World/Nation
SUV driver's behavior eyed in New York crash
VALHALLA, N.Y. - Federal investigators looking into a fiery commuter train wreck that killed six people zeroed in Wednesday on what they called the big question on everyone's mind: Why was the driver of an SUV stopped on the tracks, between the lowered crossing gates?
A team from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived to examine the blackened and mangled wreckage and the Metro-North train's data recorders the morning after the rush-hour collision with the sport utility vehicle about 20 miles north of New York City.
The Tuesday evening crash was the deadliest accident in the 32-year history of one of the nation's busiest commuter railroads - one that has come under a harsh spotlight over a series of accidents in recent years. The SUV driver and five men on the train were killed, burned so badly that authorities were using dental records to identify them.
The wreck happened after dark in backed-up traffic in an area where the tracks are straight but driving can be tricky. Motorists exiting or entering the adjacent Taconic Parkway have to turn and cross the tracks near a wooded area and a cemetery.
In wake of killings, Jordan says IS can be defeated
AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan called Wednesday for a decisive battle against the Islamic State group, declaring "this evil can and should be defeated," after the militants burned a Jordanian pilot to death in a cage and gleefully broadcast the horrific images on outdoor screens in their stronghold.
Waves of revulsion over the killing washed across the Middle East, a region long accustomed to violence. In mosques, streets and coffee shops, Muslims denounced the militants' brutality and distanced themselves from their violent version of Islam.
Even a prominent preacher with close links to jihadi groups said Islamic State militants miscalculated if they hoped the images of the pilot's agony would galvanize greater opposition to a U.S.-led military coalition that has been bombing targets of the group.
"After millions of Muslims were cursing every pilot (in the coalition), with this act, they (IS) have made the burned one into a symbol," Abdullah al-Muhaysni, a Saudi sheik, wrote on his Twitter account.
Death toll rises to 31 in Taiwan plane crash
TAIPEI, Taiwan - Rescuers were searching for 12 people Thursday morning after using a crane to hoist the fuselage of a wrecked TransAsia Airways plane from a shallow river in Taiwan's capital following a crash that killed at least 31 others.
Flight 235 with 58 people aboard - many of them travelers from China - banked sharply on its side Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Taipei, clipped a highway bridge and then careened into the Keelung River.
Rescuers in rubber rafts pulled 15 people alive from the wreckage during daylight. After dark, they brought in the crane, and the death toll was expected to rise once crews were able to search through submerged portions of the fuselage, which came to rest a few dozen yards from the shore.
Dramatic video clips apparently taken from cars were posted online and aired by broadcasters, showing the ATR 72 propjet as it pivoted onto its side while zooming toward a traffic bridge over the river. In one of them, the plane rapidly fills the frame as its now-vertical wing scrapes over the road, hitting a vehicle before heading into the river.
Measles outbreak raged in Ohio Amish country
LOS ANGELES - The largest U.S. measles outbreak in recent history isn't the one that started in December at Disneyland. It happened months earlier in Ohio's Amish country, where 383 people fell ill after unvaccinated Amish missionaries traveled to the Philippines and returned with the virus.
The Ohio episode drew far less attention, even though the number of cases was almost four times that of the Southern California outbreak, because it seemed to pose little threat outside close-knit religious communities.
The Disneyland outbreak has already spread well beyond the theme parks that attract tens of thousands of visitors from around the globe, who could then return home with the virus. Disease investigators for weeks raced to identify measles-stricken patients, track down potential contacts and quarantine them if necessary.
Public health experts say success at containing the outbreak will largely depend on how many unvaccinated people get the measles shot.
Rocket fire kills at least 5 near Ukraine hospital
DONETSK, Ukraine - Rocket salvoes hit a previously safe section of Ukraine's rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Wednesday, killing at least five people and damaging a hospital, six schools and five kindergartens, rebels said.
The fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government troops in eastern Ukraine escalated sharply in January, with more than 220 civilians killed in the past three weeks alone, according to the United Nations. The world body has sharply criticized both sides for indiscriminate shelling that is causing civilian deaths.
The rebel-run Donetsk News Agency, citing police, reported five people killed by shelling around the hospital in the city's western Tekstilshchik district. City officials in Donetsk said the number of casualties could not immediately be established.
- The Associated Press