NEW DELHI: Hujan lebat berterusan melanda Mumbai dan kawasan sekitarnya pada Selasa, menyebabkan gangguan besar terhadap kehidupan harian di ibu kota kewangan India.

Lebih 250 penerbangan ditunda atau dibatalkan, perkhidmatan kereta api mengalami kelewatan ketara dan lalu lintas terjejas akibat limpahan air di jalan raya dan lorong, lapor Xinhua.

Beberapa kenderaan dilaporkan rosak akibat berada air sedalam paras lutut hingga pinggang di pelbagai kawasan sekitar Mumbai.

Laporan televisyen menunjukkan sebuah bas separuh tenggelam dalam air bertakung dan penunggang motosikal terpaksa menolak motosikal mereka melalui jalan yang dinaiki air di luar stesen kereta api Kurla.

Perkhidmatan tren tempatan di 'Laluan Harbour' dihentikan selepas landasan kereta api tenggelam dalam air, menurut laporan TV.

Sekolah, kolej dan institusi pendidikan lain ditutup di seluruh Mumbai, ketika hujan lebat dijangka berterusan sekurang-kurangnya hingga petang Selasa.

BAR DALORI: Survivors and rescuers in a remote Pakistani village are digging through rubble after a deadly cloudburst triggered massive landslides.

The disaster struck Dalori village in the middle of the night, sending rocks and water crashing down mountainsides.

At least 15 houses were destroyed, with nine confirmed dead and around 20 still trapped under debris.

Rescuers worked by mobile phone light, using hammers, shovels and bare hands to clear blocked pathways in the electricity-free area.

The cloudburst occurred during heavy monsoon rains that have already killed over 350 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Torrential rains since Thursday have caused widespread flooding and landslides across northern Pakistan.

Authorities warn of potential fresh flash floods in coming days as the monsoon continues.

Khan described seeing his neighbour’s hand protruding from rubble before rescuers recovered her body and those of her four children.

Villager Gul Hazir compared the disaster to an apocalyptic movie, recalling how rocks smashed houses before floodwaters arrived.

Local official Usman Khan noted many houses were built in stream beds, worsening the destruction.

Rescue efforts are hampered by narrow alleys that prevent heavy machinery from accessing the worst-hit areas.

Funerals have already been held for five victims, with women mourning in homes still without electricity.

Unattended cattle wandered through debris-filled alleys as residents struggled to comprehend their losses.

One grieving woman vowed to leave the village forever as she followed a coffin through the streets.

Residents had been collecting aid for neighbouring flood victims before disaster struck their own community.

“We didn’t know we would be needing help ourselves,“ said villager Gul Hazir. - AFP

ISLAMABAD, 20 Ogos: Seramai 46 orang terbunuh akibat hujan monsun dalam tempoh 24 jam lepas, menjadikan jumlah keseluruhan korban berkaitan hujan di Pakistan meningkat kepada 393 sejak Khamis, menurut Pihak Berkuasa Pengurusan Bencana Negara (NDMA) pada Selasa, lapor Xinhua.

Secara keseluruhan, 706 penduduk Pakistan dilaporkan maut sejak bermulanya musim monsun pada 26 Jun, menurut laporan situasi terkini NDMA.

NDMA menyatakan kebanyakan kematian berlaku akibat rumah dan bumbung yang runtuh selepas hujan lebat, manakala selebihnya berpunca daripada banjir kilat, tanah runtuh, renjatan elektrik serta panahan petir.

Wilayah Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mencatatkan jumlah korban tertinggi dengan 427 kematian.

Pihak berkuasa itu turut memaklumkan bahawa hujan monsun menyebabkan kerosakan besar kepada infrastruktur dan harta persendirian di seluruh negara.

Sejak 26 Jun, lebih 2,934 rumah rosak, 1,108 ternakan terkorban, selain 451 kilometer jalan raya dan 152 jambatan turut terjejas, dengan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa serta Kashmir yang ditadbir Pakistan paling teruk terkesan.

