keptical 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. It also
criticized the Railways Ministry's rescue efforts.The report affirmed earlier government statements that
a lightning strike caused one bullet train to stall and then a
sensor failure and missteps by train controllers allowed a second train to
keep moving on the same track and slam into it.Those singled out
for blame included former Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun, a bullet train
booster who was detained in February amid a graft investigation. Also criticized
was the general manager of the company that manufactured the signal, who
died of a heart attack while talking to investigators in August.The decision
to assign blame to one figure who already has been jailed and
another who is dead, along with mid-level managers who have been fired,
etas and the Gulf cartel.Also Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced that a former
high-ranking federal police official has been sentenced to 10 years in prison
for helping the Sinaloa drug cartel.The case of former regional police security
coordinator Javier Herrera Valles had been a scandal and for some a
cause celebre, in part because he was arrested after having publicly accused
some of his superiors of corruption or incompetence.The Attorney General's Office said
in a statement Tuesday that Herrera Valles had been convicted of organized
crime charges for aiding the Sinaloa drug cartel, Mexico's most powerful gang.He
was arrested in 2008, around the same time Mexico arrested a number
of high-ranking officials for collaborating with drug cartels.
nt Bashar Assad's authoritarian rule began. The League said a team of
12 visited Homs on Monday.On Tuesday, tens of thousands of defiant Syrian
protesters had thronged the streets shortly after authorities withdrew tanks from Homs,
in the first sign the regime was complying with the League's plan
to end the 9-month-old crackdown against dissent.After agreeing to the League's pullback
plan on Dec 19, the regime intensified its crackdown on dissent; government
troops killed hundreds in the past week and Syria was condemned internationally
for flouting the spirit of the agreement.The U.N. says more than 5,000
people have been killed since March in the political violence across Syria.
't coming home to the hostility many Vietnam veterans encountered. The first
large-scale event honoring Vietnam veterans was not held until 1982, when thousands
marched in Washington for the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Parades
were later held in New York in 1985 -- 10 years after
the war ended -- and in Chicago the next year.
y sites and urged the observers to insist on full access to
all sites used for detention.HRW's report, issued late Tuesday, echoes charges made
by Syrian opposition members that thousands of detainees were being transferred to
military sites ahead of the observers' visit.Syrian officials have said the Arab
League monitors will have unrestricted access to trouble spots but will not
be allowed to visit sensitive military sites."Syria has shown it will stop
at nothing to undermine independent monitoring of its crackdown," said Sarah Leah
Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. She said it was
essential for the Arab League "to draw clear lines" regarding access to
detainees, and be willing to speak out when those lines are crossed.SANA
said the prisoners released Wednesday did not include those with "blood on
their hands."Last month, Syrian authorities released 2,645 prisoners in three batches but
activists and critics say thousands more who were picked
western Massachusetts.Prince hanged herself in January 2010 after classmates taunted her
after she dated a popular boy. She had recently moved from Ireland
to South Hadley, a rural town about 100 miles west of Boston.Five
students later accepted plea deals in criminal cases connected with bullying that
preceded her death. None involved prison time.Prince's death drew international attention and
was among several high-profile teen suicides that prompted new laws aimed at
cracking down on bullying in schools. All school districts in Massachusetts are
now required to develop bullying prevention plans.After unsuccessful attempts to gain access
to details of the settlement, which was reached with the town and
its insurer in November 2010, Bazelon sought a court order to release
the information under the state's public records law.In an order dated Dec.
23, Superior Court Judge Mary Lou-Rup ruled in favor of Bazelon, saying
the town had not shown what harm would be c
