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India

Speeding Train Kills 37 In India

BBC, PARDA PHASH (India), INDIA TIMES

Worldcrunch

PATNA — At least 37 Hindu pilgrims were killed after being hit by a train as they tried to cross tracks at a train station in the Northeastern Indian state of Bihar.

The accident, which left another dozen injured, sparked furor among locals and other pilgrims who assaulted the driver and set several coaches ablaze in retaliation, reports Parda Phash. According to railway officials, the train was not supposed to stop at Dhamara Ghat, where the accident took place, and had been given clearance to drive through the station.

The India Times reports that the pilgrims were gathering at the Katyayani Temple near the town of Dhamara Ghat, a popular Hindu pilgrimage site, for the last day of monthlong prayer celebrations.

Unfortunately, these accidents are not rare in India. According to the BBC, Indian railway officials confirmed last year that 1,220 people had been killed in train accidents between 2007 and 2012.

[rebelmouse-image 27087303 alt="""" original_size="640x480" expand=1]Speeding train in India - Photo: Bhanutpt

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Geopolitics

Why The Latin American Far Left Can't Stop Cozying Up To Iran's Regime

Among the Islamic Republic of Iran's very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America's left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.

Image of Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's embassy in Tehran/Facebook
Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Latin American Left has an incurable anti-Yankee fever. It is a sickness seen in the baffling support given by the socialist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which to many exemplifies clerical fascism. And all for a single, crass reason: together they hate the United States.

The Islamic Republic has so many of the traits the Left used to hate and fight in the 20th century: a religious (Islamic) vocation, medieval obscurantism, misogyny... Its kleptocratic economy has turned bog-standard class divisions into chasmic inequalities reminiscent of colonial times.

This support is, of course, cynical and in line with the mandates of realpolitik. The regional master in this regard is communist Cuba, which has peddled its anti-imperialist discourse for 60 years, even as it awaits another chance at détente with its ever wealthy neighbor.

I reflected on this on the back of recent remarks by Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, the 64-year-old Romina Pérez Ramos. She must be the busiest diplomat in Tehran right now, and not a day goes by without her going, appearing or speaking somewhere, with all the publicity she can expect from the regime's media.

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