World
[naviga:h3]Train accident death toll rises to 146[/naviga:h3]
PUKHRAYAN, India — The death toll from India’s worst train accident in years rose to 146 today after rescuers used cranes to lift the last of the twisted metal wreckage to check for bodies underneath.
About 2,000 workers were clearing the tracks and checking for damage to the rail line in hopes of resuming traffic through one of India’s busiest railway junctions by this evening, railway official Amit Kumar said. The government called for an investigation into what caused the accident, promising to punish anyone found responsible.
The passenger train was about midway through a 27-hour journey between the cities of Indore and Patna when it slid off the tracks at 3:10 a.m. Sunday. The impact was so strong that one of the coaches landed atop another, crushing the one below. Passengers were flung from their beds.
“I heard a loud noise,” passenger Satish Mishra said. “The train then sped up, and all the coaches derailed.”
Rescue workers, soldiers and members of India’s disaster management force pulled out people trapped inside the twisted metal and overturned coaches near Pukhrayan, a village outside Kanpur about 250 miles southeast of New Delhi.
The accident killed at least 146, according to state official Debasish Panda. Doctors said 116 of the victims had been identified.
Roughly 226 people were hurt, including 76 with serious injuries, according to local police Inspector General Zaki Ahmad. Medical teams provided first aid near the site, while those in more serious condition were moved to hospitals.
[naviga:h3]Pope OKs abortion forgiveness[/naviga:h3]
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is allowing all priests to absolve the faithful of the “grave sin” of abortion, extending indefinitely the special permission he had granted for the duration of the just-ended Holy Year of Mercy.
Francis wrote in the Apostolic Letter made public by the Vatican today that “there is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled” with God.
But he also wrote: “I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life.”
In his latest letter, Francis said, “May every priest, therefore, be a guide, support and comfort to penitents on this journey of special reconciliation” after abortion.
A top Holy See official, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, told a news conference at the Vatican today that the pope’s words applied also to those who were involved in an abortion.
[naviga:h3]Suicide bomber kills at least 28[/naviga:h3]
KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber killed at least 28 people inside a Shiite mosque in the Afghan capital, Kabul, officials said. Ismail Kawasi, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, said today that at least 45 others were wounded in the attack. Kawasi added that at least one small child is among the dead.
Faredoon Obiadi, head of the criminal investigation department for the Kabul police, said the attacker detonated his suicide vest among the crowds inside the Baqir-ul Ulom mosque in western Kabul.
The attack took place on the first floor of the two-story building where Shiite worshippers had gathered to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson and an iconic Shiite martyr, in Karbala, Iraq in 680 A.D.
No group has yet claimed responsibility but militant Sunni fundamentalists such as the Taliban and the Islamic State group view Shiites as apostates and frequently attack Shiite mosques and public gatherings. Today’s bombing struck a ceremony commemorating 40 days since the anniversary of Hussein’s death.
In early October, at a gathering commemorating the actual death anniversary, militants attacked another Shiite shrine in Kabul, killing 14.
