■ UNITED STATES
Biden talks tough on Darfur
Senator Joe Biden said that he would commit US forces immediately to stop militia in Sudan's Darfur region as long as there were reports of genocide. Biden, a presidential candidate and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Monday that in his personal opinion nations had at "some point to cede their sovereignty" if they engaged in genocide. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware, said US President George W. Bush had made clear that sanctions would be the next step if the UN was not ready to send a large force to reinforce the African Union troops in Darfur.
■ UNITED STATES
Man killed on train tracks
A man trying to kill himself and his girlfriend by stopping a car on railroad tracks died on Monday when a commuter train crashed into the vehicle, police said. The girlfriend survived. The man drove the car in front of a group of other vehicles stopped at a railroad crossing in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Sunland, Officer Mike Lopez said. The driver, who was seen arguing with his girlfriend, parked the car on the tracks moments before a northbound Metrolink train crossed the road, Lopez said. The train hit the rear passenger side of the car, spinning it around and ejecting the driver. The girlfriend was taken to the hospital.
■ UNITED STATES
Air America relaunches
The ailing left-of-center radio network Air America relaunches this week under new ownership and with a greater emphasis on political and cultural celebrities in the hope of winning back its audience. The talk radio network has been taken out of bankruptcy by a multi-millionaire property investor, Stephen Green, and his brother Mark, a politically active Democrat who stood unsuccessfully in the New York mayoral elections of 2001. The brothers hope to lure back listeners and advertisers with a starry cast of interviewees and new hosts, beginning this week. Air America was founded in 2004 as a progressive challenger to rightwing radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh.
■ PERU
Bomb motive still unclear
Police said there is no evidence linking last week's deadly bombing at a market in the southern highlands to the Shining Path rebel movement. Six people were killed and 48 wounded when a backpack containing dynamite and nails exploded during a celebration in a market in Juliaca, near the border with Bolivia. "We have nothing to justify calling it a subversive attack," Colonel Romeo Delgado, head of the police in Juliaca, said on Monday. Delgado said the attack could have been part of a dispute between smugglers who provide market vendors with merchandise. Smugglers often supply clothing, shoes and electronics from Chile and Bolivia, Delgado said.
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