DURGAPUR, Aug. 24: Eight passengers were injured when a gang of 12 masked men, armed with revolver and daggers, looted cash, ornaments and other valuables worth around Rs 3 lakh from the passengers of Vananchal Express coming from Bihar at Chittaranjan Station near Asansol last night. They reportedly molested some of the women passengers. The railway police is yet to identify the gang.
After having looted the passengers, the gang got down from the train near Kulti Station by pulling the chain around 1.30 a.m. The gang had boarded the train posing as passengers of coach number S-4 of the train.
Irate passengers of S-4 coach stopped the train and agitated against the lack of security in front of the station master’s office in Kulti. They said that the incident lasted for half an hour and no security personnel came to the passenger’s rescue. “The train was not supposed to stop at Kulti but chain was pulled. Some of them were injured and bleeding profusely. They were treated at our medical centre at the station,” said Mr Narayan, station master at Kulti Station. The train left for Dhanbad around 2.15 a.m.
According to the passengers, the dacoits boarded the train around 12.30 a.m. from Chittaranjan and swung into action as soon as it started. “I was sleeping when somebody slapped me on my face. I woke up and saw a man with his face covered pointing a revolver at me. He snatched my briefcase which contained Rs 10,000 in cash and an ATM card. They also took away a gold chain and ring from me,” said Rajesh Singh, a 45-year-old businessman from Bhagalpur.  Another passenger, Mr Amardeep Singh was hit with a hilt of a dagger on the head.
The miscreants did not even spare the women. They assaulted at least five women when they refused to hand over their ornaments. “One of the goons tried to snatch my necklace and earrings. As I protested, I got a blow on my right eye and jaw,” said Mrs Radhika Sharma, a 32-year-old housewife from Joshidih, Jharkhand. 
The RPF, however, ruled out the allegation of lack of security in the train. “Our jawans are posted in all the trains. There must have been a guard but unfortunately they were not present during the incident. They might have been patrolling other coaches,” said Mr RK Singh, assistant commandant, RPF, Asansol. 

Changes in the way emergency medical service personnel are certified will make it harder and more expensive to train emergency responders and likely will deter people from entering the profession, metro Detroit fire chiefs say.
The National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians in 2013 no longer will certify paramedics who graduate from unaccredited training programs. It’s a move the Columbus, Ohio-based registry — which certifies emergency medical service personnel nationwide — says will improve the quality of emergency responders across the country.

Only two of the 42 EMS training programs in Michigan have the required accreditation — those operated by Lansing Community College and Huron Valley Ambulance in Ann Arbor.

Last month, Bloomfield Township became one of the first municipalities in the state to pass a resolution expressing concern over the proposed changes. Also in July, the Southeast Michigan Association of Fire Chiefs drafted a proposed resolution in opposition to the new education standards.

Fire chiefs fear that unaccredited programs — most based at fire stations — will close when the new rules take effect, leaving only longer and more expensive training programs. There are 29,000 emergency medical service personnel in the state. All must receive additional training every few years.

“There already is a shortage of EMS responders in Michigan,” said Jon Hockman of Livonia, vice president of the Michigan Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. “Yet we’re getting this rammed down our throats. … These new standards would create an even larger shortage. That means higher risk to the public.”

Michigan emergency medical service personnel must pass the same certification examinations as those attending programs accredited by the Texas-based Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the EMS Professions.

But proponents say paramedic accreditation is needed to create uniform minimum training requirements from state to state. They argue EMS training programs will adjust to the new standards and doubt the number of people training as emergency responders will drop significantly.

Furthermore, proponents of the changes point out that all other allied health professionals, such as doctors and nurses, have to go through accredited training programs to get certified.

“All we’re trying to do is produce credible paramedics across the nation,” said Bill Brown, executive director of the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians, which proposed the changes based on recommendations in several federal reports. “We’re saying, ‘You’ve got to do this for the betterment of the people in your state.’

“Am I going to say that we’re going to save millions of lives because we’re going to go through this more rigorous training? No. But this is a part of getting there. It creates a culture of excellence.”

Most states already use the organization’s test to certify paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

Firehouse-based programs in Michigan are inspected and monitored by state EMS officials, but many would not meet national accreditation standards, fire officials say.

