Train derailment kills 40 in Spain

Train derailment kills 40 in Spain

MADRID

A passenger train derailed Wednesday night on a curvy stretch of track in northwestern Spain, killing at least 40 people caught inside toppled cars and injuring more than 140 in the country’s worst rail accident in decades, officials said.

Bodies were covered in blankets next to the tracks, and rescue workers tried to get trapped people out of the train’s cars, with smoke billowing from some of the wreckage. Some passengers were pulled out of broken windows, and one man stood atop a carriage lying on its side, using a pickaxe to try to smash through a window. Images showed one car pointing up into the air with one of its ends twisted and disfigured, and another severed in two.

Weiner faces calls to quit race

NEW YORK

Anthony Weiner pressed ahead with his bid for mayor Wednesday despite growing calls for him to drop out over a new sexting scandal, saying the campaign is too important to abandon over “embarrassing personal things” becoming public.

Rivals, newspaper editorial pages and at least one former New York congressional colleague urged the Democrat to quit the race a day after he acknowledged exchanging raunchy messages and photos online even after the same sort of behavior destroyed his congressional career two years ago.

“I think he should pull out of the race. I think he needs serious psychiatric help,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

Weiner brushed off such calls and kept up his campaign schedule.

Prince gets a name

LONDON

The little prince was in need of a name, and now, by George, he’s got one.

Make that three: George Alexander Louis.

The announcement Wednesday that Prince William and his wife, Kate, had selected a moniker steeped in British history came as royal officials said the new parents were seeking quiet family time away from the flashbulbs and frenzy that accompanied the birth of their first child.

Lawyer: Snowden to stay in Russia

MOSCOW

National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, who fled to Moscow’s airport a month ago, aims to stay in Russia for the near future and learn the country’s culture and language, his lawyer said Wednesday.

To get him started, Anatoly Kucherena said he gave Snowden a copy of “Crime and Punishment,” Dostoyevsky’s lengthy novel about the torment and redemption of a man who thought himself outside the law.

Bush shaves head to support ill child

HOUSTON

Former President George H.W. Bush has shaved his head to show solidarity for the sick child of a Secret Service agent.

A statement issued by a Bush spokesman Wednesday says the 89-year-old former president acted earlier this week at his summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. That was after he saw members of his Secret Service detail with newly shaved heads to show support for the 2-year-old son of an agent. The child’s undergoing treatment for leukemia and is losing his hair as a result.

The Bush spokesman identified the boy only as Patrick.

George and Barbara Bush lost their second child, 4-year-old Robin Bush, to leukemia almost 60 years ago.

The security detail has launched a website, www.patrickspals.org , to help with expenses associated with Patrick’s treatment.

Associated Press