Midday Roundup: Officials probe cause of deadly Amtrak derailment

Deadly derailment. Six people died late Tuesday when an Amtrak train traveling from Washington, D.C., to New York City derailed in Philadelphia. Another six were critically injured, and 140 were taken to area hospitals for treatment. The train was carrying 238 passengers and five railway employees. Officials would not speculate about the cause of the accident, but the track makes a sharp turn at the site of the derailment. Analysts questioned whether the train was traveling too fast. Three cars flipped onto their sides, and the engine completely separated from the rest of the train. “It is an absolute, disastrous mess,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said after surveying the site. “Never seen anything like this in my life.” Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are on site trying to figure out what happened with help from the black box recovered this morning. UPDATE (6:44 p.m.): National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the Amtrak train that derailed late Tuesday in Philadelphia was traveling at a speed of 106 mph before it ran off the rails along a sharp curve where the speed limit drops to just 50 mph. The engineer, who declined to provide a statement to investigators and has not been identified, applied the emergency brakes moments before the crash but managed to slow the train to only 102 mph by the time the locomotive's black box stopped recording data, said Robert Sumwalt of the National Transportation Safety Board. The speed limit just before the bend is 80 mph, he added. Seven people are now confirmed dead.

Missing Marines. Search teams in Nepal are looking for a U.S. military helicopter that disappeared yesterday with six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers on board. The UH-1 Huey chopper was delivering supplies to remote villages devastated by the April 25 earthquake Tuesday when a second quake hit. It’s not clear what role that might have played in the helicopter’s disappearance. A Nepalese official said earlier today the chopper had been spotted near Kathmandu and had gone down in a river. But U.S. officials have not confirmed that report and say they have no news of chopper sightings. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the Marines had “no indications of a crash,” because of the area’s rugged terrain. The helicopter’s emergency beacon has not been detected.

Pondering punishment. Jurors likely will begin debating Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s punishment later today after lawyers make their closing arguments. The same jury convicted the 21-year-old last month for his role in the 2013 bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon that killed three and injured hundreds more. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Tsarnaev’s defense team is asking for life without parole. They have described Tsarnaev as an impressionable teenager unduly influenced by his older brother, Tamerlan, who died during a shootout with police. Defense attorneys claim Tamerlan Tsarnaev was the driving force behind the attack. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not testify during either phase of the trial, remaining mostly expressionless throughout the testimony.

Rejected. President Barack Obama suffered a major defeat at the hands of his own party in the Senate on Tuesday. On a procedural vote, Democrats blocked debate on the so-called fast track trade authorization bill supported by the president. Most Republicans voted to move the legislation forward, but the president needed at least six Democrat votes to carry the day—and they were not to be found. Supporters of the bill are likely to bring up the measure again, but it’s not clear yet when that might happen. The bill would prevent Congress from changing or blocking trade agreements negotiated by the administration. The first to fall under the new authority likely would be the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a deal between the United States and 11 Asian-Pacific nations.

Deflategate fight. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has vowed to fight the four-game suspension handed down by the National Football League for his role in “Deflategate.” The league also fined team owner Robert Kraft $1 million and revoked two draft picks after an investigation determined the team intentionally used improperly inflated balls during one of last year’s playoff games. But the penalties might not ultimately be a bad thing for Brady or the Patriots. The team will save $880,000 in salary it won’t have to pay its Super Bowl MVP. And the supposed scandal has only raised Brady’s profile. Sales of his jersey doubled after news broke of the investigation and the penalties, bumping his jersey from sixth to third most-popular at online retailer Fanatics. Sales of general Patriots merchandise also got a boost.

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry and the Associated Press contributed to this report.