A CSX freight train crashed into a trash truck, derailed and caught fire Tuesday in a Baltimore suburb, setting off an explosion that rattled homes at least a half-mile (800 meters) away and sent a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.

In the third serious derailment this month, the dozen or so rail cars, at least one carrying hazardous material, went off the tracks at about 2 p.m. in Rosedale, a suburb east of Baltimore. A hazardous materials team responded, but Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said at a news conference that no toxic inhalants were being released. Officials did not order an evacuation.

Two employees of the U.S. embassy in Venezuela were injured in an "incident" early Tuesday, the State Department said, as local media in Caracas reported the pair had been shot.

"Medical staff inform us that their injuries are not life-threatening," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters, adding that the incident did not take place at the U.S. embassy compound, but "off-site".

Suspected Taliban militants killed seven police in southern Afghanistan after persuading the officers to invite them into their checkpoint for dinner, officials said on Tuesday.

A total of 14 Afghan police and soldiers have died over the last two days as Taliban insurgents increase attacks as part of their annual "spring offensive" launched last month.

An American F-15 fighter crashed into the sea after its pilot ejected from his plane off Japan's southernmost Okinawa prefecture on Tuesday, the U.S. Air Force said.

"A Kadena-based F-15 aircraft developed a problem that ultimately resulted in the pilot ejecting from the aircraft over the Pacific Ocean approximately 70 miles (110 kilometers) east of Okinawa," the air force said, referring to the hub of American air power in the Pacific.

The United States, Turkey and Qatar called Friday for an urgent debate on Syria at the U.N.'s top human rights body next week, citing the escalating conflict and the regime's assault on the central town of Qusayr.

"We ... request the Human Rights Council to hold an urgent debate on the deteriorating situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, and the recent killings in al-Qusayr," the ambassadors of the three countries wrote in their request to council president Remigiusz Henczel.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian and French counterparts in Paris on Monday ahead of an expected international conference on ending Syria's conflict, officials said.

Kerry and Sergei Lavrov will meet "to continue discussions from their meeting just a few weeks ago in Russia, and provide updates as they plan ahead for the international conference on Syria," a State Department official said in a statement Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Friday to take "hard decisions" to revive the Middle East peace process, which has stalled for almost three years.

Kerry has been pressing Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks that broke down in September 2010, notably over the issue of Jewish settlement building.

Fighters loyal to al-Qaida have seized control of villages near the Yemeni port city of Mukalla in an apparent bid to take over swathes of the southeastern province of Hadramawt, the interior ministry and residents said on Friday.

The ministry condemned what it said was a "terrorist plot to proclaim an Islamic emirate in the Ghayl Bawazir area" near Mukalla, the provincial capital.

U.S. President Barack Obama set out Thursday to redefine the U.S. fight against global terrorism.

But despite calling for a more targeted and not "boundless" theater of global operations, Obama left the specifics and timelines for action, by which his success or failure can be measured, out of his big speech.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday condemned the killing of a British soldier in London by two suspected Islamic extremists as "appalling" and "horrific."

"The United States stands resolute with the United Kingdom, our ally and friend, against violent extremism and terror," Obama said in a written statement.