32 people killed in Russian plane crashes in Siberia

At least 32 people were killed and 11 survivors have been taken to hospital, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said on Monday. 

The ATR 72, a twin-engine, turbo-prop plane, with 43 people aboard, crashed some 30-35 km (18-22 miles) from the western Siberian city of Tyumen, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said. 

The mid-range plane belonging to Russian airline UTair crashed after taking off from Tyumen on a flight to Surgut, an oil town further north in Siberia. 

There were 39 passengers and four crew on board, according to preliminary information, Andrianova said.

Injured survivors were flown to hospital by helicopter after the plane caught fire following the crash, the cause of which was not immediately known, Russian news agencies reported. 

UTair has three ATR-72 craft made by the French-Italian manufacturer ATR, according to the airline's website. 

ATR is an equal partnership between two major European aeronautics players, Alenia Aermacchi, a Finmeccanica company, and EADS. 

The crash was the deadliest air disaster in Russia since a Yak-42 plane crashed into a riverbank near the city of Yaroslavl after takeoff on September 07, 2011, killing 44 people and wiping out the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team. 

President Dmitry Medvedev called for a reduction in the number of Russian airlines and improvements in crew training after that crash, which followed a June crash that killed 47 people including a navigator who had been drinking. 

Uttar Pradesh: 15 killed in train accident in Hathras

Fifteen people were killed and two others seriously injured when the Mathura-Kasganj Express rammed into a jeep at an unmanned railway crossing on Tuesday morning.

The accident took place at the unmanned railway crossing near Madu Railway Station at 7:19 am in the district.

The jeep was carrying 17 passengers, superintendent of police Chandra Prakash said.

While 15 people were killed on the spot, two of the injured have been admitted to a hospital, he said.

Railway sources in Delhi said the mishap took place when the jeep tried to cross the track even as the train was approaching

A car bomb blast in Baghdad, shootings killed 35 people

A swift series of bombings and shootings killed 35 people across the Iraqi capital early Today in attacks that mostly appeared to target police, officials said.

In the worst attack, a car bomb went off near a security checkpoint in Baghdad's downtown shopping district of Karradah killing nine people. Twenty-six people were wounded in that attack, including four policemen, the officials said.

A news agency’s footage of the scene showed blood-covered people walking away, and storefronts at several nearby shops were damaged. A gray cloud of smoke hung over the blast site where cars were charred and crumpled.

At least eight more bombs exploded during the morning across Baghdad, killing 18 more people.

And on opposite sides of the capital, gunmen with silenced pistols killed a total of eight policemen at security checkpoints, officials said.

The casualties were confirmed by Baghdad hospital officials. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information.

The violence did not stop at Baghdad. Attacks in Baqouba, Kirkuk and in Salahuddin provinces were also reported in the relentless string of assaults that unfolded over a two-hour period.

Officials in Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometres) northeast of the capital, said a suicide bomber blew up his car outside a police station near a market. Two people were killed and eight wounded.

In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometres) north of Baghdad, two police patrols hit roadside bombs. Twenty policemen were injured in the attacks, said police Major General Sarhat Qadir.

Bombs in the town of Tuz Khormato outside Kirkuk, wounded three guards outside the office of a Kurdish political party. And south of Baghdad, eight policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in the town of Madain, said Mayor Jalal Baban. Madain is about 14 miles (20 kilometres) southeast of the capital.

Widespread violence has decreased since just a few years ago when Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war. But bombings and deadly shootings still happen almost daily.

Iraq's police are generally considered to be the weakest element of the country's security forces. Earlier this week, 20 policemen and recruits were killed by a suicide bomber outside the Baghdad police academy that angry residents blamed on political feuding that is roiling Iraq.

The country has been besieged by political turbulence that began the day after US troops pulled out of Iraq, when an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on charges he commandeered death squads targeting security forces and government officials.

Al-Hashemi, the country's highest-ranking Sunni, has denied the charges that he described as politically motivated, and blamed the Shi’ite-led government of trying to unseat him.

