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Karnataka: 2 killed, 8 injured in train derailment

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Train Accident Kalburgi

Kalburgi: At least two persons were killed and eight others injured when nine coaches of a Mumbai-bound train derailed near Kalburgi in Karnataka early Saturday.

The incident took place at Martur village station, about 20 kilometres from Kalburgi. Two persons were killed and eight injured in the mishap, Amit Singh, Kalburgi Superintendent of Police, said.

“Two people died and eight others are injured after Mumbai-bound Lokmanya Tilak Express from Secunderabad derailed at Martur station,” he said.
Singh said nine coaches of the train derailed between 2.15 AM to 2.20 AM.

The rescue operations are on and the injured people have been rushed to Solapur Government Hospital in Maharashtra, Singh added.

(Agencies)

Two Indians among 107 killed in crane collapse at Mecca Grand Mosque

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collapse Mecca Grand Mosque

Riyadh: At least 107 people died when a massive construction crane crashed into Mecca’s Grand Mosque, with scores more injured, Saudi authorities said, days before the annual hajj pilgrimage.

The civil defence agency said on Twitter that emergency teams were sent to the scene after a “crane fell at the Grand Mosque,” one of Islam’s most revered sites.

That came about an hour after it tweeted that Mecca was “witnessing medium to heavy rains,” and pictures on social media showed lightning.

Ahmed bin Mohammad al-Mansoori, spokesman for the two holy mosques, was quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency as saying part of a crane collapsed at 5:10 pm (1410 GMT) “as a result of strong winds and heavy rains.”

Abdel Aziz Naqoor, who said he works at the mosque, told AFP he saw the crane fall after being hit by the storm.

“If it weren’t for Al-Tawaf bridge the injuries and deaths would have been worse,” he said, referring to a covered walkway that surrounds the holy Kaaba, which broke the crane’s fall.

The Kaaba is a massive cube-shaped structure at the centre of the mosque towards which Muslims worldwide pray and which has a major role in the hajj.

Pictures of the incident on Twitter showed bloodied bodies strewn across a courtyard where the top part of the crane, which appeared to have bent or snapped, had crashed into the building.

A video on YouTube showed people screaming and rushing around right after a massive crash was heard and as fog engulfed the city.

The incident occurred as hundreds of thousands of Muslims from all over the world gather for the annual hajj pilgrimage expected to begin on September 21.

The Grand Mosque is usually at its most crowded on Fridays, the Muslim weekly day of prayer.

Many faithful would have been gathered there ahead of evening maghrib prayers, which occurred about an hour after the tragedy.

Two Indians killed

The Ministry of External Affairs said that there were two Indians among the 107 people killed in the collapse. Around 15 Indian nationals were injured and were being treated in hospitals, said the statement posted on Twitter.

Pleas to donate blood

The governor of Mecca region, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, has ordered an investigation into the incident and was heading to the mosque, the official @makkahregion account on Twitter said.

Irfan al-Alawi, co-founder of the Mecca-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, compared the carnage to that caused by a bomb.

He suggested authorities were negligent by having a series of cranes overlooking the mosque.

“They do not care about the heritage, and they do not care about health and safety,” he told AFP.

Alawi is an outspoken critic of redevelopment at the holy sites, which he says is wiping away tangible links to the Prophet Mohammed.

Online activists created a hashtag on Twitter urging Mecca residents to donate blood at hospitals in the area.

No details were immediately available on the nationalities of the victims.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency, quoting the head of the Hajj Organisation, said 15 Iranian pilgrims were among those injured.

Most of them were treated as outpatients, Saeid Ohadi said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country is home to tens of millions of Muslims, took to Twitter to express his sorrow over the incident.

“My thoughts & prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives in the crane crash in Mecca. I wish the injured a quick recovery” he said on his @narendramodi account.

Britain’s David Cameron also used the micro-blogging site to say: “My thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost loved ones at #mecca today”.

A massive project is under way to expand the area of the mosque by 400,000 square metres (4.3 million square feet), allowing it to accommodate up to 2.2 million people at once.

Though marred in the past by deadly incidents including floods, stampedes and fires, the hajj has become nearly incident-free in recent years because of multi-billion dollar investments.

These have included transport networks and other infrastructure to facilitate movement of the crowds.

SPA said that almost 800,000 pilgrims had arrived by Friday for the hajj, which all able-bodied Muslims are expected to perform if they have the means to do so.

