CURRENT AFFAIRS: 07/29/11

Friday, July 29, 2011

China says equipment flaws caused train crash

Relatives of the victims in Saturday's train crash talk to the media as they hold …
A bullet train passes over the wrecked carriages involved in Saturday's crash in …

BEIJING (AP) — Design flaws in signal equipment and human error caused last weekend's high-speed train crash in China that killed at least 39 people, a railway official said Thursday.

The preliminary finding comes in the face of public anger about the government's handling of the accident near Wenzhou in Zhejiang province.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived in Wenzhou on Thursday to check on the investigation and the conditions of the survivors, has called for a sweeping and transparent probe into the crash between two bullet trains, which also hurt more than 190 people.

Six train cars derailed and four fell about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters) from a viaduct Saturday night after one train plowed into the back of another train that had stalled after being hit by lightning.

An Lusheng, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, said there were design problems with the signal light equipment at the Wenzhou South Station and dispatchers did not send any warnings after the lightning strike.

"After the lightning strike caused a failure, an interval signal machine that should have shown a red light mistakenly upgraded it to a green light instead," An said in comments carried by state broadcaster CCTV.

The Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication, which designed the signal equipment, on Thursday issued a letter of apology to the families of the victims and the injured passengers.

It said it would cooperate with the investigation and would "have the courage to assume responsibility and accept the punishment deserved."

Wen's visit comes a day after more than 20 relatives of people who died in the crash gathered at the Wenzhou South Station, holding banners demanding answers regarding the accident's cause, Chinese media reported.

"After such a big thing has happened, the railway departments cannot hide behind while they let the local governments deal with it and solve it. They are slow and won't show their faces. Is it the government that wants to protect them, or has the government been threatened by them?" one man surnamed Lin who lost his elder brother, Lin Xiao, in the crash, told the Yangcheng Evening News.

The government has ordered a two-month safety campaign for its railway system amid questions about how the crash occurred. Wen called for the campaign to be widened to target all transport infrastructure, coal mines, construction sites, and industries dealing with dangerous chemicals.

The accident was the biggest blow yet to China's burgeoning high-speed rail ambitions that have been highlighted as a symbol of the countries rising economic and technological prowess.

Rapid expansion of the services has been dogged by concerns about safety, corruption scandals and criticism that schedules are impractical and tickets too expensive for ordinary Chinese. Open just one month, the much-hyped 820-mile (1,318-kilometer) Beijing-Shanghai line has been plagued by power outages and other malfunctions.

Saturday's accident outside the eastern city of Wenzhou prompted an outpouring of anger among the public and even in the usually docile state media, with questions posed over the cause of the crash and the government's handling of the aftermath.

The firing of three top officials at the Shanghai Railway Bureau did little to tamp down criticism that authorities made only passing attempts to rescue survivors while ordering tracks swiftly cleared to restore service.

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Yahoo, Alibaba, Softbank come to agreement

NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo Inc., Japan's Softbank Corp. and the Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group have agreed on a compensation plan involving the Web payment service Alipay.

Yahoo, which holds a 43 percent stake in Alibaba, shocked investors in May when it told them that Alibaba had spun off Alipay nearly six weeks earlier, without giving the Internet pioneer anything in return. Alipay was spun off into a company controlled Alibaba's CEO, Jack Ma.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao holds a bouquet of flowers as he visits the site of the …

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed Thursday to punish any corrupt person found responsible for a high-speed train crash that killed at least 39 people and triggered public anger over its handling.

Wen, speaking in a rare public news conference at the site of Saturday's crash between two bullet trains, said a "serious investigation" was under way and that results would be made public. The crash near the eastern city of Wenzhou also injured 190 people.

AMSTERDAM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.N.-backed Lebanon tribunal on Friday released the names, photographs and details of four men wanted for killing statesman Rafik al-Hariri, saying it had acted in a bid to speed up their arrest.

Lebanon received the indictments and four arrest warrants from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon last month. While the suspects were not named then, Lebanese officials said the accused were members of the Shi'ite militant movement Hezbollah.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The backlash over a train crash that killed at least 40 people has handed a stinging lesson to China's ruling Communist Party, struggling to keep up with a public whose thirst for candour and accountability is outrunning traditional top-down controls.

