World Briefs May 28, 2010

Doctor: At least 30 dead in India train derailment

CALCUTTA, India - A doctor says at least 30 people died when an overnight passenger train was derailed by suspected sabotage and then hit by another train in eastern India.

E. Mitra, a doctor at a railway hospital, says 30 bodies have been brought to the hospital from the site in West Bengal state following the accident early today.

Government officials say they suspect Maoist rebels sabotaged the train.

U.S., Japan to keep military base in Okinawa

TOKYO - Washington and Tokyo agreed Friday to keep a contentious U.S. Marine base in the southern island of Okinawa, reaffirming the importance of their security alliance and the need to maintain American troops in Japan.

In a joint statement, the two allies agreed to move the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Henoko, in a less crowded, northern part of the island. The decision is broadly in line with a 2006 deal forged with the previous, conservative Tokyo government, but represents a broken campaign promise on the part of Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

Hatoyama came to office last September promising to create a "more equal" relationship with Washington and move the Marine base off the island, which hosts more than half the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan under a 50-year-old joint security pact.

But after months of searching and fruitless discussions with Washington and Okinawan officials, the prime minister acknowledged earlier this month that the base needed to stay in Okinawa.

His decision, which he had pledged to deliver by the end of May, has angered tens of thousand of island residents who complain about base-related noise, pollution and crime, and want Futenma moved off the island entirely.

- The Associated Press