A long-awaited government report said design flaws and sloppy management caused a bullet train crash in July that killed 40 people and triggered a public outcry over the high cost and dangers of China’s showcase transportation system.
A former railway minister was among 54 officials found responsible for the crash, a Cabinet statement said Wednesday.
The crash report was highly anticipated by the public. Regulations required the government to release the report by Nov. 20. When that date passed, the government offered little explanation, drawing renewed criticism by state media, which have been unusually skeptical about the handling of the accident and the investigation.
The Cabinet statement cited “serious design flaws and major safety risks” and what it said were a string of errors in equipment procurement and management.
The report affirmed earlier government statements that a lightning strike caused one bullet train to stall and a sensor failure allowed a second train to keep moving on the same track and slam into it.
Among those singled out for blame was former Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun, who was the public face of efforts to build the bullet train and was detained in February amid a graft investigation. The Cabinet also cited the general manager of the company that manufactured the signal, who died of a heart attack while talking to investigators in August.
NEW YORK
A bomb hidden under a parked car exploded near Muslim pilgrims Friday, killing at least two and wounding four as they made their way to an annual Shiite religious festival in a holy city south of Iraq’s capital.
Pilgrims are an easy target for insurgents looking to stoke sectarian violence as U.S. troops prepare to depart Iraq by the end of the year.
Friday’s bomb exploded in a parking lot about 14 miles (22 kilometers) from the holy city of Karbala, where thousands of pilgrims are flocking this weekend for the annual Shiite festival of Shabaniyah.
The blast ignited five nearby cars, causing a second explosion when a gas tank caught fire, said Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanimy, commander of Karbala military operations. Two pilgrims were killed and four wounded, he said.
Karbala provincial councilman Hussein Shadhan al-Aboudi put the toll at three dead and 28 injured.
The weekend’s religious festival celebrates the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the twelfth and so-called hidden imam, who disappeared in the ninth century. It is always held in the Islamic month before the Muslim fasting month Ramadan which this year falls in August.
Also Friday, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Baghdad’s southern Dora neighborhood, killing one passer-by and wounding three instant credit reports.
With Iraq still plagued by widespread violence, Washington and Baghdad are considering keeping as many as 10,000 U.S. forces in Iraq beyond a year-end departure deadline. In excepts from an interview to air Friday night, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki repeated his long-standing offer for a small number of American military trainers to stay and help Iraq’s fledgling security forces.
Both nations are moving toward a troops withdrawal.
On Friday, officials said the last 10 Iraqi detainees in U.S. military custody are about to be turned over to Iraqi authorities.
Justice Ministry spokesman Haider al-Saadi said nearly 200 inmates were transferred to Iraq’s custody earlier this week. They were among the last inmates to be held by the U.S. and included some top allies and relatives of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
The handover of the prisoners is the final step by the U.S. to relinquish control of Camp Cropper on Baghdad’s western outskirts.
The process began a year ago, but since has been marred by high-profile escapes by some of its inmates.
Shares in British Sky Broadcasting PLC are falling for the sixth straight session Tuesday, a day after News Corp.’s bid for the satellite broadcaster was referred to the competition regulator.
With the review likely to take many months, there’s little incentive for short-term investors, such as hedge funds, to keep hold of the stock. BSkyB shares were 2.1 percent lower early Tuesday at 700 pence ($11.07). The decline means that the stock is underperforming in the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares. Shares around the world have been hit Tuesday by mounting fears over the financial health of Spain and Italy.
BSkyB shares have taken a battering over the past week, falling from 850 pence, as a phone-hacking at the Sunday tabloid News of the World escalated.
The paper, which closed Sunday after 168 years, was owned by News Corp.’s British subsidiary News International. News Corp. shares have also taken a pounding, as investors doubt whether it will get the 61 percent of BSkyB it doesn’t already own.
