At least 38 people were killed and dozens more wounded yesterday when a crowded bus detonated a land mine planted by suspected communist rebels in Nepal's south, an army official said.
The bus was traveling on a rural highway near the village of Badarmude when it was ripped apart by the explosion, an army official said on condition of anonymity. Army officials are not allowed to reveal their names in Nepal for security reasons.
Thirty-eight people died and 72 others were wounded, some of them critically, the official said.
A nearby hospital was overwhelmed with patients, with not enough doctors to perform surgery, local reporters said.
Police suspect the land mine was planted by Maoist rebels, who have been fighting since 1996 to abolish Nepal's constitutional monarchy and set up a communist state.
The guerrillas have stepped up violence since Feb. 1, when King Gyanendra took control of the government and imposed a state of emergency that was lifted in April.
Government troops moved in after the blast, searching for rebels and taking control of the area 180km southwest of the capital Kathmandu, according to army headquarters.
Some of the injured were being flown to Kathmandu on army helicopters, while about 18 were transported on ambulances to a nearby district hospital at Bharatpur.
At least three children were in critical condition, local reporters said.
The injured passengers said they had no indication there would be a mine on the rural road.
"There was a small bang and then our bus was thrown in the air. The bus was ripped into pieces and many people were killed," said Khum Bahadur Gurung, 62, who spoke from his hospital bed.
Gurung's legs were battered in the explosion.
Another eyewitness, Surya Gurung, 20, said the bus was crowded with nearly 100 people. When he regained consciousness he was in the hospital.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS