Tag Archives: Death

California bill would require reporting of ‘superbug’ infections, deaths

anitbiotic-resistant bacteria

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A California state senator introduced a bill on Monday that would mandate reporting of antibiotic-resistant infections and deaths and require doctors to record the infections on death certificates when they are a cause of death.

The legislation also aims to establish the nation’s most comprehensive statewide surveillance system to track infections and deaths from drug-resistant pathogens. Data from death certificates would be used to help compile an annual state report on superbug infections and related deaths.

In September, a Reuters investigation revealed that tens of thousands of superbug deaths nationwide go uncounted every year. The infections are often omitted from death certificates, and even when they are recorded, they aren’t counted because of the lack of a unified national surveillance system.

“The (Reuters) story highlighted some of the problems that have come from the lack of information, the lack of reporting, especially deaths,” said state Senator Jerry Hill, who introduced the bill. “I wasn’t aware that on death certificates, antibiotic-resistant infections have never been called out.”

Because there is no federal surveillance system, monitoring of superbug infections and deaths falls to the states. A Reuters survey of all 50 state health departments and the District of Columbia found that reporting requirements vary widely.

California is among the states that do not require reporting of superbug-related deaths. A Reuters analysis of death certificates from 2003 to 2014 identified more than 20,000 deaths linked to the infections in California, the most of any state – and probably an undercount, given the unreliability of death certificate data.

Hill’s bill would require hospitals and clinical labs to submit an annual summary of antibiotic-resistant infections to the California Department of Health beginning July 1, 2018; amend a law governing death certificates by requiring that doctors specify on death certificates when a superbug was the leading or a contributing cause of death; and require the state Health Department to publish an annual report on resistant infections and deaths, including data culled from death certificates.

Hill introduced legislation in 2014 that would require reporting of superbug infections – not deaths. It was ultimately stripped down to mandate that all hospitals in California implement “stewardship” programs to prevent the overprescription of antibiotics that promotes drug resistance. Hill said the state medical association and other physician groups opposed the initial proposal.

The 2014 legislation followed a 2013 threat report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimated that at least 23,000 people in the U.S. die every year from antibiotic-resistant infections. A Reuters analysis of the agency’s math found that the numbers are based on such small sample sizes that they are mostly guesswork.

Hill has written several superbug-related bills that have been signed into law in recent years. Those include laws that regulate antibiotic use in livestock and others that mandate antibiotic stewardship programs in nursing homes and other healthcare facilities.

“We don’t know how (superbugs) affect California,” Hill said. “We could be overreacting in certain areas or underreacting in areas that could create real problems for people.”

(Edited by John Blanton)

California fire death toll rises to 33 in grim search through warehouse

Firefighters finding victims of California fire

By Rory Carroll

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – A grim search for victims of a devastating fire that ripped through a converted warehouse in Oakland, California during a dance party entered a third day on Monday, with the list of 33 known deaths expected to grow.

The blaze, which erupted about 11:30 p.m. on Friday (0730 GMT on Saturday), ranks as the deadliest in the United States since 100 people perished in a 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire.

As criminal investigators joined recovery efforts at the charred ruin, just east of San Francisco, firefighters found the remains of nearly three dozen victims at the weekend as they searched the debris-filled shell of the two-story converted warehouse being used by an artists’ collective.

The cause of the fire was still undetermined, officials said. Arson is not suspected but investigators are checking whether the building, often used for music performances, had a history of code violations.

Mayor Libby Schaaf said the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office activated its criminal investigation team at the fire scene. A representative of the prosecutor’s office is monitoring the recovery process, she said, adding she was not authorized to say if a criminal probe was under way.

The mayor said the city’s first priority was finding the victims and supporting their families, adding, “We have delivered the unacceptable and horrific news of losing a loved one to seven of our families.”

The warehouse, which served as a base for the Ghost Ship Artists Collective, was one of many converted lofts in the city’s Fruitvale district, a mostly Latino area where rents are generally lower than in the rest of Oakland.

By Sunday evening, only 35 to 40 percent of the building had been searched, said Sergeant Ray Kelly, spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials are still unsure how many people were in the building at the time.

woman placing flowers at memorial

A woman places flowers at a makeshift memorial near the scene of a fire in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California, U.S. December 3, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

SOME VICTIMS AGED 17 OR YOUNGER

Recovery teams had yet to search an unspecified number of mobile homes parked on the first floor, Kelly said, illustrating the scope of the task. He said people appeared to have been living in them.

