The Metro-North passenger train derailed as it was rounding a curve in the Bronx. The train was making its way to Grant Central terminal from Poughkeepsie, which is about 70 miles north of New York City. Helicopter images showed at least four of the train’s seven cars off the tracks, with one car just feet from a river. The President of New York City’s Mass Transit Agency, Tom Prendergast, says investigators will look at several factors. 

 

Whenever you do an investigation like this, you are going to look at the truck, you are going to look at the equipment itself, the cars, the locomotive, you are going to look at the signal system and you are going to talk to the people involved in operating the train. 

 

Officials say the train’s data recorders should be able to determine its speed at the time of the accident. For NPR News, I’m George Bodarky, in New York.

 

Holiday shopping numbers are out for this long Thanksgiving weekend. NPR’s Diane Rehm reports they show more people went shopping this year than last, but they spent less. 

 

The average shopper spent about $407 over the four-day holiday weekend. That’s almost 4% less than last year. The numbers come from the National Retail Federation. Overall, the federation says 141 million people went shopping this Thanksgiving weekend, compared to 139 million last year. The group attributes the lower sales numbers to heavy and early discounting. Many retailers began slashing prices last Monday. Some stores actually opened on the holiday and expanded their hours on Black Friday. Good news is reported for e-merchants online sale skyrocketed by about 17% and that was before cyber Monday even started. Diane Rehm, NPR News, Washington.

 

The Obama administration says the status of the government’s health insurance website is better. Jeffrey Zients is overseeing the fixes in his assessment after yesterday’s self-imposed deadline to have it running smoothly.

 

The bottom line, healthcare.gov on December 1st is night and day from where it was on October 1st.

 

Since then, Zients says software fixes, hardware upgrades and a new management structure have all stabilised healthcare.gov. But it’s still not clear how well the system is connecting enrolment information with insurance providers. 

 

Israel’s former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of waging war against  the Obama administration by sharply criticising the U.S. led nuclear deal with Iran. Olmert said today his successor is damaging the country’s relationship with the U.S.. Netanyahu who calls the interim agreement with Tehran a historic mistake, says he will not be silent when Israeli security is in danger.

 

This is NPR.

 

The U.S. assistant mission for Iraq says execution-style killings in Iraq have surged recently. The UN special Iraq representative says they are being carried out in a particularly horrendous manner and is calling on Iraqi authorities to hold perpetrators accountable. 

 

Senate Democrats are hoping to get three more nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed this month. As NPR’s Ailsa Chang reports now that they have changed filibuster rules, they are expecting the confirmations to go through in quick succession. 

 

The Senate still has one more week of recess, but the day they come back. They are going to zoom ahead to confirm three nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, whom Republicans have filibustered only weeks ago. Under the new Senate rules, Robert Wilkins and Nina Pillard were only need 51 votes instead of 60 to be confirmed. The question now is how might Republicans retaliate against the death of the filibuster. One early test, both parties must come to an agreement on the budget by mid-December. Some Republicans say compromise will be even harder now, but there’s never been much hope anyway that any real deal on taxing and spending could have materialised. Ailsa Chang, NPR News, the Capitol.

 

The baby giant panda at Washington’s National Zoo now has a name, Bao Bao, it means treasure or precious. First lady Michelle Obama congratulated the zoo on the naming milestone for the endangered bear. 

 

We are thrilled to welcome this little cub, a cub who exemplifies both the common bond between our nations and the bright future of this magnificent species. That’s a lot for a little bear.

 

The three-month-old Bao Bao is only the second surviving cub born at the National Zoo.