China orders safety review after high-speed rail crash

China has ordered a two-month nationwide safety review of its railways amid public anger at a deadly crash between two bullet trains.

Rail minister Sheng Guangzu apologized for the collision in eastern Zhejiang province, saying the campaign would focus on China's high-speed network.

Thirty-nine people died in Saturday's crash, with nearly 200 people injured.

The government has begun compensating victims' relatives, paying one family $77,500 (£47,000), reports say.

The family of the victim, Lin Yan, was the first to reach a compensation deal with the local government, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Dozens died after two trains collided during a storm, apparently after lightning knocked out power to the first, shunting four carriages from a viaduct and forcing two off the rails.

The cause of the crash is not yet known.

Nelson Mandela's 93rd birthday inspires South Africa

South Africans celebrate Mandela Day, the birthday of their beloved antiapartheid hero, by doing good works in his honor. The acts of kindness help bring the haves and have-nots a little closer.




By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times


Reporting from Alexandra, South Africa—



A highway and a mile-wide valley divide the glittering retail towers and leafy suburbs of Sandton from the exuberant chaos and squalid poverty of Alexandra township in South Africa. But on Mandela Day, the birthday of the nation's best-loved liberation hero, the gulf seems less impossible.

Nelson Mandela celebrated his 93rd birthday Monday with family at his home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, while adoring compatriots rolled up their sleeves and did some good.

It's a day when people in South Africa try a little kindness — 67 minutes' worth — in honor of the 67 years that Mandela worked for equality in the African nation, from 1942 until his retirement from public life in 2009.

Even on South Africa's most optimistic day, the differences are stark. In Sandton, bling-adorned shoppers wheel shopping carts laden with consumer luxuries. In Alexandra, a shabby father pushes his two toddlers in one. Goods are laid out on the township's sidewalk or sold from the back of trucks, and women fry dough in pots over open fires. Torn posters tout $200 loans and abortions.


On this Mandela Day, South Africa's bitter winter season of chill winds and wildcat strikes seemed to recede. The sun shone.


At Itlhokomeleng Old Age Home in Alexandra, a peek into a tiny purple room revealed two small beds with love-worn teddy bears on the pillows. Residents sat in wheelchairs and moth-eaten couches in a small yard behind the communal dining room.


Laid out before them for Mandela Day was a feast of cupcakes, pies, chicken legs, sausages and sandwiches, like a Thanksgiving table.
In one of many similar events across the country, a group of retailers, a radio station and the government electricity supplier delivered a large pile of donated food, blankets and gift bags to the home and changed all the light bulbs for low-energy versions.


"There's Sandton, and here's Alexandra, right on the doorstep. If we can bring the two together, as we have tried to do today, then we'll have achieved something," said Dennis O'Donnell, station director of event sponsor SAFM radio, which ran a national campaign for donated food.


"One lady phoned in and said that of her own initiative she was visiting children's [nurseries] in underprivileged areas and bringing them cakes or snacks," he said. "It's that kind of thing: acts of kindness. I think it's hugely important because it's part of the catharsis. There's a lot of healing that needs to take place in this country, and those acts of kindness will eventually break down the barriers and mistrust between the races in this country."


One Mandela Day celebrant's contribution was to tweet inspiring Mandela quotes all day. Another made sandwiches, another did finger painting with children, and yet another took children ice-skating.

Mandela's increasingly frail health in recent months has alarmed a nation that is obsessed with his heroic contribution. Rumors have swirled of the former president's death, or near demise. When he caught a cold this year, members of the media camped by the hundreds outside his hospital and home for weeks.


Underlying Monday's celebrations was a fear Mandela might not be here the next Mandela Day.


Just after 8 a.m., millions of schoolchildren sang a happy birthday song to "Tata," or Grandpa: "We love you, Tata. We love you, Tata. We love you, dear Tata. Happy birthday to you."


Although Mandela has often asked that his saintly status be toned down, the cult of personality created by a committee of African National Congress leaders during the early years of his imprisonment on Robben Island in the 1960s and '70s gained its own unstoppable momentum long ago. So get-the-T-shirt merchandising was a major part of Mandela Day.

Government departments, major companies and media outlets ran events across the country, including pothole-fixing operations and donations of books to schools. South African Airways, the poorly performing state-owned airline, branded its fleet with the Mandela Day logo and flew a group of underprivileged children from around the country to Johannesburg to give them their first plane ride.


Mandela Day began in 2009, and the South African government and United Nations have been pushing to make it an international event, encouraging people in every country to give 67 minutes to a humanitarian cause — or just to do a good deed.