The popular anger unleashed by last Saturday's high-speed rail accident in eastern China and echoing this week across the Internet and in an emboldened press, has shown that China's heady economic growth has not inoculated leaders from widespread popular distrust of secretive and remote officialdom.

The surge of anger hasn't approached any level that would challenge Party rule. But it has served as a warning to Beijing leaders that censorship is a weak weapon against opinions speeding across the Internet.

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegians united in mourning on Friday as the first funerals were held a week after anti-Islam extremist Anders Behring Breivik massacred at least 77 people in attacks that traumatised the nation.

Flanked by an imam and a bishop from Norway's Lutheran state church, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg attended a ceremony in Oslo's main mosque at 1330 GMT -- the time Breivik detonated a homemade car bomb in central Oslo on July 22.

LONDON (Reuters) - The still-unexplained killing of Libya's rebel military commander will further undermine outside confidence in an already fragmented opposition, with some suspecting an internal feud is to blame.

While information remained sketchy and few entirely rule out the possibility that Gaddafi loyalists somehow killed Abdel Fattah Younes, observers say divisions within the rebel movement were already growing before his death.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich resigned on Friday after a government report chronicled a litany of errors and neglect by the crew of the military plane that crashed in Russia last year killing Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

The long-awaited report said the crew of the TU-154 Tupolev plane were poorly trained and ignored safety regulations. It said mistakes by Russian ground staff and poor conditions at Smolensk airport also contributed to the crash.

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen opposition forces deployed armoured vehicles across streets in the capital Sanaa as tens of thousands gathered for prayers and protests both for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's three-decade rule.

General Ali Mohsen, a top military commander who defected to the opposition in March, sent a large number of troops and armoured vehicles to guard "Change Square", many more than his usual deployment for Friday rallies.

LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers said on Friday it was likely News Corp's James Murdoch would be recalled to clarify details about evidence on phone hacking he gave to a parliamentary committee, following claims his testimony was "mistaken".

Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport (CMS)Committee has said it would be writing to Murdoch asking him for more details about evidence he gave earlier this month about phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World tabloid that has shaken his father Rupert's media empire.

KIEV (Reuters) - An explosion at a Ukrainian coal mine killed at least 17 miners on Friday, the Emergencies Ministry said, the latest in a series of accidents that has raised concern over safety standards in the industry.

Two miners were injured in the explosion at the Sukhodilska-Eastern mine in the Luhansk region in the former Soviet republic's coal mining heartland, and nine were missing.

Around 100 feared dead in DR Congo boat collision

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Around 100 people were feared dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday after the latest in a string of boat accidents in the central African country, officials said.

"We've counted 110 survivors out of over 200 that were on the canoe," said Rebecca Ebale, local communications minister for the northern Equateur province where the collision with a second boat took place on the Ruki river late on Tuesday.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya's rebel military commander was shot dead in an incident shrouded in mystery, dealing a blow to the Western-backed forces struggling to topple Muammar Gaddafi.

Rebels said Abdel Fattah Younes, long a member of the veteran leader's inner circle before defecting in February, was shot by assailants on Thursday after he had been summoned from the battlefield for unspecified talks with other rebel leaders.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian forces shot dead at least 20 civilians in attacks on pro-democracy demonstrations across the country on Friday, the Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah said.

Syrians in their thousands took to the streets nationwide for the 17th consecutive Friday to demand an end to President Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule, activists said by telephone, defying an intensifying military crackdown on an uprising for political freedoms.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Even by the standards of a salacious and unpredictable international scandal, it was a whirlwind week in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case.

On Sunday, Strauss-Kahn's accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, 32, broke her silence and anonymity, telling the world in televised and print interviews her version of the incident with the former International Monetary Fund chief. Diallo, a hotel maid, alleges Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform oral sex on him and attempted to rape her at an upscale Manhattan hotel on May 14.

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan rebels said on Friday the gunmen who shot dead the rebel military chief were fighters of an allied militia, in apparent confirmation of deep rifts among the forces struggling to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

The reports follow 24 hours of confusion over the killing of Abdel Fattah Younes, a defector from Gaddafi's inner circle, whose death deals a blow both to the rebels and their Western backers.

There had been widespread speculation as to whether Younes had been killed in an internal rebel feud or by Gaddafi forces which had penetrated the Benghazi-based movement.

