Blasts darken Indian capital
Edited by Kovis


An Indian woman talks to the media outside the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, October 30, after bomb blasts struck the Indian capital on October 29.

A series of three explosions has brought tension to the Indian capital New Delhi, during preparations to celebrate the big annual festival of Diwali, the Festival of Lights.

Local police indicated on Monday that 61 people had been killed and 210 injured in the three blasts on Saturday.

Two powerful bomb blasts rocked two major shopping areas, Pahaganj and Sarojini, while another bomb went off on a bus in Govindpuri on Saturday.

About 16 people were killed in Pahaganj near New Delhi Railway Station, where many hostels accommodate foreign backpackers.

The worst casualties were in Sarojini market, with 43 people dead. According to witnesses, the bomb exploded in front of a small shop selling soft drinks, igniting a gas cylinder which set the area on fire.

The bomb on the bus was discovered by the bus driver and conductor, who evacuated the passengers on the bus when they found a suspicious bag on board. The explosion caused no deaths but injured 9 people. The driver was severely injured as he attempted to throw the bag away.

Indian police have detained at least 20 people, local media reported, and are continuing to comb the bomb sites for clues.

The explosions took place within half an hour of each other in markets packed with shoppers just days before major Hindu and Muslim festivals. Many of the victims were women and children. 80 percent of those injured were Hindus and over 13 percent Muslims.

A militant group named Inqilab in India-controlled Kashmir claimed responsibility for the three blasts on Sunday.

The group spokesman said they committed the atrocities in revenge for the activities of Indian security forces in the region. But a government source said it was still too early to say who was behind the attacks.

The explosions erupted just hours after India and Pakistan began talks on opening the heavily militarized border in disputed Kashmir to help get food, shelter and medical aid to victims of the Himalayan earthquake, which killed about 80,000 people, most in Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned on Saturday evening from his trip to Kolkata and made a statement calling for calm and expressing the government's determination to fight terrorism.

Vocabulary
blast 爆炸
cylinder 汽缸
suspicious 可疑的
evacuate 疏散
revenge 报复
erupt 爆发

 

 

World in Pictures
Photo source: ImagineChina

	Cat travels 4, 200 miles 猫咪越洋旅行4200英里 Emily, a young cat from Wisconsin, has earned herself a place in feline history by wandering from her American home and turning up three weeks later 4,200 miles away in France. Workers at a paper lamination plant in France found Emily inside a container of paper bales that had been sealed in Wisconsin and shipped across America, the Atlantic and France.
	Lightning strike 科技馆里体验"电击" Melanie Baxter holds her hand on a Van Der Graaf generator, which causes her hair to rise during a display at Melbourne's Scienceworks Museum, October 27. The display also shows a three-meter long bolt of lightning, as the Museum's new Lightning Room show is opened to children for educational purposes.
	Egg toss game 扔鸡蛋比赛 Ailish Hallinan flinches while attempting a catch during the egg toss game, October 25, in Kansas City, as she and her father take part in an audience contest at the American Royal Youth Invitational Rodeo.
	Onion to go with TV 买电视机赠洋葱 Indian shop employee Shivam cleans up the screen of a television outside a television shop, in Amritsar, India, October 26. With prices of onions soaring, a shop keeper in Amritsar has offered 10 kg of onions to anyone buying a television during the Indian festival of Diwali.
	Smile, you're on camera 另类橱窗广告 A shopper seems totally unaware of the image of the sumo wrestler ready to snap his picture from a store front window in downtown Chicago, October 23.

 

 

World in Words
Collected & translated by Beverly

"Speaking about decisions, I got another decision to make, and maybe after lunch you can help me. And that is: What do I get her on our 28th anniversary?"
"谈到做决定, 我还有一个决定要做, 或许午餐后你们可以给我些建议. 那就是: 结婚28周年纪念日我该送她什么礼物呢? "
President Bush had no idea of what to buy his wife for their anniversary, so he turned to military wives for help.
--结婚纪念礼物难倒布什总统, 为此他只好向军官太太们求助.

"In men who perceived a high level of justice, the risk of coronary heart disease was 30 percent lower than among those who perceived a low or an intermediate level of justice."
"如果一个人认为自己受到了很公平的待遇, 那么比起那些觉得受到不公平或只是还算公平待遇的员工, 他的冠心病发病率低了30%. "
According to a study of British workers, a crummy boss in the office could be slowly killing you.
--一份针对英国劳工的研究表明, 遇上糟糕的老板将会缩短寿命.

"Both of those items together on the screen gave the appearance of an ... improvised explosive device."
"从屏幕上看, 这些东西混在一起就像一个--简易爆炸装置. "
Transport Security Administration spokeswoman Jennifer Peppin on a bomb scare at San Diego airport last week prompted by a toy car and a cookie.
--美国运输安全管理部门女发言人詹尼弗·佩平谈起了上周在圣地亚哥机场的一次炸弹恐慌, 而罪魁祸首竟是玩具汽车和曲奇饼干.

"I am prepared to go to jail, as long as it's a woman's jail."
"我愿意服刑, 惟一的条件是送我到女子监狱. "
Martin, one of North Ireland's first transsexuals, fought for the right to be treated as a woman and insisted on going to women's jail.
--北爱尔兰首位变性人马丁为维护女儿身坚持要求入女子监狱.