HTRAIN DERAILS, KILLING 4
hTrain derails, killing 4
TOKYO -- An express train traveling through strong winter winds derailed in northern Japan, killing four people and injuring more than 30, officials said. Five cars of the six-car express train derailed Sunday evening, three of them toppling onto their sides in Yamagata prefecture, about 180 miles north of Tokyo, officials said. The train was going from northern Akita to Niigata prefecture. The injuries of the survivors did not appear to be life-threatening, Yamagata police spokesman Yoshikatsu Oe said. It was unclear how many passengers were on the train, but Oe said most of the injured were in the first two cars. The dead included two men and two women, officials said. One of the men was pulled from the wreckage and was believed to be the last body on the train, a Yamagata police official said on condition of anonymity, citing departmental policy.
Strike cost businesses$1 billion, mayor says
NEW YORK -- Businesses lost $1 billion in revenue during last week's three-day transit strike, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday. Transit workers walked off the job Tuesday, shutting down the bus and subway service that millions of commuters rely on each day. Service resumed Friday after the Transport Workers Union agreed to return to work while contract negotiations continue. "This morning, thousands of hardworking New Yorkers dearly miss the wages and tips they lost during what would normally have been a busy pre-Christmas week," Bloomberg said in his weekly radio address. The day the strike ended, several economists said the city's estimate of $400 million a day in lost revenue appeared too high and failed to account for offsets, such as employees working from home. Bloomberg didn't explain how he reached the $1 billion figure.
Sharon returns to work
JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, returning to work Sunday a week after suffering a mild stroke, ordered the military to stop Palestinians from firing rockets at Israel from Gaza, officials said. Sharon's order, which included a no-go zone in northern Gaza, came after a weekly Cabinet meeting and high-level security consultations, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details. Since Israel pulled out of Gaza and removed its settlements this summer, militants have been moving closer to the Gaza-Israel fence to launch homemade rockets, bringing more Israeli towns and the city of Ashkelon into range. Two rockets have exploded south of Ashkelon in an industrial area over the last week, not far from an electric power station and other sensitive installations.
Mexican volcano erupts
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano staged a spectacular pre-dawn explosion Sunday, sending a column of ash two miles into the air and spewing red-hot lava. There were no reports of ash raining down or any other threat to nearby communities, Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center reported. The explosion was the latest in a series of moderate eruptions from the 17,886-foot volcano located 40 miles southeast of the Mexican capital. Known as Popo, the volcano has been erupting intermittently since December 1994. In July, it sent a column of hot ash more than a mile into the air and spat red-hot rocks but didn't threaten residents living at the base.
U.N. peacekeepershot to death in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A United Nations peacekeeper in Haiti was shot to death while on patrol in a slum that has seen almost daily violence since the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a U.N. military spokesman said Sunday. The Jordanian soldier was on patrol in Cite Soleil when he was shot in the head and killed Saturday, according to Lt. Col. Fernando da Cunha Mattos, U.N. military spokesman. U.N. authorities declined to release further details, including the soldier's name, which was being withheld pending notification of his family. Cite Soleil, where gunbattles between peacekeepers and gangs take place almost daily, remains the most insecure place in Haiti ahead of national elections scheduled for Jan. 8. Observers fear the gangs could disrupt the elections. Haitian police do not enter the slum, which a battalion of 1,500 Jordanian peacekeepers in armored vehicles has pledged to reclaim from the gangs.