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Rescuers were quickly on the scene of the crash

At least 12 people have died and some 100 have been hurt in a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train near Los Angeles.

The crash derailed both trains and forced the engine of the passenger train back into one of its coaches.

Fire-fighters put out a blaze under one of the carriages and have been cutting through metal to rescue trapped people.

The exact cause of the crash - believed to be one of the worst in Los Angeles' history - is not yet known.

The crash happened at 1632 local time (2332 GMT) on Friday, at a time when the passenger train is thought to have been carrying more than 200 people, most of them commuters.

The Metrolink passenger train was travelling from Los Angeles to Moorpark, north-west of the city, a spokeswoman said.

It collided with a Union Pacific freight train on a curving stretch of track in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles county.

'Total destruction'

The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, told reporters that between 10 and 15 people had died in the crash, with more than 50 injured.

"That's probably the most serious trainwreck to occur here in a very long time," the AFP news agency reported him saying.

I heard a loud crash and I saw black smoke... some people were mangled pretty bad Phil Thiele, Metrolink passenger

The front coach of the Metrolink passenger train derailed and was crushed by the engine after the collision. Two other coaches of the train remained upright.

Aerial images of the crash scene showed teams of rescuers using ladders to reach injured people inside the mangled front coach.

A number of casualties were treated near the scene, while some were airlifted to hospital.

There are fears that the death toll will rise further.

Los Angeles City Fire Captain John Virant described the scene as "total destruction".

"It was chaos. The injuries are crushing," he was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

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Waves from Hurricane Ike lash Texas coast

Hurricane Ike has made landfall on the Gulf coast of Texas, where it is expected to cause "potentially catastrophic" flooding and damage.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm's eye hit Galveston at 0710 GMT with winds of up to 110 mph (175km/h).

Much of the city, which in 1900 was the scene of the country's deadliest hurricane, is already under water after a 12ft (3.7m) storm surge.

Read more

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
12 September 2008

Top leaders of the Cambodian People's Party, from left: National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Senate President Chea Sim and Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The ruling Cambodian People's Party has mostly finalized a draft of its new administration, controlling as expected every ministerial position and giving only Funcinpec lower positions in the executive branch.

Cheam Yiep, a CPP lawmaker and member of the party's standing committee, said Friday a July 29 draft of the administration passed the committee and will be formally approved just ahead of a swearing-in ceremony later this month.

The draft shows eight CPP positions at deputy prime minister and one for Funcinpec, and 12 CPP senior ministers, with four for Funcinpec.

Read more

Rescuers were quickly on the scene of the crash

At least 12 people have died and some 100 have been hurt in a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train near Los Angeles.

The crash derailed both trains and forced the engine of the passenger train back into one of its coaches.

Fire-fighters put out a blaze under one of the carriages and have been cutting through metal to rescue trapped people.

The exact cause of the crash - believed to be one of the worst in Los Angeles' history - is not yet known.

The crash happened at 1632 local time (2332 GMT) on Friday, at a time when the passenger train is thought to have been carrying more than 200 people, most of them commuters.

The Metrolink passenger train was travelling from Los Angeles to Moorpark, north-west of the city, a spokeswoman said.

It collided with a Union Pacific freight train on a curving stretch of track in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles county.

'Total destruction'

The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, told reporters that between 10 and 15 people had died in the crash, with more than 50 injured.

"That's probably the most serious trainwreck to occur here in a very long time," the AFP news agency reported him saying.

I heard a loud crash and I saw black smoke... some people were mangled pretty bad Phil Thiele, Metrolink passenger

The front coach of the Metrolink passenger train derailed and was crushed by the engine after the collision. Two other coaches of the train remained upright.

Aerial images of the crash scene showed teams of rescuers using ladders to reach injured people inside the mangled front coach.

A number of casualties were treated near the scene, while some were airlifted to hospital.

There are fears that the death toll will rise further.

Los Angeles City Fire Captain John Virant described the scene as "total destruction".

"It was chaos. The injuries are crushing," he was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

Capt Virant said firefighters were trying to cut through train carriages to rescue the injured.

"They are in there removing dead bodies that are lying on top of survivors," he said.

The Union Pacific freight train was badly damaged in the accident. Officials say two people - the engineer and the conductor - were on board the train.