On Monday, News Corp. withdrew its promise to spin off Sky News, which had been a condition for buying the remaining shares in BSkyB, triggering a referral to the Competition Commission from Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Britain’s Competition Commission now must hold a full-scale inquiry into whether the takeover would break anti-monopoly laws. These inquiries usually take six months and Murdoch must be hoping that the current febrile atmosphere surrounding the bid cools down.
“News Corp. now has a decent time for the crescendo of allegations to peak and be dealt with and relevant actions to be taken, assuming these are containable,” Investec Securities analyst Steve Liechti said.
However, with police apparently still in the early stages of a criminal investigation of the News of the World, Liechti said there is a danger that News Corp. could be forced to reduce its stake in BSkyB if Britain’s communication regulator decides it is not “fit and proper” to control a broadcasting license.
On Tuesday, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown joined the criticism of News International, repeatedly accusing the company of employing criminals to obtain confidential information about his bank account, taxes and other issues.
“If I, with all the protection and all the defenses and all the security that a chancellor of the exchequer or a prime minister, am so vulnerable to unscrupulous tactics, to unlawful tactics, methods that have been used in the way we have found, what about the ordinary citizen?” Brown said in an interview with the BBC.
President Barack Obama prodded Congress Tuesday to make a deal within the next two weeks on raising the nation’s borrowing limit, and he said he was summoning leaders of both parties to the White House this week to try to get it done.
Obama said he opposed any effort to “kick the can down the road” with a short-term increase, as suggested by some lawmakers _ though he stopped short of ruling that out. He reiterated his position that any deal must include not only spending cuts but also new revenue _ tax increases already ruled out by Republicans.
“We need to come together over the next two weeks to reach a deal that reduces the deficit and upholds the full faith and credit of the United States government and the credit of the American people,” Obama said at the White House.
“We’ve made progress, and I believe that greater progress is within sight, but I don’t what to fool anybody _ we still have to work through real differences,” the president said.
He said congressional leaders were being invited to meet Thursday at the White House need a personal loan with bad credit.
Obama spoke as the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the nation’s borrowing limit came closer. Experts say lawmakers must waste no time in making a deal if they are to have any chance of getting it finalized and passed through both chambers of Congress in time.
Despite the president’s optimism, it remained unclear where compromise could be found. Republicans are insisting they will note vote to raise the debt limit without major spending cuts; Democrats are refusing to sign off on cuts of such magnitude without at least some tax increases as well. Republicans say they won’t sign off on any tax hikes at all, including those Obama wants targeting the wealthiest Americans or closing loopholes to corporations.
The administration says that if the government’s borrowing limit is not increased by Aug. 2, the U.S. will face its first default ever, potentially throwing financial markets into turmoil.
Germany has reported another three deaths in its E. coli outbreak _ bringing the total to at least 47.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control center, said Monday that 46 deaths have now been reported in the country. One person has died in Sweden, and officials say one death in the U.S. may be linked to the outbreak.
The number of new infections has declined significantly over recent weeks but overall numbers are still rising _ due largely to delays in notification guaranteed payday loans.
The disease control center says 3,801 people have been reported sick in Germany. That includes 834 suffering from a complication that can lead to kidney failure.
A further 119 cases have been reported in 15 other countries.
The source has been traced to a sprout farm in northern Germany. It’s unclear how the sprouts were contaminated.
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OTTAWA—The Harper government will bring in back-to-work legislation Monday to end the postal strike and get mail moving again.
Declaring that the two sides have had “ample amount of time” to reach a settlement, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said she would force an end to the Canada Post labour dispute if necessary.
The government was preparing to introduce the legislation Monday afternoon though it could take several days to become law.
The move sparked an angry reaction from New Democrats who accused the Conservatives of meddling in collective bargaining loan for people with bad credit.
It’s possible NDP MPs could delay a legislated end to the dispute.
Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae accused the Conservatives of doing little to safeguard defined benefit pensions, one of the issues at the heart of the Canada Post dispute.
Russia’s central bank unexpectedly raised its overnight deposit rate, signaling it may refrain from tightening monetary policy again as price pressures ebb and the economic recovery remains shaky.