For example, many of the unaccredited programs do not have extensive libraries or offer career counseling — which are required for accreditation. Adding those features and going through the accreditation process could cost up to $30,000, fire officials say. The process includes periodic program inspections by out-of-state emergency response professionals.

“We would need a library, counseling, on-site inspections,” said Ron Spears, director of a popular EMS training program based at the Waterford Fire Department.

“Our school would cease to operate. We have a very successful pass rate on the certification exam. Many fire departments send their people to us. It would just be a shame.”

Marla Stewart’s downtown bookstore, Books N’ More, has established itself during her 12 years of ownership. The store serves school districts and is developing a customer base in other states.

Her daughter, Jennifer Stewart, runs a delicatessen inside the store.

But these days, Marla Stewart and other Wilmington merchants have a major concern: whether cargo shipper DHL’s plan to hire United Parcel Service for U.S. cargo sorting and flying will wipe out 8,200 or more jobs at DHL’s air freight hub at Wilmington, the region’s largest employer.

Wilmington Mayor David Raizk, who also works for a Bill Marine auto dealership, and others say they are concerned that the job losses will dry up discretionary spending and put some small businesses at risk of failing.

Marla Stewart said her business has held up lately because the store supplies books to local schools, but she and her daughter are worried about the longer term.

“We’re both trying to cut costs as much as possible, looking ahead and trying to prepare for the worst, hoping that it doesn’t happen,” she said.

Her concerns echo those expressed by public officials, union leaders and DHL hub employees during testimony last week at a joint meeting of Ohio House and Senate committees at the DHL airport. Legislators said they wanted a chance to see the facility and its economic presence in the community, to be prepared if Gov. Ted Strickland proposes special legislation to assist the region.

UPS said that if it works out what could be a 10-year agreement with DHL, UPS would handle sorting and flying of DHL cargo from the UPS operations hub in Louisville, Ky.

Because the hub is the region’s dominant employer and its operator, ABX Air Inc., provides health care benefits even to part-time sorters of cargo, local leaders fear the large-scale job losses could have a rippling, long-lasting depressive effect.

“This announcement could hardly have been made at a worse time for the people whose jobs will be eliminated,” said Landon Harman of Springboro, a DC-8 pilot who flies DHL cargo from Wilmington for ASTAR Air Cargo. He spoke for the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents about 500 Wilmington-based pilots for ASTAR.

“The prospects of finding a comparable job in the airline industry are, in a word, grim. Our industry is contracting and most U.S. airlines are eliminating the jobs of pilots, mechanics and other employees,” Harman said.

Moira McKamey of New Vienna, an ABX Air cargo sorter who has worked 20 years for the company, said she had expected to stay at the Wilmington hub until she retired.

Her husband is a full-time farmer, so her job provided the security of health care insurance plus a paycheck every two weeks, McKamey said. Losing her job would leave her with severance pay and interim health insurance coverage that would eventually run out.

State Sen. Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said the state needs to increase the region’s education and training resources for careers in demand for the changing economy, including allied health sciences. There are not enough related courses at regional schools including Southern State Community College and the Great Oaks vocational school district, Niehaus said.

TNT NV, Europe’s second-biggest express-delivery service, rose to the highest in almost six months in Amsterdam on a report that United Parcel Service Inc. may bid for the Dutch company as soon as this weekend.

Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based TNT gained 1.70 euros, or 6.9 percent, to 26.45 euros, the highest since Feb. 28. That values the company at 9.7 billion euros ($14.4 billion).

UPS and TNT may meet to work out a deal over the weekend, with the U.S. company offering 34 euros to 38 euros a share, U.K. newspaper the Times reported today, without citing anyone. TNT surged 26 percent on July 14, its biggest jump since first selling shares to the public in 1998, after the Financial Times reported that FedEx Corp., the second-biggest U.S. package- shipping company, was in talks to buy its Dutch rival.

“If UPS started calculating and put together a team when FedEx rumors emerged in July, they should be ready to make a bid by now,” said Thijs Berkelder, an analyst at Petercam in Amsterdam, in a telephone interview. He said TNT may be worth about 40 euros a share in a takeover bid.

TNT declined to comment on “rumors and speculation,” spokesman Cyrille Gibot said today by telephone.

