News in Brief-(2023-10-31)
Tuesday, 31 October 2023
12 perish in Amazon plane crash
BRASILIA, Oct 30: Twelve people, including a baby, died Sunday in a small plane crash in the Brazilian Amazon, officials said. The plane, a single engine Cessna Caravan, came down near the airport of Rio Branco shortly after takeoff, the government of the northwestern state of Acre said in a statement. Ten passengers-nine adults and an infant-as well as the pilot and co-pilot all died at the scene, it said. According to local press reports, the plane erupted in flames on impact, causing a forest fire in a remote area near Brazil's border with Peru and Bolivia. — AFP
6.9m internally displaced in DR Congo
GENEVA, Oct 30: The number of internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached a record 6.9 million due to escalating violence, the United Nations said Monday. "With ongoing conflict and escalating violence, the DRC is facing one of the largest internal displacement and humanitarian crises in the world," the UN's International Organization for Migration said in a statement. — AFP
Militants kill labourer in Kashmir
SRINAGAR, Oct 30: Suspected rebels shot dead a labourer in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday, a day after a police officer was critically wounded by unknown gunmen in the disputed region, police said. The killing is the latest violence in the restive Muslim-majority region, which is also claimed by Pakistan. The labourer, from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was shot in Kashmir's Pulwama district and later "succumbed to his injuries", police said, without giving further details. —AFP
Kazakhstan mine blast toll hits 45
ASTANA, Oct 30: The death toll from a coal mine accident in central Kazakhstan has reached 45, said the Ministry of Emergency Situations said on Sunday. Rescue operations are still going on for one missing miner after a fire broke out Saturday at the Kostenko mine of the ArcelorMittal Temirtau company in the city of Karaganda, the ministry said in a statement. Earlier on Saturday, the Kazakh government declared Sunday a national mourning day for the victims. — Xinhua