Indonesian firefighters cut the wreckage of a minibus after it collided with a train in Jakarta on December 6, 2015. A collision between a c...
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| Indonesian firefighters cut the wreckage of a minibus after it collided with a train in Jakarta on December 6, 2015. A collision between a commuter train and a minibus on a level crossing in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on December 6 killed at least 14 people and injured several others, an official said. AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY |
JAKARTA, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) A fatal crash between a commuter line train and a public transport vehicle occurred here on Sunday morning, killing 13 people onboard the public vehicle.
The crash took place at 8.48 a.m. at Muara Angke train station crossroad in the western part of the capital city. The public transport vehicle of Metro Mini went through the cross road despite warning signal on the incoming of the commuter line train to the station, a local TV reported.
"So far those killed in the crash were 13 people. Their bodies were evacuated to Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital," Tambora Precinct Police Chief Wirdhanto who oversees the crash location said.
Those killed in the crash were the ones boarded the Metro Mini public transport vehicle. The vehicle was dragged 400 meters after being hit by the commuter line train.
Airport reopens in India's flood-hit south
CHENNAI, India, Dec 6, (AFP) - India's main airport in flood-devastated Tamil Nadu state reopened on Sunday as emergency workers strove to help thousands of residents forced to flee their inundated homes.
The international airport in the state capital Chennai had closed on Wednesday leaving thousands of passengers stranded, after record rains worsened flooding that has claimed nearly 300 lives since November 9.
"There was no damage to the runway. It remained under water for a few days but has been cleared now," national Aviation Minister Mahesh Sharma said as passengers started to gather at the terminal.
"We had a few relief flights yesterday from the airport and today commercial flights have resumed their services.
"Thousands of residents have been rescued by boat or plucked from rooftops after the floods left much of Chennai, a city of more than four million, underwater. Power supplies and phone networks were also hit.
Soldiers and other emergency workers who poured into the southeastern state have now switched to rushing food, clean drinking water and medical supplies to hard-hit residents.
"The army has... distributed relief materials including water and food to over 20,000 people," said Colonel Rohan Anand.But rain was again falling in Chennai on Sunday, threatening to hamper relief efforts along with attempts to clear roads of waterlogged debris.
Anger is mounting among some residents who accuse local authorities of failing to work swiftly to help those affected.V.
Padmavathy said she had been stuck on the first floor of her home for days after waist-deep water swept through her north Chennai neighbourhood.
"None of the politicians or volunteers have approached us for the past couple of days. Many of us stayed indoors and starved," the mother of two told AFP.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described the floods as a consequence of climate change, as top negotiators meet in Paris to try to agree on reducing the rate of global warming.
Experts have said poor urban planning had likely worsened the disaster.India suffers severe flooding every year during the annual monsoon rains from June to September.
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Myanmar's ex-dictator tips Suu Kyi as 'future leader'
YANGON, Dec 6, (AFP) - Myanmar's feared former junta leader Than Shwe has endorsed his one-time nemesis Aung San Suu Kyi as a "future leader" of the country, according to his grandson.
Than Shwe, a postal clerk turned general who ran the country with an iron fist for nearly two decades until 2010, met with democracy champion Suu Kyi on Friday.Her party is preparing for power after November's massive election win.
The talks mark a dramatic turnaround in fortune for Suu Kyi, who was kept under house arrest for years by the 82-year-old retired general for leading the democracy movement against his army.
"Everyone has to accept the truth that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be the future leader of Myanmar after winning the elections," Than Shwe was quoted as saying on a Facebook post late Saturday by his grandson, Nay Shwe Thway Aung.Daw is a term of respect.
"I will support her earnestly as much as I can if she really works for the development of the country," he added, according to the post.Win Myint, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, confirmed the Friday meeting, adding it was the first time the pair had met since 2003.
Suu Kyi, 70, is barred from the presidency by an army-scripted constitution, but has said she will govern from "above the president" when her party take their seats in the new year.
The NLD scooped up nearly 80 percent of contested seats in last month's breakthrough election, a massive mandate to govern after half a century of military rule.
But the army still holds a strong hand. It retains 25 percent of all parliamentary seats as well as key bureaucratic posts.The NLD leader has been at pains to urge reconciliation with the army as she eyes a smooth transition to power.
Suu Kyi met also with President Thein Sein and the powerful army chief last week in the capital Naypyidaw, with both men re-iterating their public commitment to help her new government.The government has denied rumours that Than Shwe is guiding the pace of reforms from behind the scenes.
But analysts say the meeting between former junta leader and Suu Kyi is still a major indicator of a peaceful handover of power by a military that has marshalled reforms over the last four years.Many NLD supporters remain cautious of a military that is renowned for its political chicanery and repressive reflexes.
The NLD won a similar share of the vote in 1990, only to see the army annul the result and tighten its grip on the country for another generation.
