Chaos, panic as Buenos Aires commuter train slams into station, killing 49, injuring hundreds

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA—A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station Wednesday, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds of morning commuters in Argentina's worst train accident in decades.

Federal Police Commissioner Nestor Rodriguez says the dead include 48 adults and one child.

That makes it Argentina's worst train accident since Feb. 1, 1970, when 200 a train smashed into another at full speed in suburban Buenos Aires, killing 200 people.

At least 550 people were injured, and emergency workers were slowly extracting dozens of people who were trapped inside the first car, said Alberto Crescenti, the city's emergency medical director. Rescuers carved open the roof and set up a pulley system to ease them out one by one.

The commuter train came in too fast and hit the barrier at the end of the platform at about 26 km/h, smashing the front of the engine and crunching the leading cars behind it; one car penetrated nearly six metres into the next, Argentina's transportation secretary, J.P. Schiavi told reporters at the station.

The conductors' union chief, Omar Maturano, told Radio 10 that the train might have come in as fast as 30 km/h.

PHOTOS: Deadly train crash in Buenos Aires

Most damaged was the first car, where passengers make space for bicycles. Survivors told the TeleNoticias channel that many people were injured in a jumble of metal and glass.

Passengers said windows exploded as the tops of train cars separated from their floors. The trains are usually packed with people standing between the seats, and many were thrown into each other and to the floor by the force of the hard stop.

Passengers told of chaos and panic as the impact of the collision propelled the second train car into the first carriage, trapping dozens of people as others looked on from the busy platforms at the central Once station.

“All of a sudden we felt an explosion and we literally flew through the air ... there were lots of people thrown to the floor, injured, bloodied,” a passenger wearing a neckbrace who identified himself as Fabio told local television.

“The train (car) was incrusted inside the other ... the seats were gone, they disappeared, and people were jumping out the window,” the young man said.

Many people suffered bruises, and many with lesser injuries were waiting for attention on the Once station's platforms as helicopters and more than a dozen ambulances took the most seriously injured to nearby hospitals.

There have been five serious train accidents in Argentina since December 2010; the most deadly of these happened last Sept. 13, when a bus driver crossed the tracks in front of an oncoming train, killing 11.

“This machine left the shop yesterday and the brakes worked well. From what we know, it braked without problems at previous stations. At this point I don't want to speculate about the causes,” Ruben Sobrero, train workers' union chief on the Sarmiento line, told Radio La Red.

The motorman has been hospitalized and the union hasn't been able to speak with him yet, Sobrero added.

Some 10 million passengers travel every month on the Sarmiento line, which links Buenos Aires to the city's western suburbs.

The country's dilapidated and overcrowded rail services, run by private companies and heavily subsidized by the state, are plagued by accidents and delays.

“This is the responsibility of a company that is known for insufficient maintenance and ... improvisation,” said Edgardo Reinoso, a train workers' trade union representative.

“On the other hand, there is also the lack of controls on the part of state organisms, including the National Commission for Transportation Regulation and the Transport Secretariat,” Reinoso told local radio.

The worst accidents in Argentine history include a 1970 crash that killed more than 230 people and another in 1978, in which about 55 died, local media said.

Argentina's once-extensive rail network was largely dismantled during the privatizations of the 1990s. President Cristina Fernandez has touted projects to revive train lines connecting Argentina to neighboring Uruguay and Chile.


Argentinian train derailment in pics:

A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station, killing dozens and injuring hundreds, according to police.

• At least 49 dead, hundreds injured in Argentina crash 
• Train smashed into end of station platform  
• Windows exploded, cars separated, people thrown 

A PACKED commuter train entering a Buenos Aires station at morning rush hour overnight smashed into a retaining wall, crumpling cars and leaving at least 49 dead, 600 injured and dozens trapped in the twisted wreckage.

Survivors described a full train - there reportedly were as many as 800 people aboard - and a tremendous impact, with passengers thrown on top of each other and hurled to the floor.

"Unfortunately, we must report that there are 49 dead in the accident," including a child, police spokesman Nestor Rodriguez said.

Civil defence officials said at least 600 people were hurt in the crash, including 200 with serious injuries.

