Vegetable harvest at White House

First lady Michelle Obama harvests vegetables with fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in the First Lady's Garden that they planted in the garden on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2009.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

First lady Michelle Obama eats with fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in the First Lady's Garden after they harvested some of the vegetables that they planted in a garden on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2009.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

First lady Michelle Obama harvests vegetables with fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in the First Lady's Garden that they planted in the garden on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2009.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

First lady Michelle Obama eats a pea with fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in the First Lady's Garden after they harvested some of the vegetables that they planted in a garden on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama welcomes students from Bancroft Elementary School to harvest vegetables from her garden at the White House in Washington June 16, 2009. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES POLITICS EDUCATION SOCIETY)

First lady Michelle Obama harvests vegetables with fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in the First Lady's Garden that they planted in the garden on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2009.

Pro-reform marchers fill Tehran streets

2009-06-15 14:00:12 GMT2009-06-15 22:00:12 (Beijing Time)  SINA.com

Protestors set fires in a main street in Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Monday, June 15, 2009. (Photo/AP)

A protestor burns trash in the north of Tehran, Iran in the early hours of Monday, June 15, 2009, in protest of the results of the Iran election.(Photo/AP)

TEHRAN, Iran – Tens of thousands of supporters of pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi are streaming through the center of Tehran in a boisterous protest against election results that declared President Mamoud Ahmadinejad the winner.

The crowd — many wearing the trademark green color of Mousavi's campaign — was headed toward the capital's huge Freedom Square in the largest display of opposition unity since Friday's elections ended with Mousavi claiming widespread fraud.

There was no sign of violence or challenges from security forces. Anti-riot stood by with their helmets off and shields at their sides. '

The march Monday came hours of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordering an examination into Mousavi's claims of vote rigging. But it was unclear how the investigation will proceed.

DC trains collide, killing 4 and wounding scores

2009-06-23 00:29:21 GMT2009-06-23 08:29:21 (Beijing Time)  SINA.com

District of Columbia Fire and Emergency workers at the site of a rush-hour collision between two Metro transit trains in northeast Washington, D.C. Monday, June 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

District of Columbia Fire and Emergency workers at the site of a rush-hour collision between two Metro transit trains in northeast Washington, D.C. Monday, June 22, 2009. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

One Metro transit train smashed into the rear of another at the height of the capital city's Monday evening rush hour, killing at least four people and injuring scores of others as cars of the trailing train jackknifed violently into the air and fell atop the first.

Cars of both trains were ripped open and smashed together, and District of Columbia fire spokesman Alan Etter said crews had to cut some people out of what he described as a "mass casualty event." Rescue workers propped steel ladders up to the upper train cars to help survivors escape. Seats from the smashed cars had spilled out onto the track.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said four were dead. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin said rescue workers treated 70 people at the scene and sent some of them to local hospitals, two with life-threatening injuries. A Metro official said the dead included the female operator of the trailing train. Her name was not immediately released.

The crash around 5 p.m. EDT took place on the system's red line, Metro's busiest, which runs below ground for much of its length but is at ground level at the accident site near the Maryland border in northeast Washington.

Metro chief John Catoe said the first train was stopped on the tracks, waiting for another to clear the station ahead, when the trailing train plowed into it from behind. Each train had six cars and was capable of holding as many as 1,200 people.

Officials had no explanation for the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board took charge of the investigation and sent a team to the site of the worst accident in the Metro system's 33-year history.

More than 200 firefighters from D.C., Maryland and Virginia eventually converged on the scene. Sabrina Webber, a 45-year-old Real estate agent who lives in the neighborhood, said the first rescuers to arrive had to use the "jaws of life" to pry open a wire fence along rail line to get to the train.

Webber raced to the scene after hearing a loud boom like a "thunder crash" and then sirens. She said there was no panic among the survivors.

Passenger Jodie Wickett, a nurse, told CNN she was seated on one train, sending text messages on her phone, when she felt the impact. She said she sent a message to someone that it felt like the train had hit a bump.

"From that point on, it happened so fast, I flew out of the seat and hit my head." Wickett said she stayed at the scene and tried to help. She said "people are just in very bad shape."

"The people that were hurt, the ones that could speak, were calling back as we called out to them," she said. "Lots of people were upset and crying, but there were no screams."

One man said he was riding a bicycle across a bridge over the Metro tracks when the sound of the collision got his attention.

"I didn't see any panic," Barry Student said. "The whole situation was so surreal."

Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said less than two hours after the crash that federal authorities had no indication of any terrorism connection.

"I don't know the reason for this accident," Metro's Catoe said. "I would still say the system is safe, but we've had an incident."

