Metro officials say 6-car commuter train collides with another train, derails near Washington
WASHINGTON (AP) – Metro officials say a six-car train has collided with another train and derailed near the Washington, D.C., and Maryland border.
Spokeswoman Taryn McNeil says the collision happened about 5 p.m. Monday between the Fort Totten and Takoma Park stations on Metro’s red line.
Officials did not immediately release information on injuries.
Emergency officials are on the scene.
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Obama signs anti-smoking bill, citing his own difficulty in breaking the cigarette habit
WASHINGTON (AP) – Lamenting his first teenage cigarette, President Barack Obama ruefully admitted on Monday that he’s spent his adult life fighting the habit. Then he signed the nation’s toughest anti-smoking law, aiming to keep thousands of other teens from getting hooked.
Obama praised the historic legislation, which gives the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate what goes into tobacco products, to make public the ingredients and to prohibit marketing campaigns geared toward children.
But he didn’t say how his own struggle was coming since he moved into the White House. And aides were no more forthcoming.
As senator, candidate and now president, Obama has veered between frank and cagey about his personal battle with smoking.
He promised his wife, Michelle, more than two years ago that he would quit if she let him seek the White House.
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Iranian police use tear gas, fire in the air to disperse hundreds of demonstrators
CAIRO (AP) – Riot police attacked hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas and fired live bullets in the air to disperse a rally in central Tehran Monday, carrying out a threat by the country’s most powerful security force to crush any further opposition protests over the disputed presidential election.
Britain, accused by Iran of fomenting post-election unrest, said it was evacuating the families of diplomats and other officials based in Iran – the first country to do so as Iran’s worst internal conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution escalated.
Witnesses said helicopters hovered overhead as about 200 protesters gathered at Haft-e-Tir Square. But hundreds of anti-riot police quickly put an end to the demonstration and prevented any gathering, even small groups, at the scene.
At the subway station at Haft-e-Tir, the witnesses said police did not allow anyone to stand still, asking them to keep on walking and separating people who were walked together. The witnesses asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisals.
Just before the clashes, an Iranian woman who lives in Tehran said there was a heavy police and security presence in another square in central Tehran. She asked not to be identified because she was worried about government reprisals.
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N. Korean ship appears to be heading to Myanmar carrying small weapons, official says
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A North Korean-flagged ship under close watch in Asian waters is believed to be heading toward Myanmar carrying small arms cargo banned under a new U.N. resolution, a South Korean intelligence official said Monday.
Still, analysts say a high seas interception – something North Korea has said it would consider an act of war – is unlikely.
The Kang Nam, accused of engaging in illicit trade in the past, is the first vessel monitored under the new sanctions designed to punish the North for its defiant nuclear test last month. The U.S. military began tracking the ship after it left a North Korean port on Wednesday on suspicion it was carrying illicit weapons.
A South Korean intelligence official said Monday that his agency believes the North Korean ship is carrying small weapons and is sailing toward the Myanmar city of Yangon.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitive nature of the information, said he could provide no further details.
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Ex-med student pleads not guilty in Boston to killing masseuse he met on Craigslist
BOSTON (AP) – A former Boston medical student pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he lured a masseuse he met through Craigslist to a Boston hotel, then bound her, beat her and shot her to death with a gun authorities say he later stashed in a hollowed-out medical textbook.
Philip Markoff firmly stated “not guilty” when asked how he pleaded to the seven charges including kidnapping, armed robbery and weapons violations, then stared straight ahead as prosecutors outlined their case during a brief arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court.
Markoff is charged in the April 14 shooting of Julissa Brisman, 25, of New York City, and the April 10 armed robbery of Trisha Leffler, a 29-year-old Las Vegas prostitute, at another posh Boston hotel. Authorities say he used anonymous e-mail addresses and prepaid cell phones to set up meetings with the women he met through Craigslist, where they had advertised in its “erotic services” category.
Prosecutors say Markoff left a trail linking him to the attacks including his fingerprints on the ties allegedly used to bind the women. They said he used someone else’s ID – a New York man’s license – in February at a gun shop in Mason, N.H., to buy the 9 mm weapon that killed Brisman.
Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin said the gun used to kill her was found in a hollowed-out copy of “Gray’s Anatomy” in the Quincy apartment Markoff shared with his then-fiancee, Megan McAllister. McAllister has since called off plans for their August wedding in New Jersey.