South African diplomats in Washington served food at a homeless shelter, while members of the mission at the U.N. headquarters in New York painted benches in Central Park. In Kenya they raised money for a children's home, in Japan they visited blind people, and in Thailand they planted trees.


At the Itlhokomeleng home, 72-year-old resident Adam Nonyane, paralyzed in a traffic accident and unable to live at home, said Mandela Day was a sad event because it reminded him of the suffering Mandela endured during his 27 years of imprisonment under apartheid.


But for others at the home it was joyful. One resident rocked and clapped his hands enthusiastically when a choir from Johannesburg belted out harmonies dedicated to the former president.


Zodwa Khumalo, who uses a wheelchair, sat at the back in the sun, her body swaying to the songs, her arms waving, a look of ethereal joy sweeping her.


"It's beautiful, that was beautiful," she said, a huge smile on her face. "I love Mandela Day! I can't forget that man. Mandela, he says South Africa has one flag, and the people, black and white, now their blood is one.

"I feel proud! Proud!"

British hacking whistleblower dies: Police

A whistleblower in Britain's phone-hacking scandal, former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare, was found dead at his home on Monday but there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances, police said.


Hoare alleged in interviews with The New York Times newspaper and the BBC last year that the tabloid's former editor Andy Coulson, who went on to become press chief to British Prime Minister David Cameron, knew about voicemail hacking.

The 47-year-old was found dead early on Monday at his home in Watford, north of London, Hertfordshire Police said in a statement.

"At 10.40 am today (Monday) police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street," the force said.

"Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.

"The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."

The Guardian newspaper said Hoare had long-term drink and drug problems.

Hoare claimed that Coulson knew about the paper's staff eavesdropping on private messages.

"Everyone was doing it," he told the Guardian's Nick Davies. "Everybody got a bit carried away with this power that they had. No one came close to catching us."

His claims were passed to Scotland Yard but they said he declined to give evidence.

Hoare blamed the intense pressure of working at the mass-circulation tabloid for his descent into addiction.

"There is so much intimidation," he explained to Davies. "In the newsroom, you have people being fired, breaking down in tears, hitting the bottle."

The former journalist was sacked by the News of the World in 2005 over his drug and drink problems but later accused the paper of paying him to go out and take drugs with celebrities.

Hoare, who worked alongside Coulson on the Sun's showbusiness page, had become increasingly paranoid and "was always hiding in the flat with his curtains drawn," neighbours said on Monday.

Harry Potter finale makes history, sets four new records

A swan song of the blockbuster Harry Potter series eclipsed a previous trailblazer of the Hollywood tentpoles by grabbing a heart-stopping $168.55 million over the weekend, as well as creating three other firsts as the highly popular franchise bows out of celluloid incarnation for good, Xinhua reports.


According to estimated statistics released by Warner Bros., which distributes Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, the final and 8th installment on the boy wizard franchise opened as No. 1 in North America box office on Friday, grossing $91.2 million from 4,375 venues in the US and Canada.


It broke the milestone for all-time highest single-day gross which was held by The Twilight Saga: New Moon, which garnered $72.7 million when it opened on Friday, November 20, 2009.


On Saturday, it continued with the foray at box office derby, finishing the business with $42.85 million. All told, the finale of the series has also managed to become No. 1 in three other areas: largest midnight gross ($43.5 million), largest opening weekend -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1, hit the screens last November, previously held that record with $125 million in ticket sales upon its debut, and largest IMAX opening ($15.5 million from 274 theaters).


Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Paramount Pictures' third Transformer installment, continued its money-making business, and is estimated to take in $21.25 million, finishing as No. 2 at the box office. It has garnered a cumulative sales totalling $302.8 million over three weeks.


Horrible Bosses, a New Line/Warner Bros. dark/black comedy which features Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and Colin Farrell, successfully held up at the box office derby. It is estimated to make $17.63 million as No. 3 most popular films of the weekend. It has reaped $60 million in two weeks.


Rounding out the top five most popular films in North America are:


Zookeeper, $12.3 million this weekend, and $42.35 million in two weeks; Cars 2, $8.3 million this week which is on track to garner $165 million in four weeks.


In the shadow of the Harry Potter juggernaut, Disney Animation Studios' Winnie the Pooh was the weekend's only release which was off to a solid start, grossing $2.9 million on Friday and grabbed $8 million in movie ticket sales from 2,405 locations during Friday-Sunday timeframe.


