Train hits bus returning from wedding party at railway crossing in Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 35 and injuring dozens A train hit a bus at a railway crossing in northern India, killing at least 35 people returning from a wedding party, an official said. At least 39 others were injured early on Thursday when the train dragged the mangled bus more than 1,600 feet (500m) before coming to a halt, according to local administrator Selva Kumar. The bus, which was packed with about 80 people, had stopped at the unmanned crossing after its axle broke and was then hit by the speeding train, she said. The bride and the groom were travelling in a separate vehicle and were not among the victims, Kumar said. No passengers on the train were hurt. Two men sitting on top of the bus escaped when they jumped off seconds before the train crashed into the bus, said Shobharan Singh, a government official at the site. The accident happened near Kanshiramnagar, a village 220 miles (350km) south-west of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state. Local villagers and passengers from the train rushed to the bus to pull out the injured, who were taken to a nearby hospital, Singh said. “It appears the conductor was driving the bus, as his body has been found in the driver’s seat,” Singh said. Train accidents are a common occurrence in India. The country’s railroad network is one of the world’s largest and carries more than 14 million passengers each day. Most accidents are blamed on poor maintenance and human error. India guardian.co.uk
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Two teenage boys to appear in court on Friday accused of killing 16-year-old in south London Two boys have been charged with the murder of a teenager on a busy high street. Yemurai Kanyangarara, 16, was stabbed in the neck seconds after getting off a bus in Welling, south-east London last Friday. The youths, aged 15 and 14, will appear at Camberwell youth court on Thursday. Police were called at 5pm on Friday after reports of a boy stabbed outside a Superdrug store in Upper Wickham Lane. One witness said he watched the boy’s life “slip away” as he lay on the pavement. Yemurai, who came from nearby Belvedere, was taken by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Plumstead, where he died at 6.10pm. His father Kelton left a message on his Facebook page that read: “My boy is gone it is so painful – my heart is bleeding. RIP my boy I will always love you.” The victim, who came to Britain from Zimbabwe when he was a toddler, stepped off a No 96 bus with a friend and was attacked, probably within a matter of seconds, during the Friday rush hour. The victim was a pupil at St Columba’s Catholic boys’ school in Bexleyheath and had recently finished his GCSEs. Kanyangarara’s headmaster described him as “polite”, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dunne said. He added: “If you asked him to do something, he would do it with a smile on his face.” Police arrested the 15-year-old boy, from Peckham, and the 14-year-old, from Camberwell, on Tuesday. • Anyone who witnessed the incident or has information was asked to call the incident room at Lewisham police station on 020 8721 4906, or, if wishing to remain anonymous, Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 Knife crime Crime London guardian.co.uk
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European Central Bank expected to focus on ‘day job’ of fighting inflation at its monthly meeting in Frankfurt – while the Bank of England’s MPC is set to leave rates on hold The eurozone debt crisis will not stop the European Central Bank raising interest rates for a second time this year on Thursday as it focuses on the “day job” of fighting inflation, economists predicted. The central bank that sets monetary policy for the 17-country eurozone is universally expected to lift its benchmark rate by a quarter point to 1.5% at its meeting in Frankfurt, led by president Jean-Claude Trichet. City analysts reckon this could be followed by another rate rise towards the end of the year. The ECB’s willingness to battle inflation is in stark contrast to the stance adopted by his counterparts in London. The majority on the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, led by governor Sir Mervyn King, have chosen to ignore high inflation and argued for some time that interest rates need to stay at a record low of 0.5% to support the faltering economy. The Bank will announce its decision at noon while the ECB’s decision is due 45 minutes later, followed by a press conference hosted by Trichet. After supporting banks with unlimited cash through the crisis, the ECB has moved to normalise European money markets. Trichet’s patience with European leaders is starting to run thin as he urges them to reduce their budget deficits. “Trichet has drawn a line in the sand on Greece and he’s now focusing on the day job,” Jacques Cailloux, chief European economist at Royal Bank of Scotland in London told Bloomberg News. “The ECB has done more than governments have to prop up the euro area and it really is losing patience with political leaders. It’s up to them to fix the problem.” Rattled The debt crisis entered a new stage this week when markets were rattled by ratings agency Moody’s downgrade of Portugal’s debt to junk status. The decision, which came on Tuesday as European leaders try to hammer out the details of a new bailout for Greece, was sharply criticised by European officials. Stock markets rose ahead of the rate decisions, with the FTSE 100 index in London up 11 points at 6014.02. Germany’s Dax climbed more than 30 points to 7461.85 while France’s CAC added 18.5 points to 3879.84. The euro lost ground, though, after Moody’s cut its rating on the government-backed debt issued by Portugal’s banks. Trichet met Greece’s