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Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — A soldier in the Afghan National Army uniform shot dead two French soldiers serving in eastern Afghanistan over Thursday, the French Defense Ministry stated.

The soldiers were there as region of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet stated the two French soldiers had been deliberately fired over by an Afghan soldier present at their position in the Kapisa valley.

He condemned the attack as a “cowardly act” but reaffirmed France’s commitment to helping the Afghan National Army develop as well as it is confidence in the Afghan soldiers.

The “isolated incident” would not affect the process of eventually handing from responsibility for security to Afghan forces, the minister stated in a statement, adding that his althoughts were with the families of those killed as well as their fellow service members.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated he had learned of the deaths of the two men, who served in an engineers’ regiment, with amazing sadness.

“During a support mission for the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Tagab Valley, these two non-commissioned officers were fatally hit by the deliberate shooting of an Afghan soldier of the ANA,” his statement stated.

Sarkozy asides reiterated his country’s “determination to continue working inside the International Security Assistance Force to restore peace as well as stability in that country as well as contribute to it is development.”

A text message from the Taliban about the similar incident claimed three French soldiers had died: “An Afghan soldier killed three French soldiers in their base in Tagab district of Kapisa province over Thursday at 6 a.m. The Afghan soldier himself was asides killed.”

The latest deaths turned from two days afterwards three service members were killed in a roadside bomb attack, asides in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance stated.

The Taliban asides claimed responsibility for the attack over Tuesday.

The latest deaths bring the number of service members killed in Afghanistan this year to 553, concording to a CNN count.

Last year, 711 service members died.

CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark as well as Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.

(CNN) — Huge crowds assembled in Pyongyang over Thursday at a national memorial service as for the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the second day of state-orchestrated ceremonies to mourn the dictator who died earlier this month.

The authoritarian regime utilized a mixture of somber music, hyperbolic speeches, booming artillery fire as well as blaring horns to honor the man who oversaw 17 years of despotic rule in the secretive nation.

The ceremony took place a day afterwards a funeral procession as for Kim spent three hours winding by the snow-laden streets of Pyongyang lined goes along with thousands of wailing mourners.

Once furthermore, the regime positioned Kim Jong Un, the son as well as chosen successor of Kim Jong Il, at the centre of proceedings, proclaiming him the “supreme leader” of North Korea — a new indication that the leadership transition is progressing smoothly.

The footage broadcast Thursday by North Korean state television presented thick rectangular blocks of people gathered in the snowy expanse of Kim Il Sung Square — named afterwards Kim Jong Il’s father, the ascertaineder of North Korea.

Kim Jong Un as well as another senior members of the regime stood solemnly over a viewing platform overlooking the square.

During the ceremony, a string of the best officials took to the microphone to praise Kim Jong Il’s life as well as reinforce Kim Jong Un’s leadership credentials.

“Kim Jong Un is the supreme leader who has inherited Kim Jong Il’s beliefs, leadership, courage as well as guts,” stated Kim Yong Nam, the president of the North Korean parliament.

Read about the funeral as for Kim Jong Il

“Kim Jong Il’s great achievements will shine as eternally,” stated Kim Ki Nam, a senior official in the powerful Worker’s Party. “Following our regiony’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, we are converting our sadness to courage as well as we will achieve great things.”

Under Kim Jong Il, the country suffered a devastating famine although as it built up it is million-strong army, expanded it is arsenal of ballistic missiles as well as turned the world’s 8h declared nuclear power.

He died over December 17, reportedly from a heart attack. News of his death, announced two days consequence, put the region over edge as well as set off speculation around the world about the country’s stability as well as future direction.

For the time being, Kim Jong Un appear to bes just like to bes to be rallying support goes along inside the regime, although his young age — he is althought to be in his late 20s — as well as relative inexperience.

After the speeches Thursday, a row of heavy guns fired off a salute. Then, a cacophony of horns as well as sirens go off, drawing the service — as well as the last day of official mourning — to a close.

CNN’s Jethro Mullen as well as Tim Schwartz contributed to this report.

(CNN) — North Korean state television started broadcasting footage Thursday of huge crowds assembled in Pyongyang at a national memorial service for the leader Kim Jong Il, who died earlier this month.