“UPS will never comment on rumors or speculation about mergers and acquisitions,” said Norman Black, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based company.

UPS in Europe

UPS controls about 10 percent of the European express market, according to Amsterdam-based Landsbanki Kepler analyst Andre Mulder. Buying TNT would add about 16 percent, he said in an Aug. 11 interview.

The time is right for a takeover offer, Berkelder said, as an economic slowdown and increasing fuel costs drive down the stock prices of mail and express-delivery companies. Berkelder, with a “hold” recommendation on TNT shares, said he’s betting UPS will team up with CVC Capital Partners Ltd., which would buy TNT’s postal unit.

CVC, a London-based buyout firm, bought 22 percent of Post Danmark in 2005 for 1.27 billion kroner ($250 million). Post Danmark and CVC in 2005 bought almost half of Belgium’s postal service for 300 million euros, following market deregulation that began in 2003.

TNT has kept its Dutch monopoly this year for handling mail items weighing 50 grams (1.8 ounces) or less. The Dutch Cabinet decided in May against allowing full competition for letter deliveries by July 1, a date that had been considered for deregulation, after Germany protected its own market by introducing a minimum wage for letter carriers.

In the world of package companies, there is one story you can rely on to come up with mind-numbing regularity: speculation that either United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) or FedEx Corp (FDX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are in talks to buy TNT NV (TNT.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The latest speculation that UPS is in talks to buy TNT for 10 billion euros ($15.2 billion) sent the Dutch mail company’s stock up more than 5 percent. A mid-July rumor that FedEx was doing the same sent TNT stock up nearly 30 percent in a single day. Ten days later, TNT’s stock fell 18 percent on a report that talks had ended.

While this talk almost invariably comes to naught - and both companies have consistently refused to comment on the recurrent rumors - some day TNT would make a good fit for UPS and an even better one for FedEx. TNT’s stock rises on rumors of an imminent bid because a deal is seen as a good long-term strategy for either company.

“The rumors come up every couple of months, and every time nothing happens,” said Jason Seidl, an analyst at investment bank Dahlman Rose. “The problem is that a deal makes sense, FedEx needs TNT, and UPS could use it, so that’s why TNT’s shares react.”

“Eventually, I am convinced there will be a deal, but in the meantime it’s like the little boy who cried wolf,” he said.

Most analysts greeted the latest episode in what Seidl termed the “TNT saga” with more than a dash of skepticism. They rolled out reasons why the Dutch company would be a good buy but also stressed that any announcement of a deal by UPS or FedEx would result in a bidding war.

“Recently, there has been increased press speculation about first FedEx and now UPS purchasing all of TNT or its Express division,” Edward Wolfe of Wolfe Research wrote in a note for clients. “We … believe at this point there remains little evidence of such a deal occurring.”

Tags: TNT takeover talk

WINFIELD - The estate of a Putnam County man says county EMS workers didn’t do enough to keep him from dying.

Angela Wagner, as adminstratrix of the estate of Arthur Ray Baker, filed the lawsuit July 30 in Putnam Circuit Court against the Putnam County Commission, doing business as Putnam County Emergency Medical Services.

In the complaint, Wagner says Baker, an asthmatic, experienced respiratory distress on May 3, 2006, and called 911.

Upon arrival, the EMS workers were, according to the complaint, “slow, leisurely and unhurried.” This apparently made Baker “agitated and restless due to lack of air.”

The suit says no stretcher or oxygen was initially provided to Baker.

Baker, 28, was instructed “to walk unassisted down two flights of stairs to the stretcher with no oxygen being administered.”

“Please don’t let me die,” Baker told the EMS workers, according to the suit. The workers “acted as if it was a bother or nuisance to them to have to respond to the emergency call.”

The complaint says more than 30 minutes elapsed between the time the EMS workers arrived at Baker’s home in Winfield and the time they left to take him to Putnam General Hospital.

Baker’s symptoms began to worsen dramatically, according to the lawsuit.

“He was placed on a stretcher, seized and stopped breathing,” the complaint states. “No treatment was provided to Arthur Baker until he crashed.”

Despite attempts to resuscitate him by EMS workers and Putnam General employees, Baker died.

“The autopsy report indicates that ‘Arthur Ray Baker, a 28-year-old man, died as the result of acute respiratory failure due to bronchial asthma,’” the suit states.

