Drug service cutbacks have a ‘devastating impact’ on young addicts, claim charities
July 23, 2011 No Comment
Fight against substance abuse among the young could be turned back by 10 years if cuts continue, warn leading health groups Budget cuts to drug and alcohol services for young people are having a “devastating impact” on the fight against substance abuse, according to leading health groups and charities. Among the services being shut down or scaled back are drug education in schools, treatment for young people battling addiction, and support for professionals working in the sector. As a result, the independent drugs monitoring body DrugScope, in conjunction with several leading charities, is warning that young people with drugs and alcohol problems are finding it increasingly difficult to find help. It is the first sign that cuts are having a direct impact on front-line rehabilitation and prevention services. Young people’s treatment services have already closed in the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Newham and Merton, according to DrugScope. Addaction, one of the UK’s major treatment providers, has confirmed that several local authorities have imposed funding cuts on their young people’s services of up to 50%. The Lifeline Project, which provides drug and alcohol treatment for young people across England, is warning that cuts to its services will affect the numbers they can support. “The long-term social and economic costs associated with increased risks in drug taking, admissions to A&E, offending behaviour, school exclusions, sexual health, safeguarding and child protection will far outweigh the short-term benefit of cutting costs,” said Martin Moran, director of young people’s services. “The financial cuts we have experienced in some of our services will reduce the number of young people we can help in the future, and could undo the work of recent years.” In February this year, research published by the DoE concluded that drug treatment for young people is cost effective, estimating that for every £1 spent on treatment between £5 and £8 is saved by the NHS and other agencies. “We are extremely concerned at the potential long-term impact of these cuts on young people, their families and communities,” said Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope. In a survey of staff at 79 local education authorities, more than a quarter reported that there had been no specialist drug education support in their secondary schools since April. “We are probably in the worst situation for drug education for decades,” said Paul Tuohy, chief executive at drug prevention charity Mentor UK. “We won’t see the real impact for at least another 18 months, when the effect of a complete lack of infrastructure for drug education will become apparent. It could have devastating implications.” The future of the Drug Education Forum, a body of experts that has received government funding since 1995, is in jeopardy after it was revealed that the Department for Education will cease its funding from November. “This has the potential to be extremely damaging,” said co-ordinator Andrew Brown. “The cuts are affecting front-line support for drug and alcohol education. A decade of hard work by schools and communities has seen drug and alcohol use among young people fall back. We can only hope this isn’t reversed.” Drugs Drugs policy Health Cuts and closures Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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Victims of war and drought are at the mercy of bandits as they trek miles across the desert to seek UN help. Then corrupt officials demand starving families pay for food “It has been a terrible experience. There were eight of us and we had to survive on just a few kilos of flour for five days. Hunger and thirst haunted us during the whole journey.” Holding her year-old grandson in her arms, her face brushed by the dusty morning desert wind, Sarura Ali and her family have just arrived in the north-eastern Kenyan refugee centre of Dadaab, after fleeing from the drought in the Somali village of Waldid. “The heat was unbearable, so we were forced to walk at night. Every step we took was in the dark, fearfully.” Several hundred people have gathered at the registration point at Daghaley, one of three refugee camps around Dadaab. The family-run businesses of these small farmers and cattle herders from Somalia have been wiped out by the worst drought in the Horn of Africa for 60 years. They patiently wait to be registered by agents of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most came here after weeks on foot in the desert, unable to afford any transport. They walked for days at the mercy of bandits in the porous border area between Somalia and Kenya. This year alone, more than 100,000 Somalis have fled from the lack of rain in their country to shelter in what has become the biggest refugee camp complex in the world. They are escaping a war zone. The Islamic militants of al-Shabab, who control much of the country outside the capital, Mogadishu, and are fighting an insurgency against the transitional federal government, have vowed to keep most international aid workers away, despite the situation. The UN warns that 800,000 children could die from starvation, and last week declared a famine in some parts of the country. For thousands of desperate Somalis, the only solution has been a long march in the hope of reaching refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. Set up at the start of the 1990s for victims of the Somali civil war and designed for a refugee population of 90,000 people, Dadaab, some 60 miles over the border in Kenya, now hosts more than 380,000 refugees. According to Doctors Without Borders, the number could reach 450,000 by