21 dead, 100 injured as train derails in India - Associated Press

21 100 dead, injured as train derails in IndiaBy BISWAJEET BANERJEE, Associated Press - 4 hours ago

LUCKNOW, India (PA) - officials rescuers searched the wreckage of an express train packed for persons trapped inside after it was derailed in India North, on Sunday, killing at least 21 people and injuring more than 100 others, said.

Kalka Mail train was in a good route from Kalka in the foothills of the Himalayas, Howrah, a station near Calcutta in India Eastern, when 12 coaches and the engine jumped the track near the town of Fatehpur in the State of Uttar Pradesh, senior railway A.K. Jain official said.

The cause of the derailment was not immediately clear, but it appeared that the pilot applied the emergency brakes, said Jain.

At least 21 people were killed and rescuers withdrew at least 100 injured passengers from the wreckage, said Brij Lal, an official State policy.

The site of the accident was a heap of twisted metal. At least coach flies above the roof of another person before him and was dangling precarious, showed images of television. Another coach was thrown out of the rest of the train.

The toll was probably increase as rescuers made their way through coaches and used gas cutters to cut the deformed metal, said Lal.

"We are trying to cut the coaches and rescue those still trapped inside," said Lal.

Medical staff rushed into the area, about 75 miles (120 km) southeast of Lucknow, the capital of the State of Uttar Pradesh.

Television stations showed local residents helping injured passengers from the train and breaking Windows coaches to help those who are trapped inside.

The number of passengers on the Kalka mail - named for its use in the postal service - was not known. Normally, express trains carry about 1,000 people and move at a speed of 60 to 80 miles (100-130 kilometres) per hour.

The derailment delayed several other trains, said responsible.

The India railway network is one of the largest in the world and carries approximately 14 million passengers per day. Accidents are common, with most blamed lack of maintenance and human error.

Copyright © 2011 the Associated Press. All rights reserved.

$ 22 billion in gold jewellery found in the temple of the India - eTaiwan News

A huge Treasury of billions of dollars in gold coins, jewellery and precious stones unearthed at a Hindu temple in India is expected to grow further in value Monday by officials opened the last two secret chapels sealed since almost 150 years.

The discovery instantly transformed the 16th century considerations Padmanabhaswamy Temple in one of the richest religious institutions in the country, which prompted a move of the Government of beef safety around it.

Four chapels already open in the last few days at the temple of Trivandrum, the capital of southern Kerala State, held a vast bounty that estimates informal peg to $ 22 billion.

Other treasures unearthed so far include statues of the gods and goddesses and with diamond, Ruby, Emerald gold and other precious stones, crowns and necklaces, all offered as a gift to the temple over the centuries.

The volume of silver and gold coins was so enormous that investigators have weighed the coins by the sackful, rather than their counts, the officials said.

The temple, built by the maharajas who ruled then-Kingdom of Travancore, remains under the control of the family Royal erstwhile after the independence of the Indiain 1947.

Supreme Court of theIndiaordered the inspection vaults after a lawyer to a local court petition calling on the Government of the State to support the temple, citing inadequate security.

The operation began last week and the vaults finals had to be unlocked Monday.

Before the mine was discovered, there was almost no visible security at the temple, except for a few local security guards patrolling the complex with truncheons, mainly for the control of the crowd.

Chief of police of Kerala, Jacob Punnoose, said it has sent additional police to keep the temple and provides a high-tech security system for protecting the treasure.

"We are safer in a manner that will not interfere with the activities of the temple or devotees", said Punnoose.

Security plans include the installation of digital electronic systems, closed circuit cameras and detectors of metal at the entrance and exits of the temple.

French Afghanistan hostages home, thin but grateful - Reuters India

Television journalists France 3 Herve Ghesquiere (R) and Stephane Taponier of waves at a press conference after their arrival at the military airport of Villacoublay near Paris on June 30, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Jacky NaegelenBy Thierry Chiarello

PARIS. Thursday, June 30, 2011 3 pm IST

PARIS (AFP) - two French television journalists held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban during 18 months arrives back in France on Thursday, pale and Ghent but visibly exalted as they were welcomed by the French President and their families.

France television 3 Herve Ghesquiere reporter and cameraman Stephane Taponier, whose long test became a national cause among the French public, were released Wednesday after a sudden breakthrough in the negotiations.

They were blocked up to 24 hours a day with only two toilets short morning and evening breaks. Inadmissible or windows covered means that little light from the Sun, they have seen.

"We had to be very solid and very strong." We actually structure our time, not get bogged down in boredom and despair, "Ghesquiere said to journalists at a military airport near Paris.

"One day, Stephane said that the difference between us and the regular prisoners is that a prisoner can count the days of his sentence, whereas we could count them, but we knew when he was in the end," said Ghesquiere.

"They were very long days," said Taponier. "But we knew that the most important thing was to follow our morale".

Seized about 60 km (37 miles) outside Kabul, December 30, 2009, Ghesquiere and Taponier captivity was the longest of any French hostages since the crisis of the Lebanese hostages in the 1980s.

The French Government denied any ransom was paid for the release of two men and their Afghan Reza Din interpreter. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said details revealing negotiations could damage efforts to free the other French hostages in Africa.

SARKOZY REMAINS LOW PROFILE

President Nicolas Sarkozy could get a lift to his low popularity of release of the hostages, 10 months before the election presidential, but he and his wife Carla Bruni greeted the pair of television cameras.

Sarkozy telephoned Ghesquiere girlfriend tell him of his release, his capture while she was at a demonstration to mark the anniversary of 18 months of his capture.

The pair said they were treated well and never beaten or bound. Meals consisted of small portions of local food.

