Seven killed as New York train hits vehicle

A commuter train has hit a vehicle at a level crossing north of New York City, killing at least seven people and injuring 12, officials say.

 The train, with regarding 800 passengers on board, hit the auto Cherokee close to Valhalla - regarding twenty miles (32km) from the big apple - on Tuesday evening.

The vehicle's feminine driver was killed, at the side of six folks on the train, the big apple Governor Apostle Cuomo aforesaid.

The automobile and front carriage of the train caught hearth following the crash.

The packed passenger train had left Grand Central Station in the big apple town and was heading to Wassaic in south-east the big apple State.

The crossing gates at the railroad had return down on high of the vehicle, that had stopped on the tracks, Metro-North Railroad voice Aaron Donovan aforesaid.

The driver got dead set scrutinize the injury, and so returned into the automobile to drive forward before it absolutely was hit by the train. It pushed the vehicle quite 120m (400ft).

It is not however clear why the vehicle stalled on the tracks.

As a result of the collision the electrified third rail of the track came through the front carriage of the train.
Passengers had to escape from the rear of the train.
Mr Cuomo, who visited the site of the crash, said he witnessed "a truly ugly and brutal sight".
He added: "When you look at the damage done, it's actually amazing that not more people were hurt."
Passenger Justin Kaback told ABC News: "I was trapped. It was definitely scary - especially when people are walking by on the outside and said 'The train's on fire'."
Another passenger, Jamie Wallace, said passengers had started to panic and shout for a fire extinguisher as flames spread to his carriage.

Passenger Neil Rader told NBC that some passengers had managed to flee the train by breaking glass on the doors to get out, adding: "I've never seen anything quite like it."
Hundreds were taken to a local rock climbing gym following the crash.
Parts of the railroad remain closed on Wednesday.
Metro-North is the second-busiest railroad in the US, serving about 280,000 passengers a day in New York and Connecticut.
Last year, the National Transportation Safety Board issued rulings on five accidents that occurred on the railroad in 2013 and 2014, criticising Metro-North while also finding conditions had improved.

Vicar's 9/11 Facebook post investigated by Church

The Church of England is investigating a vicar accused of posting an article on Facebook blaming Israel for the 9/11 attacks in the US.

 The Reverend writer Sizer, vicar of Christ Church, in Virginia Water, Surrey, allegedly denote a link to a commentary entitled: "9/11 Israel did it."

He reportedly wrote: "Is this anti-Semitic? It raises such a big amount of queries."

Mr Sizer later removed the link and apologised for his "ill-considered and misguided" actions.

The bishopric of Guildford aforesaid it absolutely was taking "immediate steps" to analyze.

A spokesperson for the bishopric - that oversees man Sizer - aforesaid it absolutely was a matter of "deep sorrow and shame" that the posts appeared within the same week because the seventieth day of the liberation of stockade.

"Our attention has been drawn to comments by the Rev writer Sizer on social media.

"In those comments Rev Sizer joined to a commentary entitled '9/11 Israel did it'," the spokesperson aforesaid.
 
'Beyond absurd'

"These comments would justifiedly be seen as unacceptable whenever they were denote.

"It may be a matter of deep sorrow and shame that they need been denote during this week of all weeks."

He other the bishopric was "aware of the seriousness of the matter" and was conjointly in reality with the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

In a statement, man Sizer said: "It was notably insensitive in this last week coincided with Holocaust national holiday.

"I removed the link as presently as I received adverse feedback, and realized that offence had been caused.

"I have not believed Israel or the other country was complicit within the terrorist atrocity of 9/11, and my sharing of this material was ill-judged and misguided."

He other that at the request of the bishopric, he wouldn't be mistreatment social media or blogs till additional notice.

BBC non secular affairs correspondent King of England Wyatt aforesaid man Sizer had a history of disputes with somebody community leaders over web log postings on Israel and Zionism.

In 2013, he and therefore the Board of Deputies of British Jews reached a mediate agreement geared toward ending a long-running dispute over postings on his web log.

Jonathan Arkush, vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the somebody News: "Posting, and giving approval to, a commentary that in impact accuses Jews of responsibility for the 9/11 atrocity is certainly anti-Semitic, even as it's on the far side absurd."

TransAsia crash: Taiwan plane in deadly river crash

 A plane carrying mostly Chinese tourists has crashed into a river in Taiwan, killing several people.


e plane, carrying fifty eight folks, has shifting and therefore the body is lying half-submerged within the Keelung stream. the amount of dead remains unclear.

Another TransAsia plane crashed in inclementness last Gregorian calendar month, killing forty eight folks.