"I heard a loud crash and I saw black smoke... some people were mangled pretty bad," Phil Thiele, one of the passengers in the front coach, told the Los Angeles Times.

He said he tried to help one man who was pinned between seats: "I tried my damnedest to get him out but I just couldn't."

Mr Thiele also said one woman appeared to have a serious head injury.

Hurricane Ike has made landfall on the Gulf coast of Texas, where it is expected to cause "potentially catastrophic" flooding and damage.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm's eye hit Galveston at 0710 GMT with winds of up to 110 mph (175km/h).

Much of the city, which in 1900 was the scene of the country's deadliest hurricane, is already under water after a 12ft (3.7m) storm surge.

There are fears for 23,000 residents who have ignored orders to evacuate.

1900 GALVESTON HURRICANE Thought to be worst natural disaster in US history 8,000 people killed 130mph (209km/h) winds and 15ft (4.6m) waves swept homes away Flashback: Galevston's great storm

The authorities in Galveston, which lies on a small island off the coast of Texas, have imposed a curfew until dawn, the city had lost power and a number of houses were on fire.

Residents of low-lying homes were told they risked "certain death" if they stayed. Before it hit land, Ike was unleashing storm force winds over a distance of up to 275 miles (443km) - the length of the Texas coastline - from its centre.

Calls for rescue will be ignored until daybreak because emergency workers have been pulled off the streets, the Houston Chronicle newspaper reported.

"We don't know what we are going to find. We hope we will find the people who are left here alive and well," Galveston mayor Lynda Ann Thomas said.

Ike eyewitness: 'I am afraid'

Emory Sallie, 44, was one of those who chose to stay behind despite warnings of a 20ft-25ft (6m-7.6m) storm surge.

"If it ain't your time you ain't going anywhere," he told AP news agency, while walking and drinking a beer near his home.

More than 70 buses took residents to the state capital, Austin.

Weak and chronically ill hospital patients were also being moved.

'Very large'

US officials warned as many as 100,000 homes in Texas could be affected by flooding.

More than 1,000 buses have been laid on to facilitate an evacuation order affecting more than a million people.

The massive system is causing flooding along the Louisiana coast, still recovering from Hurricane Gustav earlier this month.

In Houston, where the winds are threatening to shake skyscrapers, people have been told to shelter at home, board up their properties and stockpile supplies.

Authorities are trying to avoid a repeat of 2005, when some 110 people died in Houston during a chaotic evacuation in the face of Hurricane Rita.

The hurricane's predicted path will take it past Galveston and on to Houston, home to America's biggest oil refinery and Nasa's Johnson Space Center.

"Our nation is facing what is by any means a potentially catastrophic hurricane," said US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

He added: "This storm is so big in fact that its impact is already being felt all along the Gulf Coast."

In the Gulf of Mexico, ports are shut and almost all energy production has been suspended as a precaution, although Ike was expected to miss most of the installations.

The storm would be the first major hurricane to hit a US metropolitan area since Katrina devastated New Orleans three years ago.

President George W Bush has declared a federal emergency in Texas, allowing funds to be freed to help the state deal with the storm.

Ike has already caused devastation in Cuba and Haiti, where hundreds of people have died in several tropical storms over the last month.

The Haitian prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, believes one million people may be homeless, and has called for international help.

The UN says more than $100m (£55.8m) is needed.

From BBC NEWS

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
12 September 2008

Top leaders of the Cambodian People's Party, from left: National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Senate President Chea Sim and Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The ruling Cambodian People's Party has mostly finalized a draft of its new administration, controlling as expected every ministerial position and giving only Funcinpec lower positions in the executive branch.

Cheam Yiep, a CPP lawmaker and member of the party's standing committee, said Friday a July 29 draft of the administration passed the committee and will be formally approved just ahead of a swearing-in ceremony later this month.

The draft shows eight CPP positions at deputy prime minister and one for Funcinpec, and 12 CPP senior ministers, with four for Funcinpec.

No positions in the executive branch will be offered to the Sam Rainsy, Human Rights or Norodom Ranariddh Party, according to the draft.

The new administration shifts more control squarely into the hands of the CPP, a reflection of the party's overwhelming win in July's election, where it took 90 of 123 National Assembly seats.

