ASSIUT, Egypt

Train slams into school bus, killing at least 49 children

A speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten in central Egypt on Saturday, killing at least 49 and prompting a wave of anger against the government in Cairo.

Over 50 children between 4 and 6 years old were on board when the bus was hit, a security official said, adding that it appeared the railroad crossing was not closed as the train sped toward it.

The crash is the worst such tragedy to hit the country since its first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, took office last summer, and will likely give ammunition to critics who say he has done little to improve life for ordinary Egyptians.

MIDLAND, Texas

Signals had been activated before train hit parade float

Federal investigators say the warning signals at a railroad crossing in West Texas were activated before a parade float crossed the tracks in an accident that killed military veterans.

National Transportation Safety Board member Mark Rosekind made that announcement at a news conference Saturday. He said the signals had been activated seven seconds before the float crossed the tracks.

Four veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were killed Thursday when a freight train slammed into the parade float in Midland. Sixteen people were injured.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Alleged ‘Twilight’ plotter had been detained in 2009

A southwest Missouri man who confessed this week to plotting to shoot up a “Twilight” showing and a Walmart store was detained in 2009 after threatening a store clerk, police said Saturday.

Bolivar Police Chief Steve Hamilton said Saturday that Blaec Lammers, 20, of Bolivar, followed a female clerk around a Walmart store in 2009, threatening her. He wasn’t charged, but was committed for 96 hours for a mental health examination. Lammers, whose own mother turned him in Thursday, faces three felony charges in the alleged shooting plot.

In Missouri, hospitals, law enforcement officials and private citizens can request a person be held against their will for up to 96 hours if he or she appears to be a threat to themselves or others.

Lammers was charged Friday with first-degree assault, making a terroristic threat and armed criminal action.

NEW ORLEANS

Two workers still missing; 4 others critical but stable

Two oil workers remained lost at sea Saturday, a day after a torch being used to cut an oil pipe ignited a blaze that severely burned four others workers on a production platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

The four burned workers are in critical but stable condition. Meanwhile, officials said no oil was leaking from the charred platform, a relief for Gulf Coast residents still weary two years after the BP oil spill illustrated the risk offshore drilling poses to the region’s ecosystem and economy.

The four workers’ burns were not as extensive as initially reported, said Leslie Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Black Elk Energy, which owned the platform. Their conditions Saturday were stable but critical, she said.

Coast Guard officials said in a news release Saturday that helicopters were searching —-from the air, while a cutter searched the sea.

The fire came a day after BP PLC agreed to plead guilty to a raft of charges in the 2010 spill and pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties.

— From news service reports