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SPAIN: Express train kills 12 at station
A train speeding through a station Wednesday near Barcelona ran over a group of young people crossing the tracks, killing at least 12 and injuring 17, a Spanish official said. A long-distance train passing through the station in the seaside town of Castelldefels hit the group crossing the tracks who had just gotten off a commuter train. The group, headed for a beach party marking the start of summer, crossed the tracks above ground rather than using a designated tunnel underneath, said the head of the Civil Protection Department for Catalonia regional government. The train was not due to stop, media reports said.
JAMAICA: Drug kingpin surrenders
Christopher "Dudus" Coke ran a smuggling operation that supplied drugs up and down the U.S. East Coast. He cast himself as a Jamaican Robin Hood, and his power grew to rival that of the prime minister. That was at an end Wednesday, with Coke, 42, behind bars and facing almost certain extradition to the United States. The extradition threat sparked a week of violence in May, killing 76 people. His capture after a monthlong manhunt was surprisingly peaceful: He was in a car with the Rev. Al Miller, an evangelical preacher who facilitated the surrender of Coke's brother earlier, said to be on his way to turn himself in at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston.
SUDAN: Aid workers abducted in Darfur
Gunmen raided a humanitarian agency's office in south Darfur and kidnapped two German aid workers, a spokesman for the international peacekeeping mission said Wednesday. Kidnappings of foreign aid workers have risen in Darfur since 2009, following an international arrest warrant against Sudan's president for alleged war crimes. The German Foreign Ministry said two men working for the Technisches Hilfswerk, a state agency doing development work, in Nyala, have been missing since Tuesday. The men are 34 and 52, foreign ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke told reporters in Berlin.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO: 76 killed in derailment
State radio is blaming a train driver for a derailment that killed at least 76 people. Government spokesman Bienvenu Okiemy said excessive speed was the main cause. Four train cars full of passengers fell into a ravine Monday. Brazzaville Radio Congo said more than 700 people were injured, and that the death toll was likely to rise. The train was leaving the coastal town of Pointe-Noire and headed to the capital, Brazzaville.
'I'm going to try to avoid it' A trip to the emergency room in a Long Island hospital now averages nearly 4 hours, data shows. NewsdayTV's Virginia Huie reports.