Last year, just over two million people took part.

(AFP)

Explosion kills 82 at Petlwad town in Madhya Pradesh

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Blast took place around 8.30 a.m. at a store where huge piles of explosive material used for mines were kept.

The blast site at Petlwad town in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday

The blast site at Petlwad town in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday

Jhabua: Eighty-two people were killed and many injured when explosives kept inside a building went off at Petlwad town in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.

Earlier, police said the explosion was caused by a cooking gas cylinder kept in the adjacent three-storeyed building housing a hotel.

Both the buildings were extensively damaged in the high-impact explosion compounding the tragedy.

According to Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP), Petlawad, A.R. Khan, the explosion took place around 8.30 a.m. at a store in the building where huge piles of explosive material used for mines were kept.

Also, 35 people have been pulled out of the debris and referred to a nearby hospital, Ms. Gupta said.

Many others are suspected to be trapped in the debris, she said, adding that the exact number of casualties will be known once the rescue operations are over.

Senior officials from Jhabua including Superintendent of Police G.G. Pandey besides State Tribal Welfare Minister Antar Singh Arya have rushed to the spot.

State Home Minister Babulal Gaur said a high-level inquiry has been ordered into the incident.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each to kin of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 for those injured.

Meanwhile, a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has been dispatched to Jhabua to help in the salvage operations of the collapsed building.

“A team equipped with gadgets to operate in collapsed structures has been sent to the accident site in Jhabua from Vadodara in Gujarat.The team will assist local administration in retrieval operations,” NDRF director-general O.P. Singh told PTI in Delhi.

(PTI)

Saudi crane collapse kills 107 in Mecca Grand Mosque

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Accident which also injured more than 230 people, just weeks before Hajj pilgrimage, blamed on violent thunderstorms.

Saudi crane collapse

by Al Jazeera

At least 107 people have been killed after a crane toppled over at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, less than two weeks before Islam’s annual Hajj pilgrimage.

In addition to the deaths, 238 people were wounded in Friday’s disaster, according to Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence Authority.

The Saudi Press Agency quoted a spokesperson for the two holy mosques as saying that the crane was brought down by strong wind and heavy rain.

Pictures circulating on social media showed pilgrims in bloodied robes and debris from a part of the crane that appeared to have crashed through a ceiling.

Other pictures showed queues of Saudi men volunteering to donate blood for the injured. “All those who were wounded and the dead have been taken to hospital. There are no casualties left at the location,” General Suleiman al-Amr, director-general of the Civil Defence Authority, told Al Ikhbariya television. He said strong wind and rains had uprooted trees and rocked cranes in the area. “The crane collapsed near Al-Salam gate on the upper side of Al-Masaa area, and that caused the collapse of a small part of Al-Masaa and another section of Al-Mataf, the bridge area around the holy Kaaba,” Amr told Saudi state TV.

Official statement

A statement by a spokesperson for the administration of the mosques in Mecca and Medina said the crane toppled in the part of the Grand Mosque where worshippers circle the Kaaba – the black-clad cube towards which the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims face to pray. Al Jazeera’s Hasan Patel, reporting from Mecca, said witnesses told him that the crane fell on the third floor of the Grand Mosque at around 5.30pm on Friday.

He said the mosque was packed even though the incident happened before the 6.30pm prayer.

“Dozens of ambulances headed to the site. The authorities closed off the area shortly afterwards,” he said. “This whole place is already a giant construction site. What made it worse is that around 5.30pm there was severe rain and it was just gushing down the road. “I am surrounded by people who are grieving. The mood here is of sadness.” Saudi authorities go to great lengths to prepare for the millions of Muslims who converge on Mecca to perform the sacred pilgrimage. Last year, they reduced the numbers permitted to make the Hajj pilgrimage on safety grounds because of construction work to enlarge the Grand Mosque.

Prone to disasters

The Hajj, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, has been prone to disasters in the past, mainly from stampedes as pilgrims rush to complete rituals and return home. Hundreds of pilgrims died in such a crush in 2006. Saudi authorities have since spent vast sums to expand the main Hajj sites and improve Mecca’s transport system, in an effort to prevent more disasters.

Security services often ring Islam’s sacred city with checkpoints and other measures to prevent people arriving for the pilgrimage without authorisation.

Those procedures, aimed at reducing crowd pressure which can lead to stampedes, fires and other hazards, have been intensified in recent years as security threats grow throughout the Middle East.

