Strong cyclone kills 12 in India
A STRONG cyclone over the southeast Arabian Sea triggered heavy rains and strong winds in southern India, damaging hundreds of huts, power lines and trees and killing at least 12 people, officials said Saturday.
More than 2,000 people have taken shelter in relief centers in Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts in Tamil Nadu state and in Lakshadweep, a group of 36 islands, officials said.
The India Meteorological Department said heavy rains and strong winds lashed Lakshadweep on Saturday.
At least 12 people have been killed in Tamil Nadu and Kerala states since Friday, state-run All India Radio reported. Krishan Kumar, a relief agency spokesman, said the casualties were mainly caused by falling trees and power lines.
The cyclone, with gusts of up to 175 kilometers (110 miles) per hour, is expected to weaken on Monday after recurving in the Arabian Sea, according to India’s Meteorological Department.
Television images showed parts of Kanyakumari district flooded and without electricity, with severe damage to power lines. In Kanyakumari and Thoothukudi districts, strong winds uprooted more than 500 trees, snapped power lines and damaged settlements close to the sea.
More than 530 fishermen stranded in choppy waters have been rescued off Kerala state and the Lakshadweep islands, said Pinyari Viayan, Kerala’s top elected official.AP Francis says the Cold War-era policy of nuclear deterrence is no longer viable and that the mere possession of nuclear weapons is now “irrational.”
Flying through Asia en route home from Bangladesh AT least 13 people were dead and two missing on Sunday after a South Korean fishing boat collided with a refueling vessel and capsized, the coast guard said.
An official from the Korea Coast Guard said seven people were rescued and the two missing included the boat’s captain. He said 22 people were aboard the Saturday, Francis said: “We’re at the limit of licitly having and using nuclear arms. Why? Because today, such sophisticated nuclear arsenals risk destroying humanity or at least a great part of it.”
Amid increasingly heated 9.8-ton fishing boat that capsized after colliding with the 336-ton refueling vessel in waters off the port city of Incheon.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing office rules. The refueling vessel did not suffer damage.
President Moon Jaein ordered authorities to rhetoric between the U.S. and North Korea, Francis told a nuclear disarmament conference last month that mere possession of nuclear weapons was to be condemned, given the risks, and that the only viable path forward was deploy as many helicopters and other aircraft as possible to search for the missing, according to his office.
The coast guard official said 19 coast guard and naval vessels and five aircraft including helicopters were dispatched to the site. Authorities were questioning the crew of the refueling vessel to determine the total disarmament.
Francis said he wanted to pose the question as a pope: “Today, is it legitimate to keep nuclear arsenals as they are? Or to save creation, to save humanity today, isn’t it necessary to go back?” cause of the collision.
South Korea has seen its share of significant maritime accidents in recent years, including the 2014 sinking of a ferry that killed more than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren. More than 50 fishermen died or went missing months later after their vessel sank in the Bering Sea.