The latest country to be hit by landslides caused by heavy rain is Uganda. More than 300 people are feared dead in the mountainous Bududa region about 170 miles from Kampala.
Because roads are blocked, mechanical diggers cannot get through to the stricken villages, and rescuers are having to work with their bare hands. President Museveni has criticised farmers for stripping hillsides and residents for building on flood planes.
One survivor said he was in a church when mud suddenly engulfed it. The five people sitting next to him were killed, but he managed to keep his head above the mud. The region often suffers from landslides, but this one is unusually deadly, and more heavy rain is forecast. (See also my blogs of April 17, Oct 10, Nov 12 and 19, 2009, and Feb 21, 2010)
This day….66 years ago saw perhaps the world’s weirdest ever rail disaster. There was no collision, no derailment. Instead a train became stranded in a tunnel in the Italian Apennine mountains because of ice on the track, and more than 520 people – almost everyone on board – died from carbon monoxide poisoning. For the story see A Disastrous History of the World.
Showing posts with label Apennines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apennines. Show all posts
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Sabotating Palestine + strangest rail disaster
Just as US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was praising Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his commitment to peace, the Israelis were busy sabotaging any dwindling prospects there might be, with plans to build illegal settlements in the West Bank for another 73,000 people. Already 400,000 live in illegal Israeli settlements, usually built on hilltops like Crusader castles.
Having given Israel the weapons to massacre 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza and flatten their homes, shops, schools, hospitals and universities, America is now promising to pay for some of the damage, but even then it can’t resist shabby manoeuvres to try to undermine the Palestinians’ democratically elected Hamas government.
The message to the Palestinians seems pretty clear. If you follow Mr Abbas’s line, the Americans will praise you, and every day the Israelis will steal more of your land.
On this day.....65 years ago, one of the most bizarre rail disasters in history happened in a tunnel in Italy. Train 8017 which ran from Naples to Potenza had become known as the “Black Market Express” because many of its passengers were illicit traders. In the early hours of March 3, 1944, the train got stuck in the Galleria delle Armi tunnel in the Apennines, its wheels spinning helplessly on the icy track.
There were just a handful of survivors as carbon monoxide fumes killed 521 people, most of them dying quietly in their sleep.
Having given Israel the weapons to massacre 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza and flatten their homes, shops, schools, hospitals and universities, America is now promising to pay for some of the damage, but even then it can’t resist shabby manoeuvres to try to undermine the Palestinians’ democratically elected Hamas government.
The message to the Palestinians seems pretty clear. If you follow Mr Abbas’s line, the Americans will praise you, and every day the Israelis will steal more of your land.
On this day.....65 years ago, one of the most bizarre rail disasters in history happened in a tunnel in Italy. Train 8017 which ran from Naples to Potenza had become known as the “Black Market Express” because many of its passengers were illicit traders. In the early hours of March 3, 1944, the train got stuck in the Galleria delle Armi tunnel in the Apennines, its wheels spinning helplessly on the icy track.
There were just a handful of survivors as carbon monoxide fumes killed 521 people, most of them dying quietly in their sleep.
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