Wagner says the EMS workers failed to properly and timely provide treatment to Baker. She calls their actions careless, reckless, willful and wanton.

Baker, she says, was forced to endure mental anguish, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and, ultimately, death. In addition to the mental anguish, Baker’s estate also has had to pay medical and funeral expenses because of the EMS workers’ actions, the suit states.

Wagner seeks compensatory and punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment costs, fees and other relief.

Wagner is represented by Charleston attorney and physician Richard D. Lindsay. The case has been assigned to Circuit Court Judge O.C. “Hobby” Spaulding.

When families need a little extra money to help pay the bills, they often turn to an old American stand-by — the yard sale.

Members of the Keyser EMS ambulance service hope their yard sale this weekend will help them not only pay the bills but also keep providing emergency medical services for area residents.

“We’re not funded by the city, and the only thing we really get from the county is a new ambulance every 10 years,” director Judy Bush said.

“Insurance companies only pay so much, and there is often no regularity in regard to when they pay.”

Noting that the company received a notice that one insurance company would not be paying its July bills until later in August, she said, “Some days you just pray, please let a check come in.”

As for those residents without insurance, some pay their bills and some don’t.

Which leaves paid memberships and the funds raised by the volunteers and paid members of the service to make up the bulk of the budget.

“We struggle for grants,” Bush said, “but they’re hard to get. If we were a fire company, they’d be handing us money.”

Bush and another member visited City Council earlier this month to appeal for help.

“I asked the city to take over (paying) our paid staff,” she said, noting that Keyser EMS has six full-time and four part-time staff members.

Mayor Glen “Bunk” Shumaker and the council members said they could not take on the employees at this time.

They agreed to possibly set up an agreement where the crew could get fuel from the city.

“Something’s got to give,” Bush said.

“Last July, we spent about $575 a month for fuel. Right now, it’s around $1,100 to $1,200.” The company sold the one ambulance it owned, taking the fleet down to the two county-owned ambulances.

The steady decline in the number of volunteer members is a large contributor to their problems, according to Bush.

She worries about what may lay down the road if the company cannot recover from the present slump.

“If the day ever comes that we have to shut our doors, what would people do?” she said, noting that New Creek is the next due company.

So they hang their hopes on fundraisers such as the yard sale, which will be held Saturday and Sunday in the Federal Emergency Management Agency lot just above the company’s Water Street headquarters.

Bush has been pleased with the amount of support that has come in the form of donations for the yard sale.

The turnout has just been unbelievable, she said, including everything from furniture to household items, small appliances, knickknacks, toys, computers, clothing and everything in between.

The sale will get under way at 8 a.m. each day, and items will be sold on a donation basis.

“We’ll just accept whatever people want to offer,” she said.

“Every year, we’ve taken in at least $200 more than the year before. This year, we’re hoping for at least $700,” she said.

BETHEL — For more than 30 years the Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Department has provided emergency medical services to residents. Now the department needs financial help.”We don’t have enough revenue to pay for staffing and supplies,” Stony Hill Fire Department Chief Kenny Parciasepe said of the need for paid emergency medical technicians and for supplies, such as oxygen masks and bandages, for the ambulance.

The department plans to begin billing residents for ambulance service — something it has never done — in October to be able to hire two paid EMTs to supplement its volunteers.

But even with the billing, Parciasepe said there will be a shortfall in revenue.

He turned to town officials for assistance, and Tuesday night the Board of Selectmen unanimously passed a resolution to have a joint meeting with the Board of Finance about Stony Hill Fire Department EMS staffing expenses.

A date has not yet been set for the joint meeting.

“We want them to remain solvent and to make sure there is no shortfall,” First Selectman Bob Burke said about the department in an interview after Tuesday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting.

Parciasepe said he feels “positive” about town officials’ ultimate response. “I feel we’ll get the support from the town.”

DHL has responded to published comments of Clinton County Commissioner Randy Riley in which he said he does not believe the large dollar figures the company claims it is losing in its U.S. operations. On Wednesday evening, Riley, in turn, discussed the company response.

In an e-mailed statement to the Wilmington News Journal, DHL said, “As both DHL Express CEO John Mullen and DPWN CEO Frank Appel have stated in direct address to the DPWN investor community, DHL posted a loss of approximately $900 million in its USA Express operations in 2007 and projects a loss of $1.3 billion for the Express operations in 2008.”

