Bus Station

A small charge exploded in a bus station near Tel Aviv on Friday, but no injuries were reported, Israel Radio said.

SAO PAULO, Brazil - After a few hours, you sink into a pleasant trance. Time no longer matters. You stop checking your phone, if it hasn't already lost its charge. You're comfortable. Your mind settles into the little there is to do - think, maybe read a book or, of course, watch the stunning Brazilian forests and countryside pass by. Soon enough, you'll be at one of the country's deservedly famous tourist spots, by way of a few nice little towns no one has heard of. Traveling through Europe by train is an elegant and relaxing alternative to flying.

A 75-year-old woman sitting on a bench outside a Greyhound Bus station was killed Sunday when a pickup truck swerved off the road and crushed her, authorities said. The incident occurred around 5 p.m. in the 1700 block of 7th Street, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. The pickup was being driven by a 78-year-old man, who may have lost control of the vehicle, Humphrey said. The woman, who was not identified, died at the scene.

GAZA CITY -- A bomb attack on a Tel Aviv public bus Wednesday injured at least 21 people -- three seriously -- shattering the sense of security in Israel's second-largest city and raising questions about the fate of cease-fire talks underway to end the violence in the Gaza Strip. The noon-time attack took place on a bus on a busy downtown street. Early reports from witnesses said a man was seen running toward the bus, throwing a bag inside and running away. Israel police launched a massive manhunt and raised security levels nationwide, fearing additional attacks might take place.

A shooting at a city bus station Wednesday killed one person, wounded four others and sent bystanders screaming and running for cover. Police said the alleged gunman was arrested. Boston Police Supt. James Hussey said the shooting appeared to be random. He said it started outside a convenience store near the Dudley Square bus station in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, then ended up inside the station, where officers wrestled the suspect to the ground.

The man accused of shooting five people at a Boston bus station, killing one before officers wrestled him to the ground, pleaded not guilty to murder and armed assault. Lamar Tillery, 34, who was wanted on bank robbery charges at the time of the shootings, was being held without bail. Police identified the man killed Wednesday as Charles Johnson, 52, the brother-in-law of pop singer Bobby Brown. Brown's sister, who was married to Johnson, died this year of lung cancer.

A bomb was found and disarmed in a downtown bus station Monday, a day after a man was arrested in a motel across the street and charged with making explosive devices. The device found at the Greyhound bus station at midday Monday was defused by the Las Vegas Fire Department bomb squad after nearly four tense hours, during which four blocks of downtown's Main Street were blocked off.

Ventura police arrested a 24-year-old man at an Oxnard bus station as he tried to leave town after allegedly assaulting and raping a 14-year-old girl in a Ventura home where the two were living with the child's aunt, authorities said. Dallas Keith Carter Jr. choked the girl into unconsciousness early Thursday before sexually assaulting her, police said. He was being held in County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail for suspicion of rape. "It's a really savage case," said Ventura Police Sgt.

A Newport Beach architectural firm has been hired to draft plans for converting the old Santa Fe depot in Claremont into a combined rail and bus station for commuters. The $97,000 contract was awarded to Thirtieth Street Architects, which submitted the lower of two bids on the design phase of the project. The firm's representatives estimated that the work will be completed by May. City Councilman Algird G.

Bombs apparently planted by Sikh separatists exploded within minutes of each other Wednesday aboard two state-owned buses parked in Amritsar's main bus terminal, killing at least four people and wounding 36 others, police said. The bombings came on the second anniversary of Operation Black Thunder, in which security forces besieged the Golden Temple of Amritsar, Sikhdom's holiest shrine, for nine days to quell an occupation by Sikh militants. Forty people were killed.

Construction has begun on along-planned addition to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank intended to link airline passengers with other means of transportation. The $72.7-million facility is being built on a former parking lot on Empire Avenue across from the Bob Hope Airport Train Station served by Amtrak and Metrolink. The 520,000-square-foot Regional Intermodal Transportation Center at the airport will include a three-level parking structure for rental cars, a rental car customer service building and a bus station.

Julius English works as a behavior therapist for children with special needs and, over the years, has developed a magical touch. The 39-year-old has a learning disability, but basketball has helped him push his limits. That's one reason English uses the game in his work: He teaches basketball to his new students and spends his weekends playing with former ones as a way to reconnect. The game means a lot to English because his life hasn't always been this fulfilling. Eric Calhoun doesn't play baseball, but he's the biggest fan at college and minor league parks across the Southland.

Pressure is mounting for the Fullerton Police Department to break its silence and provide some type of narrative about how a homeless man died after a violent confrontation with six police officers last month. One Fullerton City Council member called for the police chief's resignation Wednesday, criticizing the Police Department for refusing to answer questions about the case or share information with the City Council. A second council member, Bruce Whitaker, said he was also troubled by the lack of information coming from police and urged officials to share more details with the public.

Li Guangqiang rises early and pulls on his sharpest city clothes: dark jeans fashionably distressed, puffy down coat, black pouch slung over one shoulder. An outfit carefully chosen to announce: I am not a farmer or a villager. Not anymore. Li's journey will be long, and he has no time to lose. Heading out into the dry, dirty cold of a Beijing winter, he rolls his suitcase along frozen canals the shade of curdled milk, through the warren of alleyways where he and other migrants sleep in makeshift shelters of concrete block walls and corrugated tin roofs.

The paralyzing New York blizzard reminded me about my favorite travel experience of 2010: a $12 ride on the Chinatown bus. I was in New York this fall and needed to get to Philadelphia for the day to see the fascinating Barnes art collection made famous in the documentary "The Art of the Steal. " A colleague had recommended "the $10 Chinatown bus," but I didn't seriously consider it until I found out that a plane or even a train would cost more than $200 round trip. So there I was marching through Manhattan's Chinatown one morning, where I found the Apex Bus on Allen Street.

A bomb tore through a minibus during morning rush hour in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding 24, Iraqi officials said. The bomb was attached to the minibus in the southern area of Abu Dshir, a Shiite enclave in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Dora, police said. "A ball of fire rose into the sky. We saw a minibus thrown about five meters into the air, then come down in flames," said Omar Abdul-Ghafar, a university student who was waiting with his friend for another bus. The explosion left a crater at the entrance of the bus station.

The father and stepmother of a 12-year-old boy abandoned him at a bus station less than two weeks before his Christmas birthday, leaving him with a letter saying they could no longer care for him. The youth wandered the city for six days before walking into a state youth services office Wednesday. He wore clean clothes and carried a bedroll, backpack and duffel bag.

The city and a community arts group will host a free talk next week by New York artist Dennis Oppenheim, who created the new bus station at the Pacific View Mall. Oppenheim will speak at 7 p.m. on June 11 at the Laurel Theatre, 1000 E. Main St. Topics will include his career development and his recent pieces. The bus station is scheduled for a grand opening on June 12.

Attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims bound for the holy city of Karbala rocked Baghdad on Wednesday, leaving 20 dead and more than 60 injured, government officials said. The attacks ended a monthlong lull in violence that accompanied Iraq's parliamentary elections, when security was at an all-time high in the capital. The bloodshed also appeared to be timed to the climax of an annual 40-day period of mourning for Shiite Muslim faithful, a period in which Sunni Arab insurgent attacks had become commonplace in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.