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Death toll reaches 91 in Japanese train crash

AMAGASAKI, Japan - The death toll in Japan's worst train crash in decades increased by nine to 91 today as more bodies were recovered, the Kyodo news agency said. At least 456 people were injured.

Kyodo estimated that at least 52 people were missing, while the NHK broadcaster said that there were more bodies still inside and that the death toll would likely rise. The seven-car train was packed with 580 passengers at the time of the accident Monday near this Osaka suburb.

Workers Tuesday also discovered a body seated at the front of the train believed to be that of the train driver, Ryujiro Takami, 23, but they hadn't confirmed whether he was dead, Kyodo said.

STRASBOURG, France - Europe's human rights body condemned the United States on Tuesday for using what it termed "torture" on terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and it called on European countries not to cooperate in interrogating Guantanamo detainees.

A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Flex Plexico, said the United States is running "a safe, humane and professional detention operation at Guantanamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terror."

In a resolution, the Council of Europe also urged the United States to cease the practice of secret detentions and to investigate all instances of unlawful treatment of detainees at the naval base in eastern Cuba.

ROME - Italian prosecutors asked a judge Tuesday to charge Premier Silvio Berlusconi and 12 others with tax fraud and embezzlement stemming from a deal by his broadcast company to purchase TV rights for U.S. movies, the Associated Press reported, quoting a prosecutor who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Prosecutors in Milan allege that Berlusconi-owned Mediaset purchased the TV rights for U.S. movies before 1999 through two offshore companies and falsely declared the purchase costs to Italian tax authorities to lower the company's taxes.

Berlusconi has denied the charges. His lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, has said Berlusconi resigned from the management of his media empire before the alleged illegal actions occurred.

MOSCOW - Russia has agreed in principle to close its two military bases in Georgia by 2008, potentially forfeiting one of the key remnants of its Soviet-era influence in the southern Caucasus, Georgian officials said Tuesday.

Concluding talks with her Russian counterpart, Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili said Russia has tentatively endorsed a plan to begin withdrawing 7,000 troops and military hardware from the former Soviet military outposts almost immediately after a final agreement is signed.

The agreement, which cannot be assured until a timetable is signed by the nations' presidents, would remove one of several stumbling blocks to ratification of a 1990s-era treaty on conventional ground forces in Europe. More important, it would eliminate one of Moscow's footholds in a region that it no longer directly controls.