"We didn't have much to eat and it is always the same thing," Ghesquiere said. "When you have nothing to do, you really live to eat." It was really hard. Food seems unimportant, but it is really essential.

The France, who has lost 63 soldiers outside its quota of 2 000 troops in Afghanistan, said this month that he would follow the United States by bringing home its soldiers at the beginning.

The France still has eight nationals detained abroad, three Yemen, four in the region of the Sahel and in Somalia.

(Written by Catherine Bremer; editing by Robert Woodward)

Improves the India on trafficking in human beings humans: US - Wall Street Journal (blog)

The U.S. Department of State Monday improved the India on the issue of trafficking in human beings humans, saying that the country has made "significant efforts" to deal with crime.

In its annual report on trafficking in this year, the United States moved India to a location to "level 2," the second of four possible investments.

Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesSecretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned the problem of trafficking in human beings humans in Washington, D.C., Monday.

Since 2004, the India had been on the "Tier 2 Watch list," a category that was created this year for countries with a problem of human trafficking on a large scale and which are considered as not enough year to another to combat. Previously, there are only three possible classifications.

The report praised India to configure the 87 of anti-trafficking units, to increase the number of convictions of people involved in the trafficking of human beings humans of forced labour and ratify a relevant Protocol of the United Nations last month.

However, he also said that the Government must do much more. "Corrupt the Act police officers would continue to facilitate the movement of the victims of sex trafficking and protected the alleged traffickers and the guardians of the House close to the law," said the report. "Some places continuous police provide sex and work processes to hamper relief efforts."

The State Department, said that the India should encourage States to implement the special courts dedicated to the prosecution of cases of trafficking, as Mumbai. It is also called on the India to improve the protection of victims testifying against traffickers and to increase the funding available for those who are trying to build a new life after being rescued.

The report also called for tougher penalties on crimes related to trafficking in human beings human. He noted that, in certain local laws cases on bonded labor and the working children prescribe the maximum sentences of three years. The report also stated that trafficking cases are often seen in the courts below where persons convicted may be sentenced to not more than three years, even where the law permits a greater maximum than that sentence. The State Department praised a Court of Tamil Nadu, which last year sentenced three convicted traffickers of bonded labour to five years in prison.

A spokesman for the Department is home to the India said that this fact did not comment on the reports on the India.

Earlier this month, a survey of the perception of a little over 200 experts on gender issues rated the most dangerous country India the fourth in the world, in large part because of problems of trafficking human, often women and girls and the feticide.

But, while sex trafficking is also a serious issue, United States, says forced labor is the greatest problem deals with the India, and that the majority of this is internal.

"Labour forced millions of citizens is more the India traffic problem," said the report by 2011. "The men, women and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as furnaces of brick, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories.

The report also criticises Maoist rebels of the India, called Naxals. "Maoist armed groups known as Naxalites recruited by force of the children in their ranks," said the report.

WikiLeaks revelations blur policy India (Los Angeles Times)

Escape U.S. diplomatic cables sparked a political battle in India, putting the party in power on the defensive with their revelations about violations of the rights of man and religious extremism.

More damaging to the Party Congress was a first political family descendant reports the India Rahul Gandhi, cable and pegged by many as the next Prime Minister of the nation, said US Ambassador India Hindu extremist groups could be a bigger threat in the Pakistan-based Islamic militants country last year.

Given felt deep mistrust here among others for Pakistan and national attacks in recent years by Muslim and Hindu extremists as, opponents of the party seized the comments published by WikiLeaks Web site.

"I've been asked for long now [how] everyone thinks is a terrorist, State and yet they still the country back" Narendra Modi, a controversial with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leader said Saturday, calling Gandhi comments "irresponsible."

"Yesterday, after cables were, he [is] clearly giving inspiration to the United States talk about pro-Pakistan," said Modi, Minister head of the State of Gujarat, who was accused of tacit support of anti-Muslim riots there in 2002.

Communications are also likely to other notch the reputation of 125 years Party Congress, which was struck by a series of corruption and scandals, influence traffic leading up to charges that his leadership was adrift.

A second cable retrieved in the Britain's Guardian newspaper disclosure made a presentation of 2005 by the International Committee of the Red Cross for then-U.s. Ambassador David Mulford on the use of torture in the Indian portion of Kashmir. Torture is illegal in India.

The presentation was based on 177 visits by the Red Cross for the detention centres in Kashmir between 2002 and 2004 involving 1,500 prisoner interviews, cited beatings, electrocution, assault sexual on prisoners, grinding of the muscles and other abuse.

Cashmere, divided between the India and Pakistan is a flashpoint between the two countries and has been the cause of two of the three concerned neighbouring nuclear wars since partition in 1947.

In the presentation, the Red Cross has reportedly expressed its concern that Indian Government had not tried to halt current "abuse" of prisoners in Kashmir.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, top elected official of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, said last week that the Government has a policy of zero tolerance towards torture, adding that the alleged violations occurred before, he was elected.

Others said that leaks have stressed the need for a new approach in the troubled region of Kashmir.

"Leaks have defended our stand on systematic torture in prisons in Kashmir," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman of the Group umbrella Hurriyat moderate in Jammu and Kashmir, told journalists. "It is regrettable that United States America was now an intentional on the situation in Kashmir human rights silence while he spoke about human rights in Burma, and other countries."

But the cable 2005 also indicated that the situation in Kashmir was much better that he was in the 1990s to a conflict that has killed an estimated 70,000 for two decades, including 100 deaths since June civilians.

Mark.Magnier@LAtimes.com

Rana anshul in The Times New Delhi Office has contributed to this report.