3 STUDENTS KILLED IN SCHOOL BUS CRASH

3 students killedin school bus crash
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- A school bus packed with high school students smashed through a guardrail along an overpass Monday and crashed nose-first 30 feet below, killing three teenage girls and injuring at least 30 other people, some critically, authorities said. A car driven by another high school student apparently came close to or struck the bus, causing it to plow through the concrete rail on the elevated section of Interstate 565 and crash onto Church Street below, said Police Chief Rex Reynolds. Two girls died at the scene, and a third died at a hospital. Students on the bus, which had no seat belts, were screaming when rescue workers arrived. "They were thrown all over the bus," said Fire Chief Dusty Underwood. Some had to be pulled from the crushed front of the vehicle. More than 30 students and the bus driver were taken to Huntsville Hospital, which became a hectic trauma center with emergency physicians and staff called in to help as ambulances brought in the severely injured.
2 teens suspended forbringing bomb to school
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Two prep school students have been suspended for bringing a homemade bomb made of firecrackers, BBs and metal shavings to school, a school official said Monday. One of the boys made the small bomb and gave it to the other student at school, said Tom Bonnell, headmaster of The Savannah Country Day School. Bonnell said he did not think the boys, both 14, meant to harm anyone with the device or to detonate it on school grounds. "What we know is they never intended to cause harm to anyone on campus and the device was not created to cause harm to anyone," he said. Administrators learned about the bomb Friday from another student who had overheard the two boys talking.
Johns Hopkins pulls off5-way kidney transplant
BALTIMORE -- It took 12 surgeons, six operating rooms and five donors to pull it off, but five desperate strangers simultaneously received new organs in what hospital officials Monday described as the first-ever quintuple kidney transplant. All five recipients -- three men and two women -- were doing fine, as were the five organ donors, all women, said Eric Vohr, a spokesman at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center. The 10 participants came from Canada, Maine, Maryland, West Virginia, Florida and California. Several triple transplants have been done at Johns Hopkins, but hospital officials said the five simultaneous transplants performed last Tuesday were a first. Four of the sick patients had approached Johns Hopkins with a relative who was willing to donate a kidney but was an incompatible donor. The fifth patient had been on a waiting list for a kidney from a dead person.
Unity talks break down
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The rival Hamas and Fatah parties froze talks Monday on forming a Palestinian unity government, Fatah officials said, a new setback in efforts to form a more moderate coalition acceptable to the West. The deep differences raised questions about the ability of the sides to reach a deal that could end months of painful economic sanctions that have bankrupted the Palestinian government and caused widespread hardship in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The sudden announcement of a breakdown came after months of negotiations that appeared to be heading toward formation of a Cabinet of independent experts to replace the Hamas-led body. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah met late Sunday with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of the ruling Islamic group Hamas in Gaza, and officials said the session was cordial.
3 tons of cocaine foundin homemade submarine
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Tipped off by three plastic pipes mysteriously skimming the ocean's surface, authorities seized a homemade submarine packed with 3 tons of cocaine off Costa Rica's Pacific coast. Four men traveled inside the 50-foot wood and fiberglass craft, breathing through the pipes. The craft sailed along at about 7 mph, just 6 feet beneath the surface, Security Minister Fernando Berrocal said Sunday. The submarine was spotted Friday 103 miles off the coast near Cabo Blanco National Park on the Nicoya peninsula. "This is the first time in the country's history that a craft with these characteristics has been caught near the national coasts," Berrocal said in a statement. U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, FBI and Colombian officials aided Costa Rican authorities in the operation, Berrocal said. Two Colombians, a Guatemalan and a Sri Lankan were arrested and taken to the United States, since they were captured in international waters, Berrocal said.
Associated Press