Indian lawmakers to review aviation safety weeks after Air India crash
A panel of Indian lawmakers will review safety in the country's civil aviation sector and has invited several industry and government officials to answer questions on July 9, with topics set to include Air India's recent plane crash, Reuters reported.
The upper house of India's parliament has asked airport operators, air traffic controllers and airlines including Air India and IndiGo to take part in a comprehensive review of passenger safety, according to a memo drafted for the meeting and seen by Reuters.
The gathering comes after the June 12 Air Indiadisaster that killed 260 people, including 241 on board, when a Boeing 787-8 jet crashed within a minute of take-off from India's Ahmedabad. Investigators are still probing what caused the world's worst aviation accident in a decade.
Though the memo did not mention the crash, R K Chaudhary, a lawmaker on the panel, told Reuters that it planned to discuss the matter internally and during the meeting, according to Reuters.
Qantas data breach exposes up to six million customer profiles
Qantas is contacting customers after a cyber attack targeted their third-party customer service platform, BBC reported.
On 30 June, the Australian airline detected "unusual activity" on a platform used by its contact centre to store the data of six million people, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.
Upon detection of the breach, Qantas took "immediate steps and contained the system", according to a statement.
The company is still investigating the full extent of the breach, but says it is expecting the proportion of data stolen to be "significant", according to BBC.
Spain and England record hottest June as heatwave grips Europe
Spain and England have recorded their hottest June ever, as scorching temperatures continue to grip Europe, BBC reported.
Spain's weather service Aemet said the "extremely hot" June - with an average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) - "has pulverised records", surpassing the normal average for July and August.
In England, the Met Office said June's mean temperature of 16.9C set a new record for that month, while the UK as a whole saw its second warmest June since records began in 1884.
Mainland Portugal experienced a record daily temperature for June of 46.6C. The monthly average data is yet to be released, according to BBC.
Monsoon-induced disasters claim 31 lives in one month
In one month of this year's monsoon, 674 water-induced disasters were reported from across the country with 31 casualties and 112 injuries.
According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), 87 landslide incidents were recorded during the review period.
These events partially damaged 25 houses and destroyed 11. Additionally, 14 animals were killed and seven cow sheds were destroyed.
The estimated physical loss from landslides amounted to Rs 22.01 million.
Flooding incidents numbered 64, resulting in the deaths of four people and injuries to seven others.
As many as 123 families were affected by the floods.
Lightning strikes proved to be the deadliest, claiming 82 lives and injuring 20 people.
In 45 reported cases of wind-related disasters, one person was killed and three others were injured.
The physical loss from these incidents was estimated at Rs 2.6 million.
