Louis Lanzano / AP
Police investigate a destroyed van that plunged over the Bronx River Parkway, April 29, in New York. Authorities say the out-of-control van plunged off a roadway near the Bronx Zoo, killing seven people, including three children.
The seven victims were in the van. Three were girls, ages 7, 10, 12. The adults who died were an 84-year-old man and three women, ages 80, 45 and 30.
It is still unclear what caused the van to veer out of control but investigators believe it bounced off the median, crossing all southbound lanes before flipping over the guardrail. The area below was a non-public area of the 265-acre animal park. There were no animals or people on the ground.
Dylan Martinez / Reuters
Maintenance workers repair part of the tracks at Northwood Hills tube station on the Metropolitan Line in London March 29, 2012.
Dylan Martinez / Reuters
Cleaners, known as fluffers, work in Highbury and Islington station in London March 30, 2012.
Dylan Martinez / Reuters
Maintenance workers take a moment's rest as they repair part of the tracks at Northwood Hills tube station on the Metropolitan Line in London March 29, 2012.
Dylan Martinez / Reuters
A cleaner, known as a fluffer, inspects the train tracks on the Victoria Line near Highbury and Islington station in London March 30, 2012. Transport for London (TfL), which is responsible for the majority of London's transport system, including the London Underground, expects to see an additional 500,000 passengers on the tube during the Olympics, a number that has seen many voice their concerns over whether the system can cope with the influx.
Reuters reports: A light breeze moves through the cavernous tunnels of London's underground train network, a rarity for the workers whose heads are bent down while methodically sifting rocks and dust armed with just a brush and metal pick.
Among them is Michael Emordi, one of 10,000 night workers employed by London Underground to help ensure its subterranean railways are in top condition for the capital's four million commuters and prepare an already creaking system for the influx of half a million visitors for this summer's Olympic Games.
Emordi works as a "fluffer" manually removing hair, fibers and dust shed by passengers every day in the underground railway system, which if left to build has the potential to bring down the whole system.
It's a tough job but one of the many important roles that night workers perform in the dirt-caked tunnels beneath London's bustling surface to ensure the smooth running of the world's oldest underground transport system, which most Londoners simply refer to as "the tube". Full story.
Gideon Mendel / Corbis for msnbc.com
A diverse community in East London will welcome the world to Britain for the 2012 Olympic Games. Meet residents and hear how they feel about having a huge, world stage in their backyard.
More photos of the work being done to spruce up London's tube on PhotoBlog.
More photos of London's olympic venues and the city in our slideshow.
Michal Legierski / AP
Rescuers work at the site of a train collision in Szczekociny, Poland, March 3. Two trains collided head-on in southern Poland late Saturday, killing several people and injuring around 50 in what appears to be one of the worst rail disasters in the country in recent years.
"The rescue is difficult and complicated," firefighter Jaroslaw Wojtasik told Polish television.
"The damage to the wagons is huge. We have contact with victims. We are approaching very cautiously."
"I felt the blow," said an unnamed survivor. "I hit the person before me. The lights went out. Everything flew. We flew over the compartment like bags. We could hear screams. We prayed."
-- Reported by Reuters
Tyler Anderson / Zuma Press
A Via Rail train rests across the tracks after a derailment in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 26. Three people are confirmed dead with reports of as many as 60 trapped.
David Ritchie / Canadian Press via AP
Emergency crews help extract Via Rail employees from a derailed train car in Burlington, Ontario, Feb. 26
Lamarche said no passengers died but dozens were injured. She said 75 people were on board the train traveling from Niagara Falls to Toronto when it derailed Sunday afternoon near Aldershot station.
-- Reported by the Associated Press
Damian Dopacio / EPA
An injured passenger is lifted from athe train wreckage by firefighters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Feb. 22, after an accident in Once train station. The city emergency service confirmed so far 550 injured and at least 40 fatal casualties when a suburban train failed to break and ran into the buffers at the railway terminus.
Enrique Marcarian / Reuters
Rescue workers extract a passenger from a commuter train that crashed into the Once train station at rush hour in Buenos Aires on Feb. 22. Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi confirmed that 340 people were injured and that passengers were still trapped inside after the train's brakes failed.
Juan Mabromata / AFP - Getty Images
Police and rescue workers surround a train that crashed at Once train station in Buenos Aires on Feb. 22. At least 340 people were injured in the accident, authorities informed.
Enrique Marcarian / Reuters
Rescue workers carry a passenger who was injured when a commuter train crashed into the Once train station during rush hour in Buenos Aires, Feb. 22. Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi confirmed that 340 people were injured and that passengers were still trapped inside when the train's brakes failed.
Enrique Marcarian / Reuters
Commuters help a passenger who was injured when a commuter train crashed into the Once train station during rush hour in Buenos Aires, Feb. 22, 2012. Transport Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi confirmed that 340 people were injured and that passengers were still trapped inside when the train's brakes failed.
From msnbc.com staff and news services:
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station Wednesday, injuring at least 340 morning commuters, Argentina's transportation secretary said.
"There are people still trapped, people alive, and there may have been fatalities. We don't know if there are dead people" in the wreckage, J.P. Schiavi told reporters at the station.