the end of the year. As more arrive every day, the camps are becoming appallingly overcrowded. Delivery of food has become erratic. Tensions and frustrations have begun to spill over. YesterdayLast week angry young men stoned the UNHCR compound in Daghaley, enraged by the endless waiting and their place at the back of the queue. Many come every day, only to be told to return next morning. Given the enormous demands on resources, people are screened according to their vulnerability. Families with more than eight members and with old people are prioritised, said social worker Aden Sirat Olow, who works in the UNHCR centre in Daghaley. “They are first fed, then given food items, blankets and a tent. Single men and young people have to wait more because their cases are not as serious. We are registering more than 1,000 people a day in this camp alone.” However, many newcomers complain of not receiving rations for weeks, while others say food distribution and registration are hampered by corruption. “Some local staff working for NGOs and UN agencies ask for 3,000 shillings [around £20] to give you a food card. If you don’t pay, you stay hungry,” says Gedow Nunow from Baidoa, who says he had to wait two months before being able to register and get any assistance. Around him, heads nod in agreement. In the nearby Ifo camp, the hospital managed by GIZ, a German NGO, has 80 beds but is now treating more than 100 people. “Seventy per cent of our patients are newcomers,” says Dr Daniel Muchiri. “They come in poor conditions because of the exhausting trip. We have many cases of tuberculosis, diarrhoea and respiratory problems.” On a bed in one of the three wards, Hiraq Bayo, 23, is cradling her year-old son, Ibrahim, who is continuously vomiting. They have just made a five-day trip from the village of Baraway, in the Gedo region of Somalia. “We used to have a farm, but all the animals are now dead because of the drought,” she says, trying to keep her child upright to stop him suffocating. “We had to abandon everything and come here to save our lives.” This desert plain, dotted by thousands of refugee tents and makeshift huts made out of plastic bags or blankets, encircles what was once a small Kenyan village. The area now hosts three generations of Somalis who have been fleeing war, drought and famine. The availability of weapons via the Kenyan-Somali border and the lack of jobs and opportunities for refugees are making an already explosive situation worse. Rape and violence are increasing. People are desperate with hunger and gripped by fear. “We go out all together, trying to move as quickly as possible. We run away as soon as we spot someone approaching,” says one of six women collecting wood at the border between the Ifo and Daghaley camps. Some Somalis have set up armed gangs on the road between Dadaab and the border town of Liboi, attacking newcomers and robbing them. An environmental crisis is looming, caused by the huge over-population of a desert area dotted by trees and dry bushes. Dadaab will have to receive thousands more people in coming weeks in what the UN has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The executive director of the World Food Program, Josette Sheeran, visiting the refugee camp, said the area hit by famine will soon expand. UN agencies and relief organisations are doing their best, but resources are depleting quickly and relations between refugees and locals are deteriorating. Some newcomers have settled outside the camps, prompting an angry reaction by communities who feel their land has been taken by Somalis. Others claim local Kenyans are demanding protection fees. “I had to pay 500 shillings to some locals who threatened to kick me out. At first I refused, but then they flattened my house,” says 45-year-old Mariam Hassan Aden, who now lives in Daghaley. “I could have used that money to buy food for my kids. Now they don’t have anything to eat and I don’t know what to do.” Somalia Refugees Kenya United Nations Africa guardian.co.uk
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Angry president lashes out after Republicans walk away from talks on borrowing limit, raising the spectre of US default Talks to stave off a potentially catastrophic US default on debt payments were in crisis as Republicans and Democrats struggled to avert a disaster that could trigger a global economic crisis. Both sides agree that the US needs to pass legislation to raise its debt limit above its current level of $14.3 trillion (£8.7tn). But negotiations collapsed in acrimony late on Friday over details of a package of spending cuts and tax rises that would help to pay for such a move. A visibly angry President Barack Obama attacked the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, for refusing to return his phone calls and then abandoning the negotiations. “I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times and I think that one of the questions that the Republican party is going to have to ask itself is: can they say yes to anything?” If agreement is not reached, it could trigger what had once been unthinkable: a US default on its debt payments. If that happened, most experts predict, it would see a plunge in stock and bond markets worldwide that would threaten a new great recession. The deadline for agreement is just over a week away, on 2 August. Though most people still expect a deal of some kind before then, preparations for the worst are being made. Obama is being briefed by senior officials on the consequences of default on Wall Street, and major banks and institutions are laying the groundwork for survival investment strategies. “I still believe in the end we will avoid default, but we are playing with fire,” said Larry Haas, a former official in the Clinton White House. Others