The building was designated for use as a warehouse only, according to the city, which was aware of reports that people were living there, although no permits had been issued.

The recovery operation was delayed for hours as the roof collapsed and the second story fell onto the first in spots, making it unsafe to enter.

The effort has proceeded slowly due to mountains of debris, with victims apparently scattered throughout the unstable structure.

“We’re finding victims in every quadrant of the warehouse,” Kelly said. “We’re finding victims where we least expect them.”

Exhaustion and the wide scale of the disaster were taking an emotional toll on crews who had been working around the clock since the fire broke out.

With many victims burned beyond recognition, families were asked to preserve items that might contain their DNA to aid identification.

After notifying their families, the Alameda County coroner released the names of seven victims who had been positively identified:

– Cash Askew, 22, Oakland, Calif.

– David Clines, 35, Oakland, Calif.

– Nick Gomez-Hall, 25, Coronado, Calif.

– Sara Hoda, 30, Walnut Creek, Calif.

– Travis Hough, 35, Oakland, Calif.

– Donna Kellogg, 32, Oakland, Calif.

– Brandon Chase Wittenauer, 32, Hayward, Calif.

Some of the victims were aged 17 or younger, although most were in their 20s and 30s, officials said. Some were from elsewhere in the United States and abroad.

One of the dead was the son of a sheriff’s deputy, Kelly said, adding, “This tragedy has hit very close to home.”

Chris Nechodom, 30, said he was on the ground floor of the building when he saw flames race across the ceiling. As he fled, he heard a loud noise and saw a plume of thick black smoke.

“It blew out maybe 10 feet out of the entrance. After that, I saw a few more people crawl out.” Nechodom said he was unsure how many people had been inside.

Two friends embrace at memorial for California warehouse victims

Rachel Saxer (L) embraces friend La Tron at a makeshift memorial near the scene of a fatal warehouse fire in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California, U.S. December 4, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

‘SET UP FOR A FIRE’

Photos of the ‘Ghost Ship’ venue posted online showed a space filled with an elaborate array of musical instruments, religious statues and antiques. Furnished with a mix of overstuffed sofas and colorful carpets, the site featured a maze of side rooms and nooks.

“The whole place was built like you are going to set up for a fire,” said Matt Hummel, 46, who twice visited the space before the fire and had helped renovate other warehouse spaces for artists.

The party took place on the second floor of the building, which appeared to have only two exits, officials said. There was no evidence of smoke detectors or sprinklers.

The city said it had received complaints about “blight” and construction without permits and opened an investigation. An inspector verified the “blight” complaint after observing piles of debris outside, but failed to gain access to verify the construction complaint.

Schaaf told reporters she did not know why inspectors were unable to get into the building, but she was putting together a team of city employees “to gather every piece of information.”

(Additional reporting by Tim McLaughlin in Chicago and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif.; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Nine dead, many missing, in California party fire

Firefighters exit a warehouse where a fire broke out during an electronic dance party late Friday evening, resulting in at least nine deaths and many unaccounted for in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California, U.S

By Peter Henderson

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – At least nine people were dead and about 25 were unaccounted for after a massive fire broke out during a late-night party in a warehouse in Oakland, California, the city’s fire chief said on Saturday.

Fire officials were still trying to determine how the blaze started at about 11:30 p.m. on Friday, said Chief Teresa Deloach-Reed.

The roof of the two-story warehouse in the city’s Fruitvale district collapsed during the fire, complicating efforts to recover bodies, she told a press briefing.

Officials did not know if any of the 25 missing people were among the nine confirmed victims.

“There is a large majority of that building that has not been searched,” Deloach-Reed said during a press briefing.

“We are hoping that the number nine is what there is and that there are no more,” the fire chief said, referring to the number of known fatalities.

A charred wall is seen outside a warehouse after a fire broke out during an electronic dance party late Friday evening, resulting in at least nine deaths and many unaccounted for in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California, U.S.

A charred wall is seen outside a warehouse after a fire broke out during an electronic dance party late Friday evening, resulting in at least nine deaths and many unaccounted for in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California, U.S. December 3, 2016. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

Deloach-Reed said some of those who were missing may have brought themselves to the hospital or elsewhere. She said she did not know how many people were at the party.

