Amarnath Yatra remains suspended due to bad weather
Jammu, June 30 : The annual Amarnath Yatra remained suspended on Saturday due to incessant rains across Jammu and Kashmir.
According to authorities, no vehicle carrying pilgrims was allowed to move towards the Valley from the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu.
"Yatra continues to remain suspended as both the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps were lashed by heavy rains during the last two days," officials said.
"Due to slippery trek routes and bad weather, no Yatri was allowed to move towards the Cave Shrine from either base camp." The officials said that the situation will be reviewed once the weather improves.
Sonam Lotus, Director of the MET department, said the weather would improve towards the afternoon. The authorities added that all Yatris were safely lodged inside the two base camps.
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At least 19 killed as methane leak causes explosion at eastern Iran coal mine, state TV reports
Tehran (AP/PTI): A methane leak sparked an explosion at a coal mine in eastern Iran, killing at least 19 people and injuring another 17, Iranian state television reported Sunday.
The report said the deaths happened at a coal mine in Tabas, some 540 kilometers (335 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
Authorities were sending emergency personnel to the area after the blast late Saturday, it said. Around 70 people had been working there at the time of the blast.
Oil-producing Iran is also rich in a variety of minerals. Iran annually consumes some 3.5 million tons of coal but only extracts about 1.8 million tons from its mines per year. The rest is imported, often consumed in the country's steel mills.
This is not the first disaster to strike Iran's mining industry. In 2013, 11 workers were killed in two separate mining incidents. In 2009, 20 workers were killed in several incidents. In 2017, a coal mine explosion killed at least 42 people.
Lax safety standards and inadequate emergency services in mining areas are often blamed for the fatalities.
