Italian Cruise Ship Runs Aground

There are possibly still 40 people missing from the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia which ended up grounded on the west coastal area of Italy. The ship ran a ground and is lying on it’s side 650 feet off of Giglio Island.  Divers are frantically searching the cabins of the ship hoping to find any of the people missing still alive. The ship is half underwater at this time. They did locate a man and a woman in a cabin 2 landings down still alive. Three other people were not so lucky having perished. The ship ran a ground on Friday night. It was the first night that the passengers had been on the cruise ship. There were 4000 people on the ship at the time of the accident. Most of the passengers and crew were able to swim to the shore line.

It is not really know how many people could still be missing. It has been calculated that the number could possibly be 41 at this time. The numbers had been higher, but there is the possiblity of some passengers being taken care of in homes on the island. Until all who made it safely to land are located, the number is only an estimate.

The divers have checked the surrounding waters finding no bodies. It is possible that they could find more of the missing inside the belly part of the ship. Passengers and crew that didn’t swim to shore were rescued by lifeboats and helicopters.

The reason for the accident is unknown at this time. There is a big cut in the hull of the boat. It is possible that they ran into some rocks. Some reported hearing a loud noise during dinner time. The ship took on water quickly. A drill to teach passengers what to do if such an incident ever occured had not been done yet. Instructions were to be given on Saturday afternoon. Little to say there was a lot of panic.

Muslim Shia Pilgrims Hit by Suicide Bomb Killing 50

In Basra, as the Muslim Shia pilgrims where celebrating the festival of Arbain, one of thier main holy days on the Shia calender, a suicide bombing took 50 lives. There is always a fear that attacks may happen during the festival time and security was watching out incase insurgents came around. There have been quite a few deaths in the last few weeks in attacks against the pilgrims.

The pilgrims were at a check point area that they visit as they travel to a popular Shia mosque in the area of Zubeir. The mosque is located 12 miles on the south western side of Basra. It is a very popular area for the Shia pilgrims to visit that reside in the area of southern Iraq as they are not able to get to the shrines located in the main holy city of Karbala which is up north of them.

The insurgent was wearing a police office uniform and was using a false ID. He was able to make his way to the police check point where he set off his explosives blowing up himself, police officers and pilgrims. There were quite a few officers that died in the explosion.

Mudslides and Flooding Take Lives in Brazil

Even though this is the rainy time of year for Brazil, you can never be prepared enough. Mudslides and flooding water have hit the areas of Sapucais located in Rio de Janeiro taking the lives of 13 people plus one other in Laje do Muriae. Last year the rains in January caused flooding in Rio de Janeiro that took the lives of 800 people.

In Minas Ferais, a state that borders Rio de Janeiro, there were another 15 people that lost thier lives. The heavy rainfall in the area has caused 116 cities to declare a state of emergency. Many are in the area of  Rio de Janeiro. There is also reason to believe that there could be an additional 9 people buried beneath the mud in Sapucais.

It is not uncommon to get this type of rainfall in January. Only last there were 800 people that perished due to the large amount of rainfall causing much of Rio de Janeiro to experience heavy flooding.

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The explosion occurred early in the day on Thursday.

It happened in the city of Yangon and 20 people lost their lives. The neighborhood where it happened is called Mingalar Taung Nyunt. It consist of mostly homes and is about 15 minutes from the central area of Yangon by car. Yangon use to be the capital city. The explosion hit a group of warehouses used by the government. They rent out the warehouses to private businesses.

The exact cause of the explosion is unknown at this time.

They do not believe the explosion to have come from man made bombs. It is more likely that it is the result of a size-able amount of sulfur, ammonia and sulfur trioxide. These three ingredients convert into sulfurous acid when water is added. These items were stored in the warehouses.

Residents Run from Explosions

Residents and others heard the explosion followed by more explosions. Many ran in what they had hoped was a safe way to go, but many made the wrong decision. Four of the people that died were fire fighters.

An Air Strike Takes the Lives of 35 People in SE Turkey

35 People Die

In the Sinat-Haftanin area in northern Iraq, a group of people were seen heading towards the border. Since the area is used by militants and is in an area where there are many militant training camps, they were thought to be terrorist. 35 people died when the air force used four planes to bomb them. One person survived the attack.

