Spanish train driver charged provisionally for 79 cases of negligent homicide
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — The driver of a Spanish train that derailed at high speed killing 79 people was provisionally charged Sunday with multiple cases of negligent homicide.
A court statement said investigative magistrate Luis Alaez released Francisco Jose Garzon Amo without bail.
The statement said Garzon must appear in court once a week and is forbidden to leave Spain without permission.
Garzon was not sent to jail or required to post bail because none of the parties involved felt there was a risk of him fleeing or attempting to destroy evidence, the statement said.
It said the train driver’s license had also been withdrawn.
2nd body pulled from river after boat crash
PIERMONT, N.Y. — A day after a bride-to-be was pulled dead from the Hudson River, the body of her fiance’s best man was found a mile downstream Sunday, the second victim of a nighttime crash involving a speedboat and a barge north of New York City.
The deadly collision left the groom-to-be grieving for his intended and his best friend, while facing surgery for his own injuries as another friend is charged with manslaughter — two weeks before the wedding day.
“I don’t think you can put words to what we have to tell these families,” Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco said as he announced that a body believed to be that of Mark Lennon, 30, the best man, was found Sunday morning.
At the church where Lindsey Stewart and Brian Bond, both 30, would have been married Aug. 10, the pastor said their lives “were filled with hopes and dreams, and that has been snuffed away.”
Stewart, Bond, Lennon and three others were on a speedboat that crashed Friday night into a barge holding equipment for the construction of a replacement for the Tappan Zee.
Gunman in Fla. apartment shooting described as lonely man with pent-up anger
HIALEAH, Fla. — The gunman who went on a shooting rampage at his South Florida apartment building, killing six people, was a lonely man who spoke about having pent up anger, those who knew him said Sunday.
Pedro Vargas, 42, lived on the fourth floor of a barren, concrete apartment complex in the Miami suburb of Hialeah with his elderly mother.
He rarely spoke with others there, and confided to a man who worked out at the same gym that he liked to work out his anger by lifting weights and trying to get big.
“He’d just say this was the only thing that would keep him normal, pulling out all the anger in the gym,” Jorge Bagos told The Associated Press.
Bagos said the gunman expressed frustration over bad experiences with women and losing all his hair from using steroids.
Omnicom and Publicis Groupe to merge
PARIS — Omnicom Group Inc. and Publicis Groupe SA say they are combining in a “merger of equals” that will create the world’s largest advertising firm, one worth more than $35 billion.
The combined company will be called Publicis Omnicom Group and be jointly led by Omnicom CEO John Wren and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy as co-chief executives.
The move is designed to bolster the companies’ focus on growing Asian and Latin American markets such as China and Brazil, where they each have ramped up operations to counter lackluster growth in weak European markets.
But although a combined firm will allow for more pricing power in general, the decrease in competition could present regulatory hurdles in the U.S. and Europe.
By wire sources
