Several passengers injured as plane skids off Indonesia runway

Several passengers injured as plane skids off Indonesia runway
A girl with umbrella takes selfies as a passenger plane of Garuda Indonesia airline takes off from the runway at the Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Blang Bintang, Aceh province on July 10, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 09 September 2024
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Several passengers injured as plane skids off Indonesia runway

Several passengers injured as plane skids off Indonesia runway

JAYAPURA: A plane with 48 people aboard skidded off the runway in Indonesia’s remote eastern region of Papua on Monday, police said, injuring several passengers.
The Southeast Asian archipelago has a poor aviation safety record, and Papua is covered in mountainous terrain where flying is hampered by frequent poor weather.
The ATR-42 aircraft belonging to Trigana Air was taking off from an airport in the remote Yapen Islands regency to Papuan capital Jayapura on Monday morning when it skidded off the runway.
The flight was carrying 42 passengers, including a baby, and six crew.
“Praise God everybody survived and has been taken to a hospital for a health checkup,” local police chief Ardyan Ukie Hercahyo said in a statement.
“We are investigating the incident and coordinating with related parties to ensure this will never happen again.”
The local search and rescue agency said in a statement that some passengers were injured and traumatized by the incident.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, but Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach.
In 2015, a Trigana Air plane crashed there, killing all 54 people on board.


Serbia mourns victims after roof collapse kills 14

Serbia mourns victims after roof collapse kills 14
Updated 26 sec ago
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Serbia mourns victims after roof collapse kills 14

Serbia mourns victims after roof collapse kills 14

NOVI SAD, Serbia: Serbia began a day of mourning on Saturday as authorities announced an investigation after 14 people were killed when a roof collapsed at a train station.
The incident happened early on Friday at the main train station in the northern city of Novi Sad.
Residents lit candles and laid flowers at a makeshift memorial for the victims near the railway station and in the city’s main square on Friday, as well as in other towns.
New gatherings were announced for Saturday.
Authorities have launched an investigation over the incident. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Saturday that “determining responsibility started today.”
Dadic told TV Prava that the prosecutor’s office would be questioning 20 people on Saturday “starting from the top, people from the ministries, the public company (Serbia) Railways.”
He said that police were seizing documents related to the railway station from the ministry of construction, transport and infrastructure.
The Higher Public Prosecutors’ Office in Novi Sad confirmed that an investigation was conducted at the railway station.
It said in a statement that it had ordered the “minister for construction, transport and infrastructure be questioned.”
According to the same statement, the process of identification of all victims was completed on Saturday.
The central railway station in Novi Sad underwent three years of renovation that was completed in July.
Serbia Railways said in a statement that the collapsed roof had not been part of the renovations.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic expressed his condolences and support for the victims’ relatives and vowed to take action.
“Those responsible, I assure you, will be punished,” the president said on Friday.
Three more people injured in the incident remain in a serious condition, the University Clinic Center of Vojvodina said.


Indian troops kill 2 suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir

Indian troops kill 2 suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir
Updated 18 min 16 sec ago
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Indian troops kill 2 suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir

Indian troops kill 2 suspected rebels in disputed Kashmir
  • Indian soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a gunbattle
  • India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety

SRINAGAR, India: Two suspected militants were killed in a gunfight with government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Saturday, while troops also exchanged fire in the disputed region’s main city.
India’s military in a statement said soldiers intercepted a group of militants in a forested area in southern Anantnag district on Saturday, leading to a gunbattle that killed two rebels.
In a separate incident in the region’s main city of Srinagar, police and paramilitary soldiers exchanged fire with at least one militant after troops cordoned off a neighborhood on a tip that he was hiding in a house.
Residents said the troops torched the home where the rebel was trapped, a common tactic employed by Indian troops in the Himalayan region. There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.


Spain braces for more flood deaths, steps up aid

Spain braces for more flood deaths, steps up aid
Updated 27 min 57 sec ago
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Spain braces for more flood deaths, steps up aid

Spain braces for more flood deaths, steps up aid
  • Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of mud-filled water submerged towns and were slim
  • Officials have said that dozens of people remain unaccounted for, but establishing a precise figure is difficult

