THE HAGUE, Netherlands

Obama hails positive steps from nuclear summit

President Barack Obama declared Tuesday that a security summit took “concrete steps” to prevent nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists even though Russia and China failed to sign an agreement to beef up inspections. One of the key results emerging from the two-day summit was that 35 countries pledged to turn international guidelines on nuclear security into national laws and open up their procedures for protecting nuclear installations to independent scrutiny.

CHICAGO

Emergency brakes activated but failed to stop train

An emergency track-side braking system activated but failed to stop a Chicago commuter train from jumping the tracks and barreling to the top of an escalator at O’Hare International Airport, a federal investigator said Tuesday. The announcement that a piece of emergency safety equipment might have failed was the first indication the accident could have been caused by human error and mechanical failure.

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan

As countries fight, Russia and U.S. progress in space

Their relationship on Earth may be at its lowest ebb in decades, but the U.S. and Russia haven’t allowed their disagreements over Ukraine get in the way of their joint mission in space. A rocket carrying a Russian-American crew to the International Space Station blasted off successfully. The crew – NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev – docked at the station less than six hours after the launch.

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