40 killed in bus accident in Nepal

Kathmandu: At least 40 people were killed on Thursday when a crowded passenger bus skidded off a hilly road and fell into Sunkoshi River in eastern Nepal.

The bus plunged into the river at Ritthebhir area in Jhangajholi village of Sindhuli district, 150 km east of Kathmandu, killing 40 people and injuring 16 others, police said. However, 11 people traveling on the roof of the bus managed to jump off as the bus went out of control. The bus was en route to the capital.

Police and rescue workers carried out the rescue works with the help of local people. The injured passengers have been brought to Kathmandu for medical treatment, police said.

This is the biggest bus accident in Nepal after the Vijaya Dashami festival. Although the exact reason of the accident could not be known yet, it is presumed that overload might have caused the accident.

The dilapidated roads, old public transport vehicles and overcrowded bus are the main causes of high way accidents in Nepal.

Biggest quake in 80 years kills nine in Nepal

Kathmandu: After initial panic and chaos, prayers began to be offered in Nepal with the realisation that the earthquake that hit its eastern region and capital city Kathmandu along with India on Sunday could have wreaked far greater devastation, being the biggest in almost eight decades. Nine people were killed.

As the resilient Himalayan state began to limp back to normal on Monday following a trembler measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, the toll had risen to at least nine with the news of another unconfirmed casualty, while over 100 people had received injuries with hundreds of houses and buildings collapsing.

The cramped capital, full of decrepit houses and little adherence to building regulations, suffered with three people dying in a wall collapse while over 50 were injured trying to jump down from windows and balconies in the panic.

Police said on Monday the nine ft wall fencing the compound of the British Embassy in the Lainchaur area of the capital, close to the Indian Embassy, collapsed on Sunday evening, soon after the jolt, smashing down on a two-wheeler, a car and a pedestrian.

Sajan Shrestha, a 38-year-old security guard employed by the Danish government's aid agency Danida was riding past the embassy on his two-wheeler with his teenaged daughter Anisha when the concrete wall fell on them, injuring both severely.

A passerby, Bir Bahadur Majhi, in his late teens, was also fatally injured.

Army and armed police personnel assisted by locals dug out the three from under the debris and rushed them to the Manmohan Memorial Hospital where all three succumbed to their injuries.

Four more people in a passing car were also injured and were receiving medical treatment, police said.

In Dharan town in eastern Sunsari district, a popular recruitment centre for the Indian and British Armies, Santosh Pariyar, in his 30s, a tailor associated with the Nepal Army, and his nephew Bimal Pariyar, 7, died when the roof of their room collapsed.

On Monday morning, more casualties were reported.

A sixth man, Ishwor Gyawali, was killed in Bhaktapur district in Kathmandu valley.

In the east, a 40-year-old woman, Madhu Karki, had been killed in Dhankuta district, and an eighth, a young girl identified as Ayesha Ghimire, had succumbed to injuries in Mechi town close to the Indian border.

The ninth death was reported from Sankhuwasabha district with the victim identified as Pradeep Rai.

The National Seismological Centre said it was the biggest tremor to hit Nepal since 1934 when a quake measuring 8.4 had killed over 8,500 people in the Himalayan state alone besides causing damage in India's Bihar state.

Officials said Nepal was spared greater havoc this time since the epicentre of the quake was farther away in Sikkim in northeastern India and not in Bihar, the Indian state adjoining Nepal's boundary.

The probability of yet another immediate jolt was also lessened by nearly three dozen smaller tremors appearing in quick succession after the biggest one.

"I thought I had a bout of dizziness," said Pramila Majhi, a construction worker who had taken her son to the doctor's when the quake struck. "The room spun around, the walls tilted. I knew I could not run down to the streets with my sick son. So I simply prayed."

Hundreds of people rushed out on the streets in the capital with little open space, crying and taking the names of gods as the tremors started. There were scenes of people jumping down from upper stories and sustaining injuries.

