New York City police conducted an all-night rescue operation yesterday for scores of passengers stranded for hours on two commuter tramcars stalled high above the city. The gondolas -- one suspended over Manhattan with 22 riders and another hovering over the East River with 47 people -- came to a stop at 5:22pm on Tuesday, police said, due to mechanical problems or electrical outage. By early yesterday, most of the passengers from the gondola above the East River had been rescued by police using a metal cage hoisted alongside the tramcar. The tram runs between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island and is noted for its spectacular views 75m above the East River.
■ Honduras
Gangs kill two prisoners
Members of the feared Mara 18 street gang attacked prisoners from the general inmate population at a penitentiary 120km northeast of the capital Tegucigalpa, killing two and injuring two others. More than 100 police officers from two nearby towns stormed the La Paz facility to quell the violence late on Tuesday, police inspector Miguel Martinez said by telephone. "Things are peaceful inside the prison now, but police still haven't entered the gang members' lockup," he said, adding that gang members have threatened to kill police if they attempt to retake the rest of the prison.
■ United States
Plague case confirmed in LA
A woman was hospitalized earlier this month with bubonic plague, the first confirmed human case in Los Angeles County in more than two decades, health officials said. The woman was admitted on April 13 with a fever, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms. A blood test confirmed she had contracted the bacterial disease, officials announced on Tuesday. The woman was placed on antibiotics and is in stable condition, officials said. Bubonic plague is not contagious, but if left untreated it can morph into pneumonic plague, which can be spread from person to person. Bubonic plague is usually transmitted to humans from the bites of fleas infected by dead rodents.
■ United States
Perv-proof archives urged
It seems that online dermatological images, intended as a reference for doctors, are sometimes being used pruriently. The idea that a searchable archive of clinical photographs was being misused occurred to the site's curators when they noticed a marked jump in queries for images of genital areas. Christoph Lehmann and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, emphasize in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that "anonymous misuse of collaborative archives must be anticipated, addressed and prevented to preserve their integrity."
■ Kuwait
US probes drugs charges
The US Army is investigating allegations that three American civilians allegedly used the military postal service to smuggle marijuana into Kuwait, an army spokeswoman said on Tuesday. The trio, who worked as contractors for the military, were arrested by the Kuwaiti authorities on Sunday, the spokeswoman said in a statement which did not identify the men.
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