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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Investigators are unsure why, but they say the Amtrak train sped up in the minute before it derailed at a sharp curve in Philadelphia Tuesday night. National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt says a camera mounted on the front of the train shows it was going 70 mph 65 seconds before the crash. During the final minute the train's speed had increased to just over 100 mph. Eight people died in the crash.
CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) — President Barack Obama is welcoming today's Senate vote advancing a bill that would give him "fast-track" authority to negotiate trade deals. In a news conference at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Md., Obama said the measure will help him strike "a smart, progressive, growth-prompting trade deal" along with needed enforcement tools to protect U.S. workers. The U.S. is negotiating a potential agreement with a dozen Pacific-area nations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Iranian naval patrol boat has fired on a commercial ship in the Persian Gulf. A U.S. official says it appears the Iranians were trying to disable the Singapore-flagged ship over a financial dispute about damage to an Iranian oil platform. The official says the Iranians initially fired warning shots when the ship refused to move into Iranian waters, then opened fire with machine guns. The United Arab Emirates coast guard responded to a call for help the ship and the Iranian patrol vessels left the area.
CHARIKOT, Nepal (AP) — Nepal's prime minister says the country has been overwhelmed by its second powerful earthquake in less than three weeks. He visited a town in the foothills of the Himalayas today where thousands of frightened villagers have flocked seeking government help. Tuesday's magnitude-7.3 earthquake killed at least 110 people and injured more than 2,300.
SEATTLE (AP) — A 400-foot-long Arctic oil drilling rig is now parked in Seattle's harbor. The Polar Pioneer is one of two drilling rigs that Royal Dutch Shell plans to park in Seattle until drilling season in the Arctic begins in the summer. Environmentalist activists have paddled out in kayaks to protest the opening of a new frontier in fossil fuel exploration.
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