Cindy Sui reports: ''Many of the folks on board area unit still within the aircraft''
Dramatic video footage emerged showing the TransAsia Airways plane clipping a bridge because it declined shortly when take-off from a national capital airfield.

Th
Rescuers on boats have cut the plane hospitable gain access to many folks still at bay within.

The ATR-72 turbo-prop plane had simply started out from national capital Songshan airfield and was heading to the Kinmen islands, simply off the coast of the south-eastern Chinese town of Xiamen.

Taiwan's Civil natural philosophy Administration aforementioned the last communication from one amongst the pilots had been: "Mayday, mayday, mayday."

Flight controllers lost contact with the plane at 10:55 local time (02:55 GMT).
Footage of the plane filmed from inside passing cars showed it banking sharply, hitting a taxi and clipping the bridge before crashing into the river.
"I saw a taxi, probably just metres ahead of me, being hit by one wing of the plane," an eyewitness told local media.
"The plane was huge and really close to me. I'm still trembling."
Reports on the number of dead varied, with some saying at least 16 people lost their lives. Several people suffered injuries and some were still unaccounted for.

 TransAsia Airways

• Founded in 1951 as Taiwan's first private civilian-operated domestic airline, later expanded to overseas routes
• Has about 20 planes in its fleet - a mix of Airbus and dual-propeller ATR planes
• Gained popularity due to its low-cost tickets
• Flies many routes between Taiwan and mainland China, and to parts of South East Asia

TV footage showed rescuers standing on large sections of broken wreckage trying to pull passengers out of the plane with ropes.
Those that were rescued were helped into dinghies and taken to shore.

Some were then placed on stretchers and brought to hospital.

But officers aforementioned some passengers were still treed within the portion, that perceived to be the wrong way up.

"We're asking the general public works department for significant cranes to be deployed within the hope that the body of the plane will be upraised up," aforementioned Chinese Jun-Hong, assistant director of Taipei's local department.

"At the instant, we expect lots of the treed folks area unit within the head of the plane."

The plane was carrying five crew and 53 passengers, including 31 tourists from the south-eastern Chinese city of Xiamen.
The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says the Chinese tourists could have been on their way home as many people come to Taiwan through Kinmen island.
TransAsia chief Chen Xinde offered a "deep apology" in a televised news conference, but said his planes had been "under thorough scrutiny" since mid-2014.
"Both our planes and our flight safety system are following strict regulations, so we also want to know what caused the new plane model to crash, but I don't want to speculate," he said.

Fake Facebook page costs US taxpayer $134,000

 The US Justice Department is to pay a woman $134,000 (£88,640) after making a fake Facebook page that contained a photograph of her half-clothed.

 Sondra Arquiett had sued the govt once it had instructed she had "implicitly consented" to the creation of a page victimisation her identity since she had antecedently granted officers access to her itinerant

The Department of Justice has currently settled the dispute, however has not admitted wrongdoing.

The case had raised privacy issues.

Although the United States has not dominated out victimisation similar techniques within the future, it's acknowledged the criticism it visaged.

"[A] review is in progress, however Department of Justice leadership has already met with enforcement agencies to create clear the requirement of protective the privacy and safety of third-parties in each side of our criminal investigations," same a interpreter.

A attorney for Ms Arquiett same she believed officers currently recognised the employment of the faux page had been "totally inappropriate".
Drugs probe

The case dates back to Gregorian calendar month 2010, once Ms Arquiett, a building server, was inactive and suspect of being concerned in a very medication ring.

She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute hard drug, and was later sentenced to 6 months of weekend imprisonment.

 At the time of her arrest, Ms Arquiett relinquished her portable and consented to officers accessing its information to assist them with connected criminal investigations.

This enclosed AN investigation into her swain, World Health Organization was suspected of co-ordinating drug sales. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute hard drug.

Ms Arquiett aforesaid she wasn't, however, notified that this operation would involve the creation of a "publicly available" Facebook page within the name of Sondra blue blood, AN alias she had used.

It enclosed pictures of her movement on a BMW automotive, an image of her carrying solely a undergarment and underclothing, in addition as pictures of her son and kinswoman.

The pretend page was accustomed send a "friend" request to assist catch the swain. The U.S. government denied it had been created "publicly available" during a wider sense. However, the Buzzfeed news web site and therefore the Associated Press press association were each able to access the page before it absolutely was taken offline.

Ms Arquiett sued the govt. in 2013 spoken language she had suffered concern and emotional distress as a result of the page indicated she had willfully co-operated with the medicine ring investigation.

Her case was supported by digital rights cluster, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"If i am co-operating with enforcement, and enforcement says, 'Can I search your phone?' - my expectation is that they're going to search the phone for proof of a criminal offense, not that they're going to take things off my phone and use it in another context," aforesaid Nate Cardozo, a attorney at the organisation.