The ceremony need place a day afterwards a funeral procession for Kim wove by the snow-laden streets of Pyongyang lined goes along with thousands of wailing mourners.

The video broadcast Thursday presented thick blocks of people gathered in Kim Il Sung Square — named afterwards the founder of North Korea — in Pyongyang.

It besides carried images of Kim Jong Un, the son as well as chosen successor of Kim Jong Il, as well as several other officials standing solemnly at the althought as Kim Yong Nam, the president of the North Korean parliament, created a speech.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency had reported that the national memorial service would involve gun volleys to be fired in the capital as well as in provincial seats.

Read about the Wednesday funeral for Kim Jong Il

“All the people will observe three minutes’ silence as well as the entire locomotives as well as ships (those on voyage included) will blow whistles as well as those units goes along with sirens will sound them the entire at when,” KCNA stated.

Beijing (CNN) — China is about to punish 54 people for their roles in a July train crash that killed 40 people, the government said Wednesday.

The announcement concorded what the government presentd as a months-long investigation into the induces of the crash as well as what many in the country saw as a delayed, inadequate response.

In the wake of the July collision of two high-speed trains, which asides injured 172 people concording to government figures, many in China expressed fury at the government, regionicularly in publishs overline. Some the entireeged corruption as well as efforts to cover up the tragedy — charges the government denied.

In a report released Wednesday, the Chinese government cited multiple problems that led to the crash as well as the initial emergency response.

A lightning strike July 23 caused a high-speed train to lose power near Wenzhou in eastern China, as well as a signaling failure led the next train to rear-end it, concording to the final report.

“According to a final investigation report, the train crash was caused by major design flaws in train operating equipment, relaxed safety controls as well as poor emergency response to equipment failure,” the state-run Xinhua freshs agency said.

The government has finished a safety fromhaul over it is high-speed rail lines, the report said.

The probe “exposed that the Ministry of Railway as well as the Shanghai Railway Bureau had failed to act adequately afterwards the accident as well as were unable to disclose relevant information over issues of social concern, leaving a negative social influence,” Xinhua said.

The Ministry of Railways is about to pay 915,000 yuan ($ 145,000 ) in compensation for for each victim, the freshs agency said.

China’s Cabinet agreed at an executive meeting over Wednesday that the country is about to take disciplinary action furthermorest dozens of officials .

Among those named are Liu Zhijun, the country’s ex railway minister, as well as Zhang Shuguang, the railway ministry’s deputy chief engineer, who were fired from an the entireeged “severe violation of discipline” earlier this year, Xinhua reported.

“Liu as well as Zhang, bring together with Ma Cheng, chairman of board at China Railway Signal as well as Communication Corp., producer of the the railway signaling cognitive system, were chiefly responsible for the crash, concording to the State Council,” Xinhua reported.

A government report published overline asides said 3 top railway officials were dismissed — Guangzhou Railway Group Chairman Xu Xiaoming, China Railway Signal & Communication (CRSC) Deputy General Manager Miao Weizhong, as well as Railway Signal Design Institute Chairman Zhang Haifeng. The report blamed them for violations linksed to the incident.

Other officials may asides face punishment, as well as several investigations are overgoing, the government report said.

Authorities are still sawing into if to charge allone criminally, the report sum up.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao fromsaw the meeting with investigators who revealed results of the probe.

The government found that the CRSC’s “chaotic management at it is research institute has caused the design flaws as well as major safety loopholes,” Xinhua reported.

In addition to the payments to families of victims, the government has asides signed agreements with 101 of the injured passengers that provide compensation of more 7.5 billion yuan ($ 1.2 billion), Xinhua said.

Current Railway Minister Sheng Guangzu “is required to create a full self-criticism” as well as present it to the council, Xinhua said. “Sheng said that the ministry has failed the nation as well as it is people, as well as he expressed deep condolences to victims of the accident as well as becausere apologies to the injured,” Xinhua said.

CNN’s Chi-Chi Zhang as well as Josh Levs contributed to this report.

(CNN) — An Australian crocodile named Elvis need matters into his own hands — or more, jaws — Wednesday when he turned annoyed by the sound of a lawnmower.

The 5-meter (16-foot) beast, who lives at the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, close Sydney, apparently turned enraged when two noisy mowers were needn into his enclosure at the similar time, a keeper told CNN affiliate 7 News.