The warehouse housed units where people lived and worked – makeshift artist studios carved out with partitions, the fire chief said. “A flea market of items” were inside, she said.

A Facebook event page showed 176 people planned to attend the party, which featured a performance by the electronic music act Golden Donna. The page, which listed 355 others as interested in going, carried posts from people who were either missing or accounted for.

Video footage posted on social media showed the structure engulfed in flames and encircled by fire vehicles pumping water into the building.

“It’s going to hit the city, it’s going to hit our organization,” Reed said. “It’s just going to be hard on everyone.”

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Alistair Bell)

San Bernardino marks one-year anniversary of shooting that killed 14

Neighbours comfort Jose Gonzales (centre), who was prevented from returning to his wife and his home at the scene of the investigation around the area of the SUV vehicle where two suspects were shot by police following a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California December 3, 2015.

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Police and fire officials in Southern California who dealt with the carnage of a mass shooting by Islamic militants that left 14 people dead will mark the one-year anniversary on Friday of the attack that shook even the most hardened emergency responders.

The massacre on Dec. 2, 2015, in San Bernardino by a married couple was one of the deadliest attacks by militants in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks.

Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, 29, opened fire during a party and training session for San Bernardino County employees, who were Farook’s co-workers, wounding 22 people in addition to the 14 killed.

Police officers were stunned as they entered the conference room where Farook and Malik had fired on dozens of people, according to a report issued this year by the Police Foundation, which spoke to emergency responders and witnesses.

“It looked like a bomb had gone off,” the report said, with blood covering the room and the smell of gunpowder filling the air.

An SUV with its windows shot out that police suspect was the getaway vehicle from at the scene of a shooting in San Bernardino, California is shown in this aerial photo December 2, 2015.

An SUV with its windows shot out that police suspect was the getaway vehicle from at the scene of a shooting in San Bernardino, California is shown in this aerial photo December 2, 2015. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo

On Friday, the victims will be remembered with a ceremony at a San Bernardino blood bank, a 14-mile (23 km) bicycle ride – representing one mile for each person killed – and a moment of silence.

The ceremony at the blood bank will be attended by officials and emergency responders, and residents are expected to line up to donate blood. The bike ride by police officers and others will be held a short time later, organizers said.

The moment of silence will be held at 10:58 a.m., the time when the shooting was reported to emergency responders, San Bernardino city spokeswoman Monica Lagos said.

In the evening, another local event is expected to draw at least 2,000 participants to an arena, she said.

Authorities have said that U.S.-born Farook and Malik, a native of Pakistan, were inspired by Islamic extremism. The couple died in a shootout with police four hours after the massacre.

A special report this week by ABC News showed a photo of the gathering the couple had targeted, which included elements of a holiday party such as a Christmas tree and costumes.

San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan told ABC News that Malik had previously expressed discontent with the party.

“She had essentially made the statement in an online account that she didn’t think that a Muslim (her husband) should have to participate in a non-Muslim holiday or event,” Burguan told ABC News.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Death toll from Tennessee wildfire climbs to 11

Burned buildings and cars aftermath of wildfire is seen in this image released in social media by Tennessee Highway Patrol in Gatlinburg, Tennessee,

By Steve Gorman

(Reuters) – The death toll from a devastating blaze in and around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee rose to 11 on Thursday, the highest loss of civilian life from a single U.S. wildfire in 13 years.

Investigators have determined the so-called Chimney Tops 2 fire, which laid waste to whole neighborhoods in the resort town of Gatlinburg earlier this week, was caused by unspecified human activity, officials said.

Total property losses from the fire have been put at more than 700 structures, with most of the destruction in Gatlinburg, known as the “gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains,” in eastern Tennessee, about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Knoxville.

A total of 11 people were killed in the fire, up from seven deaths reported Wednesday, according to Dean Flener, a spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

That made Chimney Tops 2 the nation’s single deadliest wildfire since 2013, when 19 firefighters died near Prescott, Arizona.

Troopers from the Tennessee Highway Patrol help residents leave an area under threat of wildfire after a mandatory evacuation was ordered in Gatlinburg, Tennesse

Troopers from the Tennessee Highway Patrol help residents leave an area under threat of wildfire after a mandatory evacuation was ordered in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in a picture released November 30, 2016. Tennessee Highway Patrol/Handout via REUTERS

It also ranks as the largest civilian death toll from a U.S. wildfire since 15 people, including a firefighter, were killed in Southern California’s Cedar Fire in 2003, according to Jessica Gardetto, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

None of the Tennessee victims has been publicly identified, but all were presumed to be civilians, officials from the fire command center told Reuters. As many as 45 people have been reported injured.