Facebook itself had additionally voiced its dissatisfaction, noting that it expressly bans pretend profiles on its web site.

"Facebook has long created clear that enforcement authorities ar subject to those policies," the firm's chief security officer Joe Sullivan wrote to the Drug social control Administration last year, that was answerable for the page's creation.

"We regard the conduct to be a knowing and heavy breach of Facebook's terms and policies, and therefore the account created by the agent within the Arquiett matter has been disabled.

"Accordingly, Facebook asks that the law enforcement agency like a shot make sure that it's ceased all activities on Facebook that involve the impersonation of others or that otherwise violate our terms and policies.

Facebook block for Hungary on Notts County page & Facebook timeline: the social network's life story

Facebook's share sale is just the latest landmark moment in the social network's rapid rise. Over the last eight years it has grown from a college project into one of the internet's most visited sites, attracting millions of advertising dollars along the way.

Facebook block for Hungary on Notts County page

 The whole of Hungary has been blocked from Notts County football club's Facebook page after it was deluged with comments concerning a new player.

 The posts were prompted by the linguistic communication of Hungarian striker Balint Bajner, 24, from Ipswich city, on Tuesday.

In August, Ipswich's Facebook page was swamped by comments voice communication "No Bajner, no party!" once he was born.

Notts County same the posts were taken in fun however had currently had to require "drastic" action to manage them.
'Blurring the waters'

Jamie Dixon, head of media, same the club's Facebook page had had associate "unprecedented" quantity of traffic on weekday, with 1,700 new likes in 2 days.

"Anything we tend to announce got a decent range of Balint Bajner posts inside a couple of minutes and it simply grew and grew," he said.

"It was all taken in smart fun then again we tend to did need to appreciate that it had been blurring the waters for everybody else on the page."

 When the player signed many of us wrote "No Bajner, no party!" on the post in relevance him being born once he was at Ipswich city

He aforesaid the communications team tried dominant the traffic by interference sure keywords however with no impact, thus all messages from European nation have currently been blocked.

Facebook offers directors the choice of interference content from sure elements of the planet.

"We had to require the rather forceful step of interference European nation," aforesaid Mr Dixon.

"Hopefully, [it is] simply a brief live. we've got came upon a Hungarian Magpies page, that is proving quite fashionable thus hopefully that'll take a number of the traffic away."

He additional the striker had taken the interest in temper

Google's Atlas robot severs its power cord

A redesigned version of Atlas - one of the world's most advanced robots - has been revealed by the Pentagon.

 The mechanical man gains a lot of advanced wrists, permitting it to show door handles while not having to maneuver its entire arm.

But the key modification is that the inclusion of battery pack, permitting it to perform while not AN hooked up electric cord.

The addition suggests that the Google-owned machine qualifies for the ultimate spherical of a artificial intelligence competition pass the United States military's R&D unit, Darpa.

Seven of the twenty groups expected to require half in June's event shall use Atlas. they'll distinguish themselves by adding their own computer code to the machine and adopting completely different methods to address the challenges posed .

The final event's rules state that the human-supervised robots participating can not be connected to power cords, fall arrestors, or wired communications.

"Being conductor is completely essential for operation within the field," artificial intelligence skilled academician Yule Sharkey told the BBC.
Atlas golem Atlas will perform "wirelessly", however groups might need to stay a wire hooked up throughout tests to stop accidental falls

"A bound golem would simply become snared and tangled anyplace however the only atmosphere.

"It is crucial for full golem autonomy and it'll greatly enhance the operational scope needed by office."
Bigger, better

The latest version of Atlas is slightly taller and heavier than before, standing 6ft 2in (1.88m) high and consideration 156.4kg (345lb).

According to its manufacturer, Google's capital of Massachusetts Dynamics division, seventy fifth of the robot machine is new - solely its lower legs and feet stay unchanged.

The inclusion of a three.7kWh lithium-ion battery is alleged to possess the potential to last concerning one hour if the machine is polishing off "mixed tasks" together with walking, mounting stairs and victimization tools.

However, a new, quieter variable-pressure pump system adscititious to machine can run down the ability pack a lot of quickly if used at its most setting,

"The operator are able to run the golem on a mid-pressure setting for many operations to avoid wasting power, then apply bursts of most pressure once extra force is required," explained Gill Pratt, programme manager for the office artificial intelligence Challenge.

"The groups ar progressing to need to game out the proper balance of force and battery life to complete the course."

