Bombardier said to win order for $2.2bn in jets

The author has posted comments on this articleAP | Jan 1, 2014, 06.17AM IST

NEW YORK: Bombardier Inc said Tuesday it has received a firm order for 38 business jets with a combined list price of about $2.2 billion.

Bombardier didn't disclose the precise value of the deal - customers such as airlines routinely get discounts from plane manufacturers - and didn't identify the buyer.

The Canadian plane maker said the order covered 28 Global jets and 10 Challenger 605 aircraft. The Global line includes four models capable of carrying up to 19 passengers on flights as long as 7,900 nautical miles. The Challenger jet can carry 12 passengers and a crew of three up to 4,000 nautical miles.

Separately, Bombardier announced that its transportation division ended a contract for new signaling equipment for the London Underground. The subway system said it would re-bid a contract that was awarded to Bombardier in 2011 and valued at $577 million at the time.

The company didn't provide a detailed explanation, but The Telegraph of London reported that Bombardier determined that its signaling system wasn't compatible with the Underground's old infrastructure.

A spokeswoman for the Montreal-based company did not immediately return a call for comment.

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Six Indian tourists from West Bengal killed in Nepal road accident

KATHMANDU: Six Indians from Kolkata were killed when the jeep they were travelling in plunged into the Marsyangdi river in Nepal's Tanahun district, some 150 km west of capital Kathmandu on Tuesday night, police said.

Five others, including the driver, who sustained serious injuries, are undergoing treatment in Kathmandu.

The jeep was on way from the popular tourist city of Pokhara to Kathmandu.

It plunged into the river at Chunpahara at Bandipur-6 in Tanahun district of west Nepal.

The deceased have been identified as Binay Kumar Tiwari, 85, Hemanta Tripathi, 13, Kalawati Tiwari, 56, Poonam Tripathi, 33, Neha Tripathi, 20 and Nilam Tripathi, 36.

Those injured are driver Yubaraj Gurung, Ashi Dubey, 8, Aryan Dubey, 9, Satendra Dubey, 34, and Rabindra Kant Tripathi, 43.

Nilam died on the way to hospital, traffic official Bhesh Raj Regmi said, adding that the cause of the accident was not known.

The bodies of the deceased have been kept at the hospital, where the injured are being treated, for post-mortem.

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Former US first lady Barbara Bush hospitalized in Houston

Former US first lady Barbara Bush has been hospitalized in Houston for treatment of early signs of a "respiratory-related issue," her husband's office said on Tuesday.

"She is in great spirits, has already received visits from her husband and family, and is receiving fantastic care. Updates will be issued when warranted," the office of former President George HW Bush said in a written statement.

Barbara Bush, who is 88, was admitted on Monday to Methodist Hospital in Houston's Texas Medical Center, the statement said.

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India's tallest ATC tower becomes operational in Mumbai

MUMBAI: India's tallest air traffic control tower, the height of a 30-storey skyscraper, was commissioned at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport here on Wednesday, an official said.

The ATC operations here have been taken over by the new tower, which stands at 83.8 metres, over 20 metres higher than the existing structure.

The new tower, built at a cost of around Rs.1.25 billion (Rs.125 crore/$20 million) affords an uninterrupted five-mile 360-degrees view of the surroundings for better navigation and surveillance.

However, its distinction will be short-lived as the new ATC tower in New Delhi is expected to stand 102 metres tall.

Equipped with the latest technology in communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) systems, the new ATC has a capacity of handling 46 flight operations per hour, including around 750 take-offs and landings, and controlling other air traffic movements like international air traffic in a 24-hour cycle making it among the busiest in the country.

The swank, new ATC tower was inaugurated in October this year and since then was working in co-ordination with the old ATC tower before the formal migration took place on Wednesday.

To be manned by around 10 ATC controllers and a dozen engineers in each shift, the new ATC tower is spread over 2,884 square metres with an award-winning design.

The old ATC tower will be soon be demolished and will enable the GVK Group that runs the airport provide more amenities and facilities to improve operations and efficiency at the airport.

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Four suspected SIMI members held in Ujjain

BHOPAL: Close on the heels of arrest of five SIMI activists in the state last week, four suspected operatives of the banned organization were apprehended by the Madhya Pradesh ATS and counter terrorist group in Ujjain.

Huge amount of explosives were also seized from the suspected Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) men during the late night operation on Tuesday.

The four arrested have been identified as Javed Nagori, Abdul Aziz, Mohammad Adil and Abdul Wahi, state ATS chief and Inspector General of Police Sanjeev Shami told reporters here.

The explosives recovered from the four include 12 bombs, a pipe bomb, 900 gelatine sticks and more than 600 detonators, he said.

The interrogation of the four suspects was on, Shami said.

Last week, the state anti-terrorist squad (ATS) had arrested five suspected SIMI activists from Sendhwa Pathar area of Barwani district.

Those arrested included Abu Faizal, who had escaped from the state's Khandwa jail with five others a few months ago.

Later, the ATS claimed Faizal and two others who were arrested had links with fundamentalist terror group Tehreek-e-Taliban, which is active in the north-western Pakistan.

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Thousands rally on New Year's day for Hong Kong democracy

HONG KONG: Thousands marched in Hong Kong on Wednesday to demand a greater say in how their future leaders will be chosen, expressing fears that China will limit long-awaited political reforms.

"Democracy will prevail" read some banners as protesters sang and shouted slogans against the city's government, less than one month after the start of an official public consultation on Hong Kong's future electoral system.

"Because we are Hong Kong citizens, we must vote," said Sharon Tang, a 49-year-old administrative worker at a trading company, adding that residents of the former British colony have the intelligence to choose their future leaders.