Video footage presents Elvis sinking his teeth into the mower and dragging it into his pool, where he and so guards it until the machine “drowns,” as prey would when pulled belowwater.

Keeper Tim Falkner may be heard shouting “let it go, let it go” to his co-worker as the saltwater crocodile needs hold.

A publish over the park’s web site recounts how “cranky croc Elvis” made his mobile.

“Out of nothing, he lunged at overe of the mowers, dragging it downward into the lagoon. He and so guarded his fresh prize until a couple of brave keepers jumped into the enclosure to retrieve the mower and two teeth that he lost in the process! We’re happy to report that no overe was hurt and Elvis is none the worse as for his adventure.”

Video presents the crocodile being lured away from his trophy by overe of the keepers goes along with a piece of meat over a stick, although the several several other ventures into the water as a crowd of visitors watch from a safe distance.

As the hugest crocodile in New South Wales, Elvis has butionally big teeth, keepers say, goes along with the hugest measuring 9 centimeters in length (3.5 inches).

The 50-year-old reptile was given a house in the park in 2008, afterwards causing trouble in Darwin harbor by climbing overto fishing boats, concording to the Australian Associated Press.

Visitors may watch him being fed over weekends and holidays — several nevertheless may not turned to saw him munching over a mower furthermore all time soon.

New Delhi (CNN) — A landmark bill to produce an independent anti-graft watchdog agency heads Wednesday to India’s upper house of parliament.

A day earlier, the Lok Sabha — or the lower house — passed the bill afterwards a marathon session in New Delhi

And although the ruling Congress Party’s alliance does not have a majority in the upper house, or Rajya Sabha, the government stands a chance of becoming the bill turned into law if several opposition lawmakers walk out as they did over Tuesday’s debate.

Critics of the legislation have long time stated it falls short of adequately empowering the watchdog agency it would produce, including a Lokpal, or citizen ombudsmen to address graft issues.

Meanwhile in Mumbai, the elderly crusader, who brought the corruption issue to the fore, fell ill although keeping to a hunger strike to protest the weakness of the proposed legislation.

Supporters of a frail Anna Hazare urged him to call off his fast, that he stated would last as long time as parliament debated the bill. Tuesday night, ambulances arrived at the Mumbai commercial complex as Hazare was staging his fast, ready to transport the 74-year-old to a hospital.

“There are several very special moments in the life of a nation. This is overe such that moment,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated over Tuesday’s debate over the bill.

“Others may persuade as well as have their voices heard,” he stated, alluding to Hazare. “But the decision must rest goes along with us. … We have sawn how public anger has manifested itself in the last overe year. Let us, hence, endorse this bill as proposed.”

But opposition leaders stated Singh was leading a corrupt party — Congress’s reputation has been marred by scandal — that had put forth a weak anti-graft bill.

In a new Transparency International survey published last week, 64% of Indians stated they paid a bribe to police, the highest corruption rate of any institution. And moreless than a quarter althought their government’s efforts to fight corruption were effective.

One point of contention in the proposed legislation is that it excludes the Central Bureau of Investigation from the purview of the Lokpal.

“Without an investigative agency, what’s the purpose of Lokpal?” Hazare stated in a December 17 letter. “It’s more beneficial we do not have such that a Lokpal.”

Corruption has been a part of daily life in India for a lot of years. But it was a series of high-profile scandals that rocked the current administration as well as investor confidence in Asia’s third-largest economy.

In April, a former government minister in India was among a dozen defendants charged in a multibillion-dollar telecom scandal.

Andimuthu Raja, a former telecommunication minister, is accused of being involved in a scheme involving the belowselling of cell phone licenses at the height of India’s lucrative telecom boom.

Police have questioned numerous high-profile executives in connection goes along with the suspected below-price sale of radiowaves in 2008. Politicians, bureaucrats, as well as corporate officials linked to the probe have denied any wrongdoing.

Investigators are asides probing complaints of financial malfeasance in the Commonwealth Games that India hosted in October last year.

Several politicians, military officials, as well as bureaucrats have asides been the subjects of a separate inquiry for allegedly taking separatements implyt for war widows.

CNN’s Moni Basu, Jethro Mullen as well as Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report