Global Briefs: India mourns train wreck victims

India

Three days after a train wreck killed at least 275 people and injured hundreds more, family members of the victims were still trying to identify their remains. Investigators said a signal malfunction might have caused a passenger train traveling through Odisha, a state in eastern India, to veer onto the wrong track and collide with a freight train on June 2. Another passenger train then collided with the wreckage. Train accidents are not uncommon in India, despite government efforts to improve the system. With 40,000 miles of track, India’s railway is the largest in the world operating under one management. —Josh Schumacher

Somalia

Starting next year, Somalis will vote directly for their president for the first time since 1969. In late May, the government announced the start of universal suffrage and the dissolution of the prime minister’s office. The previous system provided for power-sharing among clans who chose delegates to elect the president. The country tried to make the switch to direct elections in 2020 but political squabbles and violence from al-Shabab, a terrorist organization, stymied the effort. The al-Qaeda–linked jihadist group has attacked Somalia’s ­tenuous central government for a decade. On May 26, it claimed responsibility for killing at least 54 Somali-based African Union peacekeepers. The country in the Horn of Africa hopes the election change will lead to inclusion in the East Africa Community trade bloc, where members must demonstrate strong democratic institutions. —Amy Lewis

Nepal

Gelje Sherpa, a Nepali mountain guide, rescued a Malaysian climber from Mount Everest on May 18, hauling him down 1,970 feet for about six hours until another guide joined the effort. Gelje was guiding a Chinese client to the 29,032-foot summit when they abandoned their ascent to save the man struggling in the “death zone,” an area above 26,000 feet where temperatures and oxygen are extremely low. The Sherpa has conducted more than 55 rescues, but this was “the hardest,” he told CNN. This spring, Nepal issued a record 478 permits to foreign climbers for Everest. At least 12 mountaineers have died, an eight-year high, and five others are still missing. Overcrowding on the single route to the summit has increased the danger of the expedition. —Joyce Wu

Sierra Leone

Heavy rainfall on May 24 brought down a historic cotton tree that towered 230 feet over the capital of Freetown. Freed slaves who arrived in 1792 prayed under the tree in their new homeland. The prayer led by the Rev. David George is recorded as the first Baptist sermon in Africa. In 1961, the late Queen Elizabeth II visited the spot to mark Sierra Leone’s independence from Britain. Liberia also honored the tree with a picture on the country’s banknotes. Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio called the tree’s collapse “a great loss for the nation.” The Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs plans to preserve part of it in the Sierra Leone National Museum. —Onize Ohikere

El Salvador

A Salvadoran soccer club will play without fans for a year after a stadium stampede on May 20 killed 12 people and injured hundreds more. The country’s soccer federation held Club Alianza liable for the incident and ordered it to pay a $30,000 fine. Police also arrested various officials, including Club Alianza’s president. Prosecutors suspect game organizers illegally sold extra tickets—leaving hundreds of fans locked outside. Those fans broke down an access gate and forced their way inside during the game’s first period. On May 24, the federation announced an early end to the season and vowed better security at future matches. —Grace Snell

Guyana

A 15-year-old girl has been charged as an adult with 19 counts of murder after allegedly setting fire to her school dormitory. The suspect, who was also injured in the fire, attended a government boarding school in the town of Mahdia in southwest Guyana. She allegedly started the fire deliberately on May 21 after the dorm housemother confiscated her cell phone. The fire spread quickly through the building, which was locked for the night. Firefighters smashed through a wall to rescue some of the students. But 18 girls from remote indigenous villages, as well as the housemother’s 5-year-old son, died in the blaze. About two dozen other girls were injured. If found guilty, the girl faces life in prison. —Elizabeth Russell