The DHL statement concludes: “Deutsche Post and DHL have been completely forthright at all times in conversations with local and state representatives regarding DHL’s operating performance; and the extent of the DHL Express USA financial losses have been widely reported by financial analysts.” The acronym DPWN stands for Deutsche Post World Net, which is the name of the profitable parent corporation of DHL.

In a Tuesday News Journal report, Riley described the above dollar loss numbers as “bogus.” Further, Riley alleged, “I think we’ve gotten lied to, and now we’re really getting it stuck to us because they’re willing to maximize some profits on the backs of these people.”

On Wednesday, Riley elaborated on the grounds for his earlier published comments.

Riley recounted a July 14 visit to the Wilmington Air Park by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who went there to deliver citizen petitions opposing DPWN’s plan to close DHL’s air hub. At that time, according to Riley, Brown specifically asked a top DHL manager based in Wilmington about the huge losses claimed by DHL.

Riley said Brown asked how the company could possibly have that large of a projected loss or “was it more likely that DHL was exporting some of their revenues to other DHL companies in other countries and importing losses to the United States’ market?”

With large global enterprises where “money is going from one pocket to the other so to speak, it’s hard to tell exactly how you’re doing your bookkeeping,” Riley said.

Moreover, Riley relayed statements made in meetings by representatives of both ABX Air and ASTAR Air Cargo, the two cargo airlines that fly DHL’s freight in the United States. Officials of those cargo airlines have said with the large projections of loss DHL claims are incurred in its U.S. operations, that even if ABX and ASTAR flew DHL’s freight for free, DHL would still lose money given the size of their claimed projected losses.

“And that’s just not conceivable,” said Riley. “So I doubt those figures.”

Along with Brown and Riley, Wilmington Mayor David Raizk also has said the same kind of thing about the extent of losses claimed by DHL for its U.S. operations.

“So it’s not just me,” Riley said. “I’m getting my information from other people who I trust a bit more than I trust DHL right now.”

Tags: Numbers game by DHL?

All employees of DHL Exel Supply Chain, the supply chain management arm of DHL, have recently participated in a Hygiene and Dengue Awareness & Social Responsibility  Program initiated by DHL Exel Supply Chain Sri Lanka,as part of ‘DHL Volunteer Day’.As part of this initiative, DHL employees have worked with the Local  Municipal Council at  Sri Jayawardanapura Kotte to implement  the Hygiene and Dengue Awareness Program which included:

“ Identifying a  residential area at Gangodawila and carrying out a survey as to find out the number of houses in that area (2000 houses)

” Distributing leaflets and educating people about the dengue threat with the help of the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) and the Public Health Inspectors(PHIs),

Addtionally, together with  the Municipal council, the DHL Staff cleaned the gardens in the selected Gangodawila area and made the householders aware of the importance of a clean garden in the prevention of an infectious diseases as Dengue.

As a part of the Social Responsibility Programme DHL with the support of Exel Foundation-UK, donated a comprehensive computer learning unit in 2006, comprising 23 computers, 1 Server, 3 printers, 24 UPS Systems, 2 Modems, Print Server, 23 Headphones with Micro Phones, Necessary Licensed Software, Networking and Furniture to the Unawatuna Maha Vidyalaya which was affected by the Tsunami. In addition, last week  DHL donated IT books to the school and  sponsored  an Internet broadband connection,along with  regular technical support for the Computer Lab.

Mr. Ashwani Nath, DHL Exel Supply Chain Country Manager Sri Lanka & Bangaladesh, said: “One of our goals as a global corporate citizen is to leverage our core competencies and our employees’ skills and talents to make a positive difference to people’s lives in the communities where we are present.

To be able to participate in Hygeine & Dengue Awareness Programm is one of the DHL ways of giving back to the community and creating positive change in society.” These initiatives follow the company’s Corporate Sustainability Program - a three-pronged approach towards the Environment, Social Responsibility and Employees.

Initiatives of the program include the DHL GoGreen program, aimed at improving carbon efficiency, disaster management through the DHL Disaster Response Team, UNICEF partnerships and ongoing green initiatives driven by DHL employees.