<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025".
At least 1000 students and teachers were killed or buried in the collapse of another school in quake-hit south-west China, state media reported today. "So far, the number of dead or missing is estimated at more than 1000 at the school," Xinhua news agency said. The report came from Beichuan county, where reports earlier had said up to 5000 people in the area may have been killed by yesterday's 7.8-magnitude quake. Elsewhere, the quake left 500 people dead and 2000 buried under debris in one city, state TV said today, citing the local relief headquarters.
THE first US aid flight has landed in Burma, where some 1.5 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis are still waiting for help. A C-130 military transport plane flew into Rangoon yesterday from Thailand, carrying 12,700 kilograms of water, mosquito nets and blankets. The arrival of the plane follows a week of delays and negotiations and is a huge concession by the nation's military junta.
DHEKIAJULI
The Mumbai Fire Brigade is preparing itself to handle rescue operations all over the city in case of an emergency arising this monsoon. For the first time ever, 10 firemen went to the scenic town of Kolad, about 150 km away from Mumbai on the Goa Highway last week, to attend a course in flash flood management organised by a Canada-based NGO International Rescue Instructor's Authority (IRIA). Experts James Lavelly from Canada and Jeremy Hunter from UK trained the firemen in disaster management, in-commandant support and actual water rescue in the rough river waters of Kolad .
At least 18 people were killed on Saturday in Missouri and Oklahoma after tornadoes swept through the area, authorities in the two states said. There were at least 12 storm-related deaths in Missouri, 10 of those in Newton County on the border with Oklahoma, according to Susie Stonner of the Missouri Emergency Management Agency.
Aid is desperately needed in hard-to-reach parts of Myanmar devastated by the recent cyclone, which triggered huge waves that in some areas swept away more than 90 percent of dwellings and left as many as 90 percent of residents dead or missing, a UNICEF official said Sunday. Osamu Kunii, chief of health and nutrition at UNICEF's office in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, described the dire situation faced by Cyclone Nargis survivors in the Ayeyarwady delta region of southwestern Myanmar in a telephone interview.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has told a U.S. newspaper that he expects the United Nations to "more actively intervene" to help cyclone-hit Myanmar at a time when the military government is reluctant to accept troops from other countries, according to a government official. While noting that the United States is showing "great consideration" by preparing to deploy troops to help Myanmar, Fukuda was quoted as telling the Washington Post on Saturday, "But is it OK to forcibly go there when the (Myanmar) government doesn't want it and what if some conflict occurs?
Emergency crews searched through wreckage on Sunday from violent storms that left a path of destruction from the Midwest to the South and killed more than 20 people in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia. . In Missouri, tornadoes tore through small towns in the southwestern section of the state, near the border with Oklahoma, just after 6:30 p.m. Saturday, overturning cars and smashing buildings.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck China's Sichuan province on Monday, less than 100 km (60 miles) from the provincial capital of Chengdu. The quake was felt across much of China and as far southwest as Bangkok, Thailand's capital, some 3,300 km (2050 miles) away, where office buildings swayed for several minutes. Chengdu a fast-growing metropolis of 10 million people and home to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base is around 1,300 km (2070 miles) southwest of Beijing.
