Kashmir boat tragedy leaves six dead

Kashmir: Rescuers were attempting to find three missing people after a boat carrying at least 15 capsized yesterday in a river in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing six of them, officials said.

Many of the passengers were children and six people were rescued, said Bilal Mohiuddin Bhat, a civil administrator.

The boat capsized in Jhelum river in Srinagar, the region’s main city.

A rope that guided the boat across the river snapped with the force of the fast-flowing water, capsizing the vessel. Heavy rains fell over the region in the past few days, leading to higher water levels in the river.

Eyewitness Firdous Ahmed Lone said he heard people crying for help and he rushed to save them.

“I pulled out four of them from the river, but they were already dead,” Mr Lone said.

Last year, 22 people drowned when a doubledecker boat carrying more than 30 passengers capsized near a beach in Kerala state in southern India.

Orenburg: Nearly 14,500 homes have been flooded in a Russian region bordering Kazakhstan after water levels spiked in a river, local authorities said.

The floods sparked the evacuation of thousands in the region of Orenburg, located some 745 miles south-east of the capital Moscow, after a dam on the Ural burst last week under the pressure of surging waters.

Local authorities have classified the deluge as an emergency of federal importance, and more than 16,500 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas, the office of the Orenburg governor said yesterday.

In the city of Orenburg, the region’s capital, some 5,500 houses remain flooded as water levels in the River Ural in the city gradually decrease, according to officials.

Further east along the border, floods also hit the regions of Kurgan and Tyumen after water levels rose in local rivers.

Russian emergency officials said yesterday that more than 300 homes have been flooded in Kurgan. In both the Kurgan and Tyumen provinces, evacuations from areas that may be flooded are under way.

In neighbouring Kazakhstan, massive floods have prompted the evacuation of more than 113,000 people to date, Kazakh emergency officials said.

As of yesterday, more than 5,700 houses remain flooded there, officials said.

California: A former US Marine has been jailed for nine years for firebombing a California Planned Parenthood clinic and plotting other attacks to spark a “race war”.

Chance Brannon, 24, pleaded guilty to the March 2022 attack on the healthcare clinic, which provides abortions in some of its locations.

He also plotted to attack Jewish people and an LGBT pride event taking place at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

At the time of his arrest, he was an active duty member of the US Marines.

Prosecutors said Brannon was a neo-nazi who frequently spoke of “cleansing” the US of “particular ethnic groups”. In November, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy, destruction of property, possession of an explosive and intentionally damaging a reproductive health services facility.