A bird sits on the top of the flooded bridge caused by heavy rains at an ecology …
South Korean army soldiers search for North Korean land mines near the demilitarized …

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Parts of North Korean land mines washed down a swollen river into South Korea, and troops searched for other mines that may have been dislodged by deadly landslides and flooding that has stricken the peninsula.
Two wooden North Korean mine boxes were found in a river in Cheolwon on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone. The boxes were empty, the detonators and explosives believed to have been lost in the current, a Defense Ministry official said Friday.
Soldiers were searching the area for other North Korean mines, said the official, who requested anonymity based on department rules. He said accidental dislodgement was suspected rather than North Korea intentionally sending the mines downstream.
North Korean mines have floated south on river currents in the past. Dozens of wood box mines swept south after heavy rains last year, killing a South Korean and injuring another.
There were fears, too, that South Korean land mines may be buried in the debris of a deadly landslide in Seoul.
The mines are a reminder of the continued danger of war on the Korean peninsula. The DMZ is heavily mined, but South Korea has also buried the weapons over the years mainly to defend military installations.
Some of those mines were planted decades ago at Wumyeon Mountain in southern Seoul, where a landslide on Wednesday killed 16 people. Most of the mines had been removed between 1999 and 2006, but 10 mines have not been accounted for, officials said.
About 140 South Korean soldiers gripping metal detectors searched for land mines on Wumyeon Mountain and around South Korean army installations near the border to prevent them from harming people.
Torrential downfalls since Tuesday have severely disrupted life in Seoul and its surrounding areas, submerging streets filled with idled cars, flooding subway stations and forcing businesses to shut. At least 50 people have been killed.
Weather conditions greatly improved Friday with little rain, a welcome relief from days of downpours. Traffic problems eased and many people returned to homes. In Gyeonggi province near Seoul, some searching was still going on for bodies or possible survivors, though most efforts focused on cleanup.
The official death toll of 50 does not include 11 other people who died in accidents amid the rains that emergency officials say were caused by negligence. They cited a man who was drunk and went swimming in the floodwaters and drowned.
Heavy rains also pummeled North Korea, destroying homes and buildings, state media have reported in recent days.
The Korean Central News Agency said late Friday that the country is suffering "seriously" from flooding, with more than 1,605 acres (650 hectares) of cropland flooded in North Hwanghae province and roads, houses and public buildings destroyed.
"A detailed survey is now under way and necessary measures have been taken to recover from the damage," the report said.
North Korea is particularly susceptible to damage from flooding due to poor drainage and widespread deforestation, according to agronomists.

Celebs who Passed Away Before their Time

Extremely talented and winner of multiple Grammy Awards, British R&B singer Amy Winehouse bid adieu to the world on July 23, 2011.
She was just 27 years old when she died and joined musicians like Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison in the 27 Club.
Many celebrities - Indian and Non-Indian - have died young. Their lives were short but the impact they made was big. They left a lasting impression on the lives of scores of people. MensXP takes a look at some of those celebs who passed away before their time only after making their presence felt strongly in their respective domains.

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Bangalore: Amid speculation about whether they will be asked to quit office, Janardhana and Karunakara Reddy have demanded an apology for a report on illegal mining that indicts them.

The Reddys, mining barons from Bellary, are senior ministers in Karnataka. They've been accused of corruption and misusing their offices in the report prepared by Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde. However, the Reddy brothers say that Mr Hegde has got his facts incorrect. They want him to issue a public apology "to the state of Karnataka before he retires as Lokayukta early next week."

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Bangalore: It is not for nothing that BS Yeddyurappa has been described as a politician with many lives.

On the day when this successor was to be selected in Bangalore, the Chief Minister of Karnataka proved why he could be so tough to replace. 75 of his party's 120 MLAs were joined by 15 BJP MPs in declaring that Mr Yeddyurappa should stay in office, despite his indictment for corruption in a report on illegal mining. (Watch: Rise and fall of Yeddyurappa)

Govt in 'grip of the corrupt': Kejriwal

Terming the Lokpal Bill approved by the Union Cabinet as an "eyewash", rights activist Arvind Kejriwal today said it will "patronise" corruption and should be withdrawn.

