CAYCE, United States: Two Amtrak employees were killed and more than 100 others injured Sunday when a passenger train carrying 147 people hit a freight train in the US state of South Carolina, authorities said.
Amtrak train 91 — traveling between New York and Miami — derailed in Cayce, outside the state capital Columbia, when it collided with the CSX freight train at around 2:30 am (0730 GMT).
It was the third deadly incident involving an Amtrak train since December, raising questions about the safety of the national railway service.
Amtrak said in a statement that the lead engine derailed along with some passenger cars. Eight crew members and 139 passengers were on board.
A total of 116 people were taken to area hospitals for treatment, many with “minor injuries,” Governor Henry McMaster told reporters. US media reported injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to broken bones.
He identified the dead as Amtrak personnel and said the freight train, which was stationary, appeared to be empty.
“It appears the Amtrak train was on the wrong track,” the governor said.
“We need a conversation around the country” about rail safety, he added, after visiting passengers at a shelter set up by the local Red Cross in a school.
“As you and your loved ones gather at church and other houses of worship today, we ask that you pray for those affected and the families of those who have passed away,” he said on Twitter.
US President Donald Trump, who was in Florida for the weekend, was briefed and was receiving updates, a White House spokeswoman said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone that has been affected by this incident,” deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was investigating the incident. CSX said its personnel were on site to assist law enforcement.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department confirmed all passengers had been evacuated.
Officials added that although 5,000 gallons of fuel spilled following the crash, the leak was contained and there was no danger to the public.
“The incident is very near the state farmers’ market and other residential areas but right now, everyone is safe,” said Derrec Becker, public information officer at the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.
Passenger Derek Pettaway told CNN he was traveling south from Philadelphia to Orlando in a sleeper cabin when he was awoken by the impact of the crash.
“Nobody was panicking,” he said. “I’m pretty sure everybody was asleep and I think people were in shock.”
Pettaway added Amtrak staff had evacuated passengers in a “really calm fashion.”
The Lexington County Sheriff later said four buses had been made available to take Amtrak passengers to their final destinations.
“My prayers are with the families of those killed in the train crash in Lexington County this morning, and hoping for the best for all those injured. South Carolina is with you all!” tweeted Tim Scott, one of the state’s two US senators.
Congressman Joe Wilson called the incident “heartbreaking.”
It comes just days after an Amtrak train carrying several dozen Republican lawmakers including House Speaker Paul Ryan hit a garbage truck in Virginia, killing one person and causing six others, including a congressman, to need hospital treatment.
In December, three people were killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed in Washington state near the city of Tacoma, sending cars flying off a bridge and onto a busy interstate highway.
Preliminary information obtained from an event data recorder in the rear locomotive showed that train, which was traveling on a new route for the first time, was speeding at 80 miles (128 kilometers) per hour in a 30 mph zone.
Two dead, more than 100 hurt in South Carolina train collision
Two dead, more than 100 hurt in South Carolina train collision
Home Office urged to be flexible on visa laws after baby born in UK is ordered to leave
- Massah, 13 months old, does not have settled status despite her Jordanian parents living legally in Britain
- ‘The need to maintain the integrity of the immigration laws outweighs the possible effect on you/your children,’ Home Office tells parents
LONDON: The UK Home Office has been urged to look again at how it enforces visa rules after it threatened a 13-month-old with removal from the country to ensure the “integrity” of immigration law, Sky News reported on Friday.
Massah was born to Jordanian parents in the UK who have been living legally in the country since 2021.
However, the family went on holiday in January this year, before Massah’s status in the UK was confirmed, meaning the child technically reentered the country as a tourist.
Despite applying for a child-dependent visa for the baby girl, her parents were told this month that Massah “will be required to immediately leave the UK.” She will then need to have her visa reapplied for from overseas.
In a letter to Massah’s parents, the Home Office said: “In the particular circumstances of your case, it has been concluded that the need to maintain the integrity of the immigration laws outweighs the possible effect on you/your children.”
Massah’s father Mohammed said the family fear that if they return with Massah to Jordan to reapply, the application will still be dismissed.
He added that he and Massah’s mother are worried about regional instability, and that the situation is giving them sleepless nights.
“I can’t imagine how I can tell (Massah) the story in the future that the country you (were) born (in) asked you to leave while you (were) a year old,” Mohammed told Sky News.
“I’m trying to fix everything. I don’t need to consider a one-year-old infant as an overstayer here.”
A Home Office spokesperson told Sky News: “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the immigration rules.
“We are working closely with the parents of this child to ensure they receive the support and direction they require regarding the application.”
The issue of immigration law is set to become a central point of the UK’s general election, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced this week that the country will go to the polls on July 4.
The announcement came the day before figures were released showing that net immigration to the UK had dropped slightly over the previous 12 months.
Letter signed by EU staffers states ‘growing concern’ at bloc’s response to Gaza war
- Over 200 employees sign letter calling for ceasefire, release of hostages, ban on arms sales to Israel
- ‘What’s happening is jeopardising principles of international law that we deem important and that we take for granted’
LONDON: More than 200 EU staff have signed a letter to top officials criticizing the union’s humanitarian response to the war in Gaza.
The 211 signatories condemned the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel “in the strongest terms,” but voiced “growing concern” at the “continued apathy to the plight of Palestinians” following the International Court of Justice’s January ruling suggesting a credible risk of genocide in Gaza.
They added that Israel abandoning a rules-based global order in favor of one determined by use of force is contrary to the EU’s core values.
“It was precisely to avert such a grim world order that our grandparents, witnesses of the horrors of World War II, created Europe,” the signatories declared.
