Continue reading »]]> PORT MORESEBY – Three bodies have been recovered and 16 people are missing, feared dead, after a massive landslide wiped out a remote Papua New Guinea village.

Villagers had to walk three hours to alert authorities in Morobe Province, on PNG’s northwest coast, after days of continual heavy rains caused the landslide early on Monday.

Authorities and local media reported on Wednesday at least five Firangka village houses were wiped out in the Sialum District when the face of an overlooking mountain slid for more than 500m, carving up 200m at its widest.

PNG’s National newspaper reported a village headcount showed 19 people, including women and children, were missing.

“It came so suddenly there was nothing we could do,” said villager Bobby Toby, a retired teacher.

“There were no warning signs, no earthquakes, it just happened,” he said.

Deputy Provincial administrator Patilias Gamato and other local officials visited the remote site by helicopter on Tuesday.

Gamato said PNG’s National Disaster and Emergency Office would see relief supplies reach the area by Thursday.

“Morobe province has a record of disasters that occur during the wet period and everyone, especially remote areas, should be cautious,” he said.

The bodies of a woman and two men were recovered on Monday, while villagers remain optimistic survivors will be found.

Australian relief and aid services based in PNG’s capital Port Moresby are gathering information and assessing the situation.

The village is located in the Zongefifi area about 90km northeast of Lae, PNG’s second largest city, and sits on the fringes of the rugged Sarawaget Range.

16 missing after PNG landslide

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An oil spill in eastern Australia has forced officials to declare a 60 kilometer stretch of the Queensland coast a disaster zone amid warnings that legal action could be taken against the operator of the cargo ship that lost its fuel in stormy seas.

Australian authorities originally said about 30 tons of oil were lost when 31 containers of fertilizer slipped from the Hong Kong-flagged “Pacific Adventurer” ship and punctured fuel tanks in the hull as the ship was battered in cyclone-stirred waters.

Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said Friday the spill was larger than had been reported but did not say exactly how much oil was shed.

The authorities have declared large stretches of normally white-sand beaches along the popular surf region of the Sunshine Coast a disaster zone, as well as Moreton and Bribie islands, which are national parks.
At the beach resort of Coolum, north of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane, dark brown waves rolled ashore instead of the usual whitecaps and aqua waters of the Coral Sea.

Anna Bligh says the causes of this environmental disaster will be thoroughly examined.

“This will be the subject of a full investigation. If there is any evidence that any government agency could have or should have done better, we will certainly be taking all relevant action to address that,” said Bligh. “At this stage my priority is to have teams of people out there cleaning this mess up to protect wildlife in what may well be the worst environmental disaster that Queensland or the south-east of our State has faced.”

Bligh says the ship’s operators would be held liable for the costs of the massive cleanup operation.

The lost 31 containers that held hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer have not been found.

The ship was on its way to Indonesia to deliver its shipment when the accident occurred.

Its owner, Hong Kong-based “Swire,” may face fines of up to $1 million if found guilty of environmental breaches.
Conservationists have warned that oil could be washed up for weeks to come along Queensland’s popular coastline.

Hundreds of people are involved in the clean-up and are trying to stop rivers from being contaminated.

The Queensland government has defended its response to the disaster thus far amid accusations that it failed to act quickly enough.

VOA News – Australia Declares Oil Spill Area Disaster Zone

Continue reading »]]> SYDNEY – A SINGAPORE-OWNED energy delivery company is facing a class action suit over allegations that one of its power lines sparked last week’s deadly Australian bush fires which broke out in the Kinglake area of Victoria state.

Residents there are launching legal proceedings against SP AusNet over a fallen power line which is believed to have started the blaze.

SP AusNet is 51 per cent-owned by Singapore Power and listed on both the Australian and Singapore stock exchanges.

The company said yesterday that it would cooperate fully with any investigation into the cause of the fires.

‘We stand ready to assist the relevant authorities with their enquiries if it is necessary for us to do so now and in the coming months,’ said spokesman Louisa Graham.

Residents to sue Spore firm

Continue reading »]]> Australian police have charged a man with arson causing death over one of the country’s deadly bushfires.

The 39-year-old was also charged with deliberately lighting a bushfire near Churchill, in eastern Victoria state. The blaze killed at least 21 people.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described Australia’s deadliest bushfires as mass murder.

At least 181 people were killed as the fires swept through Victoria in south-east Australia at the weekend.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been charged on three counts – arson causing death, a crime which carries a maximum 25-year prison sentence; and of deliberately starting a bushfire.

He also faces unrelated charges of possessing child pornography.

He did not appear in court in Morwell to hear the charges. His lawyer has described him as psychologically unwell and in a fragile mental state.

After being remanded in custody, the man was transferred to the state capital Melbourne, police say for his own safety because of public anger.

He will appear in court there on Monday.

Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon has said it was possible a devastating blaze that killed at least 15 people in the town of Marysville was also the work of arsonists.

Marysville – a town that was virtually wiped out – remains cordoned off.

Investigators are still scouring the town where 80% of buildings were destroyed, and they had not been able to identify and remove all bodies, State Premier John Brumby said.

In other developments:

• Two men questioned in connection with allegations of looting in a fire-hit area are released without charge

• Police publish a photo-fit of a man wanted for questioning over a suspicious fire that started on Thursday in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe. The fire has been brought under control

• Firefighters are still trying to battle at least a dozen different blazes

• The tally of homes destroyed is now more than 1,800, and the number of people left homeless more than 7,000

• The Australian government plans to hold a national day of mourning and has promised to remove bureaucratic hurdles that have prevented the creation of a nationwide fire alert system.

Meanwhile, more than 150 actors, sports stars, politicians and musicians have taken part in a fundraising telethon.