put it even more bluntly. “Members of Congress are juggling with hydrogen bombs,” said Professor John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. In order to thrash out a deal and get talks started again, Obama ordered top congressional leaders from both parties to meet him at the White House and explain how they were going to move forward. That demand showed the seriousness of the situation, but also raised the prospect that some sort of “fallback option” could emerge that would see a short-term rise in the debt ceiling. However, such a plan would only be likely to delay the problem until later in the year. The Republicans have shifted dramatically to the right on economic matters, especially taxation, in the wake of the rise of the Tea Party. The Republicans captured the House of Representatives last year with the help of a number of new members the Tea Party supported. Many Republicans have signed pledges never to agree to tax rises of any sort and fear a backlash from supporters if they agree to a debt deal that includes attempts to raise money from wealthy Americans and big corporations. Instead they want a settlement that focuses on slashing programmes such as social security and health spending on the poor and elderly, as well as defence and other parts of the government. So far Obama has sought to accommodate Republican demands and offered more than $1.6tn in government spending cuts, but only in return for tax rises on the rich. That has not yet been enough to bring Republicans on board. In a letter to Republicans in Congress, Boehner said: “The White House is simply not serious about ending the spending binge. A deal was never really close.” Obama is also coming under serious fire from Democrats, who accuse him of being a poor negotiator and too willing to meet Republican demands at the expense of the liberal wing of his own party. Many Democrats have been horrified at the concessions he has already made on cutting government spending on the poor, sick and elderly. They argue that the most vulnerable Americans would pay the bill for a crisis that began on Wall Street. Leading progressives have slammed Obama’s tactics and fear that he may agree to even harsher cuts. Progressive groups, like MoveOn, have sent out campaigning letters and urged phone call protests as a way of persuading Democrats not to back the cuts. “It is tragic what is happening right now,” said Robert Greenwald, a Hollywood director turned progressive documentary filmmaker. Greenwald said ordinary Democrats felt betrayed by Obama. “If he agrees a deal that has these cuts, then the president has done a disservice to millions of people who worked for him to get him elected; who believed in him and who fought for him.” A CNN poll last week backed Greenwald’s comments. The survey showed that Obama’s approval rating among liberals has dropped to 71%, the lowest level of his presidency. That, however, may not worry the White House as it focuses on the 2012 election. Some observers believe liberal voters will still turn out in force again to vote for Obama. “Obama has flexibility to move to the right, because he believes progressives will still vote for him. They have nowhere else to go,” said Pitney. But there are signs of growing anger and revolt in the party as Democrats scramble to protect America’s already shaky welfare programmes. A few voices are even whispering of searching for someone to lead a primary challenge against Obama. “Who knows? Maybe there will be a challenge from the left. If progressives are disgusted enough, I would not rule it out. It would send a message,” said Haas. US economy Economics US domestic policy United States Barack Obama John Boehner Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Angry president lashes out after Republicans walk away from talks on borrowing limit, raising the spectre of US default Talks to stave off a potentially catastrophic US default on debt payments were in crisis as Republicans and Democrats struggled to avert a disaster that could trigger a global economic crisis. Both sides agree that the US needs to pass legislation to raise its debt limit above its current level of $14.3 trillion (£8.7tn). But negotiations collapsed in acrimony late on Friday over details of a package of spending cuts and tax rises that would help to pay for such a move. A visibly angry President Barack Obama attacked the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, for refusing to return his phone calls and then abandoning the negotiations. “I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times and I think that one of the questions that the Republican party is going to have to ask itself is: can they say yes to anything?” If agreement is not reached, it could trigger what had once been unthinkable: a US default on its debt payments. If that happened, most experts predict, it would see a plunge in stock and bond markets worldwide that would threaten a new great recession. The deadline for agreement is just over a week away, on 2 August. Though most people still expect a deal of some kind before then, preparations for the worst are being made. Obama is being briefed by senior officials on the consequences of default on Wall Street, and major banks and institutions are laying the groundwork for survival investment strategies. “I still believe in the end we will avoid default, but we are playing with fire,” said Larry Haas, a former official in the Clinton White House. Others put it even more bluntly. “Members of Congress are juggling with hydrogen bombs,” said Professor John Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. In order to thrash out a deal and get talks started again, Obama ordered top congressional leaders from both parties to meet him at the White House and explain