The commuter train came in too fast and hit the barrier at the end of the platform, smashing the front of the engine and crunching the first car behind it, according to reports.
Hundreds of people have been hurt after a packed train ran into a busy station in Argentina. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
Hamed Jafarnejad / Fars News via Reuters
An Iranian soldier participates in the Velayat-90 war game on Sea of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran on Dec. 28, 2011.
Foreign media are subject to severe restriction on their ability to make and distribute news pictures in Iran. So, when images like this move right after Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz you know that the Tehran is sending a clear message. In fact, Iran’s navy chief Habibollah Sayyari told the country’s English language press on Wednesday that closing the Strait of Hormuz will be easier than drinking a glass of water.
At the same time the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet warned Iran that any disruption of traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz oil route “will not be tolerated.”
About 20% of the world's oil supply transits throught the Strait of Hormuz.
Msnbc.com news services report: Western nations are growing increasingly impatient with Iran over its nuclear program. The U.S. and its allies have accused Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charges, saying its program is geared toward generating electricity and producing medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients.
The U.S. Congress has passed a bill banning dealings with the Iran Central Bank, and President Barack Obama has said he will sign it despite his misgivings. Critics warn it could impose hardships on U.S. allies and drive up oil prices.
Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil producer, with an output of about 4 million barrels of oil a day. It relies on oil exports for about 80 percent of its public revenues. Read more...
CNBC's Jackie DeAngelis reports the U.S. Fifth Fleet won't allow disruption of oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, then an analyst discusses what Iran stands to gain from halting oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Peter Andrews / Reuters
A Boeing 767 of Polish LOT airlines makes an emergency landing at Warsaw airport on November 1. The plane en route from Newark with 230 people onboard made an emergency landing in Warsaw airport on Tuesday. No passengers were hurt, Polish media reported.
Wojtek Radwanski / AFP - Getty Images
A LOT Polish airlines Boeing 767 flying with 227 people on board makes an emergency landing at Warsaw's airport on November 1, after having problems lowering its landing gear. The plane had dropped fuel and circled above Warsaw for some time and a landing strip was especially prepared at the airport for the crash landing. No one was injured during the emergency landing according to a LOT spokesman.
Wojtek Radwanski / AFP - Getty Images
Fire engines spray fire retardant on a LOT Polish airlines Boeing 767 as passengers leave the plane as after it made an emergency landing at Warsaw's airport on Nov. 1 after having problems lowering its landing gear. The plane had dropped fuel and circled above Warsaw for some time and a landing strip was especially prepared at the airport for the crash landing. No one was injured during the emergency landing according to a LOT spokesman.
Peter Andrews / Reuters
A Boeing 767 of Polish LOT airlines is pictured after an emergency landing at Warsaw airport on November 1. The plane en route from Newark with 230 people onboard made an emergency landing in Warsaw airport on Tuesday. No passengers were hurt, Polish media reported.
Reuters reports from WARSAW:
A Boeing 767 flying from New York with 230 people on board made an emergency landing at Warsaw's airport on Tuesday after trouble with landing gear.
No further information was available from Polish flag carrier LOT or from airport authorities and live footage showed an otherwise normal landing.
The plane had dropped fuel and circled above Warsaw for some time and Warsaw airport closed to all other flights, nearby streets were cleared, and a landing strip was especially prepared at the airport for the crash landing.
Joshua Sudock / AP
Metrolink passengers ride the new "quiet car" from Anaheim to Los Angeles on its first day of implementation Monday, Oct. 3. The quiet car is exactly what it sounds like: a no cell phone, no music, no talking zone on Metrolink trains.
Man, I can't tell you what I would give for a "quiet car" on my commuter bus. This is long overdue.
AP reports:
There were plenty of playful shushes and whispers between commuters riding Metrolink's noiseless car to downtown Los Angeles Monday morning.
The five-county commuter rail line launched the "Quiet Car" Monday in which phone calls, loud conversations and other noise or disturbances are prohibited. A passenger car on every weekday Metrolink train will be designated as a silent car.
Reuters
Rescue workers evacuate people from a damaged subway train car after collision near Yu Yuan Garden station in Shanghai September 27. Two subway trains collided in central Shanghai on Tuesday injuring more than 200 passengers, three critically, prompting renewed public anger just two months after a deadly crash between two high-speed trains.
AFP - Getty Images
Rescuers evacuate passengers after a subway train collision in Shanghai on September 27. A crash between two metro trains in the Chinese city of Shanghai injured more than 40 people, most of them lightly, as more than 500 passengers have been evacuated from the trains after the collision.
Reuters
Rescue workers evacuate an injured man from a train after a subway train collision near Yu Yuan Garden station in Shanghai on September 27. Two subway trains collided in central Shanghai on Tuesday injuring more than 200 passengers, three critically, prompting renewed public anger just two months after a deadly crash between two high-speed trains
Carlos Barria / Reuters
Rescue workers evacuate an injured woman outside Yu Yuan Garden station after a subway train collision in Shanghai September 27, 2011. A subway train rear-ended another on Tuesday afternoon in Shanghai, leaving some passengers injured, the subway operator said. Equipment failures were believed to have caused the crash on the Line 10 subway, Xinhua News Agency Reported.