Witnesses reported that it appeared the train's brakes failed as it pulled into the "Once" station on the western outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Transportation Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said the train entered the station at a speed of 20km/h) and failed to stop, crashing into a retaining wall at the end of the track.

"It was a very serious accident," he said. "Cars piled up on top of each other and one of them went six metres inside another car."

"People suffered contusions, but there are much more complex cases involving traumas of the thorax. There are people trapped alive in the cars."

At least 30 people were trapped in the twisted wreckage of the first and second cars of the train, said Alberto Crescenti, the head of the city's emergency services office, according to AFP.

Firefighters and rescue workers had to break through skylights in the train cars' roofs to get inside as medical helicopters landed in the street.

"There were people who were crushed and shouting desperately. I saw bodies and blood all over the place," Alejandro Velazquez said.

"Inside the first car there was a human wall," said a firefighter who asked not to be identified.

"I felt the explosion of the crash. It was very loud. The train did not brake, I saw people hurt in their necks, arms, legs," AFP quoted passenger Pedro Fuentes as saying.

Another passenger, who identified herself as Myriam, said she was with her two children, ages six and four.

"In a blink of an eye we were on the floor. I don't know how we got out. The door crashed in on me, and I covered the girl."

The train's driver was carried away on a stretcher.

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner suspended a news conference on the dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands following news of the crash.

Microsoft released another Google attack ad

Microsoft just launched another attack in its war with Google.

Earlier this month the company released a video spoof on Google’s privacy policies called the Gmail Man. This time Microsoft’s target is Google Apps.

The video claims that Google is guilty of Googlighting, a term it coined to describe how Google prioritizes its search business over its office-style applications. The video is a reference to Moonlighting, an ABC Bruce Willis drama from the 1980s.

Microsoft also released a scathing blog post which further attacks the search giant. “Many businesses find that Googlighting means taking shortcuts, making assumptions about how people should work, and generally  failing to build and deploy solutions which meet a wide range of business needs,” the post reads.

It goes on to pitch Office 365 to any consumer Google doesn’t appeal to. Microsoft calls its own service the “solution for businesses who don’t want their documents and mail read.”

Watch the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k4EbCkotKPU

Accident at Dubai Airport Terminal 3 injures five

Investigations on to determine how a routine equipment test went wrong

Published Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Dubai Airports, the company that owns and manages both of the emirate's airports, is investigating an accident which took place on Monday at Terminal 3.

The mishap occured during a routine test of electric equipment that  resulted in minor injuries to five workers.

The injured workers are receiving treatment at the Rashid Hospital, according to the company which stressed that all measures will be taken to make sure no similar accidents will take place in the future.

More than 13.9 million work hours have been completed without any accident, the company said, adding that safety is its top priority.

In the last major aviation incident in the UAE in the recent past, a UPS cargo plane crashed in Dubai shortly after takeoff in 2010.

At the time, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority said in a preliminary report that the Boeing 747-400’s crew was trying to return to Dubai;s main airport when the accident occurred.

It says the plane was too high on the approach and passed over the airfield before making a right turn. It rapidly lost altitude before crashing in an unpopulated area about 50 minutes after takeoff.

The two American pilots who died in the crash were identified as Captain Doug Lampe of Louisville, Kentucky, and First Officer Matthew Bell of Sanford, Florida.

The two deceased pilots were flying a 747-400 en route to Cologne, Germany, when it crashed.

Saif arrested, bailed out for assaulting NRI businessman

Mumbai, February 22, 2012
Saif Ali Khan was on Wednesday night arrested for allegedly punching an NRI businessman and his relative at a restaurant in a luxury hotel here. He was immediately bailed out. The actor and two friends were booked for allegedly assaulting Iqbal Sharma, a South African national of Indian origin, at Wasabi.
— a Japanese restaurant in the Taj Mahal hotel — on Tuesday night after the latter told the actor’s gang to keep the noise level down. Khan was dining with 10 friends, including girlfriend Kareena Kapoor and actor Amrita Arora.

Sharma — a trade official with the South African government — told the police Khan’s table was very noisy and when he objected, the actor suggested he go to a library if he wanted silence. Sharma finally decided to change tables himself but when he was moving, Khan threatened him. “He said, ‘you don’t know who I am’. He used abusive language and when the argument furthered, he punched me on my nose,” Sharma said.