Smuggling Cigarettes

It is possible that it was a group of smugglers who were transporting cigarettes across the border. There have been indications found that showed the drones did identify the group as civilians but still carried out the bombing. There were many people killed that were family members. It is also noted that the bombing happened in an area of a large Kurdish group. Most of the people came from the border towns of Ortasu and Gulyazi. The people who were in the group that was approaching the border that day typically crossed the border to make purchases of fuel and sugar. They crossed to get things they needed. All of the dead were under 30 years of age. A few were sons of the guards in their village that had helped out the Turkish troops in their battles against the militants.

Terrorist known in the area

Since the area where the incident happened is also one used by militants and the training camps are near by too, it was thought that they were terrorist approaching the border. The area is kept under watch because of the terrorist activity. The bombing is being investigated.

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88 or More Die in India Hospital Fire

On Friday, in the eastern part of India, a hospital fire possibly took more than 88 lives. It was a 5 story hospital located in the city of Kolkata.

6 people who were employed by the hospital were arrested saying they neglected patients. Of the 88 that perished in the fire, most were not able to get out of their beds. They had also been left behind by most of the employees.

Videos showed rescue efforts. People being hurried out of the hospital by others wearing mask over their faces. A child that was no longer conscious being lowered down from a higher up floor by a rope. There were many people watching the tragic incident. Trying to comfort each other and talking over cell phones. There were others trapped inside that broke windows trying to get the smoke out and fresh air in.

There was one doctor and two attendants that died in the fire. The other 85 were all patients of the hospital.

Unable to get out of their beds to either open the windows or get out of the building, the patients that died did so from breathing in too much smoke.

The cause of the fire is yet unknown, but discovery of many hospital violations has raised concerns. Parking cars, storing medical equipment plus finding an oncology area all located in the basement is definitely not right. The hospital lost their license once these violations were found.

24 Students Injured in Bus Accident

In Fawn Grove Pennsylvania, 45 elementary school students were riding a school bus when it abruptly curved causing them to hit their heads.

It was thought that the bus had hit a pothole in the road, but after the PennDOT investigated, they found no pothole in the area.

After the incident, the bus continued on to the school. Once there 10 of the children had to be taken to the hospital by an ambulance. Others were taken on small buses along with EMT’s on board.

The children are thought to not have experiences severe injuries. They were mostly shook up from the incident and had only minor bumps on their heads.

The children hurt in this incident where the driver must have kept control of the bus is an example of how it would be a good idea to have seat belts on school buses.

18 People Die in Syria Encounters

There were 11 people who died in the areas of Homs and Hama while 2 others died in encounters between military and army defectors in Idlib, Idlib is a province located in the northern parts of Syria. On Sunday, it was noted that 2 of the dead were children.

Authorities have been said to have faced members of a group of violent army defectors. It has been estimated by the UN that there have been more than 4,000 deaths over the duration of this 9 months of clashes. Among the dead are reports of 307 children. Sundays battle is being said to be one of the largest battles during this 9 months of revolts. Many business’s closed and children had a day off from school as Busra was being rampaged by machine guns firing from tanks. One lady told how it was upsetting her children and they were crying.

Since Syria doesn’t permit open access to the media of other countries, these numbers cannot be verified.

There were also protest in Jordan at the Syrian embassy located in the capital of Amman. This protest did turn violent. It is the first time that protest have gone violent there. There were other encounters near the border of Jordan in the southern parts. Again the clashes were between armed forces and defectors.

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It was a tragic day Saturday for the Togolese football team. 6 people died when the bus they were riding in went off the side of the road and fell into a ravine. The accident happened when they were 100 miles on the north side of the capital, Lome. The team, Shooting Star, was on their way to play in a game.

The passengers that perished were part of the team. Charles Balogoun, the Togo national goalkeeper was amongst the 6 that died. There were also 25 other passengers that had to be admitted to the hospital. Many had been burnt badly and had severe injuries.

It is being said that a tire burst prior to the driver loosing control of the bus resulting in it going off the side of the road and into the ravine. Some were able to get out of the bus, but weren’t really sure how they did it. Most of the team was able to get off the bus because they were in seats in the front of the bus.

