooded rivers, which went cascading across the country from the mountainous north, inundating successive regions until they reached the sea. It was the country’s worst flooding in modern history.

Friday 7 September 2012

http://earththreats.com/2012/09/flash-flood-in-pakistan-administered-kashmir-kills-13/

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Toll in bus tragedy rises to nine

The toll in the bus tragedy in West Bengal's Bankura district on Friday rose to nine with recovery of seven more bodies.

Police superintendent of Bankura Mukesh Kumar said five bodies, including that of a young housewife, were found in Bhairabbanki river at Raipur in the district.

Two other bodies were found at Lalagrah in neighbouring West Midnapore during searches this morning, he said.

Search was on for more bodies, especially in the downstream near Lalgrah though no complaints of missing persons had been filed with the police, he said.

The private bus, which had fallen into the swollen river and was washed away while navigating a small bridge at Phulkulsma on way to Durgapur from Jhargram yesterday, has been pulled out of the water and no body was found inside it.

Neither was any body found trapped under the bus, he said.

The body of the 25 year-old housewife from Jhargram in West Midnapore was found at Junbani ghat in Raipur, while those of two men were found at Ekpal Ghat.

Bodies of two other men were found at Ambari ghat, also in Raipur. All the bodies except one found at Ambari have been identified, Kumar said adding all the bodies were taken to Bankura Medical College for post mortem.

Friday 7 September 2012

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/WestBengal/Toll-in-bus-tragedy-rises-to-nine/Article1-926005.aspx

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Deadly bus crash in south Morocco

At least 42 people died when a bus plunged into a ravine in southern Morocco, officials say.

More than 20 others are reported to have been injured, some seriously.

The bus, travelling between the cities of Marrakesh and Zagora, left the road near the town of Zerkten in Haouz province and fell 150m (490ft), local officials said.

Most of the passengers are believed to be Moroccan. It is not clear if any foreigners are among the casualties.

"We are still in the process of identifying the bodies, as well as the injured," a local official told AFP news agency.

The accident happened in a mountainous area in the early hours of Tuesday, the official news agency Map reported. The cause is not yet known but an official in Haouz said an inquiry had been launched.

At least 24 people were said to be injured, 21 of whom were taken to a hospital in Marrakesh and the rest to a hospital in nearby Ouarzazate.

In a palace statement, King Mohammed VI offered his condolences to families of the victims and said he would pay for their transport, funeral and burial costs.

In July, two separate bus crashes in Morocco killed 26 people.

More than 4,000 people died in road accidents in Morocco last year, according to the transport ministry - an increase of 11.6% on the previous year.

4 September 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19475412

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Death toll in southwest China quake rises to 64

BEIJING - The death toll from two earthquakes that struck in southwestern China has risen to 64, the Xinhua state-run news agency said on Friday, citing provincial authorities.

Residents described people running out of buildings as the two quakes hit on the border of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces an hour apart around the middle of the day, followed by a string of aftershocks.

Television footage showed people running from damaged buildings and streets strewn with fallen bricks and rocks in Yunnan province's Yiliang district, which appeared to be worst hit.

The Xinhua news agency said 50 people had been killed and that rescuers have rushed to the quake zone. Authorities are also sending thousands of tents, quilts and coats to the area, it said.

The Yiliang county government said on its website that 556 people had been injured, while an online statement from the public affairs bureau in Zhaotong city, which overseas Yiliang, put the figure at 150.

The Zhaotong statement also said 100,000 people were made homeless by the disaster, and at least 20,000 houses collapsed or were damaged.

Altogether 700,000 people have been affected, it said.

The death toll could still rise as some villages remain blocked by landslides and the worst-hit areas may have lost power and communications, Xinhua said, citing local officials.

"The hardest part of the rescue now is traffic," Li Fuchun, the head Luozehe township, identified as the epicentre, was quoted as saying. "Roads are blocked and rescuers have to climb mountains to reach hard-hit villagers."

Rocks as tall as four meters (13 feet) crashed into mountain roads and landslides were also triggered, the report said.