Richard Angwin, Al Jazeera’s senior weather presenter, said the autumn period is when half of Mecca’s thunderstorms occur, so “it was no great surprise that there were thunderstorms in the area”.

“The area of low pressure which brought sandstorms across the Levant region moved further south, allowing hot, moist air to develop into thunderstorms along the mountains bordering the Red Sea, and some of those drifted northwards across Mecca,” he said.

Alleged Indian woman ‘recruiter’ for ISIS extradited from Dubai

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Afshan Jabeen

Hyderabad: A Dubai-based Indian woman allegedly recruiting youth for terror outfit ISIS in Syria and Iraq has been extradited, police said.

Afshan Jabeen alias Nicky Joseph was brought to Hyderabad on Friday. There are allegations that the woman, a resident of this city, was recruiting youth online for Islamic State and propagating jihadi literature.

A police officer said she would be examined and arrested.
The woman was extradited as part of the investigations taken up by police following the arrest of a US-returned engineer in January this year at Hyderabad airport when he was allegedly leaving for Syria via Dubai to join ISIS.

Salman Moinuddin had told police that he was in touch with Joseph and they were planning to leave for Syria to join Islamic State.

The 32-year-old techie, who has a master’s degree in electronics from Houston, that he came in touch with her over social media when he was in the US.

Initially it was believed that Joseph is a British national who converted to Islam and known by her Islamic name Ayesha.

According to police, Moinuddin admitted that he was trying to attract youth across India with an intention to take them to Syria and Iraq.

Police claimed that he intended to undergo training in Syria, and after returning wanted to indulge in anti-national activities in the country.

(IANS)

Protest against KSAPS – Irregular funding for HIV prevention programmesa

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ksaps_protest

Bengaluru: Karnataka HIV Sonkithara Sanghatane, Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum, Karnataka Sex Workers Union along with many representatives of over 22 districts held a huge silent protest with Placards opposite the office of the Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) on Crescent Road here on Friday.

Over 200 members of sex workers and sexual minorities participated in the protest for over two hours. Project Director of KSAPS Raveendra assured them that action will be taken against erring Programme Officers who were harassing the HIV workers but gave copies of emails written to NACO requesting early release of funds.

“When approached to present a memorandum, Health Minister UT Khader has asked the leaders of the community members to have a meeting with him and has given an appointment,” said Mallappa Kumbar, State Coordinator, Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum.

“The protest marked the beginning of a statewide AIDS Campaign, to bring to the notice of the State Government and KSAPS, the grave concerns of our community-based organizations (CBOs) of sex workers, sexual minorities (including MSM, transgender and Hijras), People who inject drugs (IDUs), people living with HIV (PLHA) and civil society members about the dwindling funds and irregular release of money for HIV prevention programme in Karnataka,” said Parveen, State Coordinator, Karnataka HIV Sonkithara Sanghatane.

“Thousands of sex workers, MSMs, Transgenders, hijras who are working as peer educators and out reach workers (ORW) in the Targeted Interventions (TIs), the HIV prevention programme run by KSAPS in all the districts are suffering for irregular funding and lack of salaries. The cut in HIV funding and irregular release of funds has badly affected the HIV prevention programme jeopardising the lives of many people. HIV prevalence is increasing and the number of HIV deaths in Karnataka is increasing because of these problems,” she added.

Lack of drug stocks, closure of Care Centres, frequent change of ART combinations and vacancies of doctors and para medical staff in ART centres, including at the Centre of Excellence at Bowring hospital has been killing people living with HIV and affected the prevention programme. On the other had HIV workers including sex workers, transgender and MSMs who are working as peer educators and outreach workers (ORW) in the HIV prevention programme called Targetted Interventions are facing severe harassment and hardships from the Programme Officers.

“All the prevention work is done by communities themselves as the frontline prevention workers are sex workers, sexual minorities and drug users, but irregular release of funds is badly affecting the HIV programme. More than 80 per cent of the workers in a TI are community workers like sex workers and sexual minorities. These community members are harassed by programme officers of TSU (consultants who support KSAPS) and forced HIV testing to meet the targets are a common practice,” said Bharathi, Secretary of Karnataka Sex Workers Union.

