Amtrak passenger train kills woman, injures man
GIBSONVILLE - A woman was killed and a man's leg cut off Sunday when an Amtrak passenger train hit them near a crossing west of Gibsonville, authorities said.
A witness told the (Greensboro) News & Record that she saw a man and woman walking hand-in-hand along the track before the accident around 7:15 p.m. Stacey Smith said that shortly after, she heard the train hit something then skid to a stop.
"I thought it was a train that hit a car because I heard a loud boom," Smith said.
The man was stabilized and taken to Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro, said Maj. Randy Powers of the Guilford County Sheriff's Department. Authorities did not release names late Sunday because they still were confirming identifications and notifying relatives, Powers said.
Opposition candidate backs off boycott of election
KABUL, Afghanistan - The main opposition candidate in Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election backed off a boycott of the vote, saying Monday that he would accept the findings of an independent commission to look into alleged cheating.
Ethnic Tajik candidate Yunus Qanooni, considered the likely runner-up to interim President Hamid Karzai, made the announcement at his Kabul home on Monday, a day after two other candidates also peeled away from the boycott. He said he made his decision after a meeting with U.N. representative Jean Arnault and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
"I want to prove to the people of Afghanistan that the national interest is my highest interest," Qanooni said.
