In brief: Ex-Nazi dies before extradition

PHILADELPHIA – Nazi hunters seeking to prosecute aging war criminals have been dealt a blow with the death of a retired Philadelphia toolmaker.

German prosecutors had hoped to extradite 89-year-old Johann “Hans” Breyer over his war-time service at Auschwitz.

But Breyer died at a Philadelphia hospital Tuesday, hours before a U.S. judge approved his extradition.

Breyer had spent a month in jail before he was hospitalized Saturday.

Breyer had insisted that he never killed anyone, and said he did not serve in the Waffen SS voluntarily.

Tourist train derails; nine hurt

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A popular tourist train derailed Wednesday in southeast Alaska, and nine people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

The derailment occurred during the afternoon run of the White Pass & Yukon Route tourist train, which goes from Skagway, Alaska, into Canada.

There were few immediate details of what happened, but railroad President John Finlayson said the train derailed as it reached the White Pass Summit.

The injured were taken to a clinic in Skagway, said Buckwheat Donahue, tourism director for the municipality. Some already had been released before 6 p.m., approximately three hours after the derailment.

Blast kills at least 80 in Nigeria

JOHANNESBURG – Twin blasts in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna on Wednesday – both reportedly assassination attempts against prominent figures – killed at least 82 people.

No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, but the first attack targeted the convoy of a cleric who has often criticized the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram.

The attack on Shiekh Dahiru Bauchi, who is seen as a moderate, struck about 12:30 p.m., killing at least 32 people, according to police officials. It was the second assassination attempt against Bauchi, following a similar blast near his house in June.

Bauchi reportedly survived the blast.

Shortly afterward, a second blast in a busy part of Kaduna killed about 50 people. It was apparently aimed at opposition politician Muhammadu Buhari, a former military leader who was a runner-up in the 2011 elections, according to his son, Musa, who spoke to Reuters from the scene.

Buhari, a member of the All Progressive Congress party, escaped without harm, his son said.

Plane crash in Taiwan kills 48

TAIPEI, Taiwan – An airline said today it suspected typhoon weather caused one of its planes to crash land on a small Taiwanese island, killing 48 people.

The ATR-72 operated by Taiwan’s TransAsia Airways was carrying 58 passengers and crew when it crashed into houses on the Penghu island chain in the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and China late Wednesday, authorities said. The plane was on a flight from the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.

Two people killed on the plane were French citizens and the rest Taiwanese, an airline representative, Phoebe Lu, told the Associated Press today.

The twin-engine turboprop crashed while making a second landing attempt, Taiwan Transportation Minister Yeh Kuang-shih told reporters.

Lu said TransAsia suspected typhoon weather caused the crash but was waiting for aviation authorities to finish an investigation to say for sure.

Six indicted in StubHub breach

SAN FRANCISCO – An international cybercrime ring was able to take over StubHub user accounts to steal identifying information and use victims’ credit cards to purchase tickets to concerts and sporting events, authorities announced Wednesday.

Six people were indicted in connection with the alleged scheme to defraud users on the popular online ticket marketplace. According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, the proceeds were transferred through a global network of accomplices in the United States, Britain, Russia and Canada.

StubHub, an eBay subsidiary, allows customers to buy and sell tickets to concerts, sporting events and other live entertainment. The company, according to authorities, discovered that more than a thousand accounts had been compromised by hackers who were fraudulently hijacking users’ credit cards.

StubHub implemented new security measures to stop the fraud, but authorities said the hackers were able to get around the new hurdles.

Vadim Polyakov, 30, and Nikolay Matveychuk, 21, allegedly illegally purchased more than 3,500 e-tickets that were sent to a group of individuals in New York and New Jersey to be resold within hours of events featuring Elton John, Justin Timberlake and Jay Z.

Daniel Petryszyn, 28, Laurence Brinkmeyer, 29, and Bryan Caputo, 29, allegedly resold the tickets they received from Polyakov.

Sergei Kirin, 37, a Russian national who allegedly advertised his money-laundering services online, owned one of the accounts and kept a percentage as a fee, prosecutors said.

The defendants were charged with a variety of offenses, including money laundering and grand larceny.