World Briefs: 2 dead, 13 hurt in crash onto crowded street

GREAT BRITAIN

LONDON — A helicopter crashed into a crane and fell on a crowded street in central London during rush hour Wednesday, sending flames and black plumes of smoke into the air.

The pilot and one person on the ground were killed and 13 others injured, officials said.

The helicopter crashed in misty weather just south of the River Thames near the Underground and mainline train station at Vauxhall, and close to the headquarters of spy agency MI6.

Police said one person had critical injuries. Six were taken to a hospital with “minor injuries,” and seven treated at the scene, London Ambulance Service said.

SYRIA

Car bombs kill 22 near security targets

DAMASCUS — Suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives blew themselves up near security targets in northern Syria on Wednesday, killing at least 22 people, state-run media and activists said.

The near simultaneous attacks in the city of Idlib brought the carnage of Syria’s civil war to a second major urban center in the country’s north in as many days, following the massive blasts a day earlier that killed 87 people at a university in the commercial hub of Aleppo.

There were conflicting reports about the number of explosions Wednesday in Idlib, where rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad control much of the countryside, while the regime remains in charge of the city itself.

The state-run SANA news agency said two suicide bombers hit a pair of roundabouts in the city, killing 22 people and wounding 30.

IRAN

U.N. investigators, Iran open talks on nuclear probe

TEHRAN — Senior U.N. investigators opened a new round of talks on Wednesday with Iranian officials in Tehran in the hopes of restarting a probe into allegations that the Islamic republic carried out atomic bomb trigger tests and other suspected weapons-related studies.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported that negotiations started at the headquarters of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. It gave no further details.

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