MYANMAR TRAIN BLAZE LEAVES 25 DEAD, 100 INJURED
YANGON: Investigators searched for clues on Saturday to the cause of a train derailment and an ensuing blaze that killed 25 people and injured nearly 100 more in northern Myanmar.

Two petrol tankers loaded onto the train overturned in Friday’s accident and local villagers collecting the fuel were burned to death as flames tore across the crash site. While the death toll did not rise overnight, police said that 93 injured people were undergoing treatment, most of them in local hospitals in the town of Kantbalu in the Sagaing Region bordering India. The officer added that the cause of the accident was still unknown. Residents in the remote area rely on trains as the roads are poor, but the rail system is in desperate need of renewal after years of underinvestment.

UN ATOMIC AGENCY TO HOLD DECEMBER TALKS WITH IRAN
VIENNA: The United Nations (UN) atomic agency said that it will hold next month its first talks with Iran since August over Tehran’s nuclear efforts, in a first sign of renewed diplomatic activity since the US election. “The aim is to conclude the structured approach to resolving outstanding issues related to Iran’s nuclear program,” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokesman Gill Tudor said that in confirming the December 13 meeting. The Vienna-based IAEA wants Tehran to address evidence suggesting that until 2003, and possibly since, Iran conducted research work “relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.” A parallel diplomatic push by six world powers has been aimed at persuading Iran to scale back parts of its current nuclear program because of suspicions—denied by Tehran—that it wants the bomb.

PLUCKY CHINESE GIRL CAUGHT OFFICIALS OFFGUARD
BEIJING: Chinese officials accustomed to the tame questions of a compliant state press were caught out by a plucky 11-year-old reporter during the country’s sensitive Communist Party congress. Sun Luyuan, a Beijing sixth-grade student, shook up one of the tightly controlled party meetings on the congress’s sidelines with a question that put officials on the spot over China’s miserable food-safety record. During the meeting at Beijing’s cavernous Great Hall of the People, Sun, who works for the Chinese Teenager News, asked “why are these kinds of food products available for purchase?” she also asked “as many primary and middle school students eat our lunches at school, what can you do to put us at ease over food safety?” Ma Kai, a top official in China’s cabinet who presided over Friday’s meeting, passed the question to Education Minister Yuan Guiren. Yuan offered a stock official response pledging the government was addressing the situation and putting proper safety measures in place, a line repeated for years even as the scandals have persisted. AFP