24 killed as Hampi Express rams into goods train in AP

Penukonda (AP), May 22, 2012, (PTI)

24 people were killed, at least 16 of them charred to death, and over 40 others injured when the driver of the Bangalore-bound Hampi Express apparently overshot the signal and rammed into the rear of a stationary goods train in Anantapur district in the wee hours today.

The impact of the collision that took place at 3:15 AM at Penukonda Railway Station in Andhra Pradesh was such that four bogies of the express train derailed and one of them caught fire.

"At least 16 persons were charred to death, mostly women passengers, when one of the bogies caught fire after the express train collided with the stationary goods trains" Charu Sinha, Deputy Inspector General of police (Anantapur range), said.

Twenty-four passengers have died and the injured have been admitted to nearby hospitals at Penukonda, Hindupur and Anantapur, she said.

The DIG said the rescue and relief operations are in full swing and most of the fire services of the district have been deployed at the accident site.

Most of the victims were labourers coming from Hubli and Hospet in Karnataka and were on their way to Bangalore.

"Prima facie it seems that the driver of Hampi Express overshot the signal," Railway Spokesperson Anil Saxena said in Delhi.

Police have registered a case and both the driver and his assistant of the express train were injured and in hospital and not in a position to speak right now, Reddy said.

Railway and local police along with fire fighting men soon brought the flames under control. Rescue as well as relief operations are on, officials said.

The injured have been shifted to Penukonda, Hindupur and Anantapur hospitals.
Railway Minister Mukul Roy, who was in Kolkata, has rushed to the site of the accident and ordered an inquiry into it.

Obama refuses to meet Zardari: Reports

Washington: US President Barack Obama is at loggerheads with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, refusing to meet him apparently over blockage of NATO supply lines into Afghanistan, an issue which continues to strain ties between two nations, American media reports said on Monday. 

The New York Times said a deal to reopen the supply lines fell apart as Obama began talks on ending the NATO alliance's combat role in Afghanistan in 2013. 

As a two-day NATO summit meeting opened in Chicago, Obama remained at loggerheads with Zardari, refusing even to meet him without a deal on the supply routes, which officials in both sides acknowledged would not be coming soon, it said. 

Zardari, who flew to Chicago with hopes of lifting his stature with a meeting with Obama, was preparing to leave empty-handed as the two countries continued to feel the repercussions of a fatal American air strike last November, for which the US President has offered condolences but no apology, the paper said. 

But White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said that President Obama could not meet Zardari as he had a "full slate of summit meetings to attend”. 

"The two bilateral meetings, really, that he did, or President (Hamid) Karzai for obvious reasons given the focus on Afghanistan here, and the Secretary General of NATO, given that it’s traditional for the host to make sure that we're aligned with the Secretary General heading into the summit.” 

"But we don't anticipate any other bilateral meetings so we didn't draw that linkage. We're going to continue to work through the issue with the Pakistanis," he said. 

Zardari did, however, meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss the supply routes. 

A State Department official later said that Hillary and Zardari discussed the importance of reopening NATO supply lines and of taking joint action against the terror groups, in Af-Pak region including al Qaeda and Haqqani. 

"This whole breakdown in the relationship between the US and Pakistan has come down to a fixation of this apology issue," Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser on Pakistan, was quoted as saying by the daily. 

The combination of no apology and no meeting, Nasr said, "will send a powerfully humiliating message back to Pakistan”. 

According to the daily, the failure to strike a deal on the supply routes ahead of the summit injects new tension into the relationship. 

"When NATO extended the invitation, we thought it would move the Pakistanis off the dime," a senior American official was quoted as saying. Without the deal, "it's going to be really uncomfortable" for Zardari at the summit, which runs through Monday, the official told The New York Times. 

The Washington Post said that hopes that the deal on reopening of the supply routes would be concluded before the summit were not realised as the two sides continue to haggle over new tariff rates Pakistan wants to impose. 

After weeks of closed-door negotiations with Zardari's government, US officials did not deny that they are seeking to send the Pakistanis a public message, The Los Angeles Times said. 

"If they're feeling a little bit of pressure this weekend, they should," a US official was quoted as saying. 

"The US and NATO are ready to move beyond this issue," the Los Angeles Times said, according to which US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta is planning to meet with officials from five Central Asian countries that have provided an alternative, but considerably more expensive, northern land route for NATO supplies since Pakistan closed its roads after a cross border air raid killed 24 of its soldiers in November. 

The Wall Street Journal said Zardari was invited to attend the summit at the last minute in hopes that would lead to a deal, but the two sides remain at odds over how much the US and its allies should pay Pakistan per container. 

According to US officials, Pakistan has proposed raising transit fees per container by as much as 3,000 per cent, or 30-fold, a demand that Washington and its allies have rejected as excessive, the daily reported. 

A senior US official said the pressure was meant to make Zardari "feel uncomfortable," The Journal said. 

Rave party: Police question Pune team's Sharma, Parnell

Two Indian Premier League (IPL) players were questioned after Mumbai Police busted a rave party here and detained about 100 people, officials said Monday.

Rahul Sharma of India and Wayne Parnell of South Africa, who play in the IPL for Pune Warriors, were questioned by police after the rave party was busted in Juhu in northwest Mumbai, a senior police official said.

"Around 58 boys and 38 girls were detained and taken to a hospital for blood and urine check-up after a rave party was busted in Juhu late Sunday." 

However, police refused to confirm whether the players were involved in consuming drugs at the party. This could only be clarified after the results of the medical examination, the official said.

Police have seized around 110 grams of cocaine and over 100 grams of other restricted drugs from the party.

Even though no arrests have been made yet, police have released cricketers on bonds. 

