HOME AND ABROAD
Photo: AFP
Train Accident Kills 26
Cairo, Egypt: At least 26 people were killed in Egypt when a train ploughed into a truck and a mini-bus at a railway crossing early Monday, the health ministry said. Another 28 people were injured in the accident, which happened south of Cairo. Local police chief Kamal al-Dali told state television the mini-bus had been carrying guests home from a wedding. The head of the Egyptian Railway Authority said the drivers of the vehicles had ignored warning lights and chains blocking entry to the crossing, and tried to go across the tracks.
Indonesia Volcanoes Erupt
Photo: AFP
Medan, Indonesia: Two volcanoes erupted Monday in Indonesia, prompting warnings for flights and evacuation preparations, official said. Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province unleashed volcanic ash as high as 26,250 feet, the highest of its eruptions in recent days, said government volcano expert Surono. The 8,530 foot high mountain has sporadically erupted since September after being dormant for three years. Officials raised the alert status of Sinabung to the second-highest level after an eruption early this month, prompting evacuation of more than 6,000 villagers living near its slopes.
Author Doris Lessing Passes Away
London, UK: Nobel Prize winning author Doris Lessing died Sunday after a long career that included "The Golden Notebook," a 1962 novel that made her an icon of the women's movement. She was 94. Lessing was 88 when she won the Nobel literature prize, making her the oldest recipient of the award. She was born in Persia (now Iran), where her father was a bank manager, Lessing moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) aged five and lived there until she was 29. But Lessing became disillusioned with the communist movement and in 1949, at 30, left her second husband to move to Britain. (PHOTO: Shaun Curry /AFP/Getty Images)
Close Your Legs to Avoid Rape
New Zealand: Defense lawyer Keith Jefferies came under fire after he stated on Wednesday that a sexually assaulted woman should have kept her legs shut if she wanted to avoid having sex. Speaking to a Wellington District Court jury on Wednesday, defense lawyer Keith Jefferies claimed that his client, George Jason Pule, a bouncer at a local club, had merely engaged in consensual sex with the victim, as quoted by local paper The Dominion Post. “All she would have had to do was to close her legs," Jefferies told the jury in his closing argument, per the Post. "It's as simple as that.”
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