9 Indian migrant workers among 11 killed in Maldives apartment fire |
According to Sun, there were 38 migrants living in the cramped M. Nirufehi
single-window, wooden-floored, three-storey, crowded apartments building in
Maafannu district of Capital Male. There is a gas cylinder next to each bed,
says the Defence Force.
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MALE, Nov 10: Eleven people, including nine Indians were killed in a fire in
Male on Thursday morning. The fire occurred at a residential complex lodging
foreign workers in the Capital of Maldives in the wee hours. The toll may go
up as it is not known how many people were there in the building. According
to Sun, there were 38 migrants living in the cramped M. Nirufehi single-window,
wooden-floored apartments building in Maafannu district. Police said 14 people
were rescued from the building.
Ten bodies were recovered but they were all burnt beyond recognition (The official
versions do not tally). One man is in critical condition in the Indira Gandhi
Memorial Hospital (IGMH).
The building was a wooden-flloored three-storey structure. The neighbouring
houses also suffered significant damages. There was another fire incident at
the garage below recently.
There are conflicting versions on the fire. The fire reportedly followed an
explosion. The building in the densely populated tourist destination in the
archipelago may have caught fire from the ground floor garage auto service shop.
It is also said the poor workers use small cooking gas cylinders which may have
exploded. There is a gas cylinder next to each bed, says Maldives National Defence
Force (MNDF). The upper floors from where the bodies have been recovered were
completely gutted, according to Mihaaru News.
Avas news reported: The fire broke out at a garage in M. Nirufehige early Thursday,
and police received reports of the incident at 12:17 am. MNDF was alerted at
around 12:30 am and Fire and Rescue were on the scene by 12:33 am. Ninety percent
of the fire was contained by 4:00 am, and completely quelled by 4:34 am.
The fire service said that it took about four hours to put out the fire. A
security official said the dead included nine Indians and a Bangladesh national.
Maldives president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said that an investigation into the
incident is currently underway. “The dangerous fire incident in the city yesterday
is a very sad incident. Many people have lost their lives and a large number
have been injured. The incident is currently being investigated. Condolences
to the families of the deceased,” he tweeted.
"We are deeply saddened by the tragic fire incident in Malé which has caused
loss of lives, including reportedly of Indian nationals. We are in close contact
with the Maldivian authorities," a tweet by the High Commission of India.
High Commission helpline numbers: +9607361452 ; +9607790701
Male has a population of 250,000 in the archipelago of about six lakh people.
Most of them are from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They
live in overcrowded conditions.
Earlier, on August 28, 2020 night, a fire broke out in a building in Capital
Male city's Henveiru Ward, where several high profile offices are located. Maldives
National Defence Force (MNDF)'s Fire and Rescue Service put out the fire. No
one was injured.
There was another major fire incident on April 18, 2016 at the two-storey Coastline
store located on the densely populated Capital’s main thoroughfare Majeedhee
Magu.
About Maldives
The Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, that spans the equator, is comprised of
1,192 islands in a length of 871 km. In an area of 90,000 sq km, only 298 sq
km is dry land. It is located southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about 750 km
from mainland. The isles are sitting on coral reefs. The best time to visit
Maldives is November to April, that is, avoiding the monsoon. A conservative
Islamic country, pork products and alcohol are banned. Alcoholic drinks are
available in resorts. it is a honeymoon destination. There are 150 luxury resort
islands. Tourists need to be careful about Lionfish in the islands. Its spines are highly venomous. The islands are known for water sports and pristine beaches. Fisheries
and tourism constitute the major sources of income in Maldives. Prevalence of
infectious and vector-borne diseases are high.
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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What caused Air India Boeing 787 crash? Some questions, some answers | |
The CCTV footage and the video circulating on social media do not indicate any serious abnormalities in takeoff or descent, it has been confirmed. The disaster is becoming curiouser and curiouser. The flight path was not curvy. And the aircraft maintained a steady, gliding descent with its nose straight and the wings perfectly level. The pilot's distress call does not specify what prevented lift and climb-out. Here are some expert opinions. The sole purpose is to raise travellers' awareness about air travel.
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
- The Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line provides Kashmir with all-weather connectivity and integrates the Valley with the rest of India.
- The saying 'Kashmir to Kanyakumari' is now a dream come true.
- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
railway bridge, taller than the Eiffel Tower. (Video: File)
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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As tourist inflow is an indicator of normalcy returning to an erstwhile terrorist infested Valley, the Government has been trying hard to make everything travel-friendly, launching lot many projects and bringing Kashmir on the national rail map that physically completes the process of Kashmir's integration with the rest of India. And that defeats the designs of Pakistan eyeing Kashmir and simply explains a recrudescence of terrorism in J&K.
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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ANALYSIS: There is a lot of hue and cry around the world over Trump's tariffs. But tariff, simply put, is a tax. But unlike tax, it affects the exporting country too. Domestic prices will go up for some time. Nothing more will happen, good or bad!
What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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PROGNOSIS: It looks a Real New Trump is emerging - courageous, balanced, powerful and disinterested. Determined to save his country from the cliff, he has done quite a few draconian things that will reduce the burden of debts of the Federal entity, like the golden handshake, stopping senseless funding, pulling out of a worthless WHO. Shutting the Education Department is another. On the other hand, running it is also not the Centre's job either (We will convincingly elaborate it in the next chapter).
In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
THE AMERICAN CONUNDRUM: Political venom has migrated to top echelons in the US. It was reported last year NASA has become politicised, vitiated. But NASA refuted the charge. How Boeing developed a glitch but its unmanned return was smooth. When Suni-Wilmore were stranded last June, why the return was set for February? Because that comes only after January 20! SpaceX called the shots, for itself and for Trump. Then the mission was manipulated for March for a better bargain! In between, what made Elon Musk 'predict' during campaign if Kamala Harris wins he would be in jail. In politics, it is said, "the only rule is there are no rules." Difficult times for Americans too.
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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Neighbours Calling
Bhutan
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
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Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
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Gujarat
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