“When my father-in-law tried to intervene, he punched him twice on his face and stomach,” he said. Sharma said his 68-year-old father-in-law, Raman Patel, fell to the floor. "I lifted him up but… a man accompanying Khan came running down, punched my father-in-law in the face and ran back."

"On Sharma's complaint, we have booked Saif and two friends under section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the IPC," said Vinod Sawant, senior police inspector at Colaba police station.

The 41-year-old actor and his friends surrendered at the police station around 8pm. They were bailed out an hour later.

Khan said in a statement: "I was hit and I defended myself… I think the restaurant has CCTV footage, which will prove everything."

Saif assault case: Victim's version

Iqbal Meer Sharma, an NRI residing in Juhu, who was allegedly assaulted by actor Saif Ali Khan at a restaurant in South Mumbai on Tuesday, said that he had requested the restaurant's management thrice to ask Khan's group of six people to lower the noise before Khan attacked him and his 68-year-old father-in-law.

"The hotel's management asked Khan to make less noise on three occasions after I repeatedly requested them, but the group did not relent. Eventually, my father-in-law and I decided to move to a table downstairs. While we were descending the staircase, Khan who was walking up the staircase then asked me to go sit in a library if i wanted a peaceful place," said Sharma, who is the chairman of a private firm in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Sharma said that he tried to speak politely to Khan when he started using abusive language. "Khan threatened me saying 'you do not know who I am.' He used unspeakable abusive language and after the argument furthered, he punched me on my nose. When my father-in-law tried to intervene, he punched him twice- on his face and stomach," alleged Sharma.

Sharma said that due to the force of the punches, his father-in-law, Raman Patel fell on the floor. "I lifted him up from the floor and just when we reached the bottom of the staircase, another man accompanying Khan came running down the staircase, punched my father-in-law in the face and ran back to his table," said Sharma.

Sharma said that the hotel authorities then gave him some tissue paper for his bleeding nose, following which he left the hotel with Patel. "We went to a local clinic in the area and after we received first aid and had my nose xray done, we went to Colaba police station to file a complaint."

Sharma said that even if Khan were to apologise for his act, he would not accept the apology. "If he had to apologise, he should have done it at the time of the incident. And more than me, he should apologise to my father-in-law for assaulting a senior citizen. We are not going to accept any apologies, the law will take its course now," he said.

Patel, who has recently had a bypass surgery and has been suffering from a lung disorder, said that he did not expect such behavior from a person who is held in high esteem by innumerable people in the country.

"Celebrities are people who are looked up at by several people. You do not expect such rowdy behavior from them. Besides, we were in a five star hotel. They should have at least abided by the decorum that is to be maintained in such a place," said Patel, a doctor by profession.

Sharma was unaware that Khan was a celebrity at the time of the incident: "I did not that he is a Bollywood actor when the incident occurred. And I do not know if he was intoxicated then, but I can say that had he been sober, he would not have assaulted a senior citizen."

SAVE GANGA AGITATION

People from Kedarghati region support movement 

Haridwar, February 20

Hundreds of people from the Kedarghati region of Garhwal came out here today in support of “Save Ganga” agitation started by saints and social activists led by Professor GD Aggarwal and Magsaysay awardee Rajendra Singh.

The people from 30 gram panchayats arrived at Matri Sadan to extend their support to the movement.

Led by social activist Sushila Devi, who carried out a 63-day agitation against the Singholi-Bhatwadi hydro project, these villagers blamed political parties for having a nexus with hydro project companies and builders’ mafia.

Sushila Devi said it seemed the government and private companies were hell-bent on making Uttarakhand a ‘Ujrha Pradesh’ as several kilometres of tunnels are being dug, villages being submerged, water sources being dried up and ecology being disturbed in the name of hydro projects.

“Without a scientific analysis, these companies are digging up the areas forcing us to migrate towards the plain regions. If we don’t have the right to live in hills, then why was this Uttarakhand carved out as a separate state in the name of providing development to hilly districts?” said Sushila.