The bus caught fire and pictures are being shown of the remains of the bus. It was burnt almost totally. In the pictures there is still some smoke coming from the smoldering fire.

Only last year, there were two players of the Togo national football team killed by insurgents that attacked the teams bus in Angola.

We hope for a quick recovery of all the passengers that had to be admitted to the military hospital in Lome for treatment.

Possibly More than 13 Die in Suicide Bombing in Iraq

In the middle east, in the Taji district of Baghdad, a suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a checkpoint located at a prison. The explosion took the lives of 13 people. There were 28 additional people hurt in the explosion. The injured includes members of the prison guard, and civilians. At this time, no one has accepted responsibility for the incident.

The attack happened on Monday. It is being investigated. There was also another attack on Monday where a mortar round hit in the heavily protected Green Zone. There were 2 people who died and possibly more. It fell into an outdoor parking area that was part of the Iraqi Parliament compound. The round hit a car parked there. At this time there is no information on the victims. The Green Zone is the central area of Baghdad that houses the Iraq’s government offices and quite a few embassies. The United States and the United Kingdom both have their embassies in the Green Zone.

Yet another incident that took the lives of two civilians happened in Baghdad close by the Baghdad international Fair Complex in the western part of Baghdad. There were 4 others injured.

All of the attacks happened on Monday. It seems that as the US is working on removing it’s troops, that the attacks are getting to be more and more frequent. At this time there are still 13,000 troops in Iraq.

The Fighting Between The Shi’ite Insurgents and Sunni Islamist Continue

On Wednesday, battles between the two resulted with 26 people being injured. The battle prevailed as the now prime minister is busy putting together a government under a Gulf plan to avoid a civilian uprising while alleviating out going President Ali Abdullah Saleh from his position.

The plan is to put together a government that includes resistance groups that help back getting Saleh out of power. Together they would guide the country to having a presidential election in February.

Last week, Saleh signed papers to hand his power over to his deputy. There is hope that this will end the uprisings and bring the country together. End the chaos that has grown during the political struggles over ending the presidency of Saleh.

Just last weekend, there were at least 25 people that died during a battle in the Houthi area. There were many students injured of the Dar al-Hadith religious school during the battle.

There is hope that now they can end these conflicts.

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Deadly Explosion at Military Base in Iran

There were 17 soldiers that perished in an explosion that happened at a military base close to the capital of Iran, Tehran. 12 others people had to be transported to near by hospitals. The blast was earsplitting, breaking windows of close by buildings and was heard by people as far as 25 miles away.

The fire from the explosion, which happened when there was a group of weapons being put inside a Revolutionary Guard depot, was still burning 2 hours after the blast. Traffic was tied up on near by roadways. It was a large portion of the depot that held weapons that exploded. At this time they are unaware of what caused the explosion. People are still in a shocked state.

A few people are stating that there was another explosion that followed the first on Saturday. Others are stating that they thought the explosion was a minor earthquake. They were letting no news reporters on the scene at the time. At first they were saying 27 had died, but the number has been lowered to 17.  It is being treated as an accident.

11 Die During Shelling of Yemen

In Taiz, there were 11 people who died during the shelling of Yemen while the government forces battled with resistance members. There were many more injured, some were civilians. It happened while a United Nations emissary was visiting Yemen. Jamal Benomar is pushing for the transition of power to put an end to many months of conflicts.

The protest started back in January of 2011 over President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s long term rule of 33 years. Protest against Saleh have increased in Taiz the last few weeks. Taiz is Yemen’s second largest city. It is located about 120 miles on the south side of the capital of Yemen, Sanaa. The most recent protest started on Thursday. On Thursday, there was one person that perished in the protest and many others wounded. Two of the residential areas had been blasted by the security forces overnight. The two areas were the front of the battle grounds of forces against the government. They are Zaid al-Moshki and al-Rawda. Also the Freedom Square was a part of the area being shelled.

On Friday, it was reported that 3 women and 2 children were amongst the dead.