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Blagojevich’s former chief fundraiser sentenced to 3 years in federal tax case
CHICAGO (AP) – Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s former chief fundraiser was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for hiding the use of his company’s money to pay thousands of dollars in gambling debts and other expenses.
Christopher G. Kelly, 50, who was a key member of Blagojevich’s inner circle, also was fined $7,500 and ordered to pay more than $600,000 in restitution to the federal government.
“I need the sentence to reflect the seriousness” of the crime, U.S. District Judge Elaine E. Bucklo said in handing down the 37-month sentence.
As head of the campaign fund, Kelly helped Blagojevich raise millions of dollars to bankroll his races for governor. Along with convicted influence-peddler Tony Rezko, Kelly emerged as one of Blagojevich’s top advisers.
The tax case is separate from the one in which Kelly and Blagojevich are charged with federal racketeering conspiracy, but prosecutors hope Kelly will share his inside knowledge of the former governor’s administration. He might prove a highly persuasive witness if Blagojevich goes to trial.
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Crews begin work on world’s deepest underground science lab in quest to understand dark matter
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – Far below the Black Hills of South Dakota, crews are building the world’s deepest underground science lab at a depth equivalent to more than six Empire State buildings – a place uniquely suited to scientists’ quest for mysterious particles known as dark matter.
Workers began construction Monday in an old gold mine that was once the site of Nobel Prize-winning physics research.
The site is ideal for experiments because its location is largely shielded from cosmic rays that could interfere with efforts to prove the existence of dark matter, which is thought to make up nearly a quarter of the mass of the universe.
The deepest reaches of the mine plunge to 8,000 feet below the surface. Some early geology and hydrology experiments are already under way at 4,850 feet. Researchers also hope to build two deeper labs that are still awaiting funding from Congress.
“The fact that we’re going to be in the Davis Cavern just tickles us pink,” said Tom Shutt of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, referring to a portion of the mine named after scientist Ray Davis Jr., who used it in the 1960s to demonstrate the existence of particles called solar neutrinos.
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Chris Brown pleads guilty to felony assault in case involving Rihanna
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Chris Brown has pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault on pop star Rihanna. Brown entered his plea before a preliminary hearing was scheduled to start in Los Angeles on Monday.
Rihanna had been on standby to testify.
After Brown left the courtroom, Rihanna entered and was addressed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg, who explained to the Barbados-born singer that she had issued a stay-away order.
Rihanna had not been seeking a stay-away order, but the judge imposed one. The order requires that Brown and Rihanna stay at least 50 yards from each, except at industry events when the distance is reduced to 10 yards.
The judge also told Rihanna it’s not a one-way order and she will be in violation if she gets closer to Brown than the order allows.
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Post office employee adopts kitten dropped into Boston city mailbox
BOSTON (AP) – A New Hampshire postal worker is getting his own special delivery.
George Knapp and his wife, Dani-Jean Stuart, of Weare, N.H., have adopted the two-pound, 8-week-old kitten that was dropped in a public mailbox in Boston.
The MSPCA Animal Care and Adoption Center says Stuart directed a television news segment about the kitten, which the organization dubbed “Postina.” The couple has renamed their new pet P.D., for “postage due.”
A U.S. Postal Service letter carrier found the kitty earlier this month amid dozens of envelopes and packages. She likely was stuffed through the mailbox’s small opening and dropped several feet onto the mail below.
Animal abandonment in Massachusetts is punishable by up to a $2,500 fine and 5 years in prison.
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Lucas Glover delivers at the right time, getting a breakthrough win at the US Open
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) – Lucas Glover steadied his hands for a 3-foot par putt on the 18th hole, an anticlimatic finish to five dreary days at a U.S. Open filled with more delays than drama.
The unlikely champion turned to soak up a beautiful sight beneath gathering clouds Monday at Bethpage Black. “I just looked at the scoreboard to make sure this was really happening,” Glover said.
Some 24,000 fans, speckled with mud from a long walk soiled, could surely relate.
Glover never lost the lead over the final 12 holes, even though the attention was always on someone else. He closed with a 3-over 73 for a two-shot victory in a U.S. Open that might be remembered more for the week than the winner.
The stage belonged to Phil Mickelson, as it usually does in New York.
Lefty charged into a share of the lead with a startling bid to finally win the Open, his final event before a summer of uncertainty as his wife battles breast cancer. A fairy-tale finish turned all too familiar, however, when Mickelson missed two par putts over the last four holes and wound up setting the wrong kind of record by finishing second for the fifth time in the American national championship.
