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India train crash leaves at least 8 dead, dozens injured as freight train plows into passenger train
New Delhi — At least eight people were killed and more than others 50 injured when a freight train slammed into a passenger train Monday in India. The crash happened in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, when the goods train hit the Kanchanjunga Express in the New Jalpaiguri area, derailing at least three of the passenger train’s cars.
The Kanchanjunga Express was travelling from Silchar in Assam state to Sealdah in Kolkata when the collision occurred.
Stark images broadcast on Indian TV news channels showed hundreds of people watching rescuers try to save passengers trapped in the mangled train cars, one of which was left jutting up into the air at a steep angle.
India’s national NDTV network said the relatively low death toll, given the severity of the crash, could be due to the fact that the freight train slammed into the rear carriages of the passenger train, which were not believed to be carrying passengers.
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“Five people, including the loco[motive] pilot of the Kanchanjunga Express, died on the spot. Twenty-five people are injured,” Abhishek Roy, Additional Superintendent of Police for the Darjeeling Police District, told reporters at the scene, adding that efforts to rescue people trapped in the train continued.
Officials later raised the confirmed death toll to eight.
The accident forced a suspension of all train services on the Kolkata-Siliguri line, officials said.
“The rescue work is complete,” Jaya Verma Sinha, chairperson of the Indian Railway Board told reporters, adding that injured victims were being provided “the best possible treatment.”
Sinha said human error appeared likely to have caused the accident, as “it seems that the driver of the goods train disregarded the signal.”
DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP/Getty
A detailed investigation was expected to confirm the cause of the fatal crash.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the crash “saddening” and announced informal government relief payments of 200,000 Indian rupees (about $2,400) for the families of people killed in the incident and 50,000 rupees (about $600) for those left injured.
Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced separate state compensation of 1 million rupees (about $12,000) for each family that had someone killed in the crash, and 250,000 rupees (about $3,000) for those injured.
India has one of the largest rail networks on the planet, but accidents are common. In June 2023, one of India’s deadliest train accidents, involving three trains in the eastern state of Odisha, killed almost 300 people and left more than 1,000 others injured.
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Beryl, the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, took shape Friday as it barreled its way toward the Caribbean.
Beryl was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it approached the Windward Islands in the West Indies, the National Hurricane Center reported in its latest advisory late Friday night.
Beryl was centered about 1,110 miles southeast of Barbados, the hurricane center said, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and tropical storm-force winds extending 45 miles from its center. It was moving west at 18 mph.
The system was expected to hit the Windward Islands by late Sunday or Monday, and was forecast to bring anything from 3 to 6 inches of rain to the Windward Islands and Barbados. No watches or warnings were yet in place.
NOAA
Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, according to the Associated Press.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30. According to the hurricane center, the season’s first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August, which would make Beryl unusual if it were to reach hurricane strength. In a report released last month, the NOAA predicted an “above average” hurricane season with 17 to 25 storms, 8 to 13 hurricanes and 4 to 7 major hurricanes of category 3 or higher.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds greater than 74 mph.
CBS News
Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”
