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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Metro rail bridge collapse kills 5 in India

A portion of a partially built bridge for New Delhi's metro rail network collapsed Sunday, killing five people and injuring 15, authorities said. The crash occurred when a metal beam supporting pillars gave way, Delhi Metro Rail Corp. spokesman Anuj Dayal told .Concrete slabs came crashing down, burying workers beneath, officials said.The dead included one site engineer, said Mohammad Akhlaque, police sub-inspector.New Delhi launched its metro system six years ago. Construction on new lines has been proceeding at a frenzied pace as the city gets ready to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010.Hailed as a relief in India's traffic-congested capital, the metro has a tarnished safety record.Part of a another bridge being built to extend the rail system collapsed last October, pinning a bus underneath and killing its driver.

Judge grants delay in Jackson guardianship case

a sudden death and a funeral of MJ's

Michael Jackson’s mother and ex-wife will have time to reach an agreement over who will take care of the singer’s three children. For the second time, Katherine Jackson and Deborah Rowe joined to seek a delay in a hearing that could decide who gets custody of the pop superstar’s children. A guardianship hearing scheduled for Monday has been delayed for a week, an attorney said Friday.Katherine Jackson will remain the temporary guardian of her son’s three children, who range in ages from seven to 12.Court records show a judge granted the delay Friday afternoon.The hearing could have presented a showdown between Katherine Jackson and Rowe, who was married to the pop singer from 1996 to 1999.Instead, the two sides are trying to broker an out-of-court settlement.‘We are pleased that the child custody hearing has been continued over until July 20th to further our progress and allow us to privately and amicably resolve this most important matter in a dignified manner for the benefit of the children first and all involved,’ L. Londell McMillan, an attorney for Katherine Jackson, said in a statement to The Associated Press.Attorneys for Rowe declined to comment on Friday. Requests to interview Rowe have also been denied.Rowe has not indicated in court filings that she intends to seek custody. She is the mother of Jackson’s two oldest children, 12-year-old Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., known as 12-year-old Prince Michael, and 11-year-old Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.The youngest child, 7-year-old Prince Michael II, was born to a surrogate mother who has never been identified.In a will signed in 2002, Michael Jackson stated he wanted his mother to care for his children if he died. As a backup, he designated singer and longtime friend Diana Ross.Rowe was not given any role in the will. While much has been made of her decision in 2001 to terminate her parental rights, that decision was overturned and she and Jackson reached an out-of-court settlement in 2006.The details of that agreement have never been released and it is unclear when Rowe, 50, last saw Jackson’s children.

Bloody weekend includes 2 Iraqi deaths involving U.S. forces


Two civilian drivers in northern Iraq were killed in incidents involving U.S. troops, one in an "escalation of force" shooting and the other in a head-on collision, the military said Saturday.The shooting occurred Friday between Tikrit and Balad when a military convoy "stopped on a rural road after one of its vehicles broke down."Troops tried to signal the truck to halt, but the truck "continued to accelerate as it drew closer to the convoy.""A U.S. soldier perceived a threat and engaged the truck after the driver did not respond to warnings to stop, as the truck approached a halted U.S. logistics convoy from the rear," the military said.The truck driver was then shot and killed."It's a tragic event, but the soldier perceived a threat. He was protecting the convoy against what he thought was an attack and did so in accordance with the security agreement, " said Maj. Derrick Cheng, spokesman for Multi-National Division North, referring to the bilateral U.S.-Iraqi security pact.The military said a teen passenger in the vehicle was unharmed, and a U.S.-Iraqi investigation has begun.The other incident occurred Thursday near Khalis.A driver died in a "head-on collision" with a U.S. Army Stryker vehicle, the military said.The car struck the lead vehicle of a combined U.S. forces and Iraqi Army convoy as it was returning to a forward operating base after a patrol."According to reports, the convoy slowed its speed to approximately 30 mph and moved to the shoulder of the road to allow the oncoming car room to pass. However, the car hit the lead vehicle head-on, killing the driver and injuring at least one soldier inside the Stryker."The Stryker driver tried to signal the car with headlights and horns but "the car did not alter its speed or bearing." This incident is also under investigation by U.S. and Iraqi forces.Meanwhile, at least five Iraqis were killed and 35 others wounded when a car bomb exploded in northern Iraq on Saturday, an Interior Ministry official said.The bomb detonated in Kogjili, a predominantly Shiite Shabak area of eastern Mosul. Most Shabak people are Shiites, and live in Nineveh province. They are one of Iraq's minority groups.A spate of bombings Wednesday and Thursday near Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, and in the town of Tal Afar left at least 50 people dead and many others wounded.

Troops willing to die to stop Iran unrest, general says

A top Iranian general said government troops are "ready to sacrifice our lives" rather than back down in the face of protests over June's disputed presidential election.Gen. Sayyed Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of Iran's Joint Armed Forces, said Iranian soldiers were willing to die as they did in the brutal eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, according to the state-run Fars News Agency."Some may think that by protesting and chanting their slogans against us, we will back down, retreat and give up," Firouzabadi said. "We are ready to sacrifice our lives, as we showed during the time of the Sacred Defense [the Iran-Iraq war]."The government has cracked down on Iranians who protested the outcome of the June 12 election in which hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner over his chief rival, reformist Mir Hossein Moussavi.Moussavi called the vote fraudulent and his supporters took to the streets by the thousands, sparking clashes between demonstrators and government troops, and members of a pro-government paramilitary force."The military uniform, in the system of the Islamic Republic, which is the system of the holy Quran, is the uniform of the Prophet's faithful, Firouzabadi said. "It is the uniform of service to the supreme leadership and the people."Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Azizollah Rajabzadeh, Tehran's police chief, announced the creation of a 50,000-strong constable-like force called the "honorary police officers" that will assist police units, state-run Press TV reported.Rajabzadeh said the honorary police force could eventually expand to 300,000 nationwide.