Pihak berkuasa memberi amaran hujan berterusan dijangka berlaku dalam beberapa hari mendatang dan menggesa penduduk di kawasan berisiko supaya mengambil langkah berjaga-jaga. -TVS

GENEVA, Aug 20 — The collapse of a sixth round of UN talks last week aimed at curbing plastic output has dimmed hopes of tackling a key source of pollution and left many advocates of restrictions pessimistic about a global deal during the Trump administration.

A three-year global push to reach a legally-binding treaty to curb plastic pollution choking the oceans and harming human health now appears adrift, participants said.

Many states and campaigners blamed the failure on oil-producers including the United States, which they said hardened long-held positions and urged others to reject caps on new plastic production that would have curbed output of polymers.

Debbra Cisneros, a negotiator for Panama, which supported a strong deal, told Reuters the United States, the world’s number two plastics producer behind China, was less open than in previous rounds conducted under Joe Biden’s administration.

“This time they were just not wanting anything. So it was hard, because we always had them against us in each of the important provisions,” she said at the end of the 11-day talks.

Anti-plastic campaigners saw little hope for a change in Washington’s position under President Donald Trump, who in February signed an executive order encouraging consumers to buy plastic drinking straws.

“The mentality is different, and they want to extract more oil and gas out of the ground,” said Bjorn Beeler, International Coordinator at International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), a global network of over 600 public interest NGOs.

The US State Department said in a statement that the US delegation pushed for “common-sense and pragmatic approaches” during negotiations to reduce plastic pollution while also protecting American industries that rely on plastic.

“We did not support prescriptive top-down regulatory approaches that will stifle innovation and drive consumer inflation across the US economy and all over the world,” it said.

US delegate John Thompson declined to respond to questions from a Reuters reporter on the outcome.

A State Department spokesperson previously said that each party should take measures according to its national context, while Washington has expressed concerns that the new rules could increase the costs of all plastic products. The Trump administration has also rolled back various US climate and environmental policies that it says place too many burdens on national industry.

Earlier this week, Washington also flexed its muscle in talks about another global environmental agreement when it threatened measures against states backing a proposal aimed at reducing shipping emissions.

For a coalition of some 100 countries seeking an ambitious deal in Geneva, plastic production limits are essential.

Fiji’s delegate Sivendra Michael likened excluding this provision to “mopping the floor without turning off the tap.”

For each month of delays, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said nearly a million tons of plastic waste accumulates – some of which washes up on the beaches of island states.

‘Consensus is dead’

Some participants also blamed organisers, the International Negotiating Committee (INC), a UN-established body supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

A low point was a formal meeting an hour before the negotiations were set to conclude at midnight on Thursday which lasted less than a minute and was then adjourned until dawn, prompting laughter and jeering from delegates.

“Everyone was in shock as no one understood,” said Ana Rocha, Global Plastics Policy Director for environmental group GAIA. “It’s almost like they were playing with small children.”

France’s ecology minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher called proceedings “chaotic.”

Asked what went wrong, INC chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso blamed the rift between countries and called the negotiations complex. “But we have advanced and that’s important,” he said.

UN provisional rules require all states to agree – a constraint that some see as unworkable, especially under a US administration that is retreating from multilateralism.

“Consensus is dead. You cannot agree a deal where all the countries who produce and export plastics and oil can decide the terms of what the deal is going to be,” said IPEN’s Beeler.

Some delegates and campaigners suggested introducing voting to break the deadlock or even for the UN-led process to be abandoned altogether. The WWF and others called on ambitious states to pursue a separate deal, with the hope of getting plastics-producing nations onboard later.

Two draft deals emerged from the talks – one more ambitious than the other. Neither was adopted. It is unclear when the next meeting will take place, with states merely agreeing to reconvene at a later date.

One positive development was that top plastics producer China publicly acknowledged the need to address the full-life cycle of plastics, said David Azoulay, Managing Attorney of the Center for International Environmental Law’s Geneva Office. “This is new, and I think this opens an interesting door.” — Reuters