South Asia floods strand millions

Millions of people across South Asia have spent another night stranded in flood waters.

Almost 150 people have died and almost 20 million people have been displaced or marooned in severe flooding across India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
In some areas, the floods are being called the worst in living memory.
A vast area is under water, damaging farmland and affecting thousands of villages. Aid agencies say stocks of food and water are running very low.
It has been raining heavily in the region for 20 days and more rain is forecast, particularly in central India, a region which has so far received a weaker monsoon.

Flood politics

Many of the rivers which flow through northern India and into Bangladesh are overflowing, and in some places they have burst their banks.

• 12 million displaced or marooned in India
• 5.5 million displaced in Bangladesh
• More than 750,000 affected in Nepal

In Assam, in north-eastern India, three feet of rain fell in July.
People in the state have clashed with police in their desperation for food, shelter and medicine.
In Uttar Pradesh the army was called in to evacuate 500 villages. The two worst affected districts are reported to be Gorakhpur and Kushinagar, although water levels in major rivers there are reported to have stopped rising for the moment.Bihar's State Disaster Management Committee Chairman Manoj Srivastava told the BBC the flood situation was quite "serious".At least 121 relief camps and 34 cattle camps had been set up in the flood-affected areas of Bihar, he said.
The High Court in the state capital Patna has recently criticised the state government for its failure to deliver relief materials.
Bihar's former chief minister and the current federal railway minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav, made an aerial tour of the region on Wednesday and accused the state government of "criminal negligence".
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is out of the state on business.
State Governor RS Gavai has appealed to all party leaders to bury their political differences and work together to help flood victims.

Army assistance

Many roads and bridges in the states of Bihar and Assam have been damaged, making it harder for the authorities to get relief material to those affected.
The army is using helicopters to drop supplies but aid agencies are already warning of shortages of food and drinking water.
In Bangladesh, a country that is predominantly low-lying, hundreds of thousands of people are camping on embankments or on the roofs of their homes waiting for relief.
One man who abandoned his home in Sirajganj, 110km (70 miles) north-west of Dhaka, said he and his family had lost everything.
"We are suffering too much here in this makeshift shelter. The flood has destroyed all of our belongings, we could save nothing," he told the BBC.
Many are using boats to move around.
Bangladesh's military-backed interim government has said it is doing its best to cope.

The country's Red Cross says a quarter of a million people have been affected by rains.

There have been deadly landslides in the highlands and floods have hit dozens of districts in the low-lying Terai region.
The weather is improving, but aid workers say the problems for many of the affected people are getting worse.
Some people have blamed India for worsening the situation because it has not opened dams on its side of the border.
But authorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh say the release of flood waters by Nepal causes flooding on their side of the border.

Seven dead as US bridge collapses

A key road bridge over the Mississippi river in the US state of Minnesota has collapsed in the evening rush hour killing at least seven people.

At least 60 were injured when part of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis gave way at 1805 (2305 GMT) on Wednesday.
As the structure buckled, up to 50 vehicles were hurled into the water.
The US Department of Homeland Security said there was no reason to suspect the collapse of the bridge, which had been undergoing repairs, was terror-related.
"Obviously this is a catastrophe of historic proportions," Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty told a news conference.
Fire chief Jim Clack said rescuers did not expect to find any more survivors after the search was called off earlier because of darkness.
"At this point we have seven confirmed fatalities, and we expect that number to go up," he said.
The 40-year-old bridge was last inspected in 2006 and no significant structural problems were found, Mr Pawlenty added.
Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told AFP news agency: "There are no indications of a nexus to terrorism at this time."

Clinging

Traffic had been "bumper to bumper" at the time of the incident as only one lane was open in either direction on the eight-lane road because of the construction work on the arched bridge.
Tons of concrete crashed 64 feet (20 metres) into the water as the structure crumbled.
A freight train passing underneath was crushed as a 500ft (150m) span of steel and concrete collapsed.
Injured people waited for rescue as vehicles dangled off the crumpled concrete and smoke billowed into the sky from the fiery wreckage of a lorry.
Some managed to swim to safety.
"The bridge started falling, cars were flying everywhere and I saw the water coming up," Catherine Yankelevich, whose car ended up in the water, told AFP news agency.
"The water was coming up pretty fast, so I rolled the window down... It seemed like a movie, and it was pretty scary."
Some 60 children were led to safety with only minor injuries from a school bus that clung to the edge of a collapsed section over the river.
Divers and rescue boats scoured the water for survivors, but the operation had to be called off as night fell because darkness made it too dangerous to search the water among mangled steel and submerged cars.

Huge roar

Minneapolis police chief Tim Dolan said officials had accounted for all but one of the construction workers who had been on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
Eyewitnesses said they heard a huge roar as the structure fell into the river.
"What I first heard was a giant rumbling sound from my apartment," Mark Lecroix told the BBC.
"I'm 20 storeys up, just a stone's throw from the bridge itself, and I thought, maybe my own building was coming down, it was an amazing noise. And I look out of the window and I see just the final moments of it collapsing into the river.
"It really quite a while for me to realise that this was not a planned explosion... to realise it was a tragedy."

Gazprom to cut Belarus supplies

Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas monopoly, has said it will almost halve supplies to neighbouring Belarus because of a $500m (£247m) unpaid bill.

In a repeat of supply disputes with former Soviet republics in 2005 and 2006, Gazprom says Minsk has failed to pay in full for previous shipments.

While 20% of Gazprom's European exports pass through Belarus, the firm said supplies to Europe should not be hit.

Moscow denies accusations that it uses gas supplies to bully its neighbours.

Instead, it insists that price rises last year for Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia merely reflect the end of Soviet-era subsidies.

'Strict accordance'

Gazprom's decision to cut supplies to Belarus by 45% from 3 August comes after Belarus missed a 23 July deadline to pay the $500m.

"Gazprom will take all possible measures for the transportation of Russian gas through the territory of Belarus in full accordance with current obligations before European customers," it said in a statement.

"We are acting in strict accordance with our contract," added Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov.

Belarus' energy ministry said it was continuing talks with Gazprom to try to resolve the situation.

At the end of 2006, Belarus was within minutes of seeing its gas supplies cut when it agreed to start paying $100 per 1,000 cubic metres, compared with a previous price of $47.

Ukraine was also forced to start paying more for its Russian gas in 2006, but not before Gazprom reduced its supplies, leading to a knock-on reduction in gas passing through the country to western Europe.

This dispute sparked concern within European Union nations about their energy security and the future reliably of Russian gas, which now accounts for much of European requirements.

NASA takes actio after troubling report

NASA takes actio after troubling reportNASA said today it was taking immediate action after a report raised safety questions about astronauts drinking before flying missions. The report by an independent panel said astronauts flew drunk on at least two occasions despite warnings from doctors and colleagues that they posed a flight risk.