"The Bill approved by the Cabinet is to patronise corruption and an eyewash and should be withdrawn... it betrays the aspirations and expectations of people fighting against corruption," Kejriwal told reporters.

The government, he said, seemed to be in "grip of the corrupt."

People have the right to protest: Brinda on Hazare's fast

Not averse to civil rights leader Anna Hazare's proposed fast against the Lokpal Bill, CPI-M leader Brinda Karat today said every citizen has the right to protest.

Advocating inclusion of the prime minister and the conduct of MPs in Parliament under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill, Karat said, "Even though our party disagrees with some of the views raised by Hazare, as a citizen he has the right to protest. People's struggle will strengthen the democracy".

Delhi Police has told team Anna Hazare that they cannot go for their proposed indefinite fast and sit-in at Jantar Mantar against the Lokpal Bill and asked them to either choose a venue outside the capital or give a definite time-frame for their campaign near Parliament.

Justice Dinkaran resigns as Sikkim HC CJI

New Delhi: Justice Paul Daniel Dinakaran stepped down from the post of Chief justice of Sikkim High Court on Friday. There are as much as twelve charges against the 60-year-old Dinakaran pending in the Supreme Court.

He sent his resignation to the Chief Justice of India, according to reports.

Rahul is ‘heartthrob of youths’: Sheila Dikshit

New Delhi: "He is the biggest heartthrob of the youth of India."

This is how Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit described Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi at a public function here today.

Dikshit, who addressed Rahul as 'Rajivji' at the beginning of her speech, heaped praises on the young leader after the inauguration of Guru Tegh Bahadur Memorial here on the Delhi-Haryana border.

Off-course penguin in New Zealand to be set free

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's favoritepenguin visitor has been given a health clearance to be returned tothe wild. The news comes five weeks after he was found on a beachmore than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from his Antarctic home.

The emperor penguin nicknamed "Happy Feet" has been recuperating at the Wellington Zoo since soon after he was discovered on the North Island. He is the first emperor penguin to be found in the wild in New Zealand in 44 years.

Former Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu found dead

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hideki Irabu joined the New York Yankees 14 years ago in a swell of international excitement. The quirky, flamethrowing Japanese right-hander seemed destined to become a pioneering star for American baseball's marquee franchise.

Irabu never reached those enormous expectations, and his career spiraled. On Wednesday, the 42-year-old was found dead, an apparent suicide in a home in Rancho Palos Verdes, a wealthy Los Angeles suburb.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday snubbed Congress MP and sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi, who asked for permission to attend parliament, and said the government would not fall if he didn't attend the session.

"There is no such important issue going to take place in parliament that if you (Kalmadi) do not attend the session then the government will fall," Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw observed.

Rakhi Sawant

Item girl Rakhi Sawant will now be seen hosting a chat show 'Gajab Desh Ki Ajab Kahaaniyaan' on Imagine TV.

Produced by UTV, 'Gajab Desh Ki Ajab Kahaaniyaan', is a showcase of strange stories that highlight the wacky lives and strange beliefs that exist in India.

Forget gym, now burn calories by sexercise!

London, July 28 (ANI): Forget running on treadmills or hitting expensive gyms to shed those extra pounds, as now a cheaper way to lose calories has emerged in the form of - sexercise.

A study has revealed that, women are more inclined to have sex after a long day if they think it will help them lose weight.

Research showed that 76 percent of women are more inclined to weave the nocturnal workout into their routines if they think they will burn calories.

And almost two thirds of women who do own gym memberships said they were happier to carry out such activities as having sex and even doing the vacuuming if they thought it would burn as many calories as a traditional workout.

Salman Khan's much-trusted bodyguard for than 15 years, Shera has said that he has no plans of writing a book on the superstar, who had expressed some apprehensions in this regard, albeit in a lighter vein.

"I will never write a book on SalmanBhai. This is one thought which has never occurred to me. I cannot break his trust. He said all these things in jest and I would like to keep it that way," Shera said when asked about Salman's comment about the doom the actor would face if Shera ever wrote a book on him which might reveal all of his secrets.

Salman’s Shera shakes a leg for ‘Bodyguard’ item song

Mumbai: First Salman Khan`s former girlfriend, actress Katrina Kaif, was roped in for the ‘Bodyguard’ item number and now his security aide Shera has shot for the much-talked about song.