The blaze erupted on Nov. 23, Thanksgiving eve, in a remote area of rugged terrain dubbed Chimney Tops in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg, authorities said.

Fed by drought-parched brush and trees and stoked by fierce winds, the flames spread quickly days later, igniting numerous spot fires and exploding on Monday into an inferno that roared out of the park into surrounding homes and businesses.

“The wildfire was determined to be human-caused and is currently under investigation,” according to a bulletin released on Thursday by fire commanders and the National Park Service. It gave no further details.

Aerial television news footage showed the burned-out, smoking ruins of dozens of homes surrounded by blackened trees in several neighborhoods.

Steady rains on Tuesday night and into Wednesday helped firefighters slow the blaze, but by Thursday morning officials were still reporting no containment around a fire zone that spanned more than 17,000 acres (6,880 hectares).

“The fire is not out; it is just knocked down,” fire operations chief Mark Jamieson said in the bulletin.

Some 14,000 people were forced to flee their homes at the height of the fire, and most of Gatlinburg, a city of nearly 4,000 residents, remained under mandatory evacuation on Thursday.

Evacuation orders were lifted on Wednesday for the nearby town of Pigeon Forge, home of country music star Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)

Death toll rises to 7 in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains fires

By Steve Gorman

Nov 30 (Reuters) – The death toll from wildfires blazing in and around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee rose to seven on Wednesday even as drenching rains helped firefighters suppress flames that have left whole neighborhoods in ruins.

The tally of documented property losses from the fires also climbed to more than 700 structures damaged or destroyed throughout Sevier County, including at least 300 in the resort town of Gatlinburg.

On Tuesday, authorities reported about 150 structures damaged or destroyed by fire.

Aerial news footage broadcast on local television showed the burned-out, smoking ruins of dozens of homes surrounded by blackened trees in several neighborhoods.

In one piece of good news, Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters told a late afternoon news conference on Wednesday that three people who were trapped by the fire were safely rescued, treated at a local hospital and released.

He gave no details about the circumstances of their rescue.

But three more bodies were recovered earlier in the day, bringing the number of confirmed fatalities from the disaster to seven, but none of the victims had been positively identified, he said.

At least 14 people were previously reported injured.

Mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for some 14,000 people in and around Gatlinburg, along with a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the city, known as the “gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains.”

But nearly all of the estimated 500 people forced from their homes in the nearby town of Pigeon Forge were allowed to return, according to fire department spokeswoman Trish McGee. Pigeon Forge is home to country music star Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood, which suspended operations through Wednesday.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was likewise closed to the public due to extensive fire activity and downed trees.

The so-called Chimney Top fire, the principal blaze menacing the area, exploded in the national park on Monday evening as wind gusts reached nearly 90 miles per hour (145 km per hour), spreading the flames through drought-parched trees and brush
into surrounding homes and businesses.

TV news footage showed numerous homes going up in flames, silhouetted against an ominous orange sky.

By Wednesday afternoon, the fire zone had scorched an estimated 15,700 acres, but firefighters made considerable progress in containing the blaze, helped by steady showers that drenched the area Tuesday night into Wednesday.

“We’re thankful to the big guy up above for that rain, that’s for sure,” Waters said.

Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said many of his crews were busy on Wednesday helping clear downed power lines, mudslides and other debris from roadways to allow search teams and recovery crews into more remote areas of the fire zone.

President Barack Obama spoke on Wednesday with Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam to express condolences for lives lost and his sympathies for those displaced and injured, and to offer any support needed, according to the White House.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)

Soccer plane in Colombia crash was running out of fuel

Rescue crews work at the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia,

By Julia Symmes Cobb and Brad Haynes

LA UNION, Colombia/CHAPECO, Brazil (Reuters) – The pilot of a LAMIA Airlines plane that crashed in Colombia, virtually wiping out a Brazilian soccer team, had radioed that he was running out of fuel and needed to make an emergency landing, according to the co-pilot of another plane in the area.