how they were going to move forward. That demand showed the seriousness of the situation, but also raised the prospect that some sort of “fallback option” could emerge that would see a short-term rise in the debt ceiling. However, such a plan would only be likely to delay the problem until later in the year. The Republicans have shifted dramatically to the right on economic matters, especially taxation, in the wake of the rise of the Tea Party. The Republicans captured the House of Representatives last year with the help of a number of new members the Tea Party supported. Many Republicans have signed pledges never to agree to tax rises of any sort and fear a backlash from supporters if they agree to a debt deal that includes attempts to raise money from wealthy Americans and big corporations. Instead they want a settlement that focuses on slashing programmes such as social security and health spending on the poor and elderly, as well as defence and other parts of the government. So far Obama has sought to accommodate Republican demands and offered more than $1.6tn in government spending cuts, but only in return for tax rises on the rich. That has not yet been enough to bring Republicans on board. In a letter to Republicans in Congress, Boehner said: “The White House is simply not serious about ending the spending binge. A deal was never really close.” Obama is also coming under serious fire from Democrats, who accuse him of being a poor negotiator and too willing to meet Republican demands at the expense of the liberal wing of his own party. Many Democrats have been horrified at the concessions he has already made on cutting government spending on the poor, sick and elderly. They argue that the most vulnerable Americans would pay the bill for a crisis that began on Wall Street. Leading progressives have slammed Obama’s tactics and fear that he may agree to even harsher cuts. Progressive groups, like MoveOn, have sent out campaigning letters and urged phone call protests as a way of persuading Democrats not to back the cuts. “It is tragic what is happening right now,” said Robert Greenwald, a Hollywood director turned progressive documentary filmmaker. Greenwald said ordinary Democrats felt betrayed by Obama. “If he agrees a deal that has these cuts, then the president has done a disservice to millions of people who worked for him to get him elected; who believed in him and who fought for him.” A CNN poll last week backed Greenwald’s comments. The survey showed that Obama’s approval rating among liberals has dropped to 71%, the lowest level of his presidency. That, however, may not worry the White House as it focuses on the 2012 election. Some observers believe liberal voters will still turn out in force again to vote for Obama. “Obama has flexibility to move to the right, because he believes progressives will still vote for him. They have nowhere else to go,” said Pitney. But there are signs of growing anger and revolt in the party as Democrats scramble to protect America’s already shaky welfare programmes. A few voices are even whispering of searching for someone to lead a primary challenge against Obama. “Who knows? Maybe there will be a challenge from the left. If progressives are disgusted enough, I would not rule it out. It would send a message,” said Haas. US economy Economics US domestic policy United States Barack Obama John Boehner Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
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Survivors of London bombings call in lawyers to investigate allegations that officers may have passed on addresses Survivors of the 2005 London bombings have asked lawyers to investigate allegations that Scotland Yard “sold” or passed on the confidential contact list of the 7 July victims to reporters working for News International. Beverli Rhodes, chair of the Survivors’ Coalition Foundation, said that a number of 7/7 victims suspected that personal contact details, including mobile phone and ex-directory landline numbers as well as home addresses, were passed by officers to News of the World journalists. The former security consultant, who specialised in counter-terrorism, said she had been contacted by a number of survivors of the bombings who said they had been approached by News of the World reporters with bogus stories of how they obtained their details, which they believe may have originated with the police. Their concerns have been discussed with the London law firm McCue and Partners. A spokesman said the survivors were considering their next step, having made requests for the Met to provide answers. Rhodes said: “Scotland Yard had the full list of survivor contact details. I am pretty sure that is how the News of the World got my home address. I had only moved there maybe three or four weeks before News of the World reporters turned up. The only place where my new details were stored were the post office, bank, doctor and Scotland Yard. “The suspicion is that the full list was given or sold on to the newspaper or News International or fell into someone’s lap when visiting the Yard. One of the survivor’s phone numbers is not listed and only known to me and family, but they had addresses to homes, home phone numbers, mobile phones.” She said that after the hacking scandal gathered momentum following the Milly Dowler revelations, several survivors approached her asking if she had provided their personal details to News of the World reporters. “Two News of the World reporters told them they had got their details from me. They asked: ‘Did you give my number to these reporters?’, and I said: ‘No, never’. These reporters knew an awful lot of specific information and asked very detailed questions.” Rhodes is now demanding that McCue and Partners officially request