Amid heavy shelling, Ukraine's Mariupol city uses mass grave
Mariupol, Mar 10: With bodies piling up in Russia's nine-day siege of Mariupol, the port city of 430,000 in southeastern Ukraine, local authorities are hurrying to bury the dead in a mass grave.
City workers made quick signs of the cross gestures as they pushed bodies wrapped in carpets or bags into a deep trench some 25 meters (80 feet) long on the outskirts of the city.
More than 70 bodies have been interred in the common grave since it was opened Tuesday.
About half of those buried were killed in the intense shelling of the city, estimated an AP journalist who visited the burial ground.
Others died at home from natural causes, but authorities were unable to arrange for the collection of the bodies or their burial.
Mariupol has suffered at least 8 major airstrikes in the past 48 hours, with a children's hospital and the central fire department among those hit.
City residents are staying in shelters as much as possible as temperatures dip to minus 9 degrees Celsius (15 degrees Fahrenheit).
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Low visibility prevents PM’s helicopter from landing in Taherpur, Modi returns to Kolkata airport
Kolkata (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s helicopter failed to land at the Taherpur helipad in West Bengal owing to low visibility on account of dense fog in the area on Saturday, an official said.
The PM’s chopper made a U-turn after hovering over the helipad ground for a while and returned to the Kolkata airport, he said.
Till reports last received, the Prime Minister was waiting at the airport for further updates on the weather situation.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Modi would reach the rally venue district by road or whether he would wait for the weather to clear up and make another attempt to reach Taherpur by the aerial route, the official said.
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister reached Kolkata at around 10.40 am and took a chopper onward to Taherpur in Nadia district, where he is scheduled to hold an administrative programme to launch highway projects in West Bengal, followed by a political rally of the BJP, titled Parivartan Sankalpa Sabha, which he is supposed to address.