Bank Rossii raised the fixed overnight deposit rate to 3.5 percent from 3.25 percent, effective May 31, the fourth increase since December, the Moscow-based central bank said today in an e-mailed statement. Nine of 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted the move. The refinancing rate and overnight auction- based repurchase rates were left at 8.25 percent and 5.50 percent, in line with economists’ expectations.
Chairman Sergey Ignatiev is trying to keep inflation between 6 percent and 7 percent without stifling credit flows and undermining an economic recovery in the world’s biggest energy supplier. The inflation rate is now “in order” and the bank will be “very cautious” in raising borrowing costs to “avoid hurting economic growth,” Ignatiev said May 26.
Today’s increase and earlier measures “provide an acceptable balance between the risks of continued inflationary pressure and slowing economic growth for the nearest months,” the central bank said.
Ruble Weakens
Policy makers left mandatory reserve ratios unchanged for a second month after lifting them in January, February and March. Economists expect Bank Rossii to resume increases in the second half of the year, according to the median of 12 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey.
The ruble erased gains after advancing on the decision and was 0.1 percent lower against the dollar at 28.0850 at 5:40 p.m. in Moscow. Russia’s ruble bonds due March 2014 slid for the first time in three days, pushing the yield 3 basis points higher to 6.59 percent.
The Micex Index of 30 stocks added to gains after the announcement and was up 0.3 percent at 1,642.13 at 4:42 p.m.
“It’s a signal for the market that the central bank continues to be watching inflation, and that it potentially intends to tighten policy if economic growth firms and consumers proceed with their current behavior of lower savings and higher borrowing,” Dmitry Polevoy, chief economist for Russia and Kazakhstan at ING Groep in Moscow, said by telephone.
Slowest Growing
The slowest-growing economy among the so-called BRIC nations, Russia is relying on revenue from oil to bolster its recovery, while seeking ways to reduce its reliance on energy exports. Oil at more than $100 a barrel is no longer stoking economic expansion, which slowed to 4.1 percent in the first quarter from 4.5 percent in the fourth. Growth slid further in April, to 3 on line pay day loans.3 percent, the Economy Ministry said May 26.
The economy will expand 4.5 percent next year, compared with 9.1 percent for China and 7.8 percent for India, the International Monetary Fund forecast in April.
The pace of inflation has shown signs of steadying. Consumer-price growth in May will probably match the rate from the same month last year, when prices gained a monthly 0.5 percent, Ignatiev said May 26. The annual rate in April matched an 18-month high of 9.6 percent and reached 9.7 percent as of May 23, the central bank said today.
Consumer price growth “remains relatively low” in monthly terms, policy makers said in the statement. Food-price growth has slowed as the knock-on effects from last year’s drought, the country’s worst in 50 years, eased, the bank added.
Grain Ban Lifted
A ban on grain exports introduced as a result of the drought will be allowed to expire July 1, representing the “only serious, significant risk factor” for inflation, Ignatiev said today, the RIA Novosti news service reported.
Russian grain prices are now about half global levels, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said in a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin May 28.
Unlike their counterparts in Brazil, China and India, Russian policy makers preferred currency gains and higher reserve requirements for lenders as inflation-fighting tools to help fledgling growth. The ruble has gained 9 percent so far this year after the bank relaxed currency controls.
Elections
With parliamentary elections at the end of the year and presidential elections in early 2012, policy makers will probably step up their inflation-fighting rhetoric and revive efforts to meet this year’s price goal, according to Timothy Ash, head of emerging-market research at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London.
Previously the central bank “put a greater weight on growth, but with signs the population is becoming increasingly sensitive to the impact of inflation on real disposable incomes, and with opinion polls showing a dip in support for the ruling elites, controlling inflation is also center stage,” Ash wrote in a note e-mailed on May 26.
The central bank cited high unemployment, slowing industrial production growth, and an “extremely low” level of investment as key risks to growth. Consumers are borrowing and spending more while saving less, which could boost economic growth and inflation, it said.
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