KHAWAJA FIAZ HUSSAIN
خواجہ فیا ض حسین

24 Killed In Ramban Bus Mishap

Srinagar, Sep 13, KONS: At least 24 people were killed and 20 others injured in yet another road accident in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, adding more victims to the interminable list of fatalities due to lax police and traffic authorities.
The tragedy occurred this afternoon in the Digdol area of Ramban on the Srinagar-Jammu highway when an overloaded passenger bus from Banihal dropped 1000 feet into a gorge, official sources said.
Sixteen occupants were said to have been killed on the spot, while the others succumbed to their injuries at various hospitals, including the Government Medical College in Jammu.
The 26-seater minibus, carrying 44 passengers, had shot off the road after its driver lost control, officials claimed.
Rescue operations by the army, the police and the civil administration were said to have pulled out 23 survivors from the wreck, airlifting them to hospitals where 8 succumbed to their critical injuries.
The minister for higher education, Abdul Ghani Malik, who rushed to the scene of the accident, announced ex gratia relief of Rs 1 lakh to the kin of each of those killed, and Rs 10,000 for each of the injured, from the chief minister’s relief fund.  
Almost all accidents in the valley and the mountainous Doda region in the Pir Panjal range in recent months involved passenger busses carrying over twice the authorized capacity of passengers and reckless driving by operators.
The government’s repeated claims to enforce strict traffic management and regulation, particularly on the treacherous roads in the Doda, Kishtwar and Badarwah belt, have failed to check overloading and over-speeding by passenger transporters, leading to a unconscionably high loss of life in traffic accidents.

Nato-led forces killed BBC reporter in Afghanistan

This round-up of Friday's main media stories reports on the findings
of an investigation into the death of a BBC journalist in Afghanistan.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in
Afghanistan has admitted it mistakenly killed BBC reporter Ahmed Omed
Khpulwak when troops responded to a militant attack in southern
Uruzgan province in July, reports BBC News.

"The BBC said it recognised that Isaf had provided clarification,
ending a period of uncertainty, but it would study the details of the
findings on receiving the full report."

The BBC director general Mark Thompson has told business leaders he
hopes Greater Manchester will become "one of the most significant
creative clusters in the UK", reports the Manchester Evening News.

The paper says: "the BBC is relocating three networks - BBC Radio 5
Live, Cbeebies and CBBC - to MediaCityUK, at Salford Quays, as well as
BBC Sport and some shows, such as BBC Breakfast. A study by the
Northwest Development Agency says the BBC's relocation had the
potential to create 10,000 jobs and add £170m to the regional
economy".

It quotes from the study: "The BBC's presence has helped attract small
and large media companies - including ITV (and the production
facilities for Coronation Street) - and institutions with media
interests such as the University of Salford."

Celebrity Big Brother was won last night by Paddy Doherty, star of My
Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Tonight it segues into a new series of Big
Brother. The former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson is a surprise
additional housemate for the opening weekend, reports the Daily
Mirror.

Celebrity Big Brother has been a ratings success for Richard Desmond's
Channel 5, reports the Guardian. "An average audience of about 2.6
million, and a 12.1% share of all TV viewers in its timeslot, is a
respectable showing - particularly when compared with the final series
of Celebrity Big Brother, which aired on Channel 4 last January" says
the paper.

The inquiry into Baha Mousa's death painted a "devastating picture of
military culture", says the Guardian. It says prosecutors will
consider bringing fresh charges but the Daily Telegraph asks if that
is necessary as what happened was "mercifully rare", as reported in
the BBC's newspaper review.