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Obama to make primetime address after California attack
WASHINGTON, Dec 6, (AFP) - US President Barack Obama will make a rare primetime address to the nation Sunday laying out how he will keep Americans safe and defeat the Islamic State group, days after 14 people were shot dead in California.
On Saturday, Obama declared that the United States "will not be terrorized," as the IS extremist group praised the couple behind Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino as "soldiers" of its self-proclaimed caliphate.
"We are Americans. We will uphold our values -- a free and open society," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "And we will not be terrorized."
On Sunday at 8:00 pm (0100 GMT Monday) from the Oval Office, he will again look to reassure the American people in the wake of the attack, which the FBI is investigating as a possible act of terrorism.
The massacre, if proven to be terror-related, would be the deadliest such assault on American soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks.The last time Obama made an address to the nation from the Oval Office was in August 2010 to mark the end of US combat operations in Iraq.
"The president will also discuss the broader threat of terrorism, including the nature of the threat, how it has evolved, and how we will defeat it," a White House statement said.
"He will reiterate his firm conviction that ISIL (IS) will be destroyed and that the United States must draw upon our values -- our unwavering commitment to justice, equality and freedom -- to prevail over terrorist groups that use violence to advance a destructive ideology."
Investigators are continuing to comb over evidence and look in the backgrounds of Syed Farook, 28, and his 29-year-old Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik, the couple who opened fire at a social services center during a holiday party.
On Saturday, FBI agents raided a home in California belonging to a friend of Farook's, the Los Angeles Times said, citing law enforcement officials.Top security officials have indicated that the duo had been radicalized but the White House and the FBI say there are no signs that they were part of a larger group or terrorist cell.
However, in a radio broadcast in English, the Islamic State group praised the couple as "soldiers of the caliphate" and martyrs, but did not specifically say they were members of the extremist group.
The heavily armed pair, who wounded 21 others, died in a ferocious shootout with police after a huge manhunt.The shooting was the worst in the United States in three years and also again revived impassioned debate on gun control, in a country where such mass killings have become routine.
Underlining the handwringing that typically follows such mass killings among some Americans, The New York Times added its voice to the debate, publishing a front-page editorial -- the first since 1920 -- calling for an end to "the gun epidemic in America."
"It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency," it said.
- 'Mind-boggling' -Authorities say US-born Farook and Malik, who married last year in Saudi Arabia, where she lived, carefully planned their attack.
David Bowdich, the assistant FBI director in charge of the Los Angeles office, said investigators were examining a Facebook posting in which Malik is believed to have pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, made around the time of the attack.
The family's attorneys said while the couple were devout Muslims, there was no hint they had become radicalized.Relatives of Farook and his wife have been at a loss to explain what triggered the killing spree, describing them as a quiet couple who kept to themselves.
"I can never imagine my brother or my sister-in-law doing something like this. Especially because they were happily married, they had a beautiful six-month-old daughter," Farook's sister Saira Khan told CBS News.
"It's just mind-boggling why they would do something like this."
A US defense official, meanwhile, confirmed that Farook's brother was a decorated Navy veteran who won medals for his service during America's "war on terror."
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Greek MPs approve 2016 state budget, new austerity measures ahead
ATHENS, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) The Greek parliament approved on early Sunday the 2016 state budget that foresees return to economic growth in the second half of the new year through a new wave of painful austerity and reform policies.
The 2016 budget aims to generate at least 0.5 percent of GDP primary surplus by 2017 via tax hikes and spending cuts totaling 6 billion euros(about 6.5 billion U.S. dollars).
In the latest critical vote for the leftist-led government, which essentially turned into a vote of confidence, the budget was passed with 153 yes votes in the 300-member legislature.
All MPs of the Radical Left SYRIZA party of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the junior coalition partners, the Right-wing Independent Greeks, voted in favor of the budget, while 145 deputies of the opposition parties voted against. Two lawmakers were absent.
In a previous vote in the assembly on Nov. 19 on a set of prior actions required by international lenders to release further bailout loans to Athens, the government's majority shrank by two legislators who voted against party line.
As more crucial votes are due in coming weeks and months, tension between the government and opposition parties is on the rise. Officials such as Central Bank Governor Yannis Stournaras and analysts have called for consensus so as to step out of the prolonged debt crisis.
According to Bank of Greece's latest interim report on monetary policy released a few hours before the vote on the 2016 state budget, recession will continue in the first half of 2016 and cross party cooperation was instrumental to exit the six-year crisis.
Returning to normality and sustainable growth hinges upon the implementation of the third bailout agreement struck with Greece's creditors this summer, the report warned.The heated debate inside the parliament shortly before the roll call vote on Sunday was not very encouraging, media commentators noted.
During the session Tsipras accused the opposition of undermining efforts to overcome the crisis, while opposition parties criticized the government of promoting extremely harsh policies that will fuel recession, unemployment and the suffering of a large part of the Greek society.
The alternative remains disorderly bankruptcy and Grexit, cabinet ministers responded, voicing determination to push through more controversial policies, such as the pension system reform.
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