Experts worry the case will hike Iraq's already-simmering sectarian tensions.

Suicide bomb attack in Pakistan, 26 dead, 40 injured

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shia mosque in Pakistan's restive northwestern Kurram tribal region on Friday, killing 26 people and injuring over 40 others.

The attacker, who was on a motorcycle, detonated his explosive vest outside the mosque in the crowded Kurmi Bazar at Parachinar, the main town of Kurram tribal region, which has been rocked by sectarian violence over the past few years.

Officials told the media that 26 people were killed and over 40 injured. They described the condition of some of the injured as critical.

An emergency was declared at the hospital. A faction of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack, with a commander telling reporters in the region that the Shia community was targeted because it was allegedly involved in activities against the militants.

The officials said they feared the casualties could rise as the bomber had struck at a time when the market was full of people.

The bomber blew himself up shortly before the weekly Friday prayers.

Earlier reports had said that a car bomb had gone off at the market.

Witnesses said several shops and vehicles were destroyed by the blast.

Most of the casualties were civilians, they said. The injured were taken to hospital by local residents in private vehicles.

Security forces cordoned off the site of the attack and launched a search operation.

Authorities imposed a curfew in Parachinar after an irate mob protested against the attack.

Several persons were hurt when police carried out a baton charge to disperse the protestors.

Hundreds of people have died in clashes between rival Shia and Sunni tribesmen in Kurram Agency over the past four years.

The situation in the region was exacerbated after Taliban fighters began backing the Sunni tribesmen.

Kurram Agency is the only part of the restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan that has a sizeable Shia population.

Allama Nawaz Irfani, the cleric of the Jamia Masjid in Parachinar, called for three days of mourning to protest the attack.

Markets in the town will remain closed tomorrow as part of the protest.

Cold snap kills 89 in Eastern Europe as fears rise over Russian gas

Record-low temperatures in parts of Eastern Europe pushed the death toll from Arctic conditions to at least 89 people on Wednesday, and have forced Russian gas provider Gazprom to warn over supplies to Europe.

Europe had enjoyed a relatively mild winter up until last weekend when a Siberian system swinging in from the east brought that to an abrupt halt. A source at Russian gas export monopoly, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas imports, said it was getting more requests from export markets than it could physically accommodate as demand from Russia spikes.

"Despite increasing gas consumption in Russia due to heavy frosts, Gazprom continues implementing its contractual obligations to European clients," it said.

In Ukraine, 43 people have died in the past five days, its Emergency Ministry said, as the former Soviet republic shivered through its coldest winter in six years.

Overnight temperatures sank as low as minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 27 Fahrenheit) and hundreds of heated tents have been put up to shelter the homeless.

"They say the whole February will be cold, and the first half of March, so we have to get ready for this somehow," said Viktor, who is living on the streets of Kiev.

European weather alert network Meteoalarm (www.meteoalarm.eu) warned of "extremely dangerous" conditions in several parts of eastern Europe, including Serbia, where a fourth person was found dead overnight in the southwestern Suvobor mountains.

Security forces there, and in neighbouring Bosnia, have used helicopters to ferry supplies to areas cut off by deep snow and to evacuate the elderly. The forecast across the Balkans is for conditions to worsen through the week.

Meteoalarm said severe cold was likely to persist in continental Europe including Germany and southeastern Europe.

In Moscow, where daytime temperatures fell as low as minus 22C (minus 8F) Celsius, opponents of Vladimir Putin worried that the cold could reduce attendance at a rally against the Prime Minister on Saturday, one month before he stands in Presidential Elections.

Thermometers in parts of Bulgaria plunged to record lows just shy of minus 30C (minus 22F), freezing cash machines in Sofia, daily newspaper Trud reported. Eight people in Bulgaria and 14 in neighbouring Romania have died in the cold snap.

