Your nation and world news in brief | Politics – Winston-Salem Journal

Italy works quickly to thwart spread of virus

CODOGNO, Italy Italy scrambled Sunday to check the spread of Europes first major outbreak of the new viral disease amid rapidly rising numbers of infections and a third death, calling off the popular Venice Carnival, scrapping major league soccer matches in the stricken area and shuttering theaters, including Milans legendary La Scala.

Concern was also on the rise in neighboring Austria, which halted all rail traffic to and from Italy for several hours after suspicion that a train at its southern border with Italy had two passengers possibly infected with the virus on board, authorities said.

The decision to call off Venice Carnival was announced by Veneto regional Gov. Luca Zaia as the number of confirmed virus cases soared to 152, the largest number outside Asia.

Man in home-built rocket dies after launchBARSTOW, Calif. A California man who said he wanted to fly to the edge of outer space to see if the world is round has died after his home-built rocket blasted off into the desert sky and plunged back to earth.

Mad Mike Hughes was killed on Saturday afternoon after his rocket crashed on private property near Barstow, Calif.

Waldo Stakes, a colleague who was at the rocket launch, said Hughes, 64, was killed.

The Science Channel said on Twitter it had been chronicling Hughes journey and that thoughts & prayers go out to his family & friends during this difficult time.

LONDON The U.S. government and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will face off Monday in a high-security London courthouse, a decade after WikiLeaks infuriated American officials by publishing a trove of classified military documents.

A judge at Woolwich Crown Court will begin hearing arguments from lawyers for U.S. authorities, who want to try Assange on espionage charges that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

Assange has been indicted in the U.S. on 18 charges over the publication of classified documents. Prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MIDWAY, Ga. Six people, including three children, were killed early Sunday in a head-on collision on a Georgia interstate, authorities said.

The crash happened early Sunday morning on Interstate 95, Liberty County sheriffs officials said.

Officers received reports of a white Lexus traveling southbound in a northbound lane of I-95, Liberty County sheriffs deputy Lt. Jason Colvin said.

Deputies arrived to find a head-on collision between the Lexus and an SUV with no survivors, WSAV-TV reported.

The driver of the Lexus, which had Florida license plates, was killed, Georgia State Patrol Trooper Markus White said.

Two adults and three children in the SUV also died.

The children ranged in age from about three to 10, authorities said. Their car had Virginia plates.

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Your nation and world news in brief | Politics - Winston-Salem Journal