details from the Metropolitan police to establish if their concerns are substantiated. Scotland Yard has started to contact the relatives of 7/7 victims to warn them they were targeted by the News of the World . It is understood that bereaved family members may have had their mobile phone messages intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the paper, in the days following the London bombings. The Dowler revelations are likely to increase pressure on Andy Coulson, the paper’s former editor, and David Cameron, who hired him as his spokesman. Last week recently resigned News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, in response to questions from Paul Farrelly MP, said she was away when Dowler’s phone was hacked and the paper was edited by her deputy, Coulson, or associate editor, Harry Scott. Sources have indicated Coulson was editing the paper then. “It was the Milly Dowler revelations that broke the camel’s back,” Farrelly said. “Rebekah Brooks has let it be known that she was away at the time, so this brings it all back to Coulson.” Brooks’s comments will raise further questions about the cache of emails exchanged between senior editors on the paper which have now been handed to police. There is speculation that they will show who on the paper commissioned the hacking of Dowler’s phone. Although Rhodes has not been contacted by the Met, she has spoken to other survivors. She was one of more than 700 victims of the attacks, which killed 52 people, and was severely injured by the bomb that hit the Piccadilly line tube near King’s Cross. Rhodes, from Ashford, Kent, said the request from reporters involved sensitive details on compensation claims and the nature of injuries. She provided the names of two News of the World reporters who previously had not been connected to the phone-hacking scandal. A McCue and Partners spokesman said the firm was evaluating the allegations and “considering their position”. Among those known to have been contacted by officers working on Operation Weeting, the Met’s investigation into phone hacking, are Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed at Edgware Road tube station. He said they told him his mobile phone number, ex-directory landline number and address had been found in records made by Mulcaire. Another is Sean Cassidy, father of a victim, and Paul Dadge, famous for helping victims during the attack, who has also been reported to have been emailed by the Met and told his name was in Mulcaire’s records. Last week Scotland Yard was asked to investigate claims that News of the World reporters paid officers to obtain people’s locations by tracking their cell phone signals – known as “pinging”. Phone hacking 7 July London attacks News of the World Andy Coulson Rebekah Brooks Police Newspapers Newspapers & magazines Mark Townsend Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Survivors of London bombings call in lawyers to investigate allegations that officers may have passed on addresses Survivors of the 2005 London bombings have asked lawyers to investigate allegations that Scotland Yard “sold” or passed on the confidential contact list of the 7 July victims to reporters working for News International. Beverli Rhodes, chair of the Survivors’ Coalition Foundation, said that a number of 7/7 victims suspected that personal contact details, including mobile phone and ex-directory landline numbers as well as home addresses, were passed by officers to News of the World journalists. The former security consultant, who specialised in counter-terrorism, said she had been contacted by a number of survivors of the bombings who said they had been approached by News of the World reporters with bogus stories of how they obtained their details, which they believe may have originated with the police. Their concerns have been discussed with the London law firm McCue and Partners. A spokesman said the survivors were considering their next step, having made requests for the Met to provide answers. Rhodes said: “Scotland Yard had the full list of survivor contact details. I am pretty sure that is how the News of the World got my home address. I had only moved there maybe three or four weeks before News of the World reporters turned up. The only place where my new details were stored were the post office, bank, doctor and Scotland Yard. “The suspicion is that the full list was given or sold on to the newspaper or News International or fell into someone’s lap when visiting the Yard. One of the survivor’s phone numbers is not listed and only known to me and family, but they had addresses to homes, home phone numbers, mobile phones.” She said that after the hacking scandal gathered momentum following the Milly Dowler revelations, several survivors approached her asking if she had provided their personal details to News of the World reporters. “Two News of the World reporters told them they had got their details from me. They asked: ‘Did you give my number to these reporters?’, and I said: ‘No, never’. These reporters knew an awful lot of specific information and asked very detailed questions.” Rhodes is now demanding that McCue and Partners officially request details from the Metropolitan police to establish if their concerns are substantiated. Scotland Yard has started to contact the relatives of 7/7 victims to warn them they were targeted by the News of the World . It is understood that bereaved family members may have had their mobile phone messages intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the paper, in the days following the London bombings. The Dowler revelations are likely to increase pressure on Andy Coulson, the paper’s former editor, and David Cameron, who hired him as his spokesman. Last week recently resigned