The crash on Monday night killed 71 people. Six survived, including just three members of the Chapecoense soccer squad en route to the biggest game in their history, the Copa Sudamericana final.

Avianca co-pilot Juan Sebastian Upegui said in a chat message with friends that the LAMIA pilot told the control tower at the airport in Medellin that he was in trouble.

Priority had already been given to a plane from airline VivaColombia, which had also reported problems, Upegui said. Reuters confirmed the audio message, which local media played on Wednesday, was from Upegui.

After reporting being low on fuel, the LAMIA pilot then said he was experiencing electrical difficulties before the radio went silent.

“Mayday mayday … Help us get to the runway … Help, help,” Upegui described the pilot as saying. “Then it ended … We all started to cry.”

Relatives of Brazilian journalist Guilherme Marques, who died in a plane accident that crashed into Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, mourn during a mass

Relatives of Brazilian journalist Guilherme Marques, who died in a plane accident that crashed into Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, mourn during a mass in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares

The BAe 146, made by BAE Systems Plc, slammed into a mountainside. Besides the three players, a journalist and two crew members survived.

One survivor, Bolivian flight technician Erwin Tumiri, said he only saved himself by strict adherence to security procedure, while others panicked.

“Many passengers got up from their seats and started yelling,” he told Colombia’s Radio Caracol. “I put the bag between my legs and went into the fetal position as recommended.”

Bolivian flight attendant Ximena Suarez, another survivor, said the lights went out less than a minute before the plane slammed into the mountain, according to Colombian officials in Medellin.

Of the players, goalkeeper Jackson Follmann was recovering from the amputation of his right leg, doctors said.

Another player, defender Helio Neto, remained in intensive care with severe trauma to his skull, thorax and lungs.

Fellow defender Alan Ruschel had spine surgery.

Suarez and Tumiri were shaken and bruised but not in critical condition, medical staff said, while journalist Rafael Valmorbida was in intensive care for multiple rib fractures that partly collapsed a lung.

Investigators from Brazil have joined Colombian counterparts to check two black boxes from the crash site on a muddy hillside in wooded highlands near the town of La Union.

Bolivia, where LAMIA is based, and the United Kingdom also sent experts to help the probe.

HOMAGES PLANNED

The plane “came over my house, but there was no noise,” said Nancy Munoz, 35, who grows strawberries in the area. “The engine must have gone.”

By Wednesday morning, rescuers had recovered all of the bodies, which were to be sent to Brazil and Bolivia. All of the crew members were Bolivian.

A Colombian air force helicopter retrieves the bodies of victims from the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

A Colombian air force helicopter retrieves the bodies of victims from the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

Forty-five of the bodies have been identified, Colombian officials said.

Soccer-mad Brazil declared three days of mourning.

It was a bitter twist to a fairy-tale story for Chapecoense. Since 2009, the team rose from Brazil’s fourth to top division and was about to play the biggest match in its history in the first leg of the regional cup final in Medellin.

Global soccer greats from Lionel Messi to Pele sent condolences.

In the small city of Chapecó in remote southern Brazil, black and green ribbons were draped on fences, balconies and restaurant tables. Schools canceled classes, and businesses closed.

“It’s a miracle,” Flavio Ruschel, the father of Alan Ruschel, told Globo News as he prepared to fly to Colombia. “I don’t think I’ll be able to speak, just hug him and cry a lot.”

Black banners hung from a cathedral downtown and wrapped around a 14-meter statue of one of the town’s founding explorers.

Outside the team’s Conda stadium, a group of hardcore fans put up a tent and promised to keep vigil until the bodies of their idols returned to the city.

“We were there for them in victory, and we’re here for them in tragedy, rain or shine,” said fan Caua Regis. “Like family.”

The club is planning an open wake at their stadium, a city official said.

A homage was also planned for later on Wednesday at the stadium in Medellin of Atletico Nacional, which had been due to play Chapecoense in the regional final in the evening.

The Colombian team wants the trophy to be given to Chapecoense in honor of the dead.

“As far as we are concerned,” the team said, “Chapecoense will forever be the champions of the Copa Sudamericana Cup 2016.”

(Writing by Helen Murphy and Andrew Cawthorne; Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle and Daniel Flynn in Brazil; Editing by Kieran Murray and Lisa Von Ahn)

At least five dead after tornadoes rip through South

Stock photo of tornado, wikicommons

(Reuters) – At least five people were killed and dozens more were injured after tornadoes tore through Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi overnight and into Wednesday morning, forecasters and local media reported.

