Train derailment kills at least 39

Bioce, Serbia-Montenegro A packed passenger train derailed Monday and plunged into a steep river canyon outside the Montenegrin capital, killing at least 39 people and injuring more than 135, more than half of them children.

The four-car train derailed near the village of Bioce, about nine miles northeast of Podgorica, as it emerged from a tunnel above the Moraca River, police said. Interior Minister Jusuf Kalomperovic said initial reports indicated the brakes may have failed.

At least 200 passengers, many of them schoolchildren returning from a ski trip, were believed to be on the train when it crashed, in what was among the deadliest European train accidents of the past quarter-century.

Deputy Prime Minister Miroslav Ivanisevic told reporters that the government’s casualty figures stood at 39 killed and 135 wounded, but he warned that the numbers could rise as emergency crews continue to reach victims in the 300-foot ravine.

Eight dead in landslide in Papua New Guinea

Sydney, Australia A landslide sent mud and boulders smashing through a remote village in Papua New Guinea, killing at least eight people and leaving five more missing and feared dead, an emergency service official said today.

The landslide swept through the village of Bapa, 75 miles north of the capital Port Moresby, on Friday night after weeks of rain soaked the area, the Morobe Province disaster coordinator Tera Gauba told the Associated Press. News of the extent of the devastation and loss of life in the remote and inaccessible region only emerged today in Port Moresby.

Rescuers were digging through the wrecked village hunting for survivors but feared the five missing people will not be found alive, Gauba said.

The landslide also swept away crops and livestock.

Building collapse kills at least 11 in Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya Construction workers had just finished lunch and many were napping when the five-story building began to sway, then quickly collapsed, killing at least 11 and injuring dozens, survivors and officials said.

Rescuers dug frantically through the rubble with bare hands, metal-cutters and crowbars to reach survivors who shouted through drainage pipes and holes, while lights were set up so the search could continue into the night.

One person called a relative on a cell phone and said he was alive under the concrete and steel. A trapped person’s hand could be seen waving for help from beneath a beam.

More than 280 construction workers were inside when the unfinished structure in central Nairobi came down, but officials said it was unclear how many were still caught in the rubble.

Immediately after the collapse, hundreds of people formed lines to carry away chunks of concrete and wooden scaffolding. Dozens of soldiers, firefighters, police officers and Kenya Red Cross workers worked to free those trapped.

Rescue workers were running out of oxygen to administer to survivors as they were being pulled out.

Swedish royals cancel attendance at opera

Stockholm, Sweden Sweden’s king and queen have dropped plans to attend next month’s premiere of a modernized version of Giuseppe Verdi opera, the palace said – reportedly after learning it alludes to the 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme.

King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia had initially accepted the invitation to the Feb. 11 opening of the new take on Verdi’s “A Masked Ball,” but changed plans about two weeks ago, Lars Tibell, artistic director of the Malmo opera house, said Monday.

Verdi’s original work was inspired by the assassination of Sweden’s King Gustav III at a masquerade ball in 1792, but in the new version the king is replaced with a prime minister.

Although the minister is not named in the opera, the main actor in the new staging by director Peter Oskarson bears a clear resemblance to Palme and the name “Olof” is sung on two occasions.

The royal family canceled their attendance after talking to the slain prime minister’s son, Marten Palme, who suggested it was in bad taste to stage the performance close to the 20th anniversary of the murder, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported.