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Two trains running on the same track have collided head-on in southern Poland, killing 16 people and injuring 58 in the country's worst train disaster in more than 20 years.
The collision just north of Krakow late on Saturday came after one of the trains ended up on the wrong track. Neighbours in the town of Szczekociny were alerted by what they said sounded like a bomb and rushed to the scene as survivors emerged.
Rescuers worked through the night to recover bodies and help the wounded. Maintenance work was being done on the tracks before the accident, but officials said it was too early to determine the cause of the disaster.
A woman living in a house about 200m from the site of the accident said she was standing at her window when the two trains collided, creating a "terrible, terrible noise like a bomb going off".
"So I ran out of the house, and on one side I saw train lights and one the other side I saw train lights, and in the middle sparks," Anna Sap said. "People from the train starting crying, 'Help, help!' So we and the neighbors ran to them. Some of them smashed windows to let them out."
© unknownJanet Jenkins, shown on the left, holds a missing person's flier showing her daughter and Lisa Miller is shown in a file photo on the right.
It also might force state lawmakers to reconsider a 19-year-old law regarding the rights of sperm and egg donors.
The women, now in their 30s and known in court papers only by their initials, were both law enforcement officers in Florida. One partner donated an egg that was fertilized and implanted in the other. That woman gave birth in 2004, nine years into their relationship.
But the Brevard County couple separated two years later, and the birth mother eventually left Florida with the child without telling her former lover. The woman who donated the egg and calls herself the biological mother finally tracked them down in Australia with the help of a private detective.
Their fight over the now 8-year-old girl is before the state Supreme Court, which has not announced whether it will consider the case. A trial judge ruled for the birth mother and said the biological mother has no parental rights under state law, adding he hoped his decision would be overturned.
The 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach obliged, siding with the biological mother and saying both women have parental rights.
At issue is the 1993 state law meant to regulate sperm and egg donation. Scholars debate whether the constitutional right to procreate includes outside-the-body technologies used to conceive.
© The Associated Press/Shawn PogatchnikThe iron cage that housed the heart of St. Laurence O'Toole sits broken and empty Sunday, March 4, 2012, inside Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. A modern portrait of Jesus Christ is in the background.
Officials at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin said Sunday they're distraught and perplexed over the theft of the church's most precious relic: the preserved heart of St. Laurence O'Toole, patron saint of Dublin.
O'Toole's heart had been displayed in the cathedral since the 13th century. It was stored in a heart-shaped wooden box and secured in a small, square iron cage on the wall of a chapel dedicated to his memory. On Saturday someone cut through two bars, pried the cage loose, and made off with the relic.
"I am devastated that one of the treasured artifacts of the cathedral is stolen," said the Most Rev. Dermot Dunne, the cathedral's dean. "It has no economic value but it is a priceless treasure that links our present foundation with its founding father."
Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, said detectives were studying hours of closed-circuit TV footage to try to identify the approximately 40 people who walked out the cathedral's front doors Saturday morning.
US - About 20 liberal demonstrators tried to shout down Rick Santorum while he delivered his stump speech on the steps of the state capitol building here Sunday, yelling "racist" and "fascist" at the Republican presidential candidate.
The anti-Santorum faction began chanting "Get your hate out of our state" when the candidate started his address. Standing before a microphone at the top of the steps, Santorum ignored them and continued speaking. The demonstration lasted about 15 minutes.
© unknown
But instead of the obvious choices - the American dollar, the British pound or the euro - it seems Icelanders are eyeing our loonie. According to an article in the Globe and Mail, several Icelandic business leaders and some political parties have actually approached the Canadian government about adopting the Canadian dollar as their national currency.
"Canadian ambassador to Iceland Alan Bones had planned to deliver remarks to a conference on the future of the Icelandic krona, making it clear that if Iceland decided to adopt the Canadian dollar, with all its inherent risks, Canada was ready to talk," the article notes.
However, Bones' Saturday speech was cancelled abruptly.
In June 1914, Serbian ultra-nationalists calling themselves the Black Hand managed to kill Archduke Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, in Sarajevo and ignited the First World War. None of the Great Powers wanted that war. None expected it to last more than four weeks. It lasted four years and took 19.5 million lives. Today, three apparently coordinated attacks on Israeli diplomats in Georgia, India and Thailand, for which Tel Aviv is strenuously blaming Iran, could become the spark for a similar conflagration in the Middle East.
The comparison is not as fanciful as it sounds, for the configuration of forces in the international state system is beginning to resemble what existed in the decade before the First World War. The most striking similarities are the decline in the economic power of the hegemonic nation - Britain then, the United States today; challenges from new aspirants to hegemony, Germany then (with the U.S. lurking in the wings), China and Salafi Islam today; attempts to shore up hegemony through alliances with like-minded nations - Britain, France and Russia then - the U.S., the European Union and Israel today; the emergence of a bunker mentality that hardens stances and progressively closes the avenues for peace through accommodation; and a growing temptation to use military power to pre-empt potential challenges even before they arise.
© Peter Parks / AFP/Getty ImagesA vote is cast Saturday in the village of Wukan in China's southern province of Guangdong as residents participate in leadership election.
Although the election in Wukan village was not the first of its kind, the village in Guangdong province has become a test case for how far the party is willing to go to accommodate local grievances and demands for a more accountable government.
The fishing village last year erupted in furor over sale of its farmland to real estate developers, a volatile issue throughout fast-developing rural China.
In Wukan, villagers went further than many others. They ransacked a police station, kicked out their leaders and erected barricades, keeping Chinese authorities out for 10 days in December until a compromise could be negotiated.
The vote held Saturday was part of that compromise. Lin Zuluan, a protest organizer was elected village head and party secretary, and another protester, Yang Semao, was picked as his deputy.
© unknownCautionary tale … Okushiri Island devastated by an earthquake in 1993 has become a concrete fortress.
Islanders still recall with horror how a wall of frothing black water raced out of the darkness to consume entire communities, leaving almost 200 people dead.
In the five years that followed, the Japanese government rebuilt the island, erecting 10.7-metre concrete walls on long stretches of its coast, making it look more like a fortress than a fishing outpost. The $1 billion worth of construction projects included not only the hefty wave defences but entire neighbourhoods built on higher ground, with a few flourishes, like a futuristic $13.8 million tsunami memorial hall featuring a stained glass panel for each victim.
But as Japan begins a decade-long $277 billion reconstruction of the north-east coast, Okushiri has become a cautionary tale. Instead of restoring the island to its vibrant past, many residents say, the $1 billion spending spree may have helped kill its revival.
© The Vindicator/Jessica M. Kanalas / Associated PressA house is shown where a man, woman and two girls died Saturday, March 3, 2012 in a house fire in Warren, Ohio.
Two adults, Edtwan Kimble, 32, and Yolanda Holmes, 38; and two children, Mari'auna Holmes, 12, and Marniece Holmes, 9, died Saturday during a fire at their home at 160 Austin Ave. NW.
"It is a sad day for Warren. Our arms are open, and if they need us, we'll be there to help them along the way to go through this period," said Councilwoman Helen Rucker, D-at large.
Fire Chief Ken Nussle said the blaze began about 3:30 a.m. Saturday.
"The [911] caller indicated she was burning up, so the firefighters knew they had occupants," Nussle said.
When firefighters arrived two minutes after the call, the entire second floor of the home was engulfed and flames were in the first-floor kitchen, the chief said.
Once inside, firefighters did a search and found the adults and children, deceased, in two bedrooms on the second floor, Nussle said.
"No working smoke detectors were found," he said.
© unknownBrent G. Dickinson
Prosecutors say the U.S. Secret Service and local authorities collaborated to arrest Brent Dickinson.
The county district attorney's office said Saturday the 33-year-old man "intended to murder" the targets of his threatening messages. They said the U.S. Secret Service intercepted two threatening messages posted by Dickinson on a White House message board Friday.
Dickinson was arraigned in Saratoga Springs City Court on charges of making terroristic threats.
He was taken to city jail after bail was set at $50,000. It wasn't immediately known Saturday whether he had an attorney.
A message left at a number listed for Dickinson's possible relatives was not returned Saturday.
Source: The Associated Press
