News Headlines - 25 July 2013

▽80 dead in Spain crash; video catches train's final moments - CNN.com

The train races into view, and in the space of a heartbeat, the cars derail and crash into a wall of concrete, flipping onto their sides and skidding along the track with terrifying speed and force.

▽Galicia train driver ‘posted top speeds on Facebook’ - SPAIN - FRANCE 24

The driver operating the train which crashed in northwest Spain on Wednesday evening, killing scores and injuring more than 100, had boasted about travelling at high speed on Facebook, Spanish media reported on Thursday.

▽UK GDP growth of 0.6% shows 'Britain is on the mend,' says George Osborne | guardian.co.uk

Britain's recovery picked up pace in the second quarter, official figures have confirmed, with GDP expanding by 0.6%. George Osborne, the chancellor, welcomed the fresh evidence that the economy has moved, as he has put it, "out of intensive care".

▽Turmoil hits Tunisia after secular politician slain | Reuters

Tunisian opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead on Thursday in the second such assassination this year, setting off violent protests against the Islamist-led government in the capital and elsewhere.

▽Japan relief at Kennedy choice for US ambassador - FT.com

When Barack Obama chose John Roos, a lawyer and fundraiser who was prominent in Silicon Valley but unknown to the wider public, as ambassador to Japan in 2009, some officials in Tokyo fretted that the choice signalled a downgrading of the US-Japan relationship... But Japan’s chronic economic problems and the rise of neighbouring China, it seemed, were threatening to relegate it to a more junior tier in the eyes of the new administration. Four years later, there is palpable relief in Tokyo that Mr Obama has picked a bona fide celebrity as Mr Roos’ successor: Caroline Kennedy, the author, lawyer, Democratic party activist and daughter of John F. Kennedy, the assassinated US president.