“The Government has closed all the Community Care Centres and HIV positive patients are suffering because of lack of in-patient services. They are undergoing serious side effects due to frequent change of

combination of ART (HIV medicines) and have nowhere to go as CCCs are closed from 2012. The present Care and Support Centre’s are poor cousins of CCCs with absolutely no facilities for people living with HIV. They are an eye-wash,’’ said Parveen Ahmed, from Davangere, who is waging a relentless fight for the rights of PLHA in Karnataka from 2010. She is living with HIV for over a decade.

“Government’s decision to shrink organisational and budgetary support to the AIDS response and irregular flow of funds has badly affected the HIV programme in the State. This will lead to a reversal of the good work done in the last 10 years and will result in an upsurge of the epidemic among the most vulnerable groups,” said Mallappa, State Coordinator, Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum, which works with all identities of gender minorities in 28 districts of Karnataka.

As refugee aid falters, European leaders pursue military action at sea

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Led by Britain, European leaders ask United Nations Security Council to approve military targeting of ‘human smugglers’ along route from Libya

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

As their humanitarian response to the ongoing refugee crisis falters, European leaders are pressing the United Nations Security Council to authorized an escalated military force to pursue so-called “human smugglers” in the Mediterranean Sea’s international waters.

The effort to advance the draft resolution is, according to Foreign Policy, being led by Britain, whose government has come under fire for “turning its back” on people seeking refuge from war and poverty.

Specifically, the plan would approve military action in international waters along a route from the coast of Libya to Italy, according to reports from the New York Times on the proposal, which will soon be circulated within the UNSC.

The route is commonly used to transport people fleeing West Africa, Eritrea, and Afghanistan, while Syrians are increasingly using a pathway that passes through Turkey.According to an unnamed Security Council diplomat quoted by The New York Times, the proposal stipulates for seized boats to be taken to Italy, where the refugees aboard would then be considered for asylum.

The plan is less severe than a previous proposal, circulated by Britain last spring, that would have allowed European military forces to pursue “human smugglers” in Libyan waters and even on the country’s soil. Britain eventually abandoned the measure after failing to secure Libyan approval.

However, many have argued that military targeting of “smuggling” networks would neither deter nor help refugees, who undergo tremendous hardship and risk their lives in a bid to escape war and poverty. The UN refugee agency recently declared they do not expect the influx of refugees to Europe to slow.

Going further, many observers argue a military response is the polar opposite of the humanitarian response wealthy nations owe refugees. “A whole generation of people are putting themselves in debt to be smuggled into Europe, only to be thrown out,” UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants Francois Crepeau told Al Jazeera last month. “That is a really ridiculous transfer of wealth… We can help people by giving them better options.”

The Britain-led resolution is not the only effort underway to ramp up Europe’s military response to the humanitarian crisis. The European Council agreed in May to another plan to escalate military targeting of so-called smugglers, by giving a European maritime force the power to seize vessels. The Council is continuing to press Libya to approve pursuit on their soil.

The proposed military campaigns at sea have been accompanied by parallel efforts on land, with some EU leaders already tightening borders, and Hungary moving forward with a 110-mile razor wire fence to bar refugees from entry—while also bolstering its military at the border.

What’s more, elected leaders across Europe and the world are using the humanitarian crisis to justify military escalation towards Syria, despite warnings that there is no military solution to the hardships refugees endure.

UN approves resolution to fly Palestinian flag at headquarters

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The US dismissed the move by the UN, calling it "counterproductive". (AFP/File)

The US dismissed the move by the UN, calling it “counterproductive”. (AFP/File)

by Press TV

The United Nations has approved a resolution calling for the hoisting of the Palestinian flag at the world body’s headquarters in New York.

On Thursday, the UN General Assembly decided that the flags of the non-member observer states of Palestine and the Holy See “shall be raised at (UN) Headquarters and United Nations Offices following the flags of the member states.”

As many as 119 countries voted in favor of the resolution, eight voted against, and 45 abstained.

The draft resolution of the Palestinian proposal was submitted to the General Assembly on August 27.

The resolution requested UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to take “the measures necessary” for the implementation of the decision. The UN has 20 days to carry out the decision.

Based on the Thursday decision, delegations of the two nations can participate in the UN sessions.

Before the voting session, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour touched upon the significance of the resolution, saying although symbolic, the measure gives “our people some hope that the international community is still supporting the independence of the state of Palestine.”

The United States and Israel had expressed their opposition to the measure, with US State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner describing it as “counterproductive” and Israel’s envoy to the UN, Ron Prosor, dismissing it as “a blatant attempt to hijack the UN.”

