Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

A massive explosion in the western US city of San Francisco has set fire to dozens of houses in a residential neighborhood, reports say.

The fire near San Francisco International Airport has been apparently caused by a leak in a large natural gas pipe that ran underground through the San Bruno neighborhood south of the city, US media reported on Thursday.

At least 169 houses in Colorado have been reduced to ashes as flames towering skyward forced residents to pack up and run for their lives.

Firefighters have managed to build contain 30 percent of the fire, which has charred 6,365 acres or about 25 sq km (10 sq miles).

An Indian passenger bus has crashed into a river, leaving at least 17 people dead and 35 others feared dead, according to police officials.

The accident happened in the Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday evening when the bus was trying to cross a flooded bridge.

Eight people have been reported missing as firefighters battle to contain a major wildfire in the western US state of Colorado.

The fire erupted Monday in Fourmile Canyon northwest of Colorado's state capital Denver. The fire extended over some 2,800 hectares (7,000 acres), said Boulder County Sheriff Commander Rick Brough, quoted in an AFP report Wednesday.

The United Nations says floods have now affected more than 21-million people in Pakistan as advancing floodwaters continue to threaten more towns in the country's south.

The world body made the announcement following more flooding in the southern province of Sindh.

High winds have helped spread roaring wildfires through the US state of Colorado forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes in the region.

A blaze broke out Monday in Colorado's Four Mile Canyon and rapidly spread across 3,500 acres of land due to 45-mph wind gusts.

Several towns in southeastern Australia remain on high alert as rising flood waters have caused millions of dollars of damage in the state of Victoria.

Hundreds of properties have already been evacuated and emergency forces have been on standby to rescue stranded residents.

Unrelenting downpours, flooding and landslides continue to afflict the devastated Central American state of Guatemala, as the death toll of the disasters reaches 45.

This while according to Guatemala's disaster agency, over 16 people remain missing while another 56 have been hospitalized for injuries.

Days of heavy rainfall and flooding in northeast Ethiopia have displaced another 16,000 people and caused extensive damage to agricultural crops, report says.

Crops and "livelihood assets" were destroyed, roads submerged and bridges swept away in Afar, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement on Monday.

Pakistan army says rescue operations to save flood-hit victims in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have been completed as around 100,000 stranded people have been moved to safe locations.

Sixty-five relief and 58 medical camps are working under the aegis of the army for the welfare of the flood victims, army's top commander in Peshawar, Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik, briefed reporters on Monday.