Three people were killed in the night in Rosalie, a small community in northeastern Alabama, where at least one tornado was reported by a weather spotter, the National Weather Service said on its website.

“Nighttime tornadoes can be particularly dangerous since they are difficult to see and can be quick-moving, all while many people are asleep,” the National Weather Service said in a statement.

A couple was killed in Tennessee’s Polk County, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported, citing a law enforcement official. Several dozen others were injured in the state, including at least 20 people in McMinn County, ABC affiliate WATE reported.

In Ider, Alabama, four children and several adults were injured when a tornado flattened a daycare center, the National Weather Service said. It said the group was seeking refuge inside the daycare center, which was closed at the time.

The National Weather Service fielded more than two dozen reports of tornados as the storm system, packing hail and heavy downpours, moved through eastern Texas, northern Mississippi and Alabama and into southeast Tennessee late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday morning.

The system also destroyed homes and businesses, downed power lines and snapped trees, according to the weather service and local media.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Catherine Evans and Will Dunham)

Week of renewed Aleppo strikes kills 141 in east, 16 in west

People walk near rubble of damaged buildings, in the rebel-held besieged area of Aleppo, Syria

BEIRUT, Nov 22 (Reuters) – At least 141 civilians, including 18 children, have been killed in a week of renewed bombardment on the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo which has devastated its hospitals, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The Britain-based war monitor said it had documented hundreds of injuries as a result of Russian and Syrian airstrikes and shelling by government forces and its allies on the besieged eastern half of the divided city.

The assault began last Tuesday after a weeks-long pause in airstrikes and shelling inside east Aleppo, although battles and air strikes did continue along the city’s front lines and in the surrounding countryside.

The monitor said there were another 87 deaths of rebel fighters and people of unknown identity in the eastern sector.

The Observatory also documented 16 civilian deaths, including 10 children, and dozens of injuries as a result of rebel shelling of government-held west Aleppo.

Airstrikes and shelling of east Aleppo last week knocked all the main hospitals in that part of the city out of service, the local health authority and international humanitarian agencies said.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Driver arrested, faces charges in deadly Tennessee school bus crash

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.,

By Frank McGurty

(Reuters) – A bus carrying elementary students home from school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, crashed on Monday afternoon, killing six children and sending nearly two dozen to a hospital with injuries, authorities said.

The driver, identified as Johnthony Walker, 24, was taken into custody and faces five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment and reckless driving charges, Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said during a news conference.

“This is an absolute nightmare for our community,” Fletcher said.

Chattanooga Police said earlier on Twitter the driver was being questioned and was cooperating with investigators.

Speed appeared to have contributed to the crash, which happened at 4 p.m. CST, Fletcher said.

The bus crash left five dead, police said on Twitter late on Monday. Five students died at the scene and a sixth student died at a hospital, according to Melydia Clewell, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office.

The vehicle normally carries 35 passengers, Clewell said. It was not clear how many students were riding in the bus when it crashed.

The students were in kindergarten through fifth grade, she said, which would make them roughly aged between five and 10.

Clewell said two or three children who were in hospital “could go either way.”

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S., November 21, 2016. Courtesy of Chattanooga Fire Dept/Handout via REUTERS

Rescue officials at the scene of a school bus crash involving several fatalities in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S., November 21, 2016. Courtesy of Chattanooga Fire Dept/Handout via REUTERS

The crash left the bright yellow school bus wrapped around a tree, mangled and nearly severed in two. Rescue teams were still sifting through the wreckage of the bus, which was resting on its side, two hours after the crash.

Federal transportation investigators were also opening a probe into the crash, and planned to send a team to Chattanooga on Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

School officials had not found any complaints filed against the driver, Clewell said.

Two bloodied children were lying on stretchers in a front yard receiving attention from first responders nearly an hour after the crash, while others not taken to the hospital appeared dazed with cuts on their faces, the Chattanooga Times Free Press newspaper said on its website.

Asked about the crash after a hearing in Nashville, Governor Bill Haslam said the state would offer its assistance.

“It’s a sad situation anytime there’s a school bus with children involved, which there is in this case,” he said.

(Reporting by Frank McGurty; Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta in New York, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Rory Carroll in San Francisco, Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)