Sunday, July 24, 2011

DTN News - CHINA NEWS: Workers Search For Survivors After China Train Crash Kills 35

DTN News - CHINA NEWS: Workers Search For Survivors After China Train Crash Kills 35
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada / WENZHOU, China - July 24, 2011: Rescue workers on Sunday dug through the tangled wreckage of two trains that crashed in eastern China, killing at least 35 and injuring 210 in China's deadliest train disaster since 2008.
A high-speed train on Saturday smashed into a stalled train near the city of Wenzhou, some 860 miles south of Beijing, raising new questions about the safety of the fast-growing rail network.
The accident occurred on a bridge near Wenzhou in Zhejiang province after the first train lost power due to a lightning strike and a bullet train following behind crashed into it, state television said.
Two foreigners also died in the accident, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday, citing the provincial emergency office. China News Service, a semi-official news agency, said one of them was a female in her 20s. The government of Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, was not available for comment.
Rescuers said they were still looking for survivors, trying to reach the broken carriages lying under the bridge.
"The task for us now is to clear the debris and also to check for survivors in those areas that we have not gone to," said 35-year-old rescue worker Wang Jun.
"Right now, we still don't know whether there are any more survivors. That's is our main task now. Also, we are trying to get the railway line to be operational again."
Dozens of rescue workers and firefighters used excavators to move the wreckage of the two trains as they believe more bodies were in one of the carriages that was dangling beside the bridge. It was unclear how many were on the trains at the time of the accident.
Rail remains the most popular method of long-distance transport in China and trains are usually extremely crowded, with long-distance trains carrying as many as 1,000 passengers.
The reliability of China's railways has been called into question recently after the series of power outages on the flagship Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line, which has left passengers stranded on stuffy trains for hours at least three times since opening a month ago.
Chinese authorities suspended 21 trains after the collision, state news agency Xinhua said.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang is rushing to the scene to help out in the relief work and investigation, Xinhua added. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao also called for all-out efforts to rescue passengers and ordered to make rescue work a priority, according to a government statement.
"FLYING INTO THE AIR"
One train was heading from Beijing to the coastal city of Fuzhou, the other was running from Hangzhou, also to Fuzhou.
The total power failure on Saturday rendered useless an electronic safety system designed to warn following trains of stalled trains on the tracks up ahead, and automatically halt them before a collision can occur.
The force of the collision sent "the head of the train flying into the air," said Cai Qi, a 30-year-old villager who witnessed the accident and rescued five children, four women and one man. "Some of them had their hands or legs broken. Some were crushed inside debris and we pushed and carried them out."
Survivors took refuge at a middle school on Saturday night, which served as an emergency and information center for relatives looking for their missing kin. Some cried as they went through the list of injured. Many survivors looked shaken.
"Suddenly, there was a loud bang," said 32-year-old survivor Yin Caohui. "After that, the train broke. It was all dark and we could not see anything. Then there were a few loud sounds again."
A 31-year-old survivor, who gave his last name as Yu, said the train stopped suddenly and the lights immediately went off, adding that the passengers "didn't think it was so serious."
"Only when we got down, did we see that there were so many train carriages that had fallen down," Yu said.
China's last major train disaster was in 2008, when an express train traveling from Beijing to the eastern coastal city of Qingdao derailed and collided with another train, killing 72 and injuring 416 people.
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News

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DTN News - U.S. FINANCIAL CRISIS: Congress Scrambles For Debt Deal

DTN News - U.S. FINANCIAL CRISIS: Congress Scrambles For Debt Deal
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada / WASHINGTON, USA - July 24, 2011: Congress will struggle Sunday to hammer out a deficit deal and assure investors before Asian markets open that America can avert a catastrophic default and hold onto its prized credit rating.
Congressional staff planned to work through the night after President Barack Obama told lawmakers in an emergency White House meeting to find a way to lift the $14.3 trillion limit on U.S. borrowing that would allow the world's largest economy to pay its bills past next year's November election.
But new acrimony flared late Saturday on Capitol Hill over that timetable, adding to the difficulties facing negotiators who have been at impasse for weeks over the role of taxes in any deficit reduction plan.
An aide to Republican leaders said lawmakers were working on a plan for $3 trillion to $4 trillion in savings over 10 years, but another high-ranking Republican official said no numbers had been set.
It was not clear if this package contained additional tax revenue alongside cuts in government spending, as Obama has demanded.
Republican leaders want "to show progress" by 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) Sunday, before financial market trading gets under way in Asia, and have legislation to unveil Monday.
"Congressional leaders are working in good faith with the goal of having something to present to their members on Monday," a second Republican aide said.
The United States will run out of funds to service its debt on August 2 if Congress does not approve additional borrowing. Republicans have insisted the White House agree to deep spending cuts for long-term deficit reduction before they approve any increase in America's debt burden.
Negotiations toward that agreement have whipsawed for weeks, finally hitting a brick wall over taxes, one of the most ideologically divisive issues in U.S. politics.
A Democratic aide said Republicans were pushing a package that raised the debt limit and cut spending in two steps, while Democrats want a single deal to cover borrowing through 2012.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said that "a two-step process is inevitable."
Disagreement on that issue prompted Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to express new disappointment with the process, saying Republican "intransigence" was "pushing us to the brink of a default."
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House chief of staff Bill Daley were scheduled to speak on several Sunday television news shows to hammer home Obama's argument that a deal must include more revenue from taxes.
TAX DISPUTE
The frantic drive toward a deal over the weekend began after closed-door talks between Obama and Boehner collapsed on Friday.
Those talks broke down as Republican leaders balked at a White House plan to raise revenues by $3.5 trillion to $4 trillion over 10 years, complaining it contained $400 billion more in additional tax revenue than they could stomach.
Obama, angry at the collapse of negotiations, chided Republicans and warned time had run out to lift the debt limit. The White House kept up the pressure Saturday, urging Congress not to play "reckless political games" and warning against stop-gap measures that fail to tackle the deficit.
Boehner must overcome stout resistance from Tea Party movement conservatives in his own party, who adamantly oppose any steps to raise tax revenue.
Rating agencies say they will cut America's Triple-A credit rating if the United States fails to meet debt payments, likely triggering global market turmoil. Even if the United States does not default, its rating will be under pressure if Congress fails to tackle long-term deficit reduction.
Financial markets are growing more edgy and U.S. banks and businesses are making contingency plans for the possibility of a debt default that would drive up interest rates, sink the dollar and ripple through economies around the world.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Laura MacInnis, Matt Spetalnick, Andy Sullivan and Donna Smith; Editing by Kristin Roberts and John Crawley)
*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Alister Bull - Reuter
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News

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