The new administration will have a higher number of positions in each ministry, in part because positions such as secretary, undersecretary and advisor were offered to members of the Sam Rainsy Party who moved to the CPP ahead of the election.

"The members of the new government are experienced in their capacity and potential for push the government's work to success in the next five years," Cheam Yiep said.

The posts of secretary and undersecretary of state could change in a final decision to be made by the CPP Sept. 22, he said, two days before the National Assembly swears in and opens its first session.

The US Democratic presidential candidate has denied claims of sexism after likening his rival's promise of change to putting "lipstick on a pig".

Barack Obama said Republican John McCain's outrage was "phoney", a diversion from debating real issues.

The controversy began on Tuesday after Mr Obama said his rival was advocating change while pursuing the politics of the current Bush administration.

Mr McCain's campaign accused him of smearing running mate Sarah Palin.

Mrs Palin joked last week that lipstick was all that separated a "hockey mom" and a pitbull.

'Made-up' controversy

Mr Obama made the remark during a rally in Virginia where he accused the McCain campaign of trying suddenly to adopt the promise of change - a platform he himself has been running on for months.

Drawing a link between the Republican senator for Arizona and President George W Bush, he suggested change would be impossible for Mr McCain to achieve.

The famously thin-skinned porcine population of the US is up in trotters about the imputation of cross-dressing Matt Frei BBC World News America

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough."

Mrs Palin, a self-described "hockey mom", made her joke about lipstick during a speech at the Republican National Convention last Wednesday.

Soon after Mr Obama's comments, McCain aides produced an election campaign ad referring to "sexism in American life", and accusing the Illinois senator of "smearing" Mrs Palin, governor of Alaska.

And there was speculation that Mr Obama might apologise, but he took a more aggressive line, says the BBC's Kevin Connolly in Washington.

He dismissed the "made-up controversy" on Wednesday - defending his remark as an "innocent expression".

Mr Obama said his comments had been taken out of context.

From BBC.com

In New York, Washington and elsewhere, the nation has been marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks with solemn memorial services and heartfelt tributes. Mona Ghuneim reports from VOA's New York Bureau.

Seven years after the attacks, New Yorkers gathered at the site where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

A woman pauses before throwing a rose into reflecting pool during commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero, in New York, 11 Sep 2008

As in years past, the New York ceremony included four moments of silence - marking the times that hijacked airplanes crashed into the twin towers and the times when each building collapsed.

This year, family members and students representing the homelands of the victims read aloud the names of more than 2,700 people who died in New York.

The city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, presided over the anniversary event. He said the country came together to bear witness to the "day, which began like any other and ended as none ever has."

"We return this morning as New Yorkers, Americans and global citizens remembering the innocent people from 95 nations and territories that lost their lives together that day," Bloomberg said.

US President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush stand during moment of silence commemorating 7 year anniversary of September 11th attacks on US from the South Lawn of White House, 11 Sep 2008

In Washington, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush observed a moment of silence at the White House. The president then attended the dedication of a new September 11th memorial at the Pentagon, where 184 people died when another hijacked plane crashed into the building.

The Pentagon memorial is the first of three major September 11 memorials to be completed. It is made up of stone benches, each engraved with a victim's name. The president says he hopes the memorial will provide some peace and comfort to the victims' friends and families.

"People from across our nation will come here to remember friends and loved ones who never had the chance to say goodbye," Mr. Bush said. "A memorial can never replace what those of you mourning a loved one have lost."

Services were also held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where 44 people died aboard a fourth hijacked plane that crashed into a field, apparently after passengers aboard the craft tried to overcome their captors.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain attended the ceremony in Pennsylvania before heading to New York. In Shanksville, McCain paid special tribute to the passengers aboard that flight, who are believed to have disrupted the hijackers' plan to attack another target in Washington.

"I have had the great honor and privilege to witness great courage and sacrifice for America's sake, but none greater than the sacrifice of those good people who grasped the gravity of the moment, understood the threat and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives," McCain said.

McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, are expected to appear together at Ground Zero later in the day to pay their silent respects. Laying politics aside for the day, they will place wreaths at the World Trade Center site and later speak at a forum on public service at Columbia University.

