US: Kerry’s broken leg won’t foil talks

US: Kerry’s broken leg won’t foil talks

WASHINGTON

Secretary of State John Kerry returned to Boston Monday for surgery on his broken leg, as U.S. officials insisted his injury would not hinder his participation in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

With an end-of-June deadline for an Iranian deal fast approaching, the 71-year-old Kerry left Geneva aboard a U.S. military plane accompanied by his orthopedic surgeon Dennis Burke and additional medical personnel. Officials said Burke is expected in the coming days to perform surgery on Kerry’s right femur, which Kerry fractured Sunday in a bicycle accident when he struck a curb and fell on a regular Tour de France route in France located southeast of the Swiss city.

Quakes in Northwest

SALEM, Ore.

Five earthquakes ranging in magnitude up to 5.9 have struck off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, but they weren’t strong enough to generate tsunamis, scientists said.

The earthquakes were shallow, at 6 miles deep, often a signal of a dangerous quake.

It usually takes an earthquake of magnitude 7 or more to trigger a tsunami, said geophysicist Paul Caruso of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Boat with 450 sinks

BEIJING

A small cruise ship carrying more than 450 people, many of them elderly, sank overnight in the Yangtze River during a storm in southern China, and eight people have been rescued, the state broadcaster CCTV reported today.

Rescue work was underway, but low visibility due to fog was hampering the search, CCTV said. The boat was traveling from Nanjing upstream to the southwestern city of Chongqing when it sank Monday night in Hubei province, the report said.

Graham joins race

CENTRAL, S.C.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham opened his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Monday with a grim accounting of radical Islam “running wild” in a world imperiled also by Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

He dedicated himself to defeating U.S. adversaries — a commitment that would place thousands of troops back in Iraq, essentially re-engaging in a war launched in 2003.

Paris removes locks from bridge

PARIS

Lovers in Paris, beware: City authorities are taking down thousands of padlocks affixed to the famed Pont des Arts bridge.

The city says the locks, usually hung by couples to express eternal love, are causing long-term damage to Paris heritage sites. Last summer a chunk of fencing fell off under their weight.

Authorities began dismantling the metal grills along the sides of the bridge Monday and plan to remove 45 tons of padlocks in all.

The Pont des Arts bridge will soon have padlock-proof plexiglass panels instead, while the city explores other ways for Paris visitors to express their “amour,” including street art on the subject.

Patrol: Man killed by cops pushed trooper

OKMULGEE, Okla.

A man shot dead after being told to leave a flooded area had grabbed a trooper and shoved him to the ground, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Monday.

At a news conference, the agency showed a police video in which two men – the Fischer brothers – tramp through water toward a pair of police officers. OHP spokesman Capt. Paul Timmons said Nehemiah Fischer, 35, knocked over one trooper before being shot.

Associated Press