Swiss Alps landslide hits train; 11 hurt
GENEVA -- Three train cars derailed and 11 people were injured Wednesday after a landslide hit a mountain train in the Swiss Alps, police said. One carriage slid down a steep slope, saved from a ravine by large trees.
The accident occurred in a deep wooded valley between Tiefencastel and Solis, southeast of Zurich in the state of Graubuenden. Police said about 140 people were on board at the time of the accident. The landslide followed heavy rains over the previous day.
Five people were seriously injured and another six suffered slight injuries, Graubuenden police spokesman Anita Senti said. They included eight Swiss, two Japanese citizens and one Australian, police said.
Libya seeks U.N. help, annuls militias
CAIRO -- Libya's newly elected parliament asked the United Nations for an "international intervention" and voted Wednesday to dismantle the militias responsible for violence raging across the country for weeks.
Libya is experiencing its worst spasm of violence since the 2011 ouster and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi as rival militias battle for control of territory and political clout.
Thousands have fled the country, and dozens have been killed in the bloody confrontations. Scores of embassies have closed down, and international organizations have shut their offices.
In a move aimed to stem the violence, the country's newly elected parliament voted to dismantle the rival militias, giving them an ultimatum to join the military and police by the end of the year. Officials repeatedly have tried unsuccessfully to disarm the slew of militias that sprouted in Libya to fight Gadhafi.
Lawmaker Eissa al-Aribi said the militia members have until Dec. 31 to join the regular forces or to be integrated in other state institutions. Until then, he said, their salaries will be paid. Nearly 200,000 people are estimated to be on the government payroll as part of various militias.
Al-Aribi said violators will face up to three years in prison.
Mubarak says history will vindicate him
CAIRO -- In his first public statement since his ouster, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in a Cairo court Wednesday that history would vindicate his self-sacrifice as a servant of the people.
Called to testify about charges that he directed the killing of protesters in 2011, Mubarak took the opportunity to recite the achievements of what he called a 62-year career of service to Egypt.
"I exhausted my life fighting against enemies of the homeland," Mubarak said. "The wheel of history can never roll backward, and no one can falsify the facts."
Speaking from a gurney inside a cage that holds defendants, Mubarak gave a 23-minute, uninterrupted address aired live on national television.
"Hosni Mubarak who appears before you today would never order the killing of protesters or the shedding the blood of Egyptians," the former autocrat said.
Mubarak was found guilty in June 2012 of failing to stop the killing of more than 900 protesters during the 18-day uprising in 2011 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction was overturned in January 2013, and a retrial began in April 2013. He has spent much of his time in a military hospital since.
Police nab sunken river ferry's owner
NEW DELHI -- Bangladeshi police said Wednesday that they had arrested the owner of a ferry that capsized and sank earlier this month, leaving more than 100 people dead or missing.
After more than a week in hiding, ferry owner Abu Bakar Siddique was found by an elite police unit, known as the Rapid Action Battalion, and charged with culpable homicide.
Authorities have said the boat was carrying more than 250 people, about three times its legal capacity of 85, before it sank on Aug. 4 in the Padma River.
Ferry accidents are common in Bangladesh, but arrests of ferry owners are relatively rare. Siddique will be handed over to police in the central district of Munshiganj, where the accident occurred, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion.
A Section on 08/14/2014