Pakistan landslides kill three soldiers, bury rescuers Published on Dec 01, 2012

Published on Dec 01, 2012

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AFP) - A landslide killed three Pakistani soldiers in mountainous Kashmir Friday, while 18 people sent to rescue them were missing after being buried by a second landslip, officials said.

A military rescue operation swung into action after heavy snows triggered the two landslides at a remote outpost in the Kel area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir near the de facto border with India.

The bodies of the three soldiers had been recovered but rescuers were still hunting for the eight soldiers and 10 civilians from the search party, local official Raja Saqib Majeed told AFP.

"We hope that rescue workers will find some of them alive. Lets hope for the best," he said, but added that efforts were being hampered by continued bad weather.

Deadly 2012 Atlantic storm season officially ends

Published on Dec 01, 2012

Jean Marie Brennan walks along the jetty at Lighthouse Point Park as Hurricane Sandy passes offshore in Ponce Inlet, Florida on Oct 26, 2012. Slow-moving Hurricane Sandy, a late season Atlantic storm unlike anything seen in more than two decades, slogged toward the US East Coast on Friday after killing at least 31 people on a trail of destruction across the Caribbean. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

MIAMI (AFP) - The dreaded Atlantic hurricane season drew to a close on Friday, ending an active chapter that included the particularly devastating Hurricane Sandy, which wrought havoc in the north-eastern United States (US).

Only one named storm this year reached the strength to officially classify it as a "major hurricane," but it wasn't any of the ones most would think, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a statement.