Don't believe the coverage given to events in the U.S.A reflects the interests and views of its largely American editors? Take a look at these stories from one day on www.iht.com, Saturday 9th August, 2008 and draw your own conclusions. 14 American Christians killed in a bus crash (does the IHT need to cover bus crashes?) get a lot more coverage than 18 Muslims killed in the biggest suicide attack since suicide bombers struck Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad and a protest by Kurds in Kirkuk last month, killing nearly 60 people in total.This is no way to run a global newspaper for a global audience.14 reported dead in Texas bus crashA bus carrying a group of Vietnamese Catholics on their way to a pilgrimage plunged off a Texas highway early Friday morning, leaving at least 14 people dead and scores more injured.The accident occurred just after midnight near Sherman, Texas, about 60 miles north of Dallas, and may have been a result of a blown tire, although local police are still investigating the cause, according to local press reports.
The bus had been chartered by members of two Houston churches who were traveling to Carthage, Missouri, site of an annual gathering of Vietnamese Catholics known as Marian Days.
The police who arrived at the scene of the crash found the smashed vehicle lying on its side beneath an overpass of U.S. Highway 75. Baggage and bodies — some dead, some injured — were strewn amid the wreckage of glass and metal shards.
"You've got 50-something people laying everywhere," Tony Walden, a Sherman police officer, told The Dallas Morning News. "I don't even know how to describe it."
Twelve people died at the scene, The Associated Press reported, and another passenger died later at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, according to a hospital spokeswoman. A 14th passenger was also reported dead. Dozens of injured passengers were transported to area hospitals by helicopter, and at least five were in critical condition.
A 3 a.m. phone call on Friday alerted the Rev. Dominic Trinh about the crash; three members of his church, Our Lady of Lavang in Houston, had been killed, and others had been injured.Father Trinh, the church's pastor, said that his parishioners had rented several buses and vans for the five-hour trip to Marian Days, an annual event named for the Virgin Mary and convened by a religious order called the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix. Thousands of Vietnamese Catholics travel to the group's headquarters in Carthage for the event, which began in the late 1970s.
Angel Tours, the Houston-based company that owned the bus, was barred by federal regulators from making trips across state lines, The Houston Chronicle reported. The company had also been fined for various violations in the past three years, the report said.
This was the first year that the church had used the company for its trip, Father Trinh said. He was planning an evening mass for his mourning congregation.
"Anything that happen is God's providence," Father Trinh said, when asked what he would discuss during the mass. "We must trust in God and put the people in God's hand. And pray, just pray for them."
The other passengers on the bus belonged to the Vietnamese Martyrs Church, also in Houston.Many of the passengers spoke only Vietnamese, the police said. "What do you say when you see bodies all over the place and screaming for help and they're talking a language you don't understand?" Lieutenant Robert Fair, of the Sherman police department, told The News. "That's pretty much the definition of chaotic."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/08/america/09crash.php*****************
Nine killed in vehicle rollover in Arizona
PHOENIX: Nine people were killed and 10 injured when a sports utility vehicle packed with suspected illegal immigrants overturned on a desert highway south of Phoenix, police said on Thursday.Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said the vehicle ran off state route 79 on Thursday morning."The vehicle hit a wash at a high rate of speed and flipped over. ... People appear to have been thrown from the vehicle," Graves said. "We have a suspicion that the people involved were undocumented aliens."Graves said the injured were flown to local hospitals.Arizona straddles the busiest human and drug smuggling corridor into the United States from Mexico.
Two years ago, 10 people were killed when an SUV packed with illegal immigrants overturned on a desert road near Yuma in western Arizona.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/08/08/america/OUKWD-UK-USA-CRASH-ARIZONA.php*******************
Czech train crash kills at least 10 and injures 100
PRAGUE: An international express train crashed into a collapsed bridge in the Czech Republic on Friday, killing 10 people and injuring at least 100. The EuroCity train, travelling from the Polish city of Krakow to the Czech capital, crashed at the speed of about of about 140 km (87 miles) per hour. "An international train from Krakow to Prague ran into a collapsed bridge which fell on the rails in the area of the town Studenka," said Radek Joklik, spokesman for the Czech Railways.Studenka lies about 350 km from Prague and close to the eastern Czech city of Ostrava and the Polish border.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/08/08/europe/OUKWD-UK-CZECH-TRAIN-CRASH.php********************
Car bomb in Iraq kills 18 and wounds 25MOSUL, Iraq: A car bomb in a vegetable market in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar killed 18 people and wounded 25 on Friday, police said.The town, 420 km (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is near the city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed Iraqi troops have cracked down on al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants in recent months.The attack was the biggest since suicide bombers struck Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad and a protest by Kurds in Kirkuk last month, killing nearly 60 people in total.
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/08/08/africa/OUKWD-UK-IRAQ-BLAST.phphttp://www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com/International Herald Tribune
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