“To stand idly by in the face of such an erosion of the international rule of law would mean failing the European project as envisaged by them. This cannot happen in our name.”
The letter, which will be delivered to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and European Council chief Charles Michel, urges EU leaders to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and a halt to arms exports by EU members to Israel.
It added: “The EU’s inability to respond to these increasingly desperate calls is in clear contradiction with the values that the EU stands for and that we stand for.”
The move comes a few weeks after around 100 EU staff members protested against the war in Brussels.
One of the marchers, Manus Carlisle, told Reuters: “We’re coming together in a peaceful assembly, to stand up for those rights, principles and values that the European institutions are built on.”
Zeno Benetti, one of the organizers of the letter, told The Guardian: “We couldn’t believe that our leaders who were so vocal about human rights and who described Europe as the beacon of human rights were suddenly so silent about the crisis unfolding in Gaza.
“It’s like suddenly we were asked to turn a blind eye on our values and on the values that we were allegedly working for. And for us, this was not acceptable.”
Benetti added: “We signed because we think that what’s happening is jeopardising principles of international law that we deem important and that we take for granted.”
CIA chief Burns to visit Paris to revive talks on Gaza: Western source
- Visit of the CIA chief to the French capital, expected on Friday or Saturday, comes after Israel gave the green light to the resumption of negotiations
- It was not immediately clear if representatives of Qatar or Egypt would be present at the Paris talks
WASHINGTON: US intelligence chief Bill Burns is expected to hold talks in Paris with representatives of Israel in a bid to relaunch talks aimed at finding a truce in Gaza, a Western source close to the issue said Friday.
The visit of the CIA chief to the French capital, expected on Friday or Saturday, comes after Israel gave the green light to the resumption of negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire.
Previous talks in Cairo and Doha attended by Qatar and Egypt as mediators for Hamas broke up earlier this month with both Israel and the Palestinian militant group unhappy with the conditions of the other side.
It was not immediately clear if representatives of Qatar or Egypt would be present at the Paris talks.
The New York Times said Burns would meet his Israeli counterpart David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
The US-based Axios news website quoted a source as saying Burns would also meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani as well as Barnea.
The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,800 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Axios said Israeli negotiators developed in recent days a “new proposal” to renew the hostage talks which includes “some compromises” in Israel’s position compared to the last round of negotiations in Cairo.
US, European powers divided over confronting Iran at IAEA, diplomats say
VIENNA: The US and its three top European allies are divided over whether to confront Iran at the UN nuclear watchdog by seeking a resolution against it and thereby risk further escalation, with the Europeans in favor, diplomats say.
It is 18 months since the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors last passed a resolution against Iran, ordering it to cooperate urgently with a years-long IAEA investigation into uranium particles found at three undeclared sites.
While the number of sites in question has been narrowed to two, Iran still has not explained the traces, and the number of other problems in Iran has risen including Tehran barring many of the IAEA’s top uranium-enrichment experts on the inspection team.
A quarterly Board of Governors meeting begins in 10 days.
“It’s extremely difficult with Iran and the level of violations is unprecedented ... There is no slowing down of its program and there is no real goodwill by Iran to cooperate with the IAEA,” a senior European diplomat said.
“All our indicators are flashing red.”
Concern about Iran’s atomic activities has been high for some time. It has been enriching uranium to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent that is weapons-grade, for three years. It has enough material enriched to that level, if refined further, for three nuclear bombs, according to an IAEA yardstick.
Western powers say there is no credible civilian energy purpose in enriching to that level, and the IAEA says no other country has done so without making a nuclear weapon. Iran says its objectives are entirely peaceful.
The United States, however, has not wanted to seek another resolution against Iran at recent IAEA board meetings. Before the last one, in March, the European powers — France, Britain and Germany, known as the “E3” — disagreed with Washington on whether to seek a resolution but then backed down.
Officials often cite the US presidential election as a reason for the Biden administration’s reluctance.
But the main argument US officials make is to avoid giving Iran a pretext to respond by escalating its nuclear activities, as it has done in the past.
Tensions in the Middle East are running particularly high with Israel continuing its military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Israel and Iran carried out direct strikes on each other for the first time last month, and Israel has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash on Sunday has complicated the situation. In talks aimed at improving Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA, Tehran told the Vienna-based agency this week it would not engage with it until Raisi’s successor is elected on June 28, two diplomats said.
“A resolution has been prepared,” another senior European diplomat said. Others confirmed the E3 had prepared a draft but not circulated it to Board members.
“Our analysis is the death of Raisi changes nothing. We have to move forward with this resolution ... The Americans are the difficulty, and in our conversations we continue to do everything to convince them.”
It was unclear when a decision on whether to seek a resolution would be reached. The next quarterly IAEA reports on Iran are due early next week. Draft resolutions tend to refer to those reports’ findings.
British neonatal nurse convicted of killing 7 babies loses her bid to appeal
- Lucy Letby, 34, had asked for permission to challenge the verdict after she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison
LONDON: A British neonatal nurse who was convicted of murdering seven babies and the attempted murder of six others has lost her bid to appeal.
Lucy Letby, 34, had asked for permission to challenge the verdict after she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year. A three-judge panel of Britain’s Court of Appeal heard the case in April and released its decision on Friday.
“Having heard her application, we have decided to refuse leave to appeal on all grounds and refuse all associated applications,″ Judge Victoria Sharp said. “A full judgment will be handed down in due course.”
A jury at Manchester Crown Court had found her guilty of the crimes, which took place between June 2015 and June 2016 at the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital in northwestern England.
Most defendants in British court cases don’t have an automatic right to appeal. They must seek permission to appeal on a set of narrowly defined legal issues.
