STORY HIGHLIGHTS An engine shutdown and air brake release may have led to the derailment The train hauling crude oil rolled downhill, derailed and exploded At least five people are dead and about 40 are unaccounted for Quebec police are investigating whether there was any criminal intent The search continues for about 40 people still missing after a runaway train plowed into a Canadian town, setting off massive explosions when […]

  The Boeing 777 that crash-landed at San Francisco airport was “significantly below” its target speed near the runway and the pilot tried to abort the landing, US investigators say. The pilot of the Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul requested a “go around” 1.5 seconds before the crash, they say. The plane with 307 people came down short of runway on Saturday, killing two people and injuring dozens. The aircraft […]

As many as a million young people in Japan are thought to remain holed up in their homes – sometimes for decades at a time. Why? For Hide, the problems started when he gave up school. “I started to blame myself and my parents also blamed me for not going to school. The pressure started to build up,” he says. “Then, gradually, I became afraid to go out and fearful […]

The US economy added a net 195,000 new jobs in June, official figures show. The figure was well above economists’ expectations of 165,000. Revisions to data for April and May added a further 70,000 jobs to previous estimates. The jobless rate remained steady at 7.6% of the workforce, according to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The dollar and US bond yields jumped as markets expectations rose that […]

The family of an inmate who died after repeatedly cutting himself in prison is taking the Correctional Service of Canada to court, as the system grapples with mentally-ill prisoners and a huge increase in self-harm behind bars. The $10-million lawsuit, which also names the federal public safety minister and top CSC officials, comes in the midst of a high-profile Ontario coroner’s inquest into New Brunswick teenage inmate Ashley Smith, who […]

Bolivia filed a complaint at the United Nations on Wednesday over what it called the kidnapping of its president, Evo Morales, whose plane was diverted to Vienna amid suspicions that it was carrying the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden. The country’s ambassador to the UN, Sacha Llorenti, said the enforced rerouting to Austria was an act of aggression and a violation of international law. The US admitted that it had been […]

A strong earthquake felled buildings and caused landslides in western Indonesia, killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 200 others. More than 1,500 houses and buildings were damaged across Aceh province. The magnitude-6.1 quake struck on Tuesday afternoon at a depth of just 10 kilometres (6 miles) and was centred 55 kilometres (34 miles) west of the town of Bireun on the western tip of Sumatra island, the […]

Canadian police yesterday announced they had foiled a Boston-marathon-like bomb attack on the British Colombian legislature earlier this week by a Canadian couple “inspired by Al Qaeda ideology.” But experts say that the connection to Al Qaeda is dubious, and that the pair likely have nothing to do with that or any other terrorist group. In a press conference on Tuesday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police described in brief the […]

Opponents and supporters of Egypt’s president have gathered in the capital, Cairo, as the deadline set by a protest group for him to leave power passed. Tamarod (Rebel) had given Mohammed Morsi until 17:00 (15:00 GMT) to resign or face a civil disobedience campaign. The ultimatum was issued on Monday, hours before the military itself warned it would intervene unless he reached an agreement with the opposition. Mr Morsi criticised […]

A preliminary report from the Hindustan Times on rape in Delhi showed a disturbing doubling of reported cases in the Indian capital in 2013 so far: there have been 806 reported rapes from the start of the year until June 20th, as opposed to 330 reports in 2012. The Delhi Police reported that the eastern district of the capital had the most cases, topping out at 122, followed by the […]