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Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Dec 2, 2007

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DES MOINES, Iowa - Snow and ice plastered a wide area of the Midwest on Saturday, disrupting campaigning by presidential hopefuls, playing havoc with airport and highway traffic, and killing at least two people.

The National Weather Service posted winter storm and ice warnings across parts of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the eastern Dakotas, Illinois and northern Michigan, although some warnings were lifted by midday. Six to 16 inches of snow was forecast in parts of Minnesota.

Much of Iowa was hit by snow, sleet and freezing rain.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at airports in Des Moines, Chicago and Milwaukee. Officials decided to close Des Moines International Airport for several hours after a United Airlines plane slid off a taxiway as it was heading to a runway for a flight to Chicago's O'Hare, said airport spokesman Roy Criss. He said none of the 44 passengers was injured and the airport reopened by mid- afternoon.

At Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis., an incoming Mesa Airlines regional jet flying for United Express slid off the pavement after failing to make a turn onto a taxiway, but no injuries were reported among the 25 passengers, said United Airlines spokesman Jeff Vick.

NATION

INVESTIGATION TO FOCUS ON WHY TRAINS WERE ON SAME TRACK: Federal transportation officials said Saturday their main priority as they investigate a train collision on Chicago's South Side is to figure out why both trains were on the same track at the same time.

People were catapulted from their seats when the double-decker Amtrak train traveling to Chicago from Grand Rapids, Mich., crashed into a freight train Friday. But most of the 187 passengers aboard the "Pere Marquette" walked away without major injuries.

The accident sent 71 people to area hospitals, most of them in stable or good condition, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Three people - one Amtrak crew member and two passengers - were hospitalized overnight, said National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Sumwalt. All three had been released by Saturday evening, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

WORLD

DEATH TOLL FOR IRAQIS FALLS FOR THIRD STRAIGHT MONTH: The number of Iraqis killed last month fell to 718, an Associated Press tally showed, the lowest monthly death toll since just before the 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine provoked a vicious cycle of retaliatory sectarian violence.

The figures come as the military says violence has fallen to levels not seen in nearly two years, while acknowledging that Iraqis are still dying in unacceptable numbers.

An expert on the effect of conflicts on civilians agreed, saying that while the downward trend was positive, it needed to be kept in perspective.

"We've gone from horrific levels of murder to very bad, which is an improvement but not a reason to celebrate," said Richard Garfield, a professor at New York's Columbia University and a manager of health and nutrition for the World Health Organization.

"At these so-called low levels, there's a massive number of excess deaths still likely to occur," he said.

PEACEKEEPING MISSION TO BEGIN WITH LESS FORCES, COMMANDER SAYS:Darfur's peacekeeping force will start in January with less than half the troops initially promised and without key equipment, the force's commander warned Saturday in El Fasher, Sudan.

Some 20,000 troops and 6,000 police officers have been pledged for the joint U.N. and African force.

But only 6,500 soldiers will be deployed when the new mission, known as UNAMID, takes over from the current African Union force on Jan. 1, said Gen. Martin Agwai, the force commander.

BRITISH PARLIAMENTARIANS TO TRY TO WIN RELEASE OF JAILED TEACHER:Two British parliament members met officials in Khartoum, Sudan, on Saturday to try to secure the release of a British teacher imprisoned for naming a teddy bear Muhammad and later said the Khartoum government wants to resolve the case.