Tags
11 dead or missing after ship collision
Dutch rescue workers have called off their search for survivors from a North Sea cargo ship collision with 11 sailors dead or missing in the icy waters and no chance of finding more survivors.
“We have now stopped and we will not begin again tomorrow,” Dutch coastguard spokesman Peter Westenberg told AFP as darkness fell around 4.30pm (1530 GMT). “There is zero chance of finding survivors.”
Rescuers, including the Dutch and Belgian coast guards, on Wednesday plucked 13 surviving members of 24-member crew from the water after the Baltic Ace car carrier collided with the Corvus J container ship and sank about 100km southwest of Rotterdam.
But with the search suspended late on Wednesday after four bodies were found, the chances of finding survivors dropped dramatically.
A Belgian sea rescue helicopter found another body around 11.45am (1045 GMT) yesterday, the coastguard said, bringing the confirmed death toll to five.
11 dead in military plane crash
A military plane has crashed in South Africa’s mountainous east, killing 11 officers, the air force said yesterday.
“On board the aircraft was a crew of six and five passengers and it was confirmed that there are no survivors,” the Air Force said in a statement.
The wreckage of the C-47 Dakota was found in the Drakensberg mountains, after a search a rescue effort hampered by bad weather.
Officials said the plane took off from Pretoria’s Waterkloof Air Force Base and was scheduled to land in Mthatha, a small airport in the Eastern Cape that is the closest to Nelson Mandela’s rural homestead of Qunu, where he has lived since retiring from public life.
A panel has been asked to investigate the cause of the accident.
ANC defeated on Zuma’s home turf
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has suffered an embarrassing electoral defeat, losing control of a ward in President Jacob Zuma’s home municipality, according to election results released yesterday.
The Electoral Commission reported the Inkatha Freedom Party had defeated the ANC in Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal province.
The municipality is the site of Zuma’s controversial homestead, which was upgraded using $28mn of taxpayers’ money.
Inkatha Freedom Party spokesman Joshua Mazibuko said the results showed voters were “no longer hypnotised by the ANC’s dirty tricks which are paraded as government programmes”,
The ANC retained seats in four of the seven by-elections that took place on Wednesday.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
TECHNOLOGY Some 60mn primary-school-age children have no access to formal education
CULTURE Lekhwiya’s El Arabi scores the equaliser after Tresor is sent off; Tabata, al-Harazi score for QSL champions
ARABIA The Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohamed Abdul Majid Qubati, yesterday expressed hope that the 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen declared by the Command of Coalition Forces on Saturday will be maintained in order to lift the siege imposed on Taz City and ease the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged
ARABIA Some 200 teachers from schools across the country attended Qatar Museum’s (QM) first ever Teachers Council at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) yesterday.
ARABIA The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) of Qatar and the Indonesian Supreme Court (SCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial co-operation, it was announced yesterday.
ECONOMY Sri Lanka is keen on importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar as part of government policy to shift to clean energy, Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem has said.