The death toll may have been higher because of the area's denser population, with 205 people per square kilometer compared to 117 across the province, said Huang Pugang, head of the Yunnan seismological bureau, according to Xinhua.

In addition the epicentres of both major quakes were located just five to 15 kilometres from the county seat, he said, while the homes and buildings in the poor area might not have been built to withstand strong quakes.

Footage broadcast on state television network CCTV showed hundreds of people crowded into a sports field in Yiliang, a sprawling town surrounded by green mountains.

Many people took cover outside after the first quake and did not return indoors, said a man surnamed Xia reached by phone. "Lots of people are outside because they fear aftershocks," he said.

"I was walking on the street when I suddenly felt the ground shaking beneath me," posted one witness on Sina Weibo, a microblog similar to Twitter.

"People started rushing outside screaming, it still scares me to think of it now." So far, no casualties have been reported in Guizhou province, but the quake has damaged 1,540 homes there, Xinhua said, quoting the provincial civil affairs department.

The US Geological Survey said the first quake struck at 11.20 am (0320 GMT) at a depth of around 10 kilometres (six miles), with a second quake around an hour later, putting the magnitude of both at 5.6.

The China Earthquake Networks Centre put its magnitude at 5.7 and said it struck at a depth of 14 kilometres.

Southwest China is prone to earthquakes. In May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude quake rocked Sichuan and parts of neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, killing tens of thousands and flattening swathes of the province.

Yiliang county has a population of 550,900, according to the latest official figures, and is listed as a priority district for state aid due to its poor infrastructure and the low average income of residents.

Friday 7 September 2012

http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20120907-370253.html

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Fireworks factory blaze in India kills at least 40 people

A massive blaze raged for hours at a fireworks factory in southern India, killing at least 40 workers and injuring 60 others on Wednesday, police said. Some reports put the death toll at more than 50. Flames billowing out of the factory could be seen one mile away before firefighters extinguished the fire more than five hours after it began. Photographs taken afterwards showed the factory had burned to rubble, with fireworks littering the ground. The fire spread to 40 of the 60 rooms at the Om Siva Shakti fireworks factory, one of the biggest in Sivakasi, in Tamil Nadu state, a police officer said. The Press Trust of India news agency said about 300 people were working in the factory and 52 died. The CNN-IBN television news channel said rescue workers had completed a search of the devastated building for trapped workers. Large amounts of firecrackers and raw materials were stored in the factory with major Hindu festivals weeks away. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, the officer said. Sivakasi is about 310 miles south-west of Chennai, the state capital. The region has many factories making fireworks, which are used in religious festivals and weddings across India. They also are exported to other Asian countries. Thursday 6 September 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/06/india-fireworks-factory-fire

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At least 61 die in Turkey boat sinking

At least 61 migrants including Palestinians and Syrians have drowned after their overcrowded boat sank just tens of metres off Turkey’s western Aegean coast. More than half of them are children.

The governor of the coastal district in Turkey’s Izmir province, said an initial investigation showed overcrowding caused the accident. The total death toll stands at 61, including 28 children and three babies.

The governor said 46 people had been rescued alive, including the ship’s Turkish captain and assistant, who had been placed under arrest. He added there were no bodies left on the boat, and he did not expect the death toll to rise any further.

Turkish media reported that the high death toll was because the women and children were in a locked compartment in the lower section of the small vessel. Although there have not been any official confirmation of this.

Nine children were among the dead, according to Turkey's Dogan News Agency. Several dozen survivors, mostly from Iraq and Syria, were able to swim through the Aegean waters to shore, only 50 metres away. Survivors had told authorities that some people were trapped below the deck of the submerged vessel, and divers launched an operation to try to find them.

Television footage showed several rescue vessels near the dim outline of the submerged boat, which lay just below the surface of the water. Ambulances waited at the top of a cliff, but there were no indications that anyone else had survived.

The group of migrants had previously made their way to hotels in the city of Izmir, where smugglers agreed to take them to Britain. Authorities arrested two Turkish suspects in the smuggling operation, Turkey's TRT television reported.

TRT earlier quoted Tahsin Kurtbeyoglu, a local administrator, as saying 20 bodies were recovered, but the toll rose through Thursday as more bodies were pulled from within the boat's confines. Those who survived were on the deck, rather than below with other members of their group.