VALENCIA: Rescuers resumed a grim search for bodies on Saturday as Spain scrambled to organize aid to stricken citizens following devastating floods that have killed more than 200 people.
Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of mud-filled water submerged towns and wrecked infrastructure were slim in the European country’s deadliest such disaster in decades.
Almost all deaths have been recorded in the eastern Valencia region where thousands of soldiers, police officers and civil guards were frantically clearing debris and mud in the search for bodies.
Officials have said that dozens of people remain unaccounted for, but establishing a precise figure is difficult with telephone and transport networks severely damaged.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Friday told Cadena Ser radio station that 207 people had died and that it was “reasonable” to believe more fatalities would emerge.
It is also hoped that the estimated number of missing people will fall once telephone and Internet services are running again.
Restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages — some of which have been cut off from food, water and power for days — is a priority.
Authorities have come under fire over the adequacy of warning systems before the floods, and some residents have also complained that the response to the disaster is too slow.
Susana Camarero, deputy head of the Valencia region, told journalists on Saturday that essential supplies had been delivered “from day one” to all accessible settlements.
But it was “logical” that affected residents were asking for more, she added.
Authorities in Valencia have restricted access to roads for two days to allow emergency services to carry out search, rescue and logistics operations more effectively.
Thousands of ordinary citizens pushing shopping trolleys and carrying cleaning equipment took to the streets on Friday to help with the effort to clean up.
Camarero said some municipalities were “overwhelmed by the amount of solidarity and food” they had received.
The surge of solidarity continued on Saturday as around 1,000 people set off from the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia toward nearby towns laid waste by the floods, an AFP journalist saw.
Authorities have urged them to stay at home to avoid congestion on the roads that would hamper the work of emergency services.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez chaired a meeting of a crisis committee made up of top cabinet members on Saturday and is due to address the country later.
The storm that sparked the floods on Tuesday formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for this time of year.
But scientists warn that climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.


Kyiv comes under heavy Russian drone attack

Kyiv comes under heavy Russian drone attack
Updated 42 min 10 sec ago
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Kyiv comes under heavy Russian drone attack

Kyiv comes under heavy Russian drone attack
  • Ukraine said on Saturday Kyiv had come under heavy drone attack overnight, as fresh explosions were heard in the capital and other regions were struck

Kyiv: Ukraine said on Saturday Kyiv had come under heavy drone attack overnight, as fresh explosions were heard in the capital and other regions were struck.
“Unfortunately, the attack by Russian drones caused damage and casualties in various districts of Kyiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
He said that the “constant terrorist attacks on Ukrainian cities prove that the pressure on Russia and its accomplices is not enough.”
AFP reporters heard new explosions in Kyiv on Saturday afternoon amid an air raid alert.
In the morning Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 39 out of 71 drones launched from Russia overnight.
The drones targeted the Kyiv region surrounding the capital, the Sumy border region as well as the central Kirovograd and Poltava regions.
Twenty-one drones were lost and five returned to Russia, the air force said, adding that the drone attack was continuing.
The air force said debris from downed drones had damaged houses and blocks of flats in four regions including Kyiv, Sumy and the Black Sea Odesa region.
Kyiv’s military administration said that debris from air defenses shooting down drones fell in six districts of the capital, damaging blocks of flats and cars and sparking several fires in buildings that were extinguished.
A policeman was injured, the administration said.
In the Kyiv region outside the capital, an 82-year-old woman suffered head wounds from shrapnel, officials said.
In a village near the southern city of Kherson, a 40-year-old woman was pulled dead from rubble after Russian troops fired artillery and four were injured including three children, the governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
The health ministry said that a hospital in Kherson was struck, damaging two wards and a laboratory.
The medics and patients were uninjured as they had taken shelter.
Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky warned on Saturday that his troops on the ground were “holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.”


Greek police arrest man over Athens apartment blast

Greek police arrest man over Athens apartment blast
Updated 02 November 2024
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Greek police arrest man over Athens apartment blast

Greek police arrest man over Athens apartment blast
  • Man shared the keys of the flat with the couple involved in the blast but denied any involvement in the explosion

ATHENS: Greek police have arrested a 31-year old man for his role in an strong home-made bomb explosion which killed one man and seriously injured a woman in an apartment in Athens this week, police said on Saturday. The case, according to police officials, is linked to anti-establishment guerrilla groups. Anti-terrorism police suspect the blast occurred while the bomb was being made.
The Greek man arrested had testified regarding the case on Friday night. According to police sources, he said he shared the keys of the flat with the couple involved in the blast but denied any involvement in the explosion.
He is expected to appear before a prosecutor later on Saturday.
Several left-wing and anarchist guerrilla groups, declaring war on all forms of governments, have emerged in Greece over the past two decades after the dismantling of its most lethal group, “November 17.”
Small bomb and arson attacks against politicians, police, judges and businesses were frequent during the country’s 2009-18 debt crisis. They have abated in recent years but still occur.