Poland said five people died overnight, two of them from carbon monoxide poisoning as people turned to risky heating to battle temperatures likely to remain as low at minus 26C (minus 15F) for several more days. The country's gas monopoly PGNiG said on Wednesday it had restricted industrial deliveries to meet increased heating demand.

In Slovenia, winds of up to 180 kph (112 mph) blew off roofs and prompted authorities to close some schools, officials said.

And as temperatures plunged in Albania, the state ombudsman helped move 15 families from the Roma community into his office in Tirana after they were evicted from a suburban area.

"This is an emergency solution. We could not have left these citizens under the sky in this icy weather," said Igli Totozani, the ombudsman. "They will not leave until we find a solution."

Pune bus driver hits 40 vehicles, 9 dead

A man hijacked a city bus in Pune early this morning and ran amok, reportedly crushing at least 40 vehicles, the police have said. Seven people are confirmed dead and many are injured. The injured have been admitted to three city hospitals.

Delhi-bound Bramhaputra Mail collides with goods train, people died

At least four people were killed and five seriously injured when the Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail collided with a stationary goods train near Sahibganj early Wednesday morning.

The accident took place near Karanpura halt near Maharajganj adjoining Sahebganj in Jharkhand.

Due to collision, eleven bogies of the goods train and one sleeper coach of Brahmaputra Express was also derailed. The goods train was standing on the tracks since last night due to engine problem.

Confirming the incident, Station Master KP Singh told reporters, "The Bramhaputra Mail rammed into the stationary goods train. Rescue and relief team has rushed to the spot."

The Brahmaputra Mail was travelling on the other track, but the sliding bogies of the goods train dashed into the express train.

Several passengers are feared to be trapped in the derailed sleeper coach hours after the accident. Efforts are being made to flush them out safely. Those injured in the accident have been rushed to the nearby hospital in Karanpura for treatment.

Meanwhile, two rescue trains from Malda have also been rushed to the accident site, said the CPRO of Eastern Railway.

Union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh to the nearest kin of the dead person, Rs 50,000 for those who have sustained serious injury and Rs 10,0000 for those with minor injuries.

More casualties are feared.

Dearly Typhoon hits Philippines

A typhoon hit the southern Philippines triggering flash floods and landslides that killed nearly 180 people and forced about 100,000 from their homes, government and army officials said.

Typhoon Washi, with winds gusting up to 90km/h (56 mph), hit the resource-rich island of Mindanao late Friday, bringing heavy rain that also grounded some domestic flights and left wide areas without power

Army spokesman Colonel Leopoldo Galon said emergency workers had recovered 97 bodies, most of them children, who drowned in floods in Cagayan de Oro City. Seventy-five people drowned in Iligan City.

The national disaster agency said five miners were also buried in a landslide.

"I can't explain how these things happened, entire villages were swept to the sea by flash floods," Galon told Reuters, saying the death toll could rise as hundreds of people were unaccounted for.

"I have not seen anything like this before. This could be worse than Ondoy," he said, referring to a 2009 storm that inundated the capital, Manila, killing hundreds of people.

Television images showed bodies covered in mud, cars piled on top of each other and wrecked homes. Helicopters and boats searched the sea for survivors and victims.

Rescue boats pulled at least 15 people from the sea, another army spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Randolph Cabangbang, told reporters.

Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz said many people were caught by surprise when water rose one meter (three feet) high in less than an hour, forcing people onto roofs.

"Most of them were already sleeping when floodwaters entered their homes," he said. "This is the worst flooding our city had experienced in years."

The national disaster agency said it could not estimate crop and property damage because emergency workers, including soldiers and police officers, were evacuating families and recovering casualties.

The social welfare department said about 100,000 people were displaced and brought to more than a dozen shelters in the two cities.

Six domestic flights of Cebu Pacific were cancelled due to the rain and near-zero visibility in the southern and central Philippines. Ferry services were also halted, stranding hundreds of people.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the Philippines every year, often causing death and destruction.