31 people remain missing following China landslide

 

Rescuers have found 10 bodies, but 31 people remain missing Monday following a landslide at the site of a hydropower project in southern China after days of heavy rain, authorities said. Fourteen people have been injured.

Rocks and mud with a volume of 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet) buried an office building and the construction workers’ living area at the site in mountainous Taining county in Fujian province early Sunday, according to the county’s Communist Party’s publicity department.

“We were asleep when the mountains began to jolt very strongly, and before we knew it, sand and mud were flowing into our room,” survivor Deng Chunwu told the official Xinhua News Agency. It said he and three other workers survived by huddling underneath a supporting pole.

Their room was pushed a distance of 10 meters (30 feet) by the flowing mud, Deng said.

The injured were receiving hospital treatment and in stable condition, Xinhua reported. State broadcaster China Central Television said the injuries included bone fractures.

More than 600 rescuers, including firefighters and police, were searching for the missing and attempting to clear sections of roads leading to the site, which had been made impassable by mudslides and flooding, hindering efforts to get heavy machinery through.

The site under construction is an extension of the Chitan hydropower station, an affiliate of state-owned Huadian Fuxin Energy Ltd., and was expected to begin operations in August 2017, Xinhua reported. (AP)

The Federal Government has been called on to remove subsidy on petrol. The Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET), which made this call said it has become evident that all options for sustaining the practice of paying for fuel subsidy has been exhausted without the desired impact. FUEL-2016-f In a statement on Monday, by its Executive Secretary, Comrade Ikpa Isaac, the CESJET described keeping the subsidy in place as a black hole that could destroy the nation’s economy if it is not closed up. The statement noted that combination of the fuel crisis and the weakened national currency have made life a living hell for citizens who are being forced to pay higher amounts to black marketers and extortionist petrol stations that openly sell above the subsidized price. The statement read: “The Federal Government must accept that the situation around fuel supply is no longer about saving face or living up to political promises. President Muhammadu Buhari has to face the glaring reality that the huge amount pouring into the black hole- fuel subsidy cannot be sustained. To continue to pour money into this black hole instead of plugging it could destroy the economy. “It is clear for all to see now that all the efforts and strategies for keeping subsidy on petrol in place have failed irretrievably on account of constant theft and volatility of the global economy. As a nation, we cannot continue to be obstinate about this since as a producer, petrol would still naturally sell below global prices once local refining capacity is improved. “It is true that the Occupy Protests of 2012 fought the government at that time to a standstill to retain subsidy payment. But the Occupy Protests that could occur in 2016 would rather be insisting that subsidy must be discontinued within hours if the federal government does not act promptly. “We are confident that the fundamentals and the variables have changed with the incumbent government in place and we are therefore confident that the removal of subsidy at this point will work more in favour of Nigerians.”

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/call-removal-fuel-subsidy-mounts/

The Federal Government has been called on to remove subsidy on petrol. The Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET), which made this call said it has become evident that all options for sustaining the practice of paying for fuel subsidy has been exhausted without the desired impact. FUEL-2016-f In a statement on Monday, by its Executive Secretary, Comrade Ikpa Isaac, the CESJET described keeping the subsidy in place as a black hole that could destroy the nation’s economy if it is not closed up. The statement noted that combination of the fuel crisis and the weakened national currency have made life a living hell for citizens who are being forced to pay higher amounts to black marketers and extortionist petrol stations that openly sell above the subsidized price. The statement read: “The Federal Government must accept that the situation around fuel supply is no longer about saving face or living up to political promises. President Muhammadu Buhari has to face the glaring reality that the huge amount pouring into the black hole- fuel subsidy cannot be sustained. To continue to pour money into this black hole instead of plugging it could destroy the economy. “It is clear for all to see now that all the efforts and strategies for keeping subsidy on petrol in place have failed irretrievably on account of constant theft and volatility of the global economy. As a nation, we cannot continue to be obstinate about this since as a producer, petrol would still naturally sell below global prices once local refining capacity is improved. “It is true that the Occupy Protests of 2012 fought the government at that time to a standstill to retain subsidy payment. But the Occupy Protests that could occur in 2016 would rather be insisting that subsidy must be discontinued within hours if the federal government does not act promptly. “We are confident that the fundamentals and the variables have changed with the incumbent government in place and we are therefore confident that the removal of subsidy at this point will work more in favour of Nigerians.”

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/05/call-removal-fuel-subsidy-mounts/