world

A vehicle burns near a train derailment Friday, June 19, 2009, on Mulford Road just north of Sandy Hollow Road in Rockford.

Woman killed fleeing Ill. train derailment, blast

Sunday, June 21,2009 6:29 p.m.

ROCKFORD, Ill. – Railroad tank cars holding thousands of gallons of highly flammable ethanol derailed and exploded in flames, killing a 41-year-old woman as she tried to run to safety from a car stopped at a crossing.

South Korean protesters shout slogans during a rally against North Korea's nuclear program while denouncing the ninth anniversary of the June 2000 summit between the South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, in front of the former South President Kim's house in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, June 14, 2009. North Korea's communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new U.N. sanctions. The Korean read "'Annihilate North Korea at the start of war and Support U.N. sanctions."

North Korea ship suspected of carrying missiles

Sunday, June 21,2009 6:27 p.m.

SEOUL, South Korea – A U.S. Navy destroyer is tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its recent nuclear test, a leading TV network said Sunday.

Overcrowding leads to bike problems

By Ashley Thomas · Wednesday, June 17,2009 6:21 p.m.

OSAKA, Japan – Bloomington is known for its bike scene. So too is Osaka, Japan, a much larger city than Bloomington. Watching the hordes of cyclists here has made me realize the good and bad of biking as alternative transportation.

Russia, China join US in pressuring North Korea to negotiate nukes

Wednesday, June 17,2009 6:20 p.m.

MOSCOW – Russia and China urged North Korea on Wednesday to return to the negotiating table on the fate of its rogue nuclear programs – an unusual joint appeal from two Security Council members who have resisted more punitive U.S. measures against Pyongyang.

The town of Vernazza, seen from the cliffs along Cinque Terre, a seven-mile hiking trail that encompasses five towns along the Italian coast.

Farewell, Florence

By Bryce Wininger · Wednesday, June 17,2009 6:19 p.m.

FLORENCE, Italy – The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of travel, both within and outside Italy.

Crash bodies show bone fractures

Wednesday, June 17,2009 6:17 p.m.

SAO PAULO – Bodies recovered in the Air France Flight 447 disaster show multiple fractures in the legs, hips and arms, a Brazilian official said Wednesday. Experts said such injuries suggest the plane broke up in the air.

Police clear a path to a police truck for accused narcotrafficker Jose Chauvin after appearing before a five-person Transparency Commission on June 15th in Quito, Ecuador. At the hearing, Chauvin answered questions about his possible ties with the Colombian leftist guerrilla group FARC.

Tensions rise over Andean election

By Nathaniel Kenninger · Wednesday, June 17,2009 6:15 p.m.

QUITO, Ecuador – The elections for the Andean Parliament, an advisory body for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, took place for the Ecuadorian representatives last Sunday in Quito, Ecuador.

Not your father's China

By Srimoyee Chatterjee · Sunday, June 14,2009 6:21 p.m.

BEIJING – Let me start by making it very clear that this was supposed to be a rant about how China has managed, being the nifty little go-getter it is, to conduct capitalism under the guise of a communist socialist state.

Weeds of globalization

By Andrew Morris · Sunday, June 14,2009 6:20 p.m.

SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland – Americans surely notice they are living, working and playing in a globalizing world. From German cars to Chinese-made shirts and South American fruits, America’s economy is undoubtedly globalized. But in the relatively small city of Schaffhausen (population of about 30,000), globalization shows its inevitability in a different and much more intense way: language.

Protestors challenge Ahmadinejad’s re-election

Sunday, June 14,2009 6:13 p.m.

TEHRAN, Iran – Protestors set fires and smashed store windows Sunday in a second day of violence as groups challenging President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election tried to keep pressure on authorities. Anti-riot police lashed back and the regime blocked Internet sites used to rally the pro-reform campaign.

Indiana treasurer stands by fight about Chrysler plan

Wednesday, June 10,2009 8:57 p.m.

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s failed quest to stop Chrysler’s bankruptcy proceedings will cost state taxpayers $2 million in legal fees, but he has no regrets about what some saw as a foolishly impractical effort.

Police barricade museum visitors outside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2009. Authorities say at least two people have been shot at the museum.

Holocaust museum shooting suspect a supremacist

Wednesday, June 10,2009 8:54 p.m.

WASHINGTON – An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, gravely wounding a security guard before two other officers returned fire. The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized. The security guard later died.

US sees hope in Lebanese election

Wednesday, June 10,2009 6:52 p.m.

WASHINGTON – Detecting signs of hope for its Mideast peace initiatives in the defeat of a Hezbollah slate in Lebanon’s weekend election, the Obama administration said Monday it will send special envoy George Mitchell to Syria and Lebanon this week.

Politics is a game, at home and abroad

By Sophie Pappas · Wednesday, June 10,2009 6:50 p.m.

Graz, Austria – Some things are the same everywhere you go. Kids complain about bedtimes both in the United States and in Austria. Politics are, well, political in both places.

Reynold Walter, executive director of FAFIDESS, a non-governmental organization in Guatemala, listens attentively as Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder and director of Grameen Bank, discusses the importance of financial literacy at all socioeconomic levels Tuesday at the Latin American-Caribbean Regional Microcredit Summit in Cartagena, Colombia.

Microcredit leaders convene to fight extreme poverty

By Nathaniel Kenninger · Wednesday, June 10,2009 6:49 p.m.

CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, Colombia – “We can open a window of opportunity to alleviate poverty among women, men, young and old to set them free,” former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said of microfinance.

Shots fired at Holocaust Museum, guard dies

Wednesday, June 10,2009 3:54 p.m.

WASHINGTON – An elderly gunman opened fire with a rifle inside the crowded U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on Wednesday, gravely wounding a security guard before two other officers returned fire. The assailant and his victim were both hospitalized.

Shootout kills 16 in Mexico’s Acapulco resort

Sunday, June 7,2009 7:18 p.m.

ACAPULCO, Mexico – A military official said 15 gunmen and a soldier were killed in a two-hour shootout in the heart of Acapulco’s hotel zone.

Westward ho! Amish escaping crowding in East

Sunday, June 7,2009 7:17 p.m.

WESTCLIFFE, Colo. – A new road sign cautions drivers to watch for Amish horse-drawn carriages in the valley beneath Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo mountains. Highway pull-offs and dedicated horse-and-buggy paths are in the works.

From left, U.S. President Barack Obama, Britain's Prince Charles, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrive at the American Cemetery at Colleville-Sur -Mer, near Caen, Western France, Saturday, June 6, 2009 to attend the 65th Anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy.

Obama hails 'sheer improbability' of D-Day victory

Sunday, June 7,2009 7:15 p.m.

OMAHA BEACH, France – President Obama honored the valiant dead and the “sheer improbability” of their D-Day victory, commemorating Saturday’s 65th anniversary of the decisive invasion even as he remakes two wars and tries to thwart potential nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea.

'Happiest people on earth'

By Austin Kirtley · Sunday, June 7,2009 7:13 p.m.

COPENHAGEN – This economic crisis is having dramatic and obvious effects on markets all over the world.So how is it that Denmark, which is not much bigger than Massachusetts, has avoided almost all of them while maintaining the reputation of having the “Happiest People on Earth,” according to the World Map of Happiness and the World Database of Happiness?