Three provinces in Thailand’s 14-province southern region have been hard hit by floods as a seasonal monsoon is creating havoc in the region, especially Narathiwat, Phattalung, and Yala where Thai Army units have been pressed into service to help evacuate communities that are cut off.
About 1,000 houses have been flooded in the southern province of Narathiwat, hard hit by heavy rain for almost a week.
At least 53 people have been killed in a fire in a nightclub in the Thai capital, Bangkok, police say.
More than 100 others were injured in the blaze, which broke out as people celebrated the New Year.
Witnesses said bodies were laid out on the pavement in front of the club, named as the Santika, in central Bangkok’s Thong Lor district.
Police said they were investigating what sparked the fire in the club, popular with both Thais and foreigners.
The blaze was now under control but the death toll could rise, a fire official said.
NEW DELHI (AP) — The Indian Coast Guard rescued two people off India’s east coast during a search for more than 300 illegal immigrants missing for the past four days and feared dead, police said Tuesday.
At least 10 bodies have washed ashore near the Andaman Islands, said S.P. Sharma, the Coast Guard inspector-general on the islands.
Survivors told Indian authorities that more than 300 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar had jumped from a rickety boat that had been drifting for 13 days in the Indian Ocean and tried to swim to shore. Authorities rescued 105 others after pulling in the boat.
FERNIE, British Columbia (AP) — Search teams recovered the bodies of seven snowmobilers Monday, a day after they were swept away by avalanches in western Canada’s backcountry, police said. An eighth man was missing and believed dead.
The bodies were found late Monday afternoon as searchers plowed through avalanche debris near Fernie in British Columbia’s Elk Valley, about 550 miles east of Vancouver, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Chris Faulkner.
Eleven snowmobilers were hit by back-to-back avalanches on Sunday. Eight were buried but three from the group clawed through the snow and reached safety.
BETHESDA, Md. — Numerous motorists were rescued Tuesday morning after a 66-inch water main broke in the area of River Road and Bradley Boulevard in Montgomery County.
The water main broke just before 8 a.m., sending 150,000 gallons of water a minute down River Road. As many as 18 cars may have been trapped in the water, which is said to be 3 to 4 feet high in some places.
A helicopter rescued people using a basket and transported them to safety. Crews in boats and a fire truck rescued others.
A light plane crashed in Taranaki on Sunday, leaving a top dressing pilot dead.
Kevin Ross Brown, 48, died at the scene when his single engine plane crashed on a farming property in Tarata, 19km east of Ingelwood.
The Taranaki Rescue helicopter, police, ambulance and fire personal attended the crash scene which happened about noon at a rural area inland from Inglewood.
The plane crashed into the hillside not far from the airstrip.
At least 28 people have been killed and 22 others are missing after an inter-island ferry capsized in northeastern Philippines.
The vessel, “Maejan,” carrying at least 96 passengers was approaching its destination in the town of Aparri in the Cagayan province after a seven-hour journey from Calayan islands when it overturned near the mouth of the Cagayan River on Sunday evening.
Initial reports said there were only 60 passengers onboard the ferry with 13 dead but these figures were later updated by the coast guard.
The death toll of a road accident in southern Egypt has risen to 57, the state MENA news agency reported on Sunday, citing a senior official.
Minya Governor Ahmed Diaaeddin said the bus carrying 70 passengers was traveling to Beni Sueif when the accident occurred.
On Sunday morning, the coach overturned some 200 km south of Cairo on the way from the southern city of Minya to Beni Sueif, said MENA.
The bus plunged into Al-Ibrahimia canal as the driver was trying to avoid a speedy truck coming from the opposition direction, Diaaeddin was quoted as saying.
Earlier reports said most of the victims drowned in the canal before rescuers can reach them.
More than 20 ambulances rushed to the spot to take part in rescue operations, said Diaaeddin, adding both drivers are being held pending investigations.
Earlier reports said at least 51 people were killed in the road accident, one of the deadliest tragedies in the country in recent years.
Traffic accidents are common in Egypt with an estimated annual death toll of some 6,000 people.
On Monday, a bus carrying Coptic students overturned about 30 km south of Cairo, killing at least 13 people and injuring 30 others.
On Dec. 1, at least 14 people were killed and 11 others injured when a lorry collided with two microbuses near the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, some 220 km northwest of Cairo.
The Egyptian traffic authorities implemented a new traffic code with tougher punishments for lawbreakers as of Aug. 1 in a bid to reduce road accidents.
Torrential rain caused flash floods across much of the UK over the weekend, inundating hundreds of homes and claiming the life of an elderly motorist whose car was swamped by nearly three feet of water.
At one point, there were more than 300 flood warnings in place, with south-western England accounting for about a third of incidents. The Midlands, South Coast and parts of Wales and Scotland were also affected.
KOTA BARU, MALAYSIA - The floods have started to hit Kelantan and Terengganu. As of 3pm yesterday, 794 people from Jeli district in Kelantan were evacuated to six relief centres when their houses were flooded with 0.5 to 1.5m of water.
The floods also shut down the main road from Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur at Kampung Sungai Durian, Kuala Krai, which came under 0.7m of water.
Another road section closed was the Km15 Jeli-Jelawang stretch near Kampung Reka, which was hit by 1.5m of floodwaters.