Other detainees will be released soon after the medical examination results arrive, police said.

The raid, supervised by Additional Commissioner of Police Vishwas Nangre-Patil, was conducted at the Oakwood Premier hotel near Juhu beach. 

Italian PM talked to Manmohan on marines issue

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has talked to his counterpart Manmohan Singh to express concern over the situation involving two Italian marines held in Kerala for allegedly killing two fishermen in February.

Mr. Monti, who has been pressing for transfer of the marines to Italy, is believed to have conveyed concern over the conditions in which the two are in, sources said on Sunday.

The telephonic conversation took place a few days back, prior to the hearing in Kollam court on Saturday which rejected the bail plea of the marines Massimiliano Lattore and Salvatore Girone, the sources said.

The marines were arrested on February 19, four days after they allegedly opened fire while travelling by ship Enrica Lexie and killed two fishermen off the coast of Kerala, apparently suspecting them to be pirates.

The telephonic call from Mr. Monti was followed up with Italian Foreign Ministry summoning Indian Ambassador Debabrata Saha in Rome to convey concerns over the murder charges being framed against the marines.

Italy has also recalled its Ambassador to India Giacomo Sanfelice to express its unhappiness over the charge sheet being filed against the marines.

The Italian Prime Minister had earlier called up Dr. Singh in March, warning him against setting a “dangerous precedent” with the prosecution of two Italian marines in India.

“Any attitude from the Indian side that is not fully in line with international law...risks creating a dangerous precedent for international peacekeeping and anti-piracy missions,” Mr. Monti was quoted as saying to Dr. Singh during the March 7 conversation.

“The alleged incident, the circumstances of which still have to be clarified, occurred in international waters and jurisdiction is therefore only Italian,” Mr. Monti had told Dr. Singh, according to a government statement.

Dr. Singh had reportedly told Mr. Monti that he wanted “to avoid tensions between India and Italy”.

Facebook CEO upgrades relationship status to 'Married'

WASHINGTON: Topping a very busy week after the launch of a flotation at the US stock exchange,Facebook co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg upgraded his relationship status. He and longtime girlfriend Priscilla Chan have tied the knot. 

"Mark Zuckerberg added a life event to May 19, 2012 on his timeline: Married Priscilla Chan," the 28-year-old Zuckerberg announced on his timeline on the social network. 

The 27-year-old Chan and Zuckerberg met at Harvard and were dating for more than nine years. Chan is an American-Chinese, Xinhua reported. 

A photo posted on Facebook showed the young CEO wearing a suit jacket at the wedding rather than his trademark hoodie, while Chan wore a sleeveless white wedding dress with lace. 

The couple tied the knot at Zuckerberg's home in Palo Alto, California. 

The guests at the wedding believed they were going to celebrate Chan's graduation, but found they were at a wedding instead. 

The wedding ring, a "very simple ruby", was designed by Zuckerberg, BBC reported. 

"Zuckerberg's wedding was in his backyard, before fewer than 100 guests, who thought they were there to celebrate Chan's graduation," according to a tweet from a Huffington Post editor. 

The wedding wrapped up a busy week for the couple. Zuckerberg turned 28 Monday, the same day Chan graduated from the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. 

On Friday, he rang the bell at New York's Nasdaq from the Facebook headquarters in California, staging one of the most anticipated initial public offering in Wall Street history. 

Facebook's valuation after its flotation means the social network is worth about the same as internet shopping giant Amazon, and more than the value of Disney. 

Zuckerberg continues to control around 56 per cent of the voting power of the company.

Jayalalithaa steps up campaign for Sangma

Stepping up her campaign for former Lok Sabha speaker P.A. Sangma’s candidature for Presidency, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa on Sunday contacted top leaders of several non-Congress parties including BJP veteran L.K. Advani, seeking their support to the tribal leader.

Ms. Jayalalithaa spoke over telephone to Mr. Advani, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leader A.B. Bardhan, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shironmani Akali Dal leader and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, an AIADMK release said here.

As part of the “intensified efforts” to garner support for Mr. Sangma, Ms. Jayalalithaa spoke to these leaders seeking their support the tribal leader from the north-east who “has all the qualifications” (to become President) in the coming Presidential polls, it said.

Ms. Jayalalithaa’s latest initiative comes two days after she asked all parties to “rise above political considerations,” and support the tribal leader for the top job.

In a coordinated move, Ms. Jayalalithaa and her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on May 17 announced their joint support to Mr. Sangma.

The AIADMK chief had held consultations with Mr. Patnaik besides within her party before announcing her support to Mr. Sangma, who himself had called on her on May 15.

The Nationalist Congress Party, to which Mr. Sangma belongs, however, has ruled out supporting his candidature, saying it would go with the UPA being a part of it.

Falling rupee a major cause of concern for the govt: PranabFalling rupee a major cause of concern for the govt: Pranab

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the steep fall in the rupee was a matter of great concern and the Centre was trying to resolve the situation.

"It is a matter of great concern. We are watching the situation. The Centre is not (sitting) idle. We are trying to resolve 

(the issue)," Mukherjee told press here.

"This is due to the Eurozone crisis," he said.

Mukherjee added, "There is also currency crisis in emerging markets including Brazil."

At the forex market, the domestic currency has been falling against the US dollar over the past few days.

On Friday, in early trade, the rupee threatened to breach the 55-level as it slumped to 54.91 against the American currency -- the fresh all-time low it hit in the third straight session as copious fund outflows continued amid Eurozone worries.

Dealers said strong dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners, on expectation of further strengthening of the dollar, caused the rupee's fall.

However, the Reserve Bank had stepped in and stemmed the rupee's slide.