The only other time in Metrorail's 33-year history that there were passenger fatalities was on Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment underneath downtown. That was a day of disaster in the capital — shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff in a severe snowstorm from Washington National Airport across the Potomac River. The plane crash killed 78 people.

Swine flu epidemic enters dangerous new phase

Karya Lustig, center, training manager at La Clinica de la Raza, trains clerks Mayra Torres, left, and Angelina Galvan in the use of a respiratory protection mask, which may be used for protection from the possible infection of the swine flu Monday, April 27, 2009, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo)

A Mexican doctor and a tourist wear surgical masks at Mexico City's international airport to ward off the new multi-strain swine flu virus. Washington on Monday issued a travel alert warning against non-essential travel to Mexico and stepped up monitoring of travelers entering the United States amid the deadly swine flu outbreak. (AP Photo)

Pigs on a farm in Northern Ireland. A Canadian tourist has became the fourth person in Britain to be tested for swine flu in the last two days as health officials around the world try to monitor the spread of the deadly respiratory virus. (AP Photo)

The swine flu epidemic entered a dangerous new phase Monday as the death toll climbed in Mexico and the number of suspected cases there and in the United States nearly doubled. The World Health Organization raised its alert level but stopped short of declaring a global emergency.

The United States advised Americans against most travel to Mexico and ordered stepped up border checks in neighboring states. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States.

The virus poses a potentially grave new threat to the U.S. economy, which was showing tentative early signs of a recovery. A widespread outbreak could batter tourism, food and transportation industries, deepening the recession in the U.S. and possibly worldwide.

The suspected number of deaths rose to 149 in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak with nearly 2,000 people believed to be infected.

The number of U.S. cases rose to 48, the result of further testing at a New York City school, although none was fatal. Other U.S. cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. Worldwide there were 73 cases, including six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland.

While the total cases were still measured in hundreds, not thousands, Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said the epidemic was entering an extremely dangerous phase, with the number of people infected mushrooming even as authorities desperately ramped up defenses.

"We are in the most critical moment of the epidemic. The number of cases will keep rising, so we have to reinforce preventative measures," Cordova said at a news conference.

The WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.

Its alert system was revised after bird flu in Asia began to spread in 2004, and Monday was the first time it was raised above Phase 3.

"At this time, containment is not a feasible option," as the virus has already spread to several other countries, said WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda.

Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. That move could lead governments to set trade, travel and other restrictions aimed at limiting its spread.

Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.

It could take 4-6 months before the first batch of vaccines are available to fight the virus, WHO officials said.

Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus amid global fears of a pandemic, an epidemic spread over a large area, either a region or worldwide.

Quarantined passengers from Mexico flight show no flu symptoms

Xu Jianguang, head of Shanghai municipal health bureau, speaks at a press conference in Shanghai, east China, May 3, 2009. Sixty-eight people who were on the same Mexico City-Shanghai flight with a Mexican national later diagnosed with influenza A/H1N1 in Hong Kong, have been located and are in quarantine in Shanghai, health officials told reporters Sunday. None have displayed any flu symptoms, according to Xu Jianguang. (Xinhua/Liu Ying)

Some patients are seen at the fever diagnosis ward of Shanghai East Hospital in Shanghai, east China, May 3, 2009. Shanghai East Hospital opened fever diagnosis ward and express way for the fever patients for preventing influenza A/H1N1.(Xinhua/Chen Fei)

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, May 3 (Xinhua) -- None of the passengers quarantined in China who took the same flight with a Mexican national later diagnosed with influenza A/H1N1 in Hong Kong had shown flu symptoms as of Sunday noon, China's health ministry said.

All the passengers aboard Thursday's Mexican flight Aeromexico 098 from Mexico City to Shanghai have been located and those who remained in China were quarantined, the ministry said.

The Mexican, a 25-year-old male, arrived in Shanghai Thursday aboard the flight, which carried 176 passengers and 13 crew. Hourslater, he and some other passengers left for Hong Kong on China Eastern Airlines flight MU505.

He was confirmed on Friday in Hong Kong to be infected with influenza A/H1N1. It was also the first such case in Asia.

Mao Qun'an, an official with the ministry, said China had "redoubled its prevention and control efforts" following the notification from Hong Kong, including tracing the passengers and putting them under medical observation, suspending flights from Mexico starting Saturday, and stepping up communication with Hong Kong and the World Health Organization.

STRICT QUARANTINE

The week-long quarantine in Shanghai affects 68 people, including 48 passengers whose destination was Shanghai, seven who intended to go on to other destinations, and 13 crew members.

They were divided into two groups in two hotels, one in Nanhui district, the other in Pudong district.

Fifty-nine relatives of the 48 Shanghai passengers were asked to stay at home for observation.