While Jagmohan Singh, a former ex-Army officer, said 11,000 people were affected due to a single power project while the government was mulling over starting 200 more projects along the Ganga, the Bhagirathi, the Alaknanda, the Pindar river.

Rajendra Singh said the apathy of Centre and the state government had set up the Ganga River Basin Authority while the Ganga was getting polluted.

Matri Sadan founder Swami Shivanand said political parties such as the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, the Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha, the Uttarakhand Kranti Manch had failed to realise the pollution in the Ganga and woes of Kedarghati people.

Montreal ranks as best city in Canada to be a student

Montreal has been rated the best student city in Canada, but it falls well behind Paris according to a new international survey.

Paris was followed by London and Boston withMontreal landing 10th, Toronto coming in 26th and Vancouver coming in 31st.

British firm QS, which usually ranks individual universities, examined 50 cities around the world, looking at student mix, quality of living, employer activity and affordability to devise the list.

Helping Montreal finish in 10th was that QS ranked McGill as the 17th best university in the world.

"Montreal has been dubbed the cultural capital of Canada, and one of the world's most liveable cities," reads the description of the city on the QS ranking website. "Montreal has one of the highest scores for quality of living, alongside a favourable student mix and rankings score, largely courtesy of the world-class status of McGill."

QS also says Montreal is the best-value destination in the top 10 behind Boston and Berlin and while tuition fees for international students are high, they compare favourable to top schools in the U.K., U.S. and Australia.

"It's simply fantastic that Montreal should rank among the top 10 universities on the planet, making it a peer among Paris, London and Boston," said Guy Breton, rector of University de Montreal, in a statement in a Montreal Gazette article. "Our institution takes particular pride in this fact, carrying as it does the name of our city and considering our own contributions to Montreal's rich and dynamic university life."

Toronto, with 109,400 students, ranks high on quality of life, but low on affordability. The same can be said for Vancouver. It had the fourth highest score for quality of life, but the eighth lowest score for affordability out of the 50 cities.

"Unlike London and Boston, Paris does not have a global top 30 university, so it may come as a surprise to some that it ranks as the top city in the world for international students," reads the QS website on Paris. They chose Paris because it has 16 schools in the rankings, international fees are well below U.K., Australia and North America, and because the city is in the heart of Europe, graduates are targeted by employers all over the continent.

This is the first time QS has put together a list of the best student cities in the world. Information was taken from public data and surveys. To make the list, cities have to have a population of 250,000 or more and at least two universities.

Canadian cyclotron solution could fix isotope shortage

Canadian scientists have developed a method of producing an important medical imaging isotope without a nuclear reactor.

The development means shortages of technetium-99, used in about 80 per cent of medical diagnostic imaging procedures — 30 million a year worldwide — may no longer be a problem in the future.

"Our collaboration has been able to produce a significant quantity of this isotope, which is a very exciting result, setting what we hope is a stage for a model for the rest of the world," Dr. Paul Schaffer, head of nuclear medicine at TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics in Vancouver, said Monday.

Schaffer and his colleagues have found a way to upgrade cyclotrons, small particle accelerators found at hospitals across the country, to produce the isotope used in many scans use to detect and treat cancer, heart disease and other medical conditions.

The research team — which includes researchers from the BC Cancer Agency and the Lawson Health Research Institute and Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization in Ontario — spoke about their new method at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver.

Currently, 95 per cent of the world's supply of technetium-99 is produced at five nuclear reactors around the world, including theNational Research Universal reactor in Chalk River, Ont.

The heavy water leak in 2009 that forced the shutdown of the NRUreactor for more than a year led to a worldwide shortage of medical isotopes, forcing the postponement or cancellation of some medical imaging scans. A similar reactor in the Netherlands was forced to shut down temporarily for maintenance during the NRU shutdown, worsening the problem.

The NRU reactor is currently back on line and producing medical isotopes, but it is scheduled to close in 2016.

Dr. François Bénard, scientific director of the Centre of Excellence for Functional Cancer Imaging at the BC Cancer Agency, said existing hospital cyclotrons could be quickly upgraded using the new method before the NRU's scheduled closure.

He and his colleagues believe nuclear reactor-produced medical isotopes will be used in the future, but regionalized networks of cyclotrons will supplement them to ensure a steady supply.