World/Nation Briefs July 12, 2011
Rescue work ends after Indian train wreck kills 68
FATEHPUR, India - Railway workers began clearing the mangled wreckage of a derailed passenger train in northern India after ending a rescue operation that found 68 bodies.
Throughout Monday, anxious relatives searching for missing family members thronged to the site of Sunday's crash as bodies wrapped in white shrouds lay in rows on the ground next to the train.
By late Monday afternoon, rescue teams had finished searching the twisted coaches for victims and survivors and the repair work had begun amid pouring rain.
At least 239 passengers were injured when the Kalka Mail jumped the tracks near Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh state, Brij Lal, a senior state police official said.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the crash, said H.C. Joshi, a senior railway official. Newspapers reported the driver had slammed on the emergency brakes because cattle were on the tracks in front of the speeding train.
Volunteers and army soldiers worked through the night to pull the injured from the train's 12 shattered coaches. Officials said the train was carrying about 1,000 passengers, but the exact number was not known.
Clinton: Syria's Assad has lost legitimacy
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has "lost legitimacy" as a leader interested in reform as the United States formally protested an attack on the U.S. Embassy and the American ambassador's residence in Damascus.
Clinton's comments fell short of demanding that Assad leave power but were some of the strongest public criticism yet by a senior U.S. official and demonstrated Washington's anger not only at the embassy attack but the Assad regime's continuing crackdown on opponents.
"From our perspective, he has lost legitimacy," Clinton told reporters at the State Department in a joint news conference with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. "He has failed to deliver on promises he has made, he has sought and accepted aid from the Iranians as to how to repress his own people."
Clinton said there was a "laundry list of actions" that the Assad regime should be held accountable for. And she condemned the attacks on the U.S. and French embassies while demanding that Syria uphold its international treaty obligations to protect foreign diplomatic missions.
Earlier, the department summoned a senior Syrian diplomat to register the U.S. complaints in person and said it would seek compensation for damage caused when a mob of what it described as about 300 "thugs" breached the wall of the embassy compound before being dispersed by U.S. Marine guards.
Obama: No deal on debt, deficit unless GOP will give ground
WASHINGTON - Imploring both political parties to give ground, President Barack Obama declared Monday he would reject any stopgap extension of the nation's borrowing limit, adding fresh urgency for Republicans and fellow Democrats to resolve intense tax and spending disputes and head off economic calamity.
"If not now, when?" Obama said in a news conference just ahead of his latest bargaining session with congressional leaders at the White House. That meeting lasted about 90 minutes and ended with no sign of progress.
Lawmakers planned to return to the White House for more talks today.
Obama told reporters the sessions would be an everyday affair until there was agreement, and he refused to even entertain the idea of a backup plan should they fail and the government should default on Aug. 2.
Self-defense claim rejected in Oklahoma pharmacy shooting
OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma pharmacist convicted of murder in the shooting death of a teenager who tried to rob the south Oklahoma City pharmacy where he worked was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole Monday in spite of his defense attorney and supporters' pleas that he be set free.
Jerome Ersland, 59, showed no emotion as District Judge Ray Elliott imposed the sentence recommended by a 12-member jury that found Ersland guilty of first-degree murder in the May 19, 2009, shooting death of 16-year-old Antwun Parker during an attempted robbery at the Reliable Discount Pharmacy.
Ersland claimed he was defending himself and two female co-workers when he shot Parker after he and a second teenager came into the pharmacy wearing ski masks and demanding money and drugs. Parker, who was unarmed, was struck in the head and knocked out. Ersland chased the second armed teen, Jevontai Ingram, now 16, out of the store.
Prosecutors said Ersland was justified in firing the first shot but went too far when he grabbed a second gun and fired five more bullets into Parker's abdomen, wounds that the Medical Examiner's Office said killed him. Ersland claimed the unconscious teen was still moving.
Ersland stood before Elliott while defense attorney Irven Box asked the judge to suspend the life sentence. When the judge asked if he had anything to say, Ersland replied: "I don't have anything to say. Thank you."
Later, as he was led from court by sheriff's deputies, he responded to a reporter's shouted question by calling the sentence "an injustice of a monumental proportion."
- The Associated Press