Shocking News
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Rain toll rises to 131, over 73,000 stranded in north
Casualties In Thousands,
Dehradun/Shimla: Torrential rains continued to pour in bad news from
north India on Tuesday, with flash floods, cloudbursts and landslips
claiming 69 more lives and taking the official death toll to 131,
making for the most tragic tidings of monsoon in recent years. More
than 73,000 pilgrims bound for the Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath,
Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri remained stranded in Uttarakhand and
about 1,700 tourists were stuck in Himachal Pradesh.
Excessive rains left 102 people dead in Uttarakhand, almost as many
injured, and smashed hundreds of houses. The remaining deaths were
reported from Himachal Pradesh.
Based on reports from volunteers on the pilgrim route, VHP said the
toll could be in thousands. Its statement said bodies were strewn
around the Kedarnath temple and Gauri Kund, from where the trek to
Kedarnath commences, had been washed away.
69 lives lost on Tuesday due to flash floods, cloudbursts, landslips
Over 27,000 stuck in Chamoli, 25,000 in Rudraprayag, about 10,000 in
Uttarkashi 102 killed so far in Uttarakhand, hundreds of houses
reported smashed Over 500 people reported missing in Kedarnath alone
Over 60,000 stranded across Uttarakhand
Hundreds Missing, Toll Expected To Go Up
Dehradun/Shimla: The official toll of casualties caused by rains so
far is based on the body count. However, unconfirmed reports placed
the toll at an alarmingly higher figure since hundreds of people were
still missing and there were no records of how many could have been
inside buildings and hotels washed away by the angry waters. In
Kedarnath alone, more than 500 people were missing, officials said.
The worst-hit was Rudraprayag, the confluence of Alaknanda and
Mandakini, where 20 people drowned and 73 buildings, including 40
hotels along the banks of Alaknanda, were swept away by the swirling
waters of the icycold river. Police said seven members of a family,
including two minors, died after the hotel they were staying was
consumed by the furious river.
Char Dham pilgrims, many thousands of them from Delhi and surrounding
areas, are still stranded due to extensive damage to roads in
Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi. Disaster management authorities
said more than 27,000 devotees are stuck in Chamoli; 25,000-odd in
Rudraprayag; and close to 10,000 in Uttarkashi. Around 10,000 people
stuck are travellers and other tourists.
While security forces were pressed in rescue operations, even some of
those have fallen victim to the flood’s ferocity. Bodies of three
Indo-Tibetan Border Police jawans and two police constables were
recovered from the debris at Kedarnath, official sources said.
=============================================================
A twenty-five year civil war in Sri Lanka came to a close in May 2009.
The war was an insurgency against the Sri Lankan government by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers), a separatist
militant organization.
Although the fighting has ceased, more than 70,000 people have died
and hundreds of thousands are left internally displaced. Thousands of
civilians have fled the country. The economy has suffered from the
dual impact of the civil war and the subsequent cut in aid from
foreign donors in their efforts to pressure the Sri Lankan government
to address the humanitarian crisis. The government and LTTE both have
been accused of human rights violations including abduction,
conscription and use of child soldiers, indiscriminate shelling of
civilian villages, the use of human shields, torture, and gender-based
violence.
Two decades of fighting left hundreds of thousands of Tamils to flee
to camps for the internally-displaced. There, Tamils faced inadequate
access to health care, education, and appropriate nutrition. The
Sinhalese government militarized these civilian camps, failed to allow
freedom of movement, limited the access of reporters and aid workers,
and expelled many humanitarian aid agencies. Gender-based violence
became epidemic, and a further danger exists in the continued threat
posed by land mines. In response to the Sinhalese government’s
failure to improve conditions for the Tamils, a number of countries
cut off or limited their aid funding.
============================================================
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake
that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, 26 December 2004, with an
epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself
is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra–Andaman
earthquake.[4][5] The resulting tsunami was given various names,
including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, South Asian tsunami,
Indonesian tsunami, and the Boxing Day tsunami.
The earthquake was caused when the Indian Plate was subducted by the
Burma Plate and triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the
coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing over
230,000 people in fourteen countries, and inundating coastal
communities with waves up to 30 meters (98 ft) high.[6] It was one of
the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was the
hardest-hit country, followed by Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.
Death toll and casualties
According to the U.S. Geological Survey a total of 227,898 people died
(see table below for details).[1] Measured in lives lost, this is one
of the ten worst earthquakes in recorded history, as well as the
single worst tsunami in history. Indonesia was the worst affected
area, with most death toll estimates at around 170,000.[51] However,
another report by Siti Fadilah Supari, the Indonesian Minister of
Health at the time, estimated the death total to be as high as 220,000
in Indonesia alone, giving a total of 280,000 casualties.[3]
The tsunami caused serious damage and deaths as far as the east coast
of Africa, with the farthest recorded death due to the tsunami
occurring at Rooi Els in South Africa, 8,000 km (5,000 mi) away from
the epicentre. In total, eight people in South Africa died due to
abnormally high sea levels and waves.
Relief agencies reported that one-third of the dead appeared to be
children. This was a result of the high proportion of children in the
populations of many of the affected regions and because children were
the least able to resist being overcome by the surging waters. Oxfam
went on to report that as many as four times more women than men were
killed in some regions because they were waiting on the beach for the
fishermen to return and looking after their children in the
houses.[52]
=============================================================
The 2001 Gujarat earthquake occurred on January 26, 2001, India's 51st
Republic Day, at 08:46 AM local time (3:16 UTC) and lasted for over
two minutes. The epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the
village of Chobari[3] in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District of Gujarat,
India.[4] The earthquake reached a magnitude of between 7.6 and 7.7 on
the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum felt intensity of X
(Intense) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The quake killed around
20,000 people (including 18 in South eastern Pakistan), injured
another 167,000 and destroyed nearly 400,000 homes
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Dear all,
One wonders after reading above all news of the recent days, what the
god of protector doing? Is he protector or destroyer all the times.
Best wishes
Suresh
--
Thanks and best regards
J.Suresh
New No.3, Old No.7,
Chamiers road - 1st Lane,
Alwarpet,
Chennai - 600018
Ph: 044 42030947
Mobile: 91 9884071738
------------------------------------
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