News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, in response to questions from Paul Farrelly MP, said she was away when Dowler’s phone was hacked and the paper was edited by her deputy, Coulson, or associate editor, Harry Scott. Sources have indicated Coulson was editing the paper then. “It was the Milly Dowler revelations that broke the camel’s back,” Farrelly said. “Rebekah Brooks has let it be known that she was away at the time, so this brings it all back to Coulson.” Brooks’s comments will raise further questions about the cache of emails exchanged between senior editors on the paper which have now been handed to police. There is speculation that they will show who on the paper commissioned the hacking of Dowler’s phone. Although Rhodes has not been contacted by the Met, she has spoken to other survivors. She was one of more than 700 victims of the attacks, which killed 52 people, and was severely injured by the bomb that hit the Piccadilly line tube near King’s Cross. Rhodes, from Ashford, Kent, said the request from reporters involved sensitive details on compensation claims and the nature of injuries. She provided the names of two News of the World reporters who previously had not been connected to the phone-hacking scandal. A McCue and Partners spokesman said the firm was evaluating the allegations and “considering their position”. Among those known to have been contacted by officers working on Operation Weeting, the Met’s investigation into phone hacking, are Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed at Edgware Road tube station. He said they told him his mobile phone number, ex-directory landline number and address had been found in records made by Mulcaire. Another is Sean Cassidy, father of a victim, and Paul Dadge, famous for helping victims during the attack, who has also been reported to have been emailed by the Met and told his name was in Mulcaire’s records. Last week Scotland Yard was asked to investigate claims that News of the World reporters paid officers to obtain people’s locations by tracking their cell phone signals – known as “pinging”. Phone hacking 7 July London attacks News of the World Andy Coulson Rebekah Brooks Police Newspapers Newspapers & magazines Mark Townsend Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The snapshot emerging of 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, the suspect in Norway’s twin attacks: He is a self-described nationalist who posted in extreme right forums in Norway. He often complained about Islam (“I know of many hundred occasions where non-Muslims have been robbed, beaten up and harassed by Islamic gangs”…
Continue reading …Unlimited vacation time: It sounds like a major fringe benefit. What just a few companies started enticing employees with in the ’90s has gathered steam in recent years. But is the open-ended approach—in which workers have no set number of days they’re restricted to but generally have to get…
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Another 200 taken to hospital following crash after train lost power due to lightning strike in Zhejiang province At least 32 people have died after a high speed train crashed into a stalled train in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang on Saturday, causing four carriages to fall off a bridge. Another 200 people have been taken to hospital following the accident which occurred after the first train lost power due to a lightning strike and was then hit from the back by another bullet train following it, according to state television. A preliminary investigation by the Zhejiang provincial government showed that four coaches of the moving train fell off the viaduct, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The cars plunged about 20-30 metres from the elevated section of track. Several other carriages were derailed in the accident near Wenzhou, 860 miles south of Beijing. Both trains were headed for the coastal city of Fuzhou; one from Beijing, the other from Zhejiang’s provincial capital, Hangzhou. “The train suddenly shook violently, casting luggage all around,” Xinhua quoted survivor Liu Hongtao as saying. “Passengers cried for help but no crew responded.” The total power failure rendered useless an electronic safety system designed to warn following trains of stalled trains on the tracks and automatically halt them before a collision can occur. Railways minister Sheng Guangzu ordered an in-depth investigation of the accident. China’s government has spent billions of dollars improving the railway network of the world’s most populous country and has said it plans to spend $120bn (£73bn) a year over several years on railway construction. The vast network has been hit by a series of scandals and safety incidents over the past few months. Three railway officials have been investigated for corruption so far this year, and in February Liu Zhijun was sacked as railways minister for “serious disciplinary violations”. He had spearheaded the investment drive into the rail sector over the last decade. The flagship Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line has been plagued by power outages, leaving passengers stranded for hours on stuffy trains at least three times since it was opened earlier this month. The link is the latest and most celebrated portion of a network the government hopes will cover over 28,000 miles by the end of 2015. China guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …As President Obama meets this morning with congressional leaders on the debt ceiling, one number matters most of all: Eleven. As in, the number of days until the government defaults, writes Ezra Klein in the Washington Post . With crunch time here, Klein sees three options left, and he says Congress…
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