In The Uk, 150 Home Flooded

There were as many as 150 dwelling flooded in the West Midlands as a water main busted in the early morning hours. It caused the flooding of many homes in the Blackwood Estate area in Streetly. The South Staffs Water company became aware of the burst at around 05:30GMT and put their engineers to work on it immediately. Some of the water was a deep as 3 feet in areas.

One woman,  who found 5 feet of water in her basement heard a loud roar of water. Sheila Howard stated, “It frightened me to death because I’m here all alone.”

Many others spoke of a loud noise from the incoming water. One man was shocked electrically as he was standing in water, and a lady was injured when she fell.

There are firefighters trying to help out the residents. There is work going on clearing drains out and keeping gullies clear to allow the water to flow out of the estate area.

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It was 108 hours after the earth quake hit Turkey that Ferhat Tokay, a 13 year old boy, was pulled out of the rubble that had held him captive since the building in Ercis, Van Turkey fell on him. It was in the early hours on Friday that workers using flood lights to enable them to see rescued him. He had been helped to stay alive by drinking rain water that had oozed in through openings in the rubble surrounding him. On Saturday, the official death toll from the earthquake rose to 582. Ferhat is one of the lucky ones to be found in time.

The earthquake that hit eastern Turkey last Sunday was a 7.2. The number of people injured is 4,152. 582 have died and 455 of the deaths happened in Ercis where 13 year old Ferhat was rescued. The good news is that there have been 231 people found alive and have been rescued..

There have been 1,309 after shocks since the main quake on Sunday. The US and China are sending people in to help out people who survived the quake.

Georgia Swamp Fires Continue to Burn

In Savannah Georgia, a fire that has burned since last spring continues to spread slowly through the Okefenokee Swamp. It is burning beneath the ground being fueled by dead plants. The fire has at this time cost $52.7 million and as it continues to burn, the costs will rise.

The fire was started during a storm by lightning on April 28th. It hit the Honey Prairie area in the Okefenokee Swamp near the Florida-Georgia border. The fire at this time spurts up unannounced from areas on the surface of the swamp. There is concern that the fire could return to its fury it showed back in the spring. 14,000 acres of private land has burned, 309,199 total acres or 14 square miles. The cost to taxpayers per day is between $30,000 and $40,000 per day.

17 Killed by Suicide Bomber in Afghanistan

As a bus transporting the International Security Assistance Force was traveling in the Afghan capital, a car loaded with explosives crashed into the bus. 17 people on board died. There were 8 civilians and 5 soldiers killed. They were all Americans. One Canadian solder, three Afghan civilians and a police officer were also killed. It is being labeled as one of the worst ground attacks against foreign troops since 2001.

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During the night on Wednesday as 36 or more miners were working down in the Zaozhuang Fangbei Coal Mine Ltd, a fire broke out trapping all miners.

The mine is located in the Shangdong province in the eastern parts of China.

An air compressor in an underground parking lot of 738 feet, ignited around 6:45pm.

Rescue operations began immediately.

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The Arizona’s Wallow fire is the 2nd largest fire on record for the state of Arizona. Smoke from the fire can be seen as far away as 6 states on the east side of it. Air travel was canceled hundreds of miles away from the fire.

The fire is moving at 5 to 8 miles each day. It has been burning a week now, it may have been started by a campfire left burning with no one near to watch over it.

It has been 12 days now and the fire is still not contained. It has put thousands of residents out of their homes.

The fire is heading towards major electric transmission lines. These lines supply electrical power to thousands of people. It sends power as far east as the state of Texas.

There were two more towns in the direction the fire is going that had to be cleared out on Wednesday. The winds adding fuel to the fire sent the last people heading out of Geer which is a little town near the New Mexico border. It also sent another 7000 people out of the towns of Eagar and Springerville.

They are calling the fire Wallow after the Bear Wallow wilderness country. They are using bulldozers to try and make a roadblock to try and keep the fire away from houses.

It’s a big fire and it’s going to take awhile to put it out. At this time no one has suffered any serious injuries.

So far the flames have burnt 388,480 acres of land or 607 square miles. There are about 2500 people fighting the fire. The firefighters have come from as far away as New York. Winds blowing at 30 mph and wind gust of 60mph are not helping out the situation.

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