From msnbc.com news services:
SHANGHAI — A Shanghai subway train rear-ended another Tuesday, injuring more than 210 people in the latest trouble for the rapidly expanded transportation system in China's commercial center.
The crash on line 10, one of the city's newest subways, occurred after Shanghai Shentong Metro Group blogged that the line was having delays due to equipment problems.
The Shanghai Metro said on the Weibo microblogging site that one of its trains suffered equipment failure at 2:10 p.m. local time (2:10 a.m. EDT), which then led station officers to manually direct approaching trains.
The collision occurred near the Yu Yuan station in central Shanghai at 2:51 p.m., according to Shanghai Metro's statements on Weibo.
AP reports:
LONGVIEW, Wash. — A conflict over Longshore jobs at a new grain terminal in Longview, Wash., flared Wednesday with the arrest of protesters blocking railroad tracks.
Several people were arrested for trespassing, said Cowlitz County sheriff's spokesman Grover Laseke. At least two people were treated after being hit with pepper spray.
A dozen officers in riot gear stood guard along the tracks as a grain train finally entered the terminal at the Port of Longview.
Previous PhotoBlog: The Port of Seattle is silenced by a longshoremen strike
Bill Wagner / AP
Law enforcement personnel wrestle ILWU Local 21 longshoreman Kelly Muller to the ground as they arrest protesters and try to clear the tracks so a Burlington Northern-Santa Fe grain train can pull in to the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011. A dozen officers in riot gear stood guard along the tracks as a grain train finally entered the terminal. International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21 President Dan Coffman says two Longshore officers and about 10 wives and mothers of Longshore workers were arrested.
Don Ryan / AP
Police in riot gear walk along railroad tracks to protect an incoming train carrying grain at the port facilities in Longview, Wash., Wednesday, Sept. 21. A conflict over Longshore union jobs at the grain terminal is flaring up again with the arrest of protesters blocking the railroad tracks today.
Don Ryan / AP
Two unidentified longshoreman receive attention after being maced and detained at port facilities in Longview, Wash., Sept. 21.
Don Ryan / AP
Police in riot gear move to another location at the port facilities in Longview, Wash., Wednesday, Sept. 21.
msnbc.com news services report:
"They normally pack us in like sardines in a can. And for that I really fear this could be a very big disaster," said resident Mwnakhamis Juma.
The government in Zanzibar said last month it planned to invest in bigger, more reliable vessels to ferry passengers between the two islands.
"We are fearing the greatest calamity in the history of Zanzibar. This is a disaster," said a government official, who declined to be named.
Read more here.
Sultan Ali / AP
Tanzanian police carry bodies of children from the sea in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Sept. 10. An overcrowded ship sank in deep waters off mainland Tanzania with about 600 people aboard, and about 370 people are believed missing or dead. The ferry, M.V. Spice Islanders, was heavily overloaded and some potential passengers had refused to board when it was leaving the mainland port of Dar es Salaam, said survivor Abdullah Saied. It sank in an area with heavy currents between mainland Tanzania and Pemba Island at about 1 a.m. Saturday. Roughly 230 people had been rescued and 40 bodies had been recovered, said Mohamed Aboud, the minister for the vice president's office.
Emmanuel Kwitema / Reuters
Residents of Zanzibar gather to view the bodies of their loved ones who perished in a ferry tragedy that occurred on its way to Pemba, Sept. 10.
Karim Sahib / AFP - Getty Images
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (yellow) arrives at a metro station to inaugurate the second metro rail network, after a two-year delay, in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on September 9, 2011.
AP: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Dubai's metro system is expanding exactly two years after becoming the Arabian Peninsula's first mass transit rail service.
Karim Sahib / AFP - Getty Images
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (yellow) takes a ride through the second metro rail network during its inauguration, after a two-year delay, in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on September 9, 2011.
Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, inaugurated the new line Friday. It covers nearly 14 miles (23 kilometers) over 16 stations. It expands Dubai's metro to about 45 miles (75 kilometers) with driverless, remote-controlled trains on mostly elevated tracks.
Kamran Jebreili / AP
A view of a station is seen from a train window during official opening of the Dubai Metro Green Line which stretches 23 km and comprises 18 stations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday Sept. 9, 2011.
The metro began operation Sept. 9, 2009, after Dubai's once-sizzling growth came to a near standstill under crippling debts.
Ali Haider / EPA
UAE men are seen inside a wagon train during the opening ceremony of the Green Line of Dubai Metro at one of the Metro stations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 09 September 2011. The Green Line is one of the two lines on the Dubai Metro network in Dubai. The second line will add a further 18 stations and 23km to the existing rail network.
The new line runs through some decades-old commercial districts and is seen as a possible boost to business. The system includes women-only cars and VIP sections for riders willing to pay a premium fare.
Ali Haider / EPA
A train in service during the opening ceremony of the Green Line of the Dubai Metro at one of the Metro's stations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on 09 September 2011.
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