Russia investigates train derailment as terror act
UGLOVKA, Russia (AP) — Rescue workers sorted through the wreckage of a high-speed Russian train to search for more victims Saturday while investigators considered whether the derailment that killed at least 26 people was caused by a bomb on the tracks. The Nevsky Express, an upscale line popular with Russian business executives and government officials, was carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to the northern city of St. Petersburg when its last three carriages went off the rails Friday night.
3 Americans die in cargo plane crash in China
SHANGHAI (AP) — A Zimbabwe cargo plane crashed as it took off from Shanghai's main airport Saturday, killing three American crew members and injuring four other employees after it veered off the runway and burst into flames. Three Americans on the seven-member crew died and a fourth American was injured, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan told The Associated Press. He did not know the injured person's condition.
Bangladesh ferry capsizes at dock; 30 dead
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A ferry packed with people going home for an Islamic festival capsized as they disembarked in southern Bangladesh, leaving at least 30 dead and scores missing, authorities said Saturday. Police and fire brigade divers pulled 30 bodies from the sunken part of the ferry, local police officials Saiful Islam and Showkat Hossain said. Many of the dead were women and children.
Pakistani president turns over nuclear authority
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's embattled president has relinquished command of the country's nuclear arsenal amid political wrangling that has posed a major distraction to the U.S.-allied government as it fights Taliban and other militants near the Afghan border. The move came as President Asif Ali Zardari faced the expiration on Saturday of an amnesty protecting him and thousands of other bureaucrats and politicians from a host of corruption and criminal charges.
Iranian lawmaker: Iran could leave nuclear treaty
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A hardline Iranian lawmaker is quoted by the country's official IRNA news agency as saying Iran's parliament may consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The threat comes a day after a resolution passed by the board of the U.N. nuclear agency demanding that Tehran immediately stop building its newly revealed nuclear facility and freeze uranium enrichment.
12 inmates escape from western Afghan prison
KABUL (AP) — A dozen prisoners escaped jail through a tunnel they dug from their cell to the outside in western Afghanistan, police said Saturday. Those who escaped from Farah prison overnight included low-level Taliban militants, drug-dealers and other minor criminals, said Farah province police chief Gen. Mohammad Faqir Askar.
Swiss ready Polanski's chalet for house arrest
GSTAAD, Switzerland (AP) — Security experts on Saturday started preparing Roman Polanski's Alpine chalet for the movie director's house arrest while Swiss authorities consider whether to extradite him to the United States. A Hummer bearing the sign in French "DR Securite Services" was parked outside the empty three-story building Saturday morning, while three men and a woman took photographs of the property and spent about an hour inside.
Dubai debt problems cast shadow over region
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — For years, Dubai seemed unstoppable, an oasis of excess boasting indoor ski slopes and manmade islands, the world's tallest tower and dreams that reached even higher. Now the bills are coming due, and the emirate's debt problems are tarnishing a place built on borrowed time and money — and threatening to spill into other Gulf Arab nations.
Abbas says Israeli settlement freeze not enough
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas dismissed an Israeli plan to halt new construction of West Bank settlements as insufficient on Friday, saying it won't be enough to restart peace talks. The Palestinian president said during his first visit to Venezuela that "we can't accept the current Israeli government's concept for the negotiations."
First civil lawsuit starts in China milk scandal
BEIJING (AP) — A court is hearing the country's first civil lawsuit by a man whose child was sickened in China's vast tainted milk scandal, state media reported Saturday. At least six children died last year after drinking contaminated baby formula and more than 300,000 were sickened in one of the country's worst food safety crises.