Other protesters carried banners reading "Change does not come if not fought for", and huge posters depicting the city's current chief executive Leung Chun-ying with an egg plastered on his head.

The marchers left Victoria Park — still named after the 19th century British monarch who oversaw Hong Kong's seizure from China — in mid-afternoon and were to stage a rally in the Central financial district afterwards.

Organisers have said more than 50,000 people are expected to take part in the annual New Year's Day pro-democracy protest. There were no immediate police estimates of crowd size.

Marchers aim to let the Hong Kong government and China's ruling Communist Party know "that Hong Kong people need and want a real democracy", Johnson Yeung, convenor of rally organisers the Civil Human Rights Front, told AFP.

Hong Kong residents enjoy rights and freedoms unknown on the mainland despite China's resumption of sovereignty in 1997.

It has its own government and legal system under a semi-autonomous status, and Beijing has promised that its people will be able to vote for their next chief executive in 2017.

Under the current system, the city's leader is elected by a 1,200-strong pro-Beijing committee.

But many fear that China will control the choice of candidates to secure the election of a pro-Beijing person.

Yeung said he saw this year and the ongoing debate over the city's future democratic system as a "battle" that must be won.

"This rally will give the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) a clear message that if you don't give us real democracy, there will be direct action from the people," he said.

Mimicking the Occupy protests that broke out in 2011 in cities such as New York and London, some activists have threatened to take over the streets of Hong Kong's business district later this year to try to force officials to guarantee a fair electoral system.

A "New Year Civil Referendum" was also conducted in Victoria Park and over the internet on Wednesday, and drew about 50,000 voters by mid-afternoon.

The poll asked Hong Kongers their preferences on how candidates for the leadership post should be chosen in future.

There are frequent protests in the city of seven million, with discontent growing over sky-high housing prices, a growing wealth gap and slow progress towards full democracy.

Current chief executive Leung suffers from particularly low popularity ratings — 42 percent according to a December survey by Hong Kong University.

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10 killed in trailer-minibus collision in Bolivia

LA PAZ: At least 10 people were killed and five seriously injured in Bolivia when a minibus collided with a trailer, Xinhua reported.

The accident occurred Monday at an exit along the highway linking the capital La Paz with El Alto, when the minibus rear-ended the trailer, the press said, citing Juan Luis Cuevas, chief of the Police Departments' Traffic Division.

The driver of the minibus, belonging to public transportation line 233, died in the crash.

Cuevas said 15 passengers were on board the minibus, and five were seriously injured in the incident.

Initial police reports suggest the crash may have been caused by speeding or mechanical failures, but an official report is not expected until the investigation is completed.

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Partial evacuation of US town after train carrying oil derails

CASSELTON, North Dakota: A train carrying crude oil derailed just a mile (1.6 kilometers) before it would have cut through the heart of a small North Dakota town, shaking residents with a series of explosions that sent flame and black smoke skyward. No one was hurt, but officials were evacuating as many as 300 people as a precaution.

The mile-(1.6-kilometer)long BNSF Railway Co. train left the tracks about 2.30pm on Monday, and up to 10 cars caught fire. They were still burning four hours later as darkness fell, and authorities said they would be allowed to burn out.

Casselton has about 2,400 residents and is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Fargo.

Authorities hadn't yet been able to untangle exactly how the derailment happened, but a second train carrying grain was involved.

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5.4-magnitude earthquake hits eastern Japan, rocks buildings in Tokyo

TOKYO: A shallow 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Japan on Tuesday, rocking buildings in Tokyo but there were no reports of any damage, seismologists said.

The quake hit at 10.03am (0633 IST) in Ibaraki prefecture, 160 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, and some 80 kilometres southwest of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, according to Japan Meteorological Agency.

The tremor was 10 kilometres deep, the agency said, and was followed eight minutes later by a very shallow 3.6-magnitude quake in the same area.

The initial quake was strong enough to gently rock high-rise buildings in the capital.

Tokyo Electric Power said the quakes did not affect the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where crews are working through the holiday season to cool reactors crippled by the 2011 tsunami.

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Bangladesh orders arrest of factory owners for deadly fire

DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of the owners and four others over the country's worst-ever garment factory fire that killed 111 workers, after police laid charges.

The court in Dhaka issued the warrants for Delwar Hossain and his wife Mahmuda Akter over the blaze in 2012 at the Tazreen factory, where workers stitched clothes for Western retailers.

"Dhaka's senior judicial magistrate Wasim Sheikh issued the warrants of arrest against the two fugitive owners, Delwar Hossain and his wife Mahmuda Akter, and four other company officials for the Tazreen factory fire," prosecutor Anwarul Kabir said.

The fire on November 24, 2012, shone an international spotlight on appalling safety conditions in an industry worth more than $20 billion a year.

The factory, in the Ashulia industrial district, supplied clothes to a variety of international brands including US giant Walmart, Dutch retailer C&A and ENYCE, a label owned by US rapper Sean " Diddy" Combs.

Kabir said the court accepted charges by police against all 13 implicated in the fire after officers earlier this month completed a 13-month investigation into the tragedy.

"The owners and 11 others have been charged with arson, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and death by negligence," Kabir said, adding that all the accused face a maximum life term in prison.

The six whose arrest was ordered were not in court or in custody. Police last week said it was possibly the first time a garment plant owner has been charged over a fire at one of the nation's 4,500 factories, where deadly accidents are common.

Factory owners are rarely charged over such tragedies in the sector, which is a mainstay of the impoverished country's economy, accounting to up to 80 percent of Bangladesh's exports.

The country suffered an even greater tragedy just months later in April when the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed in Dhaka's outskirts, killing 1,135 people in the world's worst industrial disaster.

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