WASHINGTON: Singer Asha Bhonsle has been proclaimed a `cultural ambassador' for promoting better relations between India and the US. Terming her as a ``musical bridge between several generations of Indians and America-based Indians'', US Congressman Gary Ackerman said during the weekend that Bhonsle is ``an impeccable cultural ambassador promoting better US-India relations.'' Ackerman, who is co-chairman of the House of Representatives caucus on India and Indian Americans, said ``the genres have changed but the music, like the singer, is the same -- flawless, impetuous and perky.'' Bhonsle performed here recently at the prestigious Kennedy Centre Opera House.

German train plunge kills 4

WUPPERTAL: Four people died and 50 others were injured today when a German monorail train packed with commuters fell from its suspension rail and plunged 10 metres into a river. State prosecutors suspected the accident may have been caused by maintenance work being carriedout on the historic Schwebebahn, or hanging railway, which opened in the Ruhr Valley town of Wuppertal almost a century ago. The incident came less than a year after Germany's worst ever rail disaster, when 101 died near Eschede as a high-speed Inter-City Express (ICE), flagship of the Deutsche Bahn state network, flew off the tracks.