Massive wildfires threaten two California towns

LOS ANGELES: California fire fighters made a desperate stand as darkness fell on Thursday to save more than 4,000 homes and other structures from a pair of out-of-control wildfires burning about 273-km apart along the California coast. The most imminent danger was to homes around Goleta, near Santa Barbara, where flames were fast approaching 2,600 homes and transmission lines supplying power to 100,000 people on the central coast. All told, some 3,000 residences had been evacuated in and around Goleta, a town of about 30,000 people, and officials said the threat to life and property had made it the state’s top fire fighting priority, despite more than 1,000 other blazes burning across the state.



Millions of truckers in India call off strike

NEW DELHI: Millions of Indian truckers ended a strike early on Friday after the government agreed to supply diesel at a uniform price across the country and not hike road toll taxes. The agreement came after 10 hours of dialogue between representatives of the two sides, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Some 4.8 million truckers had stopped their services since midnight July 2, putting pressure on food and other supplies across the country. “All our issues on service tax have been resolved,” Charan Singh Lohara, who heads the All India Motor Transport Congress, was quoted as saying by the news agency.



Teenage knife crime fatality on rise in UK

LONDON: A 16-year-old boy who was stabbed in south London has died of his injuries, police said on Friday, taking the number of teenagers killed in the British capital this year to 18. The youth, identified by police as Shakilus Townsend, was critically injured on Thursday afternoon. The 17th victim, also a 16-year-old boy, was fatally stabbed in north London early on Sunday. Three teenagers — two aged 18 and a third aged 19 — are due in court later on Friday charged with the murder last weekend. Townsend is the 13th teenager to be stabbed to death this year. He was pronounced dead in hospital after being taken there from the doorway to a block of flats. Detective Chief Inspector Cliff Lyons, leading the murder hunt, said: “This is another senseless incident in which a young life has been taken away by a knife.”



179 held in Tibetans protest in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Shaven headed nuns and monks in maroon robes were among 179 “free Tibet” protesters detained in the Nepali capital on Friday as they tried to storm a visa office of the Chinese embassy, police said. The refugees were hauled into police vans and trucks after a brief scuffle with the riot police. More than 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal, after fleeing a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Nepal considers Tibet part of China and has briefly detained thousands of the exiled Tibetans protesting against Beijing since the deadly crackdown on protests in the region mid-March.



38 drown in Myanmar

YANGON: At least 38 people died when their ferry sank in a river in Myanmar’s cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta, official newspapers reported on Friday. Another 44 passengers were rescued on Tuesday morning when the vessel sank in the Yway River near Myaungmya, one of the delta towns worst hit by Cyclone Nargis in early May. “The boat sank after water entered the stern as it travelled to Myaungmya from a nearby village on July 1,” the state-owned Myanma Alin newspaper said. Boat accidents are common in the impoverished army-ruled country where several sinkings or collisions involving overloaded vessels occur each year. Many boats in the Irrawaddy delta were destroyed by the cylcone’s 120 mph winds and 12 ft sea surge. The storm left more than 138,000 people dead or missing.



BD train crash claims six lives

DHAKA: A police official says six people have died after a passenger train ploughed into a car at an unmanned crossing in eastern Bangladesh. Police official Mohammad Shah Alam says the accident happened on Friday in Narshingdi district, 40 kilometres east of Dhaka. All the victims were travelling in the car. Alam says there was no major damage to the train, the Mohanagar Express, which continued its journey from the south-eastern city of Chittagong to Dhaka. Such accidents are common in Bangladesh because of poor signalling.