The fifth theatrical film released and the second from the Walt Disney Animation Studios, the animated family film, which was inspired by three A A Milne stories, looks like it's succeeding in luring tots too young for the PG-13 Potter. It received an A-CinemaScore, with those under 18 giving it an A+.

Nordic countries grill Facebook on privacy

OSLO — Data protection agencies in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland have quizzed social network giant Facebook on its management of users' private information, they said Tuesday.

"This is a common action to obtain better knowledge of how personal information is handled by the world's largest social network," the Swedish Data Inspection Board's chief attorney Hans-Olof Lindblom explained in a statement.

Norway's data protection agency had sent Facebook a list of 45 questions last week on behalf of authorities in all four countries, the statement said.

They include queries on the consequences of clicking the "like" button to comment on posted items, and the sharing of data that can help determine a user's name and address with third parties.

The authorities also asked Facebook to explain what it does with photos uploaded to the site, shared items on users' "walls," and account holders' stated religious and sexual preferences.

The Norwegian Data Protection Agency told Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, that it had until the end of August to answer each question as accurately as possible, but in no more than 3-4 sentences.

"We have for a long time had a good dialogue with Facebook's headquarters," Bjoern Erik Thon of the Norwegian authority said in a statement.

"Despite the fact that Facebook is continuously working on improving information to its members, it is unclear what information Facebook collects and how this is used and passed on," he said.

Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the social network in 2004, announced last week the site had reached 750 million users worldwide.
Accessing users' information is indispensable to its revenue model. The site has previously faced lawsuits and been warned by privacy watchdogs over its use of account holders' data.

Facebook, Skype to launch video chat service

HOUSTON: Just as Google's next big thing ' Google Plus' is all set to launch, Facebook and Skype are about to strike a deal that would bring the video chatting service to the social networking site.


With Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising an "awesome" new feature on July 6, Skype, which was recently purchased by Microsoft for a whopping USD 8.5 billion, could become a fixture on the world's largest social network.

The beta version of Google's social network, Google Plus, debuted last week to rave reviews, especially for its +Hangouts feature that allows for multi-user video chat.

At present, Facebook users update message and status through their profile, and share photos but the addition of video chat will bring an interesting change to their account.

Editor of Tech Crunch, Michael Arrington stated in the Next Week that Facebook, in collaboration with Skype, will unveil its video chat option which will be powered by Skype.

This move will strengthen Facebook's position in the social networking market.

Facebook at present is the most influential and one of the biggest social networking sites in the world having over 500 million active users.

This isn't the first time that Skype has been linked to Facebook.

Back in September 2010 the same rumour reared its head and this March it was reported that talks had resumed between the two companies.

Citing an insider source, Techcrunch announced the news, describing the powered-by-Skype Facebook video chat: "The product has been built on Skype and will include a desktop component".

"It's not clear to me whether that means it will just work if a user has Skype already installed on the computer, or if additional software will need to be downloaded even if the user already uses Skype.

"But it's clear that there's very deep integration between the products, and from the user's perspective, the product will be an in browser experience".

Official word will come out tomorrow when Facebook holds an event at its Palo Alto headquarters.

1st Annual Healing with Care Thanksgiving Ceremony

Friends of Burns Centre (1st Annual Healing with Care Thanksgiving Ceremony) Friday 1st July, 2011, Karachi

100% of the proceeds will go to the Care and Treatment of the poor and needy burns victims at the Friends of Burns Centre, Civil Hospital Karachi, Pakistan.

Mr. Shoukat I. Khattak, Manager Marketing & Resource Development, along with his volunteers team organized the "Thanksgiving Ceremony" on 1st July 2011 at Imperial Lawn Karachi under the supervision of Mr. Abdullah Feroz, the president of Efroze, Pakistan.

Acting Governor Sindh Mr. Nisar Khoro and 500 guests attended the event. Guest list includes more than 300 dignitaries, senior management official of leading brands from diverse industries, MNC’s and prominent personalities from both, home and abroad.


 Mr. Shoukat I. Khattak
Manager Marketing & Resource Development
Email: marketing@burnscentre.org

For Donations Contact Arsalan Jilani.
arsalanjilani@gmail.com

Contact Info:
Click Here and Contact Burns Centre

Secret Service probing false assassination tweets

Washington — The Secret Service said Monday it will investigate the hacking of Fox's political Twitter account over updates claiming President Barack Obama had been assassinated. Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie says the law enforcement agency "will conduct the appropriate follow-up." Hackers broke into the FoxNewsPolitics account Monday, leaving six tweets reporting that Obama had been shot to death in Iowa. In a statement, Fox News called the tweets "malicious."