Plane crash kills 2 Indian trainee pilots in Canada
Toronto, Oct 8: Two 25-year-old Indian trainee pilots were among three killed when a small plane crashed in the Canadian province of British Columbia, media reports said. Abhay Gadru and Yash Ramugade from Mumbai were in a small twin-engined light aircraft, a Piper PA-34 Seneca, which crashed near the local airport in Chilliwack, close to Vancouver, on Friday. The plane crashed behind a motel near the airport, killing the pilot and everyone on board, Sgt Pete Healey from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was quoted as saying in CBC News. According to the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Gadru had moved to Canada three years ago to complete pilot training. He was expected to graduate from a programme in November. (IANS)
Shooting in Pennsylvania
kills 1, injures 5
White Township, Oct 8: One person was killed and five were wounded in a shooting during a private party at a Pennsylvania community centre early Sunday, police said. Police and emergency services responded at 12:35 am to a reported shooting at the Chevy Chase Community Centre in White Township, the Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement. Police said six people were shot and one was pronounced dead at the scene in White Township, which is located about 57 miles (91.7 km) northeast of Pittsburgh in Indiana County. Surviving victims were transported to Indiana Regional Medical Centre in Indiana and UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh with at least two of the victims believed to be in serious condition, police said. State police said they did not have any suspects in custody early Sunday. (AP)
Labour Party senses victory
after 13 years
London, Oct 8: Members of Britain’s opposition Labour Party gather in Liverpool on Sunday for their annual conference with an unfamiliar feeling: optimism. The party has been out of power for 13 years, and in the last national election in 2019, voters handed Labour its worst drubbing since 1935. But with an election due next year, polls put Labour as much as 20 points ahead of the governing Conservative Party, and Labour scored a morale-boosting special election victory in Scotland last week. Power is within the party’s grasp – as long as it doesn’t mess things up. “It was a big step in the right direction, an important one,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said Friday after the special election result. “But we accept this humbly. This is a step on the journey.” Labour’s landslide 1997 election victory under Tony Blair – the peak of its popularity – was a quarter-century ago, and the party has suffered four straight election defeats. Deputy Leader Angela Rayner accused the Conservatives of presiding over “national decline” and being too consumed with internal political chaos to sort out the country’s problems. “Rishi Sunak and his party have taken a sledgehammer to the foundations on which a good life can be built,” she said. The party has to walk a delicate line to convince voters it can ease the UK’s chronic housing crisis and repair its fraying public services. (AP)