Four rescued off California coast after abandoning ship
Four people who jumped from a sinking tugboat onto a life
raft have been rescued in Big Sur off the coast of central California,
the Coast Guard said. The crew sent out a distress call after the ship
began sinking in rough seas on Saturday afternoon. A rescue helicopter
located the men about 13 miles out to sea. The crew was picked up and
brought to Monterey for evaluation, no injuries were reported.
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51 infected with new bird flu in China
The new strain of the H7N9 bird flu virus that emerged
last month in eastern China continues to spread, with more cases being
reported outside the originally infection zones. The virus has already
killed 11 people in Shanghai and in the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu
and Anhui. Authorities have placed those exposed to the infected under
observation. Beijing has vowed total transparency in order to avoid a
repeat of the panic of 2003, when a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) pandemic killed 1/10th of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
6.6-magnitude earthquake hits Papua New Guinea
A powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck 74 kilometers west of
Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea on Sunday. No damage has been
reported so far, and no tsunami alert has been issued. This earthquake,
which was recorded at a depth of 64 kilometers, is typical for the
geologically active ‘Pacific Ring of Fire.’ A recent 7.9-magnitude quake
in the region in early February caused a tsunami that killed five
people in the neighboring Solomon Islands.
One missing in Washington state avalanches
One hiker went missing after two avalanches struck two
separate groups in the mountains of Washington state east of Seattle on
Saturday. A second missing man was later found injured but alive. In one
instance, an avalanche struck a group of three, and two of the hikers
suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being dragged nearly a
quarter of a mile at speeds of over 50 mph, a local sheriff’s sergeant
told Reuters. The third man from their group remains unaccounted for. In
the other incident, a party of 13 snowshoers was hit by an avalanche
that buried a woman in their group under 6 feet of snow. The woman was
dug out and later brought down in a sled by rescuers. She suffered
hypothermia and other possible injuries, the sheriff’s sergeant said.
At least 34 dead in Peru bus crash
At least 34 people have died and scores injured when a
bus dropped 200 metres down a ravine in Peru, local authorities have
announced. The incident happened on a mountain road near the town of
Otuzco, almost 570km north of the capital of Lima. Forty-three
passengers were aboard the bus when it left the town of Manchu headed
toward the regional capital of Trujillo.
Airbus hits tower in Brasilia, no casualties
An Airbus A330 has hit the lighting tower at the Brasilia
international airport in the Brazilian capital. No one on board was
injured during the incident, local media reported. According to
preliminary information, the Airbus with some 260 people aboard, scraped
the tower with the left wing when the plane touched down. The aircraft
belonged to the Portuguese airline TAP and was flying from Lisbon.
China’s bird flu spreading other province
Two more people have been diagnosed with the H7N9 bird
flu virus as the infection spread to another province. The new cases
are reported in central Henan just west of the area where the disease
has been centred. So far 11 people have died and another 51 have been
infected since the Chinese authorities announced two weeks ago they had
found H7N9 in humans for the first time.
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