In two prisons in the capital - the Central Jail and Dillibazar Jail - some prisoners received broken arms and legs in the ensuing stampede as they tried to run out.

In Thamel, Kathmandu's tourist area, and the nearby five-star hotels, foreign guests rushed out on the streets and could be persuaded to go back to their rooms only after the alarm subsided.

The chaos was compounded by heavy rains and a temporary power blackout. Telephone lines were hit and the dark roads were filled with the blare of ambulances.

Nepal's parliament was in session when the quake struck, causing alarmed lawmakers to scream and run out for safety. Chairman Subash Nembang said he was adjourning the house for some time.

Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, poised to depart for New York on Sunday night to attend the 66th UN General Assembly, called an emergency meeting of the cabinet to discuss rescue and relief measures.

Panic also spread among mountaineers on different expeditions in the Himalayan region and many houses in northern Lukla district, considered the gateway to Mt Everest, had developed cracks.

Sikkim quake: 30 killed, over 200 injured; herculean rescue operation underway

Gangtok/ New Delhi: The toll in Sikkim following Sunday's powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake rose to 18 on Monday, an official said in Gangtok.

The high-intensity quake was followed by two after-shocks and had its epicentre on the Sikkim-Nepal border.

Extensive damages to several buildings were reported in various parts of Sikkim due to the earthquake,  whose epicentre was said to be was located at Mangan and Sakyong areas, over 50 km from Gangtok on Sikkim-Nepal border. The earthquake is being described as the biggest in 20 years in the northeast.

The number of those injured in the earthquake crossed 200 as reports came in here from different areas.

Sikkim has been cut off from the rest of the country with the national highway 31-A blocked in at least eight places following heavy mudslides, said G. Anandan, district magistrate, Sikkim East.

As many as 25 concrete bridges were damaged between Siliguri and Gangtok on the 120 km long national highway 31-A, he said.

The Sikkim secretariat also developed cracks, he added.

More updates on Sikkim earthquake:

# Road from Pegong to Chungthang tehsil washed away due to landslide.

# NDRF personnel are waiting for the highway to be cleared.

# Sikkim govt confirms 18 deaths. Rescue team of state has reached Mangan area of north Sikkim but they are yet to get input from Chungthang.

# Big landslides all over NH 31A - the lifeline of Sikkim. NDRF forces are still stranded in Siliguri.

# A herculean rescue operation begins as NDRF and Army battalions reach Sikkim.

# Missing vehicle including Army personnel found, all safe: Report

# 10 army Combat Engineers Columns deployed for opening major roadblocks on Siliguri-Gangtok.

# No casualties reported so far from Bhutan but building damages, road blocks and few minor injuries reported.

Quake kills six in Bihar

At least six people were killed and dozens injured in several parts of Bihar, police said Monday.

Two people died in Nawada, and one in Darbhanga, Nalanda, Bhagalpur and Patna each, Additional Director General of Police Rajvardhan Sharma said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced Rs.1.5 lakh compensation for the kin of each of the deceased. 

Quake kills six in West Bengal

At least six people were killed and over 200 injured in northern districts in West Bengal.

Two people died in Siliguri, three in Darjeeling and one in Jalpaiguri district, police said.

Many buildings developed cracks and the neighbouring Himalayan state of Sikkim was cut-off from north Bengal by landslides triggered by the tremors in Darjeeling's Kalimpong and Kurseong hill sub-divisions. 

Quake jolts north India 

Tremors were felt in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Delhi, according to Indian Meteorological Department.

One of the two persons was killed at Singtham in East Sikkim district and another died just outside Singtham, Sikkim Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso said.

According to officials, two buildings of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) collapsed in Pegong area though there was no immediate report of any casualty.

Three after shocks of 5.7, 5.3 and 4.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale were felt in the region within 30 minutes of the first quake.

Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force - five each from Delhi and Kolkata - are being sent to assist in the relief and rescue operations, R K Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Disaster Management, in the Home Ministry, said.



Reports said that phone lines got congested in Bengal and parts of Sikkim faced immediate power cut. However, no cases of any immediate damage and casualty have been reported from any parts of the country so far.