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the besieged Gaza Strip, and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.

On November 29, 2012, the General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state” despite strong opposition from Israel and the US.

Macedonia mulls border fence to stop flow of refugees

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UNICEF says millions more in Syria could become refugees and head to Europe if there is no end to the war.

refugees

by Al Jazeera

Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki has said that his country might follow Hungary’s example and build a border fence to stem the influx of refugees trekking through the Balkans to reach Western Europe.

The news comes as foreign ministers from four Central European nations are meeting in Prague on Friday, amid a growing rift over the refugee crisis.

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia reject quotas proposed by the EU Commission, which proposed 120,000 additional asylum seekers per year to be shared out between 28 member states.

“We too will need some kind of physical defence to reduce illegal border crossing… Either soldiers or a fence or a combination of the two,” Poposki was quoted as saying in an interview with Hungarian business weekly Figyelo on Thursday.

He said his country was currently forced to let the 3,000 to 4,000 migrants who arrive in his country on a daily basis continue their journey to Serbia and Hungary unimpeded.

“There is no European consensus on how we can handle this question,” he said.

As of 0600 GMT on Friday, an estimated 7,600 refugees had already crossed into Macedonia from Greece in a 24-hour period, according to the UN refugee agency.

Peter Salama, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said millions of people in Syria could become refugees and head to Europe if there is no end to the war.

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from the border between Greece and Macedonia on Friday, said the situation has settled down after tensions on Thursday.

At the border crossing station, from where our correspondent was reporting, about 1,500 had crossed on Friday morning. They are reportedly being organised into groups of 50 people.

From there, public transportation will then take them to the border with Serbia, our correspondent said.

But overnight, the situation was tense, with “impatient” refugees facing off with the police.

“Macedonian border police had blocked their path and frustrations grew once more,” she said. “This is not the first time for the Macedonian border guards to use force.”

Syrian refugees Bassem, his wife Marwa, and their child Ali, were among those in the crowd. They left Syria 25 days ago, entering Greece through the island of Rhodes.

Bassem and Marwa told Al Jazeera that they feared Ali would not make the Mediterranean crossing.

“We know it’s going to be difficult here, we know some don’t want us, but it’s still much better than Syria,” Bassem said.

Major transit

Along with neighbouring Serbia, Macedonia has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of refugees who trudge up from Greece, after risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea crammed into makeshift boats.

The majority are heading for Germany, which has pledged to welcome hundreds of thousands more refugees having already taken in 450,000 to date since January.

So far, more than 160,000 have already crossed through Macedonia on their way to Serbia and Hungary this year.

Last month, the small Balkan nation declared a state of emergency as it struggled to cope with the relentless stream of people.

Reports overnight said that Hungary’s government is considering declaring a state of emergency within the next week.

Hungary completed a razor-wire barrier along its 175km border with Serbia in late August, but it has failed to stop distraught refugees from scaling the barrier.

The central European nation is building another fence four metres high that it aims to complete by late October or early November, and the government has said it will be manned by the military.

Some 85 percent of those hoping to eventually reach wealthy EU nations such as Germany or Sweden are not merely in search of a better life, but have been forced to leave because of wars in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

On Friday, the wife of an Austrian politician said Hungarian police have been feeding refugees “like animals in a pen” inside a border camp.

Michaela Spritzendorfer filmed the footage of the refugees surging forward against the fences surrounding them as officers toss food packets to them.

It reportedly happened at a makeshift camp in the Hungarian town of Rozke.

The incident was filmed on the same day the UN commissioner on refugees said conditions were getting worse there.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has ordered his administration to increase the number of Syrian refugees allowed into the country.

The United States has taken in just 1,500 Syrians since the civil war began in 2011.

CID questions Swami Pranavananda in Kalburgi murder probe

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Swami Pranavananda

Bengaluru: With the ongoing probe of professor Kalburgi’s murder, the CID on Thursday September 10 questioned Hindu Mahasabha chief Swami Pranavananda and his driver.

Sources say that Swami Pranavananda and his driver were questioned at Ranebennur in Haveri. The swami had in the past issued a threat to Kalburgi and others who had insulted the Hindu religion.

This questioning however did not give any headway into the probe. The officials have informed their higher-ups that the angles probed so far including property disputes within the family, professional jealousy and possible action by violent pro-Kannada and pro-Hindutva groups had not brought out any results.

(Agencies)

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