10 die in 2-train crash in Germany
10 die in 2-train crash in Germany
BERLIN
A head-on train crash in eastern Germany killed 10 people and injured at least 33 others, eight of them severely, local firefighters said today, and police feared the death toll could rise.
A passenger and a cargo train crashed head-on near Hordorf village, close to Saxony-Anhalt’s state capital Magdeburg, and several train cars derailed and overturned, a spokesman for the district’s firefighters said. He declined to be named in line with department policy.
Dems say GOP has dropped jobs focus
WASHINGTON
Republicans won dozens of elections last fall after claiming Democrats had focused too little on creating jobs. Now GOP lawmakers stand accused of the same charge, using their new House majority to push to repeal the president’s health-care law, restrict abortions and highlight other social issues important to their most-conservative supporters. Republican leaders say they have a jobs agenda, kicked off by their attempt to unravel what they call the Democrats’ “jobs-killing” health overhaul.
Suicide bomber kills key official
KABUL
A suicide bomber killed the deputy governor of strategic Kandahar province Saturday, raising fears that insurgents were reigniting an assassination campaign against public servants that terrorized the south’s main urban hub for much of last year.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed Abdul Latif Ashna and injured three of his bodyguards as he was driving to work in Kandahar city. It was the highest-profile strike of its kind in months.
Massey Energy to be sold for $7.1B
NEW YORK
Alpha Natural Resources Inc. says it has reached a deal to buy rival coal company Massey Energy Co. for $7.1 billion in cash and stock.
Massey, the nation’s fourth-largest coal producer by revenue, operates the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia where 29 men were killed in an explosion last spring. It operates 19 mining complexes in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. The Virginia-based company has struggled with two money-losing quarters since last spring’s explosion.
Divers find no bodies in canal
PATTERSON, Calif.
Divers on Saturday ended their search in a canal without finding the bodies of a missing 4-year-old boy and his accused kidnapper near the underwater site where the suspect’s car was found.
A dive team searched an underwater tunnel for Juliani Cardenas and 27-year-old Jose Esteban Rodriguez without success. Sonars also failed to turn up any sign of bodies.
Rodriguez is suspected of kidnapping Juliani, his ex-girlfriend’s son, from the boy’s grandmother in Patterson on Jan. 18.
Combined dispatches