Headline

New Year Stampede At Indian Shrine Kills Scores

Published

4 years ago

January 1, 2022

Editor

Twelve people were crushed to death in a stampede at an Indian religious shrine in the early hours of Saturday as tens of thousands of pilgrims massed to offer prayers, officials said.

The disaster unfolded in darkness at around 3:00 am (2130 GMT) on the packed route to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Indian-administered Kashmir, visited by millions every year as one of Hinduism’s most revered sites.

“People fell over each other… It was difficult to figure out whose leg or arms were tangled with whose,” survivor Ravinder told AFP by phone.

“I helped pick up eight bodies by the time ambulances arrived after about half an hour. I feel lucky to be alive but am still shaking with memory of what I saw,” he said.

Video footage showed terrified pilgrims clinging onto metal rafters to escape the rush and the blue lights of small minivan ambulances flashing in the darkness as they tried to rush to hospitals through huge crowds.

Officials sought to blame an alleged altercation between two groups of youths and a rush of people for New Year’s Day.

“Police and officials… were quick to respond (after the altercation), and the order within the crowd was immediately restored,” local police chief Dilbag Singh told the Press Trust of India news agency.

“But by that time, the damage had been done,” he said.

But witnesses said that the authorities were badly organised, something denied by the shrine’s management.

Around a dozen people were also injured.

– Holy sites –
Millions of shrines dot Hindu-majority India’s cities, towns and villages as well as remote sites in the Himalayas and jungles in the south.

Some are hugely important pilgrimage sites, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has invested heavily in improving infrastructure to ease access.

Before the pandemic, every day about 100,000 devotees would trek up a steep winding track to the narrow cave containing the shrine to Vaishno Devi.

“There were at least 100,000 people there. No one was checking registration slips of the devotees,” said Ravinder, who only gave one name.

“I have been there many times but (I have) never seen such a rush of people,” he said.

“It was only when some of us managed to lift a dead body up with our hands that people could see (what was happening) and made space for moving the bodies out.”

Another witness who came from Ghaziabad outside New Delhi with a group of around 10 people said there was clearly “mismanagement”.

“If (they had known) that so much crowding was happening, they should have stopped the people,” the man said without giving his name.

– Horse or helicopter –
In 2008, two stampedes in as many months in India left more than 370 Hindus dead. Others in Kerala in 2011 and in Madhya Pradesh two years later each killed more than 100.

The shrine to Vaishno Devi, a manifestation of Hindu goddess Vaishnavi, is in the hills some 60 kilometres from the city of Jammu. It saw 8.5 million visitors in 2018.

People travel to the nearby busy town of Katra and then trek upwards for around 15 kilometres on foot or by pony — there is also a helicopter service — along a winding track lined with stalls as well as monkeys.

Once they have reached the cave entrance they often have to wait for hours.

Modi, wearing a saffron scarf, rode a pony up to the shrine shortly before being elected in 2014.

He said on Twitter that he was “extremely saddened” by the tragedy.

AFP

Headline

US Suspends Work Visas For Nigerian, Foreign Truck Drivers

Published

3 hours ago

August 23, 2025

Editor

The United States government has suspended the issuance of work visas for Nigerian and other foreign truck drivers, citing job security concerns and safety risks for American citizens.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the decision on Thursday, saying it takes immediate effect.

According to him, the rising number of foreign truck drivers on U.S. highways is both threatening lives and reducing opportunities for American truckers.

“Effective immediately, we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.

“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio said.

The move comes under President Donald Trump’s renewed clampdown on immigration since returning to office in January 2025.

As part of new measures, travellers from countries with high visa overstay rates or weak travel databases will be required to pay a bond of $5,000 to $15,000 before obtaining certain categories of visas.

The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria also directed all visa applicants to disclose their social media handles from the past five years, warning that failure to comply could result in denial of applications and possible ineligibility for future visas.

Headline

Judge Orders Closure Of Trump’s Controversial ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Camp

Published

15 hours ago

August 22, 2025

Editor

A US federal judge on Thursday barred the Trump administration and Florida state government from bringing any new migrants to the detention centre known as “Alligator Alcatraz” and ordered much of the site to be dismantled, effectively shuttering the facility.

Florida’s government swiftly announced it would appeal the decision.

The detention centre was hastily assembled in just eight days in June with bunk beds, wire cages and large white tents at an abandoned airfield in Florida’s Everglades wetlands, home to a large population of alligators.

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the centre last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards.

Headline

Japan City Mulls Two-hour Daily Smartphone Limit

Published

16 hours ago

August 22, 2025

Editor

A Japanese city will urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties.

The limit, which will be recommended for all residents in central Japan’s Toyoake City, will not be binding, and there will be no penalties incurred for higher usage, according to the draft ordinance.

The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues… including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said in a statement on Friday.

The draft urges elementary school students to avoid smartphones after 9:00 pm, and junior high students and older are advised not to use them after 10:00 pm.

The move prompted an online backlash, with many calling the plan unrealistic.

“I understand their intention, but the two-hour limit is impossible,” one user wrote on social media platform X.

“In two hours, I cannot even read a book or watch a movie (on my smartphone),” wrote another.

Others said smartphone use should be a decision for families to make for themselves.

The angry response prompted the mayor to clarify that the two-hour limit was not mandatory, emphasising that the guidelines “acknowledge smartphones are useful and indispensable in daily life”.

The ordinance will be considered next week, and if passed, it will come into effect in October.

In 2020, the western Kagawa region issued a first-of-its-kind ordinance calling for children to be limited to an hour a day of gaming during the week, and 90 minutes during school holidays.

It also suggested children aged 12 to 15 should not be allowed to use smartphones later than 9:00 pm, with the limit rising to 10:00 pm for children between 15 and 18.

Japanese youth spend slightly over five hours on average a day online on weekdays, according to a survey published in March by the Children and Families Agency.