It was not immediately clear when the boat sank, but many such vessels carrying migrants make the journey at night to avoid detection by authorities.

Migrants from Asia and Africa have long sought to reach Europe by passing through Turkey, and their desperate efforts have occasionally ended in disaster. Each year, thousands try to sail to Greek islands from Turkish soil in rickety boats.

Turkey is now hosting 80,000 Syrians who have fled the civil war in their country and are staying in camps just across the border, and some countries are concerned that larger numbers of Syrians could try to reach Europe illegally.

Greece said in July that it was quadrupling the number of guards at its border with Turkey and boosting other defences in part because of worries about a potential influx.

Some non-governmental groups believe migrants, deterred by tighter enforcement on the land border, are now turning back to more dangerous sea routes in their effort to start a life elsewhere.

Friday 7 September 2012

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-09/07/c_131833838.htm
http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=792335

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29 dead, 16 injured in Yobe auto crash

Twenty-nine people were killed and 16 injured in an auto crash that occurred on Friday on the Potiskum-Kano Road, at Daniski Village, Nengere Local Government Area of Yobe State.

Eleven of the victims were burnt beyond recognition, according to a statement by the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, a chief superintendent of police.

Mba said the accident happened when two Toyota Hiace buses travelling in opposite directions had a head-on collision, which resulted in instant fire.

Policemen from Nengere Division, Yobe State Command, assisted by members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, responded to the incident.

The injured persons were rushed to the General Hospital, Potiskum, while the dead bodies were deposited at the hospital’s mortuary.

Expressing his concern over the incessant accidents on the highways, Mba said the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, advised Nigerians to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy at all times.

He warned against reckless driving, over speeding, over loading and flagrant disobedience of road traffic laws and regulations.

The police boss directed officers and men of the force attached to the newly rejuvenated Police Highway Patrol to take proactive measures at all times.

He ordered his men to work with other security agencies to assist road users in preventing accidents and rendering prompt assistance to victims of road crashes.

Saturday 1 September 2012

http://www.punchng.com/news/29-dead-16-injured-in-yobe-auto-crash/

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Scores dead in Arepo oil pipeline vandalisation fire

Scores of pipeline vandals and others scooping petroleum products from the vandalised pipeline were burnt to death in Arepo, a village off the Lagos Ibadan expressway, when the highly inflamable product caught fire.

An eyewitness said Officials of the Fire Service and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Thursday evening, battled to put out the fire from the vandalized pipeline.

Meanwhile, some armed oil pipeline vandals believed to be part of the gangs that have been attacking oil pipeline in the area are hampering recure work at the scene of the fire as they chased emergency workers and security officials away on Friday.

Men of the National Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Fire Service and National Security and Civil Defence Corps had to scamper to safety when they encounter the hoodlums.

The armed men were believed to have vandalized the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s pipeline that ignited the inferno at Arepo.

The security men and rescue workers were at the scene to remove the corpses of the suspected vandals, who had been killed in the inferno earlier on Thursday.

NEMA officials and civil defence personnel, who had gone to the village to monitor the rescue operations, as well as journalists trying to access the village in canoes, were waylaid by hoodlums, who hid themselves in the bush.

NEMA Information Officer, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, told journalists that the agency and others were at the scene to recover dead bodies littering scene of the fire incident.

He said, “Our intention was to evacuate bodies and to help the fire fighters to extinguish the fire that has been burning since yesterday (Thursday).

“But as you can see, the vandals have refused to allow us to perform our work. We are even lucky to still be alive but we have contacted the military and they are on their way.

“We don’t want the bodies to decompose and begin to pollute the environment. The remains will spill into the surrounding stream and people drinking the water or using it for domestic purposes will definitely be at risk.”

Farinloye, however, gave the assurance that the rescue work would soon commence as the Director General of NEMA, Alhaji Muhammad Sidi, had requested the deployment of military personnel to flush out the hoodlums.

Saturday 1 September 2012

http://oguntoday.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/scores-dead-in-arepo-in-oil-pipeline.html

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