Author: Himalaya Post

ULAN BATOR – Floods in Mongolia have killed 63 people, including 15 children, so far this year, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Monday. “Two deaths were reported last weekend,” the NEMA said in a statement, warning that the water in major rivers had risen to dangerous levels and urging residents living along rivers to take precautions. Heavy downpours have been hitting Mongolia since the beginning of July, triggering massive flooding in some areas. Meteorologists said the heavy rainfall will not stop until mid August. ...

MATARAM, Indonesia – Indonesia Monday sent rescuers fanning out across the holiday island of Lombok and evacuated more than 2,000 tourists after a powerful earthquake killed at least 98 people and damaged thousands of buildings. The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake sparked terror among tourists and locals alike, coming just a week after another deadly tremor surged through Lombok and killed 17 people. Rescuers on Monday searched for survivors in the rubble of houses, mosques and schools destroyed in the latest disaster on Sunday evening. National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said there were fears a number of people were trapped in the ruins of a collapsed mosque in the northern village of Lading-Lading. Footage he posted on Twitter showed the large concrete mosque had pancaked. A lack of heavy equipment and shattered roads were hampering efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north and east of the island, which had been hardest hit. Najmul Akhyar, the head of North Lombok district, estimated that 80 percent of that region was damaged by the quake. “We expect the number of fatalities to keep rising,” Nugroho said. “All victims who died are Indonesians.” He said up to 20,000 people may have had to quit their homes on Lombok and paramedics, food and medication were badly needed. The spokesman said search and rescue teams also rescued between 2,000 and 2,700 tourists from the...

DHAKA – Bangladesh’s government on Monday approved the draft of Road Transport Act 2018 with provisions for stringent punishment to the traffic offenders. The draft was approved at a cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told reporters. The proposed law stipulates that the traffic offenders will risk being sentenced up to 5 years in non-bailable jail. The country’s existing transport law entitled the maximum penalty of three years behind bars with the provision of bail. The move comes in the wake of the countrywide student protests that erupted after two students died on the spot, while another nine of the Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College were injured after they were run over by a bus in a reckless driving incident on the highway linking Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport with the center of Dhaka on July...

Dhaka [Bangladesh] – As many as eight journalists have been allegedly beaten up by activists of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party, while they were covering the student protests on road safety in Dhaka. The eight journalists also include – Prothom Alo’s staff correspondent Ahmed Deepto, Associated Press (AP) photo-journalist AM Ahad, Daily Banik Barta’s Palash and freelancer Rahat Karim. The wounded journalists are undergoing medical treatment at various hospitals in the Bangladeshi capital, Prothom Alo reported. The activists of AL’s front organisations – Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and its youth wing Awami Juba League physically attacked the journalists while they were reporting on the attacks on the students protesting at Science Lab and Jhigatola areas in Dhaka. Prothom Alo’s Deepto said that a group of journalists were covering the protests at Dhanmondi-1 area when a large number of BCL activists started chasing the students. Deepto added that as the journalists and the students started to run for safety, he was brutally hit in his leg by a BCL activist with an iron rod. “As much as 20-25 activists beat me up mercilessly,” he alleged. Depto further said that during the assault, his helmet was broken. For those unversed, two students of Dhaka’s Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College were killed when a speeding bus ploughed through a crowd on July 29. The bus was attempting to overtake another...