Man convicted of 11 deaths in train wreck he caused

Man convicted of 11 deaths in train wreck he caused

LOS ANGELES — A man who claimed he was attempting suicide when he triggered a 2005 rail disaster was convicted Thursday of 11 counts of first-degree murder and could face the death penalty.

Two commuter trains collided into a tangled mass of smoking wreckage littered with victims after Juan Alvarez left a gasoline-drenched sport-utility vehicle on railroad tracks in Glendale, northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Alvarez, 29, looked on stolidly as the Superior Court jury returned its guilty verdicts for the murders and one count of arson. The jury also agreed there was a special circumstance of multiple murders — making Alvarez eligible for the death penalty — but it acquitted him of a charge called train wrecking.

Alvarez admitted causing the Jan. 26, 2005, disaster but claimed he had intended to kill himself, then changed his mind and was unable to get the SUV off the tracks.

Trade sanctions relaxed

WASHINGTON — President Bush relaxed trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to take it off the U.S. terrorism blacklist on Thursday, but he remained skeptical about whether the communist regime would ultimately give up its nuclear weapons programs.

Six years after branding North Korea a part of his “axis of evil,” Bush offered mostly symbolic concessions in exchange for Kim Jong Il’s decision to hand over a long-awaited accounting of its nuclear bomb-making abilities.

“If they don’t fulfill their promises, more restrictions will be placed on them,” Bush declared, just a few hours after North Korea handed over 60 pages of documentation about its nuclear past to Chinese officials in Beijing.

Principal stands by story

BOSTON — A principal is standing by his story that girls in his Massachusetts high school formed a plan to get pregnant. Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan denies in a statement Thursday that he could not remember details of his story when pressed.

Sullivan maintains the city saw a huge spike in pregnancies because a group of girls planned to have babies and raise them together.

He says he learned of the plan from the school health clinic’s former nurse practitioner and through “chatter.” He says the intense attention has distorted the reality of the situation.

Martian soil tastes salty

LOS ANGELES — The Phoenix lander’s first taste test of soil near Mars’ north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be found in backyards on Earth, scientists said Thursday.

The finding raises hope that the Martian arctic plains could have conditions favorable for primitive life. Phoenix landed a month ago to study the habitability of Mars’ northern latitudes.

“There’s nothing about it that would preclude life. In fact, it seems very friendly,” mission scientist Samuel Kounaves of Tufts University said of the soil. “There’s nothing about it that’s toxic.”

Croc joins pub drinkers

DARWIN, Australia — Drinkers at an Outback watering hole may have wondered if perhaps they’d had one too many when they were greeted by a crocodile at the pub’s door.

But being good hosts, they did the only polite thing and invited him inside.

The saltwater croc was just 2 feet long and more a curiosity than a threat to drinkers at the Noonamah Tavern on Sunday. The aggressive hunters can grow to more than 16 feet and have been known to attack people.

Barmaid Sarah Sparre said Thursday that three patrons spotted the creature outside the pub, grabbed it and brought it inside.

The three men taped up its mouth, held it up for a round of photos, then put it in a box near the bar.

Wildlife officials later took the crocodile to a nearby wildlife farm.

Truce remains shaky

JERUSALEM — Gaza militants fired two rockets into southern Israel on Thursday, further straining a shaky, week-old truce as Israel kept vital Gaza border crossings closed in response.

The rocket attack, the second since the cease-fire took effect, led to a call for retaliation by Israel’s Foreign Minister while Palestinians charged that the continued closure of crossings violated terms of the cease-fire.

Despite the breach, Israel dispatched an envoy to Egypt in hopes of negotiating a prisoner swap with Gaza’s ruling Islamic Hamas.

Associated Press