Spain Train Accident: 77 Reported Dead

follow @moshbyte on twitter for more or like on facebook Mosh Byte

 

 

 

Investigators are trying to determine what caused a train in northern Spain to jump the tracks, killing 77 people and injuring more than 140.

The derailment Wednesday near a station outside the ancient city of Santiago de Compostela is Spain's deadliest train crash since 1972 when a train collided with a bus in southern Spain, killing 80 people.

Emergency workers worked through the night to rescue survivors. Television footage showed smoke rising from the wreckage and bodies covered by blankets alongside the tracks next to the twisted metal of the train's eight cars.

Rescue teams used cranes Thursday to move the carriages from the scene of the derailment.

Russian hospital blaze kills 38 people

follow @moshmustapha on twitter for more or like on facebook Mosh Byte



A fire in a Russian psychiatric hospital is thought to have killed up to 38 people, according to Russian officials and media reports.

The ministry said 12 bodies have been recovered so far and the fire, which started in the early hours of Thursday morning, has now been extinguished.

The single-storey hospital in the village of Ramensky, lies 120 kilometres north of Moscow.

Venice's Grand Canal to be Closed for first time in Memory

follow @moshmustapha on twitter for more or like on facebook Mosh Byte

It is normally choked with vaporetto ferries, launches and smart wood-panelled speedboats, but Venice's Grand Canal will be closed to motorised craft for the first time in living memory on Sunday - Nick Squires.

A boat with protesters sails along the Grand Canal displaying a banner against Cruise Ships crossing Venice

The idea is to highlight the damage done to canal banks by the wake of boats and cut down on air and water pollution – if only for a few hours.

The lagoon city wants to encourage the use of boats with reduced fuel emission levels.
To underscore the point, there will be a display of electricity-powered boats.
Gondolas – which are propelled by gondoliers using only muscle power – will be exempt from the ban.
The closure, which will last from 10am until 3pm, is said to be the first of its kind ever imposed.
It will affect the entire length of the Grand Canal, which winds for more than two and a half miles between centuries-old palazzi, merchant's houses, churches and luxury hotels.
It has been described as "the finest street in the world, with the finest houses".
The initiative has been organised by Venice city council with the cooperation of organisations like the chamber of commerce.
"The day will reinforce the council's commitment to the battle against pollution and the damaging waves created by boats," said Ugo Bergamo, a city councillor.
Pierfrancesco Ghetti, a strategic planner for the council, said Venice had to "get smart" and use technology to cut down on the environmental impact of the thousands of boats that ply its canals each day.
The ban will not affect the giant cruise liners which visit Venice because they are too big to sail down the Grand Canal and instead use the parallel Giudecca Canal to reach the city's cruise ship terminal.