Australian man charged with arson

Continue reading »]]> Australian police have detained two people suspected of deliberately lighting one of the bushfires which savagely swept through southeast Australia killing at least 181 people and leaving 5,000 homeless.

“The investigation is in its initial stages. Two people are assisting police with inquiries,” a police spokeswoman told Reuters Thursday. Police would not give any further details.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described Australia’s deadliest bushfires last Saturday as “mass murder.”

Authorities say the toll is expected to rise beyond 200 as more bodies are discovered in the charred remains of houses in the southern state of Victoria.

In Victoria, arson carries a jail term of two to 15 years, and 25 years if there’s loss of life.

Several bushfires tore through rural towns north of Melbourne Saturday night, fanned by strong winds and heatwave temperatures.

The disaster area, more than twice the size of London and encompassing more than 20 towns north of Melbourne, has been declared a crime zone. The fires have burnt 1,033 homes and left 5,000 people homeless.

The tragedy is the worst natural disaster in Australia in 110 years. The previous worst bushfire was the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 which killed 75 people.

Reuters

Continue reading »]]> A government official says the death toll from Australia’s worst wildfire disaster has risen to 108.

Authorities counted more victims overnight Monday as they reached further into a huge zone scorched by blazes that ripped across Victoria state at the weekend.

At least 700 homes had been destroyed in the fires that in some cases have razed entire towns.

State Department of Sustainability and Environment spokesman Geoff Russell said Monday that 108 deaths had been confirmed.

Australia’s previous deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia.

The Associated Press: 108 killed in Australia’s worst fire disaster

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Australian emergency crews are stepping up their efforts to tackle wildfires that have ripped through the state of Victoria, killing 25 people.

About 30,000 firefighters are battling nine major fires, and the authorities say they expect more fatalities.

Victoria Premier John Brumby said he was considering an offer from the federal government to send in the army.

Entire townships have been destroyed in the fires, fanned by soaring temperatures and unpredictable winds.

Forecasters are predicting more extremely hot weather in the region – which has seen record temperatures of 47C (117F) in recent days.

‘Absolutely horrific’

Officials say they are battling against the worst fire conditions in the state’s history.

Witnesses described seeing walls of flames, trees exploding and the skies raining ash, as fires tore across 30,000 hectares (115 sq miles) of forests, farmland and towns.

At least 100 homes have been destroyed in Victoria and about 14,000 homes are without power.

Six people have been killed in the township of Kinglake, four at Wandong, three at Strathewen and one at Clonbinane.

One Strathewen resident told ABC local radio how local people had witnessed “absolutely horrific” scenes as they had helped battle the flames.

“The school’s gone, the hall’s gone… some people left it too late. We’ve lost friends, and we’re just waiting for more – children, loved ones,” she said.

The town of Marysville, with about 500 residents, was said to have been burned to the ground.

Local fire officer Greg Esnouf said: “We’re starting to get some reports in now that are very saddening. This latest report says Marysville possibly one building left standing – that’s just shocking.”

Residents were reported to be safe after they sheltered from the blaze in a local park.

‘Tragic day’

Tens of thousands of firefighters are trying to contain blazes in two other states – New South Wales and South Australia – but the fires there were largely contained or burning away from residential areas.

The fire service is using water-bombing aircraft to contain fires and thousands of volunteers are using water hoses.

“It’s obviously a tragic day and a tragic week in our history,” Mr Brumby said.

He said he was considering an offer from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to send the army in to relieve overstretched emergency crews.

Bushfires are common in Australia, but the current blazes are the most deadly since 1983, when 75 people died on a day that became known as Ash Wednesday.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Australia fires rage with 25 dead

Continue reading »]]> The 38-year-old pilot of a Christmas Eve light plane crash in Northern New south Wales is recovering in hospital.

The wreckage of the single-engine Cessna was found on Christmas Day, upside down in trees north-west of Merriwa in the Great Dividing Range.

The plane’s pilot, Sydney auctioneer Scott Kennedy-Green, was winched to safety but his 32-year-old brother-in-law, Matthew Green, died at the scene.

Mr Kennedy-Green suffered broken bones in the crash.

He is in a stable condition in Sydney’s Westmead Hospital.

Plane crash survivor in stable condition – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Continue reading »]]> A pilot who survived a light plane crash on Christmas eve is “devastated” that his brother-in-law died in the accident, family say.

Matthew Green, 32, a NSW builder, was killed when the plane in which he was a passenger crashed into the side of a steep ravine in rugged bushland in the NSW Upper Hunter Valley on Wednesday.

His brother-in-law Scott Kennedy-Green, 38, piloted the single-engine Cessna and remains in a stable condition in a Sydney hospital.

“It is difficult to put into words the loss they are feeling at this time,” a spokeswoman said on behalf of the family.

“Matthew’s mother, Avril Cornish, sister Angela and her husband Scott Kennedy-Green wish to thank everyone for their sympathy and support during such a difficult time.

“They request that they now be left to grieve their loss in privacy.”

The spokeswoman said Mr Kennedy-Green, a Sydney-based property auctioneer, had been in a stable condition since being airlifted to Sydney’s Westmead Hospital, but was “devastated” by his brother-in-law’s death.

Mr Green is survived by his mother, sister and father Robert.

The plane crashed en route from Mudgee to Glen Innes.

The pair are believed to have been scheduled to meet Mrs Kennedy-Green and the couple’s two children.

The Australian Transport and Safety Bureau, police, and the NSW coroner are investigating the crash.

Plane crash survivor ‘devastated’ – Breaking News – National – Breaking News

Continue reading »]]> A trip to see Santa saved a mother and baby who would otherwise have been home when two training flights collided, sending a plane crashing into the family’s new Sydney house, killing two female pilots.

Two women dead after planes collide over Sydney