Lanka flood death toll hits 146
Iranian mortar attack kills 1
COLOMBO, May 28, (RTRS): Emergency teams rushed to distribute aid Sunday to half a million Sri Lankans displaced after the island’s worst flooding in more than a decade, as authorities upgraded the death toll to 146.
The official Disaster Management Centre said 112 people were still missing, with 50 injured in hospital, since torrential rain and landslides swept away entire villages.
Floodwaters were receding some areas after a break in the rain, giving authorities a chance to deliver much-needed supplies to victims who lost everything in the deluge.
Heavy rains on Friday triggered the worst flooding and landslides in 14 years in the southern and western parts of the island.
Many villages were still underwater Sunday, officials said.
“We have the expertise to deal with this situation,” Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said, adding cholera and diarrhoea had been successfully prevented in past floods.
Senaratne
Iranian mortar attack kills 1:
in
Iranian mortar fire on Saturday killed a Pakistani civilian in the western Baluchistan province that shares a long border with Iran, a regional Pakistani official said.
Relations between Iran and Pakistan have been at a low ebb since 10 Iranian border guards were killed by militants last month. Iran said that, in that incident, Jaish al Adl, a Sunni militant group, had opened fire from inside Pakistan.
Earlier this month the head of the Iranian armed forces warned Islamabad that Tehran would hit bases inside Pakistan if the government did not confront Sunni militants who carry out cross-border attacks.
Kashmir under Ramadan curfew:
Authorities clamped a curfew across most of Indian-administered Kashmir for the first day of the Muslim Ramadan festival Sunday and partially cut telephone services to thwart protests over the killing of a top rebel commander.
The lockdown in the mainly Muslim region crippled life on the first day of the Islamic holy month after widespread violence on Saturday over the killing of Sabzar Ahmad Bhat in a gunfight with government forces.
Government forces in riot gear erected barricades in the main city, Srinagar, and other towns in southern Kashmir to prevent people from reaching the commander’s funeral.
But thousands of mourners defied the security curbs Sunday to attended the burial of the rebel commander in his hometown amid anti-India and pro-Independence slogans.
Afghan road accident kills 15:
At least 15 members of a single family were killed when a pickup truck veered off the road and plunged into a river in northern Afghanistan, officials said.
Women and children were among the dead after Saturday’s accident on the main highway between Parwan and Kabul, which is notorious for crashes. Apart from the 15 killed in the accident in the Salang district of Parwan province, two children were wounded and taken to hospital, said provincial spokeswoman Waheeda Shahkar, adding that the victims were all from one family.
Alizai Ahmadi, a local police chief, confirmed the accident but put the death toll at 16. Ahmadi said six women and six children were among the dead.
Bangladesh customs hits gold:
Bangladesh detectives hit the jackpot when they stopped Mohammad Belal at Chittagong airport carrying some surprising excess baggage.
Under questioning, the 37-year-old admitted he had a dozen chunks of gold weighing 1.4 kilograms, or three pounds, stashed in his rectum.
Gold smuggling in Bangladesh is at a record high, officials say, with the country emerging as a major route into neighbouring India, which has slapped high taxes on gold imports.