Floods ravage Russia, kill 78

Flash floods in Russia’s southern Krasnodarsky Krai region have killed at least 78 people and affected nearly 13,000 in the area’s worst natural disaster in a decade, officials said Saturday. Authorities discovered 56 bodies including that of a 10-year-old child in the district of Krymsk, regional police spokesman Igor Zhelyabin told AFP.

 Nine more people died in the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik and another two died in the port of Novorossiisk over the past two days, he said. A previous death toll across the region stood at 53. 

 “A rescue operation is ongoing. More bodies are being discovered,” Zhelyabin said, adding that he expected the death toll to rise later in the day. The administration of the Krasnodarsky Krai region, frequently battered by seasonal rains, said it was the worst flooding to hit the region in a decade. 

 “Non-stop rain showers have turned several districts of the region into an emergency zone,” it said in a statement, adding that floods affected the homes of nearly 13,000 people. Gelendzhik alone received five months’ worth of rain in 24 hours, a major blow to the resort town at the height of the tourist season, it said.

 “The floods were very strong. Even traffic lights were ripped out,” Zhelyabin said. “Evacuations are under way,” he said. Meanwhile authorities were working to identify the bodies, Zhelyabin said, adding: “It is hard to establish where they came from.” Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has set up a commission to help the victims, his office said.

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31 dead in plane crash

A twin-engine plane carrying 43 people crashed soon after takeoff in Siberia on Monday, killing all but 12 people on board, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said. The plane had taken off from the city of Tyumen and traffic control lost contact with it immediately afterward, the ministry said. 

The ATR-72 plane was carrying 39 passengers and four crew members. UTair, the flight operator, said the plane was trying to make an emergency landing when it went down, the RIA-Novosti news agency said. Tyumen Plane Crash Twelve survivors were taken to hospitals, while everyone else on board, including all four crew members, was killed, ministry said. The survivors were in intensive care, RIA-Novosti said.

 Authorities could not say with certainty what caused the crash. Officials have recovered the plane's data recorders, which will help shed light on what happened in the flight's final minutes. "Malfunction and pilot's error are considered to be the most likely causes," Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Russian Investigation Committee, told the Itar-Tass news agency. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has postponed a meeting with the opposition light of the crash, his spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said. Specialists from France, Canada and Great Britain will take part in the crash investigation, the Itar-Tass news agency reported, citing the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee. The plane was built in France and was registered in Britain.

 The engine was produced in Canada, the agency said. The crash was the the country's deadliest air disaster since a crash in Yaroslavl that killed 44 people in September. Dozens of Yaroslavl Lokomotiv professional hockey players died in that crash, including several former National Hockey League players. Only one person survived the crash, which investigators found was caused by pilot error, RIA-Novosti reported.

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105-year-old Russian Who Survived Two World Wars Commits Suicide

A 105-year-old woman who survived the Russian Revolution and two world wars has committed suicide.

Anastasia Khoreva told her family she was tired of waiting to die shortly before hanging herself, The Sun reported.

The pensioner, from Darsun, Russia, had been depressed after suffering a lung infection.

A family member said: “It’s a strange thing to do at her time of life but she used to say she was fed up with waiting for death – so she wanted to go and meet it.”

Last year experts warned the number of Russians committing suicide was dangerously high.

In 2010, the suicide rate was 23.5 per 100,000 people, the sixth highest in the world. It hit a peak of 42 per 100,000 during the 1990s, following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

A recent UNICEF report stated the country has the third highest suicide rate among teenagers aged 15-19 , with around 1,500 taking their own lives every year.

The highest rates are in neighbouring Belarus and Kazakhstan.

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