Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's sudden resignation after only a year in office has thrown Japan into political turmoil, raising doubts about how the country will handle economic and regional challenges, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
The situation in rain-battered Gujarat improved slightly on Thursday as the rainfall activity subsided, but Vadodara and some other parts of the state are still reeling under a flood-like situation due to overflowing rivers while the authorities continue the rescue and relief operations.
At least 20 other persons are feared trapped under the debris of the building in Navi Vasti locality.
Five people were killed and about 50 missing following several incidents of cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh where rains washed away many houses, bridges and roads, officials said on Thursday.
What happened in Bengaluru is a wake-up call, no celebration of sport should ever come at the cost of human life, asserts veteran cricket correspondent K R Nayar.
Relentless heavy rain led to a landslide on the route to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine atop the Trikuta hill on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least five people and injuring 14, officials said.
At the devastated Tapovan power project site rescuers worked nonstop even as the odds of finding the trapped workers alive seemed slim.
Containers from a Liberian cargo ship that sank off the Kerala coast have started washing ashore, prompting authorities to urge the public to stay away from them. The ship carried 13 hazardous cargos, including calcium carbide, which reacts with seawater to release highly flammable acetylene gas. The Indian Coast Guard is leading pollution response efforts and monitoring the spread of the oil slick.
The SDMA said the ill-fated private boat was carrying 73 passengers, including eight crew.
Army and air force contingents have been rushed in to assist in relief and rescue operations.
The jawan said he used his mobile phone light to locate hurt and trapped passengers and took them to safety.
Twenty bravehearts, who died in Tuesday's chopper crash while rescuing stranded people in flood-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand, will be given a 'guard of honour'-- a ceremonial mark of respect-- by the government on Friday in Dehradun.
The army rescue teams have been operating throughout the night along with the teams from civil defence, police and the NDRF, trying to remove the debris from the affected area.
The estimated strength of these nine teams is about 240 personnel, they said.
The India meteorological department on Sunday issued an 'orange' alert for Gujarat, saying the state was expected to receive "heavy to very heavy rainfall" on July 24.
NDRF, with the help of local authorities and police, has been conducting evacuation operations to minimise the potential damage from the cyclone.
How to conduct the mock exercise with active public participation of people was discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan. Top civil and police officers of the country participated in the meeting, official sources said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday said none of the 41 labourers rescued from an under-construction road tunnel in Uttarkashi district was in a critical condition.
Glimpses of havoc caused by flooding in Kullu, Patiala and Chandigarh due to incessant rain on Monday, July 10, 2023.
The helicopter crash-landed "due to a technical fault".
According to Chief Secretary P K Jena, some bodies were counted twice.
More than 21 hours after a huge billboard collapsed in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area due to gusty winds and unseasonal rains, killing at least 14 persons and injuring 75 others, the search and rescue operation is still on, civic officials said on Tuesday.
It has been a week since 41 labourers got trapped inside an under-construction tunnel at Silkyara in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district after parts of the structure collapsed following a landslide last Sunday.
The Brahmaputra and Barak rivers along with their tributaries are in spate, even as floodwaters started receding from a few areas, they said.
The death toll from a building that collapsed in Thane, Maharashtra, has risen to 71. Among the dead are 25 children. Sixty-two people are on the list of injured. Television channels and other media quoted National Disaster Relief officials as saying that a woman had been rescued from the rubble on Saturday morning, 36 hours after being buried under the debris caused by the collapse of the unlicensed building.
A dozen teams of the NDRF will be deployed to ensure the safety of the people who embark on the yatra from July 1, they added.
According to the information received from the disaster control room yesterday, one dead body was recovered from Srinagar Chauras and one from Kirti Nagar. Of the 206 missing, 70 bodies and 29 human organs have been recovered so far.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said saving lives and extending all help to the families of the deceased is the state government's priority.
The building, which housed godowns on the ground and first floors and four families on the top floor, collapsed at 1.45 pm on Saturday at Wardhaman Compound in Valpada of Mankoli area.
India has already sent relief materials to Turkiye in four military transport aircraft.
Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Barmer districts are the most affected and facing flood-like situations, the official said.
Two persons were rescued after the incident that occurred at 4.50 am in Shahbaz village, they said, adding that before the building collapsed, the authorities managed to evacuate 52 residents.
While there was a brief respite from the incessant downpour on Tuesday, collaborative efforts from the defence, national, and state disaster response forces took the lead in executing rescue and relief operations.
'The nearby civilians helped us a lot in providing food, water and first aid.'
The police said the child was shifted to a hospital in Indi where he was given preliminary treatment and was later shifted to a district hospital. He is currently stated to be stable, they said.
The Centre on Friday assured all help to flood-ravaged Assam in dealing with the crisis situation in the state where over 8.5 lakh people have been rendered homeless and 22 lives lost so far.
The operation went on for 66 hours after a giant 120 feet x 120 feet hoarding collapsed on a petrol pump in the Chheda Nagar area during gusty winds on Monday evening, the official said.
The death toll in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse in Mumbai rose to 16 on Thursday with rescue personnel retrieving the bodies of a retired general manager of Air Traffic Control (ATC) and his wife, officials said.
The moment four National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel arrived on the other side of the rubble at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand to rescue 41 labourers trapped inside, their hopes of a safe evacuation were kindled, team commander Manmohan said.
The home minister will also review the preparation for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage set to start on June 29.
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