NEWS OF THE DAY
Deadly crash: A train crash has killed at least 34 people and injured 26 others in Lualaba province in Congo’s southeast, a government official said. Lualaba governor Richard Muyej Mangez said he feared the toll from Sunday’s crash is likely to rise. Radio Okapi reported that the National Railway Company of Congo train was carrying cargo from Lubumbashi to Luena, and 11 of its 13 cars caught fire. Local officials and train authorities have traveled to the crash site in Buyofwe.
Bahrain blast: Iran denied allegations Sunday that it was behind a militant attack on a pipeline outside Bahrain’s capital of Manama. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency as rejecting the “baseless and fake claims” and “childish fingerpointing” from Bahraini authorities. Bahrain has been combatting a lowlevel insurgency since the Sunni monarchy quashed a 2011 Arab Spring uprising led by majority Shiites. Bahrain’s interior minister, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, said Saturday’s blast was “the latest example of a terrorist act performed by terrorists in direct contact with and under instruction from Iran.”
Gay rights: Hundreds of gay rights activists and supporters marched through India’s capital Sunday in celebration but also defiance in a nation that continues to outlaw homosexual acts. As people chanted and marched to the beat of drums during New Delhi’s 10th annual Queer Pride march, many said they were frustrated with the law but also hoped it would soon change. Indian law makes gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison. In 2009, the New Delhi High Court declared the law unconstitutional. But the ruling was overturned four years later when India’s Supreme Court decided it should be a decision for the parliament, not the judiciary. Last year, the top court said it would reconsider its decision.
Remembrance Sunday: Prince Charles led Britain’s annual ceremony for war dead, taking the role held for more than six decades by his mother Queen Elizabeth II. The 91-year-old queen watched the Remembrance Sunday service at London’s Cenotaph memorial from a nearby balcony alongside her 96-year-old husband Prince Philip. The monarch, who is gradually cutting back on public duties after 65 years on the throne, had asked her 68-year-old son and heir to lay a wreath of poppies on her behalf. Thousands of service personnel, veterans and members of the public gathered to honor those killed in World War I and subsequent conflicts. The ceremony takes place every year on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of the end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918.
Climate change: Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants environmental activists to pay more attention to immediate health hazards like air and water pollution. Schwarzenegger spoke Sunday at a global climate meeting in Bonn, Germany, where diplomats from around the world are discussing implementing the Paris climate accord. “It’s time we wake up and talk about what really matters: 25,000 people dying every day because of pollution,” he said. Schwarzenegger also criticized the environmental community for “missing the point” with its messaging on global warming. “People do not focus as much on 2 degree energy increases in temperatures or increases in sea levels rising.” Schwarzenegger thinks calling attention to concrete issues, like “so many people having problems with cancer and kids with asthma,” is a better approach. Chronicle News Services