As in years past, two bright blue light beams will shine all night over New York City from the spot where the fallen towers stood.

By Mona Ghuneim
New York
11 September 2008

By VOA News 09 September 2008

Supporters of ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) carry the posters of Pakistan's president-elect Asif Ali Zardari, late former premier Benazir Bhutto, during a rally in Islamabad, 08 Sep 2008

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has been sworn in as Pakistan's new president.

After his inauguration Tuesday, President Zardari told reporters he is accepting the position in the name of his late wife and, in his words, "in the name of all martyrs of democracy."

Near the conclusion of the ceremony in the presidential palace, Mr. Zardari's children looked on as some in the audience shouted "Bhutto is alive!"

President Zardari replaces Pervez Musharraf who stepped down under pressure a month ago.

The 53-year-old Mr. Zardari has inherited a list of pressing problems, including a troubled economy and international pressure to crack down on Islamic militants.

Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai attended the swearing-in ceremony. Mr. Karzai has accused Pakistan of not doing enough to fight extremism.

After a meeting Tuesday the two leaders vowed to work together to fight terrorism and bring stability to the region.

When President Karzai was asked if he believed Pakistan would do more to fight militants, Mr. Karzai said he has found "hope" in the country's new leadership.

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer Original report from Phnom Penh 09 September 2008

Prince Sisowath Thomico says he is seeking to keep royal family members politically relevant.

[Editor's note: With two fractured royalist parties coming out of the national election, Prince Sisowath Thomico, a cousin of King Norodom Sihamoni, says he has a plan to revive the royal name. With Norodom Ranariddh running his self-named party from exile, and Funcinpec winning only two seats in July's election, Prince Thomico has announced he wants to established a unifying party. He sat for an interview with VOA Khmer at his cabinet office at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.]

Q. You have a plan to set up a new political party, following the formation of a new government later this month. What is the main purpose of this party?

A. I have a plan to find a way not to disqualify the voice of the royalists. And I must set up a new party, but it is not clear how I can set up the new party.

Q. How will you set up the new party?

A. I want to remind people of the royalist stance. Currently, the principle of the royalists is not interpreted clearly. That's why the voice of royalists has been disqualified and there is disunity among the royalists. Because there is no clear ideology, no clear theory, no clear principle, and no clear stance. Right now the royalist side has only individual principles, individual theories, and individual stances.

Q. You set up the Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party in 2006, but later you gave up on the party and joined the Norodom Ranariddh Party, and then Funcinpec. Why do you want a new party?

A. Because now Funcinpec and the Norodom Ranariddh Party have weakened, endangering the Cambodian royal family in politics. I recognize my political process failed in unifying the royalists. I also recognize I lost to [NRP Secretary-General] You Hockry and [Funcinpec Secretary-General] Nhiek Bunchhay, who are the leaders disunifying the royalists. I cannot let the royalists lose. I must find a way to put value to the royal family and royalists once again.

Q. How will your planned party help promote the honor and prestige of the royal family and the royalists in the Cambodian political arena?

A. When the Khmer royal family becomes the national symbol, especially in the political sense, and when the royal family serves the king to protect the national culture and works hard to show the big national problem. I hope to do so. I hope and believe all walks of Khmer citizens can unify together to protect the border, sovereignty and culture. My stance is that the royal family and the royalists can join in unity under the king and the government to show the national problem.

By VOA News 07 September 2008

Afghan officials say two suicide bombers have attacked police headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least six people, including some police officers.

A wounded Afghan police officer talks to the media after suicide attack on the police headquarters in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, 07 Sept. 2008

Officials say the two bombers blew themselves up inside the police building Sunday. They say a police commander, Abdul Raziq, was wounded and may have been a target.

Police say Afghan forces immediately surrounded the compound following the blasts.

Also today, U.S. and Afghan officials say at least 20 militants died in two, separate incidents.

Officials say U.S.-led forces in the eastern province of Khost killed at least 10 militants, while another 10 died in southern Helmand province during an assault on a police post.

Afghan police say another attack -- on a NATO convoy in the western province of Herat -- failed, after a suicide bomber exploded himself but failed to injure anyone.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year, as Taliban militants have stepped up their insurgency with suicide and roadside bombings.