Train Crashed In Cameroon 7 Killed

YAOUNDE: At least seven people have been killed and more than 270 injured in a train accident in the West African nation of Cameroon, state radio has reported.

The train derailed just outside the capital Yaounde.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s communications minister, said the death toll could change as some of the carriages had ended up in ravines by the track and rescuers were searching for survivors or bodies.

Officials said the train was carrying more than 1,000 passengers.

A day earlier, a train carrying gas and petrol derailed and burst into flames, killing at least one person.

French industrial giant Bollore has a contract to operate Cameroon’s national railway until 2020 and has plans for a $300 million upgrade for the country’s railway and rolling stock.

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Train Crashed In Cameroon 7 Killed was first posted on August 30, 2009 at 2:53 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.

Ruling Conservative Entered Election As Underdog

TOKYO: Japanese cast ballots Sunday in hotly contested parliamentary elections in which the ruling conservative party, battered by a laggard economy and voter desire for change after more than half a century of virtual one-party rule, was expected to suffer an overwhelming defeat.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955, went into the elections with all major polls projecting it would lose control of the lower house of parliament.

That would likely mean the fall of Prime Minister Taro Aso and his Cabinet and the creation of a new government headed by centrist Democratic Party of Japan chief Yukio Hatoyama — who would become the first prime minister not backed by the Liberal Democrats since 1994.

The vote is widely seen as a barometer of two related issues — voter frustrations over the ailing economy, which is in one of its worst slumps since World War II, and a loss of confidence in the Liberal Democrats’ ability to tackle tough problems such as the rising national debt and rapidly aging population.

But even with severe challenges pressing the nation, many analysts said the elections might not be about the issues so much as voters’ general desire for something new after nearly 54 years under the Liberal Democrats.

They also note that although the Democrats promise to change Japan’s approach toward its economy and make Tokyo’s diplomacy less U.S.-centric, their founders are defectors from the Liberal Democrats and are not likely to present too radical a departure from the country’s current path.

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Ruling Conservative Entered Election As Underdog was first posted on August 30, 2009 at 3:06 pm.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.

Princess Of Wales Lady Diana’s 12th Death Anniversary

LONDON: Today is the 12th anniversary of Diana’s death in a Paris car crash. Mourners lay tributes at the Pont D’Alma, the tunnel where she died, at Kensington Palace in London where she lived, and at Althorp in Northamptonshire, where she grew up and is buried.

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Princess Of Wales Lady Diana’s 12th Death Anniversary was first posted on August 31, 2009 at 11:23 am.
©2009 “Pakistan News“.