finance minister Evangelos Venizelos in Frankfurt on Thursday to discuss the country’s privatisation programme and the banking system. Ken Wattret at BNP Paribas in London said: “Recent references to ‘strong vigilance’ [on inflation] have reinforced expectations of another ECB rate hike today and shifted attention to the signals about how policy will evolve thereafter. Risks to price stability should remain ‘on the upside’, implying a bias to tighten … We expect the ECB to press on with rate hikes beyond July, assuming that the problems in Greece do not turn ‘systemic’.” European Central Bank Europe European debt crisis Interest rates Economics Bank of England Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Denial that former president has died unlikely to quell online and overseas speculation Reports of the death of the former president Jiang Zemin have been greatly exaggerated, the Chinese state media has insisted, amid a frenzy of online and overseas speculation. Xinhua issued a short and unusual denial that the 84-year-old statesman had passed away to quell rumours that began on Friday when Jiang failed to attend the biggest political event of the year – a 90th anniversary celebration to mark the founding of the Chinese Communist party. Asia Television of Hong Kong broadcast a report on Wednesday claiming Jiang had died of an unnamed illness. Japanese and South Korean media issued similar bulletins. Chinese journalists said they had been told to expect news on Thursday, but the only comment was a single line from Xinhua. “Recent reports of some overseas media organisations about Jiang Zemin’s death from illness are “pure rumour,” the newswire said , quoting unnamed “authoritative sources”. Despite the denial, speculation is unlikely to fully die down until Jiang is seen again in public. The last such big occasion was in October 2009 for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic . He was also present at an event in Sichuan last year, where his car was reportedly followed by an ambulance. Jiang is said to be suffering from an illness and possibly hospitalised, though it is hard to confirm because China treats the health of its leaders as a state secret. Until today, censors have tried to quell speculation by blocking references to related words on blogs and search engines : “Jiang”, “myocardial infarction”, “hung” – a euphemism for death – and “301 Hospital” – a reference to the medical facility where he was said to be treated. Searches for “jiang”, which means river, resulted in the warning: “Search results are not shown due to relevant laws and policies.” Netizens sidestepped the prohibition by using English words and allusions. The US-based dissident news site Boxun.com said Shandong News in eastern China had its website disabled by authorities for reporting Jiang’s death, though the newspaper dismissed Boxun’s report. Boxun showed what it said was a screenshot of Shandong News with a banner headline reading “Venerable Comrade Jiang Zemin Will Never Be Forgotten” next to a photo of the former leader. A woman in the news department at Shandong News said the newspaper’s site went offline on Wednesday because their servers crashed and they were still trying to fix the problem. The woman, who would only give her surname, Wang, said the website never posted news saying Jiang had died. “That’s a rumour,” she said. “Maybe someone with ulterior motives made that screenshot.” The internet cat-and-mouse game over the possible death of a former leader underscores how secretive China’s Communist party leadership remains – and the difficulties of maintaining that secrecy in a well-wired society. Jiang Zemin rose to power in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings, oversaw the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 and led his country until 2002, by which time it was one of the world’s most powerful economies. He was replaced by the current president Hu Jintao. China Internet Censorship Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
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Republicans showed new signs of flexibility to break a budget impasse Wednesday, but the White House raised the ante, pushing for more deficit reduction and casting the GOP as defenders of corporate tax giveaways. (July 6)
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Parts of China’s Sichuan Province in the southwest of country had been hit by a three-day continuous downpour by Wednesday. Chinese state media report heavy rains across the country have killed at least 25 people in less than a week. (July 7)
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Clownin Roy Williams Shut your dumbass up feat Dallas Cowboys WR Roy Williams ROY WILLIAMS 2TD’S TEXAS LONGHORNS jcwjbkp says: RT @hoopsclusive : Roy Williams and Bob Huggins have entered the building .. Both watching NE Playaz vs Mich Mustangs
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wildrosevamp says: RT @ShakeEarthquake : 2011 New Zealand earthquake 7.8 Magnitude
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Every guitar player in history, no matter how cool he or she might be, has had one fatal flaw — that goofy stringed instrument. Finally, one brave company is liberating rockstars from their leash-like attachment to the thing. Flair’s Air Pick is an oversized guitar pick that features built-in jams like “Satisfaction,” “Born to be Wild,” “Smoke on the Water,” and “Sweet Home Alabama” — you know, the sort of songs you used to have to own a guitar or a funny-looking belt to play. The toys are set to hit stores in the next few weeks, so you may want to hold onto those real life guitars for a little bit longer. Air Pick finally lets you ditch that dumb guitar originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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