The body of 64-year old Varadarajan, who left his home on February 11 leaving two unsigned letters, was identified by his wife Saraswathy at the Government Royapettah Hospital. The body was lying there for the last few days unclaimed.

Varadarajan, a qualified chartered accountant and a Brahmin had married Saraswathy, a Reserve Bank employee and a Dalit after the death of his first wife. Party sources said, he even got married on the instruction of seniors. Saraswati was a party member and a divorcee. When Varadarajan’s mentor V P Chintan asked him if he was ready to marry her, he said yes.

He had given up his job with the Reserve Bank of India to pursue Left politics.

Indian Express report said his sisters, son and some CPM leaders have expressed their doubts on the highly decomposed body. The party has decided to wait for a confirmation, including DNA test, before officially announcing Varadarajan’s death.

Known to all as WR, Varadarajan was removed from the Central Committee of the CPM at a meeting in Kolkata earlier this month for undisclosed reasons. A few days later, he had walked out of his home in Chennai, leaving behind two letters that indicated he was going to end his life and that personal strife was behind his action. The letters directed that his body be donated for research and his personal belongings be given to the party.

On Sunday, Saraswati identified an unclaimed body lying at the government hospital mortuary since February 13 as that of Varadarajan, based on a mark on his stomach and another on his finger.

In the 1989 Assembly elections, Varadarajan was chosen as a candidate for the Villivakkam constituency and won convincingly.

Proficient in both English and Hindi, Varadarajan was sent to Delhi as a CITU secretary in the late ’90s. For the next eight years, he continued there, returning to Tamil Nadu as a Central Committee member of the CPM three years ago.

Out of the 400 men undergoing training at a high altitude warfare camp in Khilanmarg area, 80 were trapped and most of them rescued, according to a The Hindu report.

At least 12 others were injured in the explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, some 32 kilometers south of Hartford.

Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano told The Associated Press on Sunday night that no one was known to be missing. Still, crews planned to spend all night going through debris in case there were any more victims.

The cause of the gas explosion was unknown, and the investigation was to begin Monday morning, he said.

The explosion left huge pieces of metal that once encased the plant peeling off its sides. A large swath of the structure was blackened and surrounded by debris, but the building, its roof and its two smokestacks were still standing.

Rescue crews set up several tents alongside the site.

The explosion occurred Sunday morning, Santostefano said. Mayor Sebastian Giuliano heard the blast.

Santostefano said 50 to 60 people were in the area at the time of the explosion, and multiple contractors were working on the project, making it difficult to quickly account for everyone.

The 620-megawatt plant, which was almost complete, is being built to produce energy primarily using natural gas.

The thundering blast shook houses for mile

The aircraft, carrying 83 passengers and seven crew, crashed into the sea four minutes after taking off from Beirut’s international airport, Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said.

Lebanese army and rescue units were carrying out the search for survivors alongside a force from U.N. Martime Task Force, which include two German boats.

The aircraft carried 54 Lebanese nationals, 22 Ethiopians, as well as Iraqi, Syrian, British and French nationals, the minister said. One of the passengers is believed to be the wife of the French ambassador in Beirut.

Lebanon’s President Michel Suleiman described the incident as “painful.” Suleiman put all medical and security forces on maximum alert, according to German agency DPA.

However difficult weather conditions were believed to be hampering the search.

Local media quoted Lebanese army officials as saying that seven survivors had been rescued.

However, according to other reports, police officers said there had been two survivors. The conflicting reports of survivors were not confirmed by the U.N. or government officials.

Confirmation of the loss of the flight came from the operator in Addis Ababa.

“Ethiopian flight ET-409 scheduled to operate from Beirut to Addis Ababa on January 25 lost contact with the Lebanese air controllers shortly after takeoff. The flight departed at 2.35 am Lebanese time from Beirut International Airport,” the airline said in a statement.

“Flight ET-409 carries 82 passenger plus eight Ethiopian crew members. Out of the total passengers 23 are Ethiopian, 51 Lebanese, one Turkish, one French, two British, one Russian, one Canadian, one Syrian and one Iraqi national.” A source at the French embassy in Beirut who requested anonymity said the ambassador’s wife was on board the plane.

“On the passengers’ list we saw the name of Marla Sanchez Pietton, the wife of the French ambassador to Lebanon,” a Lebanese security source said earlier.

One airport official said the plane was struck by lightning before into fell into the sea.

The Boeing aircraft disappeared off the radar screens shortly after takeoff, the state-run Lebanese National News Agency reported.

Witnesses in the area said they heard a loud noise and then saw a plane on fire plunging into the water.

Rescue teams were seen gathering near the area where the plane reportedly crashed.

“The weather is not helping us at all,” a member of the rescue team said. “But we hope to find some survivors.” Aridi said the crash site had been identified at 3.5 km west of the coastal village of Na’ameh.

“By Friday we have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies and there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number,” the minister said.

At least 40,000 bodies had been buried in mass graves. If the casualty figures turn out to be accurate, the 7.0 magnitude quake that hit impoverished Haiti on Tuesday would be one of the 10 deadliest earthquakes ever recorded, a Reuters report said.

According to reports, both President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive were living in and coordinating the government response from the judicial police headquarters near the airport.

An official said that the government is sending police into areas where bandits began to operate. “Some people are robbing, some are stealing. The people in the refugee places, once they do not find food and assistance, they are getting angry and upset. Our message to everyone is to stay calm.” the official said

A number of air planes and ships have arrived with rescue teams, search dogs, heavy equipment, tents, water purification units, food, doctors and telecoms teams.

A clogged airport, wrecked seaport and roads littered with rubble, as well as the sheer scale of the destruction, aid was not yet reaching hundreds of thousands of victims.

Haiti’s government granted temporary control of the nation’s main airport to the United States to speed earthquake relief work, the US State Department said .

“The three were hurried to Moolchand Hospital. One was discharged this (Sunday) morning and the other is undergoing healing and will be discharged. Nevertheless, the third laborer has continued severe head injuries and doctors said he will be kept under surveillance,” a Delhi Metro spokesperson said.

Earlier this year, six people were killed and more than 20 injured when a part of an elevated Metro beam malformed at the Zamrudpur site on July 12, raising severe doubts on Metro’s fast-paced expansion strategy in the national capital.

The construction work at the Govindpuri site is being conducted by Gammon India, the same contractor who was blacklisted for upcoming Metro projects following the July 12 incident.

Saturday’s incident comes a few days subsequent to a young boy getting wounded when the metal girder he was sitting on toppled over, crushing his foot. Metro officials had said the boy had entered the under-construction site with no permission.