Chicago train derailment kills at least one person

CHICAGO -- Federal transportation inspectors were investigating the cause of a train derailment in Chicago Saturday that killed one passenger and injured more than 80 others. The double-decked commuter train carrying 185 passengers and four crew members was headed to Chicago from Joliet before 9 a.m. when its locomotive and five rail cars jumped the tracks about 5 miles south of downtown. The cause was not immediately known and all track signals were working when the derailment occurred, said Judy Pardonnet, a spokeswoman for Metra, the commuter rail system that services the Chicago area.

Police begin clampdown on southern Gaza border

RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian forces sealed off five major breaches along Gaza's southern border Saturday, firing warning shots and clashing with stone-throwing crowds in their strongest effort yet to halt the chaotic flood of people in and out of Egypt since Israel withdrew from the area. Throughout the day, crowds pelted Palestinian and Egyptian troops and managed to force their way across the border. But in contrast to previous days, the forces appeared determined to carry out Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' promise to have the border under control by early next week. Eight people were wounded.

No agreement made at N. Korea nuclear talks

BEIJING -- The United States and other countries failed to agree Saturday to a Chinese proposal that would let North Korea pursue peaceful nuclear activities if it gives up its atomic weapons program, and talks were extended into another day. Several delegations in six-nation negotiations on ending North Korea's nuclear arms program indicated they were dissatisfied with the compromise offered by China, the U.S. envoy said after a long day of discussions that dragged late into the night. Washington insists North Korea cannot be trusted with any type of nuclear program, given its history of pursuing atomic bombs.

Advances in stem-cell, DNA research earn awards

NEW YORK -- Two scientists who first identified stem cells and two others who did pioneering work in DNA research have won prestigious medical awards. The $50,000 prizes from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation will be presented Friday in New York. The prize for basic medical research will be shared by Ernest McCulloch and James Till of the Ontario Cancer Institute and the University of Toronto for their pioneering identification of a stem cell. Stem cells can give rise to specialized cell types, and scientists are studying them in hopes of creating tissue to treat diseases like diabetes and Parkinson's.

Car bomb on Baghdad's outskirts kills 30 people

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A car bomb ripped through a market in a poor Shiite Muslim neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad at sunset Saturday, killing at least 30 people and wounding 38, police said. Near Abu Ghraib prison, a suicide car bomb wrecked three vehicles in a U.S. convoy Saturday, and insurgents fired seven mortar shells at the jail just west of Baghdad and used grenades to damage three armored vehicles in another U.S. convoy in the area, police said. The U.S. military issued no immediate casualty reports. Interior Ministry police Maj. Falah al-Mhamadawi said an explosives-packed car was parked in front of fruit and vegetable stands in the market at Nahrawan, about 20 miles east of Baghdad, a poor suburb heavily populated by Shiites. He said at least 30 people were killed and 38 wounded.

-- From wire reports

Iran offers to allow others to take part in uranium enrichment

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran's president on Saturday offered to allow other countries and private companies to participate in his country's uranium enrichment program to prove that Tehran is not producing nuclear weapons. In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has a right to a nuclear fuel program but stressed that his Islamic nation's "religious principles" prevent it from seeking atomic arms.

John Paul II's last words released by Vatican

VATICAN CITY -- Struggling to swallow and breathe, Pope John Paul II mumbled his final words weakly in Polish: "Let me go to the house of the Father." Six hours later, the comatose pontiff died, the Vatican says. The account of John Paul's final hours appears in a meticulously detailed official report on his last weeks just released by the Vatican in what might be an effort to ward off any doubts about how forthcoming it has been about his illness and April 2 death. There was much speculation in past decades over how some pontiffs died and what caused their end. While no one has publicly suggested anything amiss about John Paul II's final hours, the Vatican said nothing for years when it was apparent to observers that the globe-trotting, widely beloved pontiff was suffering the symptoms of Parkinson's disease.