Sheehan meets Chávez, vows to renew protest
CARACAS -- Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who says she is considering a run for the Senate, plans to protest again outside President Bush's Texas ranch, Venezuela's president said yesterday. Hugo Chávez, his arm around Sheehan, told activists that Sheehan ''is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger's ranch" during Holy Week in April. ''She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chávez said on the final day of the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of antiwar and antiglobalization activists. Sheehan, whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004, thanked Chávez for ''supporting life and peace" and she was impressed by his sincerity. Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., said Saturday she is considering challenging Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein because the lawmaker will not support calls to immediately bring troops home. (AP)
Pakistan
Express train derails; three dead, 40 injured
DOMELI -- A Pakistani express train with as many as 600 passengers aboard derailed yesterday, killing at least three people and injuring as many as 40. The diesel train went partly off the tracks about 7:30 p.m., sending one car tumbling 100 yards to the bottom of a gorge in a rural area of the eastern province of Punjab. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the cause of the derailment was under investigation. An intelligence official on the scene said the track was damaged before the train passed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. (AP)
Brazil
Baby in plastic bag is pulled from lake
SAO PAULO -- A baby girl was found inside a plastic bag floating on a lake in Brazil after passersby heard her crying. The infant was released from a hospital yesterday. Amateur footage broadcast on Brazilian TV showed rescuers using a tree branch to pull the bag out of the water on Saturday. They found the 2-month-old girl inside, wearing a pink dress. The lake is in one of Belo Horizonte's most famous parks. ''It's a miracle she survived the heat and somehow didn't drown," said Dr. Claudia Guimaraes, who helped care for the child. The baby's mother, arrested yesterday, told a newspaper she gave the baby to homeless people because she didn't have enough money to raise the child. (AP)
Canada
Fire traps 70 miners; no injuries reported
ESTERHAZY, Saskatchewan -- Fire broke out yesterday in a mine in central Canada, forcing about 70 miners trapped underground to retreat to emergency refuge rooms stocked with oxygen and supplies, a mine official said. Late yesterday, a rescue team reached one of the rooms and made sure everyone was safe, then closed them back inside until the air inside the mine could be cleared of toxic gases, said Marshall Hamilton, a spokesman for Mosaic Co., the Minneapolis-based firm that operates the potash mine. ''In those refuge stations, they can seal themselves off and there's oxygen, food, and water," Hamilton told CBC Radio. ''And they can stay in there for at least 36 hours." (AP)
France
Series of avalanches kills five in the Alps
ANNECY -- Avalanches swept away skiers and at least one hiker in the French Alps, killing five people during the weekend, police said yesterday. Two hikers were missing near the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy. A skier was killed in a snowslide in Val d'Isere, and a group of nine skiers in the neighboring station of Tignes were swept up by an avalanche that killed one of them, a Polish man. In the nearby Les Arcs station, the body of a skier was found yesterday. About 30 miles to the northeast, near the town of Chambery, a hiker was slammed into a rock by an avalanche and killed, police said. In the town of Bernex, a 30-year-old man was killed in an avalanche. (AP)
