Navy chopper crashes

New Delhi:

Four Indian Navy personnel were feared killed when a helicopter crashed near Belgaum town in Karnataka on Friday, officials here said. The Russian-made Kamov-28 helicopter, used for anti-submarine warfare, crashed at Khanapur jungle between Goa and Belgaum in north Karnataka at about 12 pm, according to the police control room at Belgaum. The helicopter was on way from Panjim to Vishakapatanam via Hyderabad with six passengers, navy officials here said. The fate of the two other personnel was not known. — HNS

Firing on border

Kolkata:

Indian and Bangladeshi border guards traded gunfire today in a row over repairs to a river bank, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of villagers on the Indian side, Indian officials said. Each side blamed the other for starting the clash across the Mahananda River, some 500 km of Kolkata. Neither country reported any casualties from the clash between guards in India’s Malda district and those on the Bangladeshi side of the river. “The firing has stopped for the time being,” said Sameer Mitra, deputy inspector general of the Border Security Force in Kolkata. — AFP

Toy trains collide

Kolkata:

Seven people were injured when two trains of the world heritage Darjeeling railways collided while a Japanese TV crew was filming the picturesque journey in the mountains, an official said on Friday. The accident occurred on Thursday when the up and the down narrow-gauge “toy trains” bumped head on at a height of 3,516 feet, said T Rava, public relations officer of the historic railway network. — AFP

Whistle-blower held

Beijing:

A Chinese man who spoke to foreign reporters about severe radiation poisoning affecting local residents has been detained and accused of crimes related to state secrets, a rights group said on Friday. Sun Xiaodi, a former employee of the Gansu No 792 Uranium Mine in northwestern China, met journalists on April 28 while he was in Beijing to petition authorities about what he said was serious pollution from the mine. — AFP