Many people were injured, power supply was disrupted in parts of northern West Bengal and houses developed cracks as a powerul quake, epicentred in adjoining Sikkim, rocked the region.

North Bengal Affairs Minister Gautam Deb said the quake triggered landslides in Kalimpong and Kurseong sub-divisions while several patients in a nursing home in Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling district were injured.

 5 killed in Nepal

At least five people were killed when a strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake jolted various parts of this Himalayan country on Sunday.

Three people were killed when a high brick wall of the British Embassy here collapsed due to earthquake.

A man and his daughter and another pedestrian died after the wall of the Embassy at Lainchaur collapsed on them, according to sources at the Sorhakhutte Police Station.

Two more people killed in Dsaran municipality in eastern Nepal which was close to the epicentre of the quake.

At least 27 people in the capital were injured when they panicked and ran outside after the quake.

The Indian Embassy premises which is adjoining to the British Embassy compound did not suffer any damage, according to a mission spokesperson.

There was continuous rain in Kathmandu during the tremor and the foundation of the wall might have been weakened due to the rain and finally collapsed during the tremor, eye-witnesses said.

Petrol costlier in India than in US, Pakistan

New Delhi: Petrol prices in India are costlier than the US but cheaper than European countries, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh said.     

Petrol in Delhi is priced at Rs 63.70 a litre, while the same in USA is priced at Rs 42.82 per litre. The price in India is more than any of its neighbours -- Pakistan (Rs 41.81 a litre), Sri Lanka (Rs 50.30 per litre), Bangladesh (Rs 44.80 a litre) and Nepal (Rs 63.24 per litre). 

But the rate in Delhi is cheaper than France (Rs 94.97 per litre), Germany (Rs 95.99 a litre), the United Kingdom (Rs 96.39 per litre) and Italy (Rs 96.79 a litre), he said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha here.

Higher rates for petrol in India are due to higher incidence of taxes. Without taxes, petrol would cost Rs 23.37 per litre in Delhi.

The diesel price in Delhi, at Rs 41.29 per litre, is cheaper than in the US and European nations, but costlier than Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Without taxes, diesel would cost Rs 24.9 a litre.

The current price of diesel in Delhi is Rs 4.97 a litre below its actual cost. 

In the US, diesel is priced at Rs 45.84 a litre, while in France, it costs Rs 69.87 per litre.

In Germany, diesel costs Rs 72.54 a litre, while it is priced at Rs 82.93 a litre in the UK and Rs 74 per litre in Italy.

In the neighbourhood, diesel is priced at Rs 46.70 a litre in Pakistan, Rs 45.38 a litre in Nepal, Rs 34.37 a litre in Sri Lanka and Rs 27.32 per litre in Bangladesh.

Singh said the PDS kerosene price of Rs 14.83 a litre in Delhi was the lowest in the region, with the cooking fuel priced at Rs 44.06 per litre in Pakistan, Rs 24.67 in Sri Lanka, Rs 27.32 in Bangladesh and Rs 45.38 a litre in Nepal.

Similarly, the domestic LPG rate of Rs 399 per 14.2-kg cylinder is lower than the price tag of Rs 757.04 in Pakistan, Rs 863.40 in Sri Lanka, Rs 469.24 in Bangladesh and Rs 819.60 in Nepal.

The price of kerosene is subsidised by Rs 23.74 a litre and LPG by Rs 247 per cylinder in India.    

Singh said oil marketing companies pay a Trade Parity Price (TPP) for the purchase of petrol/diesel and Import Parity Price (IPP) for the purchase of PDS kerosene and domestic LPG.     

"The IPP/TPP are determined based on prices prevailing in the international market," he said. "Further, the retail selling prices of sensitive petroleum products for the consumers is calculated by adding the inland freight, marketing margins and duties and taxes to the price paid to refinery."

The government controls prices of diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG to insulate the common man from the impact of rising oil prices in international markets, he added.