Shera will not only feature in ‘Bodyguard Item Song’, but he will also be seen dancing and grooving with Salman.

"Yes, I have shot for the song with Salman bhai and all this seems like a magic. Salman bhai is such a huge star and for someone like him showing such trust in me is nothing short of a miracle," Shera, who has been with Salman for more than 15 years, said in a statement.

Sanjay Dutt''s look in ''Agneepath'' remake revealed

Mumbai, Jul 29 (PTI) Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's look in the much-awaited remake of 'Agneepath' was revealed on his 52nd birthday today. "First Look of Sanjay Dutt in Agneepath! Await your comments," filmmaker Karan Johar said on micro-blogging site twitter. Johar posted a link of Agneepath's facebook page on twitter, which shows the 'Khalnayak's' shaved head, besides his bulked up physique and tattoos over his arms. Directed by Johar's former assistant, Karan Malhotra, 'Agneepath', a remake of the 1990 Hindi film is reportedly radically different from the original film.

The Maharashtra government has said that it would ask the producers of Aarakshan to screen the film to all those who have reservations against its theme. Adding to the controversies surrounding Prakash Jha's film, Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil on July 29, 2011 said the government would ask the makers of Aarakshanto screen it to all those who have reservations against it before its release to meet law and order concerns.

Here at long last is a Hindi film that loves India so unequivocally that it goes and paints the entire world brown. Every single character in Gandhi to Hitler, whether a dreaded Third Reich minister, a marauding Russian Red Army soldier, a trigger-happy French infantryman or a patriotic Azad Hind Fauj volunteer, is portrayed by an Indian actor.

Just after the London shoot of Tezz that concluded a few weeks back, Ajay Devgn had sneaked out to Singapore for a quick holiday with Kajol, daughter Nysa and son Yug. Though he had to back in the B-town soon enough to promote Singham, he is already making plans to wrap up the unfinished business. He has promised his family that come October and he would be definitely taking a much longer holiday with them this time around.

Review: ‘Khap’ is a social-drama gone horribly wrong!

Spicezee Bureau

Issue based films come with a huge risk of stirring communal passion among audiences, who aren’t gracious enough to accept art for art’s sake. In such a scenario, Ajai Sinha’s ‘Khap’ tries to take up the burning issue of honour killings of couples marrying in same-clan in most parts of North India.

What is it all about?

Can you have a candy gloss feel, a romantic duet, a separation song, in a thought provoking issue based genre film...? Well Ajay Sinha accomplishes this feat with tremendous ease. The movie shifts genre faster than your TV channel remote without any remorse.

Exactly... who ever watches this flick will share the same sentiment - WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT? One film old helmer Ajai Sinha (Stop in 2004 starring Tejaswini Kolhapure and Om Puri) in the company of his four writers Ishan Trivedi, Vinod Ranganath, Vijay Verma and Alok Lal fail to tell us what exactly is 'Khap', what it does and from where it comes from.

The concept of Khap is ancient; written references are found as far back as Rig Vedic times. It was a system of social administration and organization in the republics of Northwestern Indian states such as Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 'Khap' is a term for a social-political grouping and used in a geographical sense. Other parallel terms are Pal, Ganasangha, Janapada or republic.

Anushka Sharma

Anushka Sharma, who is apparently dating her co-actor Ranveer Singh from Band Baajaa Baaraat, has been denying the buzz all this while and Simi Garewal's Simi Selects India's Most Desirable was no exception to it.
When probed by Simi, the actress said that she is open to the idea of an arranged marriage. Even her parents have said the same. On being asked if marriage is important to her she says, "Absolutely. It is very important. I want to be married and have kids. And when I'm married I probably do not want to continue working".

Anushka: Ranveer and I have a very volatile relationship

Simi Garewal's new talk show 'Simi selects India's most desirables' is being talked about for its novelty factor. Actors like John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor and Abhay Deol have comfortably opened up showing their real personality in the show. Simi is an extremely gracious host who makes actors feel totally comfortable..


	SIMI GAREWAL and ANUSHKA SHARMA

This week's guest is Anushka Sharma who debuted in RAB NE BANA DI JODI oppositeShahrukh Khan. After revealing about the secret behind her success in previous story in the show Anuskha now opens up about her relationship with Ranveer saying that she is not dating him.

Friday, July 29, 2011

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