Other upgrades to Atlas include:

    Repositioned arms and shoulder to let the golem see its hands in motion, that ought to facilitate its operators management it
    A wireless router in its head to supply a link to the groups
    Resized motors in its hips, knees and back to offer them further strength

Hole within the wall

Darpa's competition is meant to any development of robots that would be wont to assist humans in disaster zones

During the competition, operators will not be allowed to physically intervene if their robots fall over or otherwise get stuck.
Higher scores will be given for completing tasks more quickly, such as removing debris from a doorway, cutting a hole in a wall using a cordless drill and driving a utility vehicle.
A team from the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition came second using an earlier version of Atlas in the previous round of the contest, held in December 2013.
The winner, however, was Schaft, a robot created by a spin-off from the University of Tokyo - which is also owned by Google.

Google’s doodles: Who's behind them?

 The occasional artistic "doodles" that replace the Google logo are seen by hundreds of millions of people. But who are the brains behind them? 


A playable Les Paul stringed instrument, a Pac-Man game and a keyboard in celebration of parliamentarian Moog. These square measure some of the numerous doodles that Google has displayed on its home page.

What started in 1998 as a drawing drawing behind the letter "o" to indicate the team were out of the workplace, has currently developed into labyrinthine styles, games and inventive representations of illustrious figures and events.

There are over one,000 doodles. They depict each the illustrious and therefore the less well-known, they feature anniversaries and a few a lot of individual tributes, and square measure progressively turning into interactive and shareable.

How else would many uncountable folks been reminded of birth defect Earhart's one hundred and fifteenth birthday or that Gideon Sundback was the discoverer of the zip? On his 132nd birthday, Google placed a large nada down their home page.

On on a daily basis of the 2012 Olympic Games, a replacement sport-themed doodle has lived higher than the search bar. sooner or later it absolutely was synchronized swimming, another day users might practise shooting hoops against the clock.

With every new doodle comes a raft of online news articles. The choice of doodle is always a noteworthy event, not least among bored office workers for whom the sketches offer a welcome splash of variety into their daily routine.
Whether one treats the doodles as art or design, they are among the most viewed examples in the world.
Despite the attention, there is little focus on the creators.
Watch the Charlie Chaplin doodle and you will get a glimpse, although in costume, of the team who call themselves "doodlers".

 They are seen by many various individuals. Some square measure place along in a very few hours - others, just like the Freddie Mercury tribute, take many months to complete. All square measure created by the few "doodlers" UN agency sit in a very little workplace in CA.

The team's "creative lead", Ryan Germick, says he does not linger over the concept of his work being viewed by such a mindboggling variety of individuals.

"Human brains don't seem to be designed to grasp however many various individuals interpret one thing. on behalf of me it's additional concerning seeing if I will build my colleagues laugh, or learn a replacement technique. Then I've done my job.

 We simply check that we tend to ar representing art and technology within the absolute best manner."

He says they do not categorize themselves as artists or designers.
Continue reading the most story  
Breaking disapproval rules
Google doodle nothing emblem

I love the doodles as a result of from a disapproval perspective they break all the principles. One disapproval convention is to stay logos consistent. as a result of the Google whole is thus pervasive and features a constant presence, the whole may become like wallpaper. The doodle are some things shocking to stay things contemporary and attention-grabbing.

Tim Hill - The whole Union

Other firms would quickly lose their customers trust and familiarity if they modified their emblem thus usually. Google will afford to alter it as a result of you're already wherever they need you to be - at their search page. A emblem is barely one a part of a brand's identity. Google's identity is sent the maximum amount by its efficient page style as the rest. you do not have to be compelled to see the Google emblem to understand you're on their home page.

Lisa Downey Merriam - whole authority

"We ar the road between amusement, arts, technology and graphic style. Those lines ar terribly fuzzy."

The team, he says, try to deliver a most quantity of joy with the restricted resources offered. Once designer Dennis Hwang was liable for most of the doodles, however he has since touched on to alternative things. people on the team do not typically take credit for his or her work.

"It's not concerning US as people, it's concerning Google as a culture," says Germick.

Most of these engaged on the technical facet of the doodles do thus beneath Google's two hundredth principle - wherever their day job are some things else however a fifth of their time will be dedicated to a project.

Kris Hom, a technical engineer WHO accustomed be one in all the two hundredth and solely recently joined the doodle team full time, says the head for him was once his mother shared her score from one in all the Olympic playable doodles.

The doodles ar some way to "humanise the house page", says Hom.

The decision on what is featured, says Germick, could be a "fairly democratic process" and is a lot of concerning the part of surprise and finding a memory or person that is "a smart fit", than celebrating common anniversaries. If they'd to attend for Earhart's a hundred and fiftieth birthday, for instance, it'd be a awfully long wait.