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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, July 6, 2009

Disney monorail crash kills operator


Advertiser News Services

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Flood kills 20, displaces 700,000

A woman watches floodwaters in Liuzhou, Guangxi, in southern China. Heavy flooding in the area killed at least 20 people, while blocked roads left some 300 teenagers stranded at a school, state media reported yesterday. About 700,000 people have fled their homes.

Associated Press

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Marion Barry

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Michael Jackson

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Two monorail trains crashed early yesterday in the Magic Kingdom section of Walt Disney World, killing one train's operator, emergency officials said.

Disney said it was the first fatal crash in the monorail's 38-year history in the park.

The transit system, which shuttles thousands of visitors around the sprawling resort each day, was shut down while authorities investigated the wreck.

The other train operator was uninjured, but was taken to a hospital because he was emotionally shaken. Five park guests were treated at the scene, though the Orange County sheriff's office said six were treated.

MARION BARRY CHARGED IN STALKING WOMAN

WASHINGTON — Police say former Washington Mayor Marion Barry has been arrested and charged with stalking a woman.

The United States Park Police said Barry, a current D.C. Council member, was arrested Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained Barry was stalking her. Barry was charged with misdemeanor stalking and released.

Barry's spokeswoman said yesterday the accusation was "baseless." She said the accuser is a 40-year-old woman Barry had helped financially.

Barry served four terms as mayor. In his third, he was videotaped in 1990 in a hotel room smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting. He served six months in prison and in 1994 regained the mayor's office.

YEMENIA AIR FLIGHT RECORDERS LOCATED

PARIS — A submarine scouring the Indian Ocean yesterday detected the signal beacons of the two black boxes from a Yemenia Airways flight that crashed off the Comoros Islands, the French aviation agency said.

Plans were under way to retrieve the boxes within days, an official from Yemen said.

A 12-year-old girl is the only known survivor of Tuesday's crash, which killed 152 people flying from Paris to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros, via San'a in Yemen.

LAPD PROBES JACKSON'S MEDICAL HISTORY

LOS ANGELES — Detectives for the Los Angeles Police Department have executed at least three search warrants in their attempts to determine whether prescription medication played a role in Michael Jackson's death.

Sources familiar with the investigation told the Los Angeles Times the warrants were part of an effort to reconstruct the performer's medical history, a task made difficult by the number of physicians who have treated Jackson over the years. At least five physicians who have prescribed medication to him are under investigation, sources said. A Superior Court spokesman confirmed that a judge signed off on three searches.

BRITISH SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

KABUL — Insurgent attacks killed two British soldiers in the southern Afghanistan region where thousands of U.S. Marines pushed forward with the American military's biggest anti-Taliban offensive since the hard-line Islamist regime was toppled.

The British deaths came as gunmen in the east abducted 16 mine-clearing Afghan personnel working for the United Nations. The British soldiers were killed in separate attacks on Saturday, the British Defense Ministry said yesterday. It wasn't clear if the British casualties had been involved in the Marine operation taking place farther south in Helmand province.

NUCLEAR DEAL EXPECTED AT SUMMIT

MOSCOW — Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev end a seven-year hiatus in U.S.-Russian summitry today, with each declaring his determination to further cut nuclear arsenals and repair a badly damaged relationship.

Both sides appear to want to use progress on arms control as a pathway to possible agreement on trickier issues, including Iran and Georgia, the former Soviet republic. In advance of Obama's departure yesterday, a White House official said the presidents expect to announce progress on negotiations that could lead to a treaty to replace the START I agreement, which expires Dec. 5.

Today a senior U.S. official said Obama and Medvedev were prepared to sign an agreement lowering both the number of warheads and delivery vehicles. The official would not reveal specific numbers.