4 killed on ride at Australian theme park
4 killed on ride at Australian theme park
SYDNEY (AP) — Four people including a young mother and her brother were killed Tuesday after a river rapids ride malfunctioned at a popular theme park on Australia’s east coast, officials said.
Two men and two women died while on the ride at Dreamworld, a park on Queensland state’s Gold Coast, Queensland police officer Tod Reid told reporters.
Two children who were in the raft at the time of the accident were hospitalized, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Wednesday.
She did not detail the children’s condition or explain their relationship to the victims.
The Thunder River Rapids ride whisks people in circular rafts along a fast-moving, man-made river. A malfunction caused two people to be ejected from their raft, while two others were caught inside the ride, said Gavin Fuller, an officer with the Queensland Ambulance Service.
Fearing Election Day trouble, some US schools cancel classes
FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) — Rigged elections. Vigilante observers. Angry voters. The claims, threats and passions surrounding the presidential race have led communities throughout the United States to move polling places out of schools or cancel classes on Election Day.
The fear is that the ugly rhetoric of the campaign could escalate into confrontations and even violence in school hallways, endangering students.
“If anybody can sit there and say they don’t think this is a contentious election, then they aren’t paying much attention,” said Ed Tolan, police chief in this seaside community, which decided to call off classes on Election Day and put additional officers on duty Nov. 8.
School officials already are on edge because of the shootings and threats that have become all too common. They point to the recent firebombing of a Republican Party office in one North Carolina county and the shooting-up of another with a BB gun as the type of trouble they fear on Election Day.
Russia: Halt of airstrikes on Aleppo to continue
BEIRUT (AP) — The Russian military said Tuesday the halt of Russian and Syrian airstrikes, now in its seventh day, on besieged eastern parts of the city of Aleppo will continue and humanitarian corridors will remain open even as the Syrian army has unleashed a new offensive on the rebel-held neighborhoods.
Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military’s General Staff said Tuesday that Russian and Syrian warplanes have stayed 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from Aleppo for a week. He said that “the moratorium on Russian and Syrian air strikes on the city will be extended.”
Last week, Russia also declared a three-day break in fighting intended to allow the evacuation of both militants and civilians from Aleppo’s rebel-held eastern part. The rebels rejected the Russian offer, citing lack of security guarantees for the evacuees, and the planned evacuation of civilians also failed.
Rudskoi accused the militants of preventing both civilians and the rebels willing to leave Aleppo from exiting the city.
While the Syrian army has resumed its offensive, Rudskoi said six humanitarian corridors have remained open and new breaks in fighting could be negotiated to evacuate civilians.
He added that the Russian military and local authorities helped evacuate 48 women and children from eastern Aleppo the previous evening.
Anger still flares after judge OKs Volkswagen emissions deal
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge approved the largest auto-scandal settlement in U.S. history Tuesday, giving nearly a half-million Volkswagen owners and leaseholders the choice between selling their cars back or having them repaired so they don’t cheat on emissions tests and spew excess pollution.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the nearly $15 billion deal “adequately and fairly” compensates consumers and gets the polluting vehicles off the road as soon as possible.
The German automaker acknowledged last year that about 475,000 Volkswagens and Audis with 2-liter, four-cylinder diesel engines were programmed to cheat on emissions tests.
Under the agreement, owners can choose to have Volkswagen buy back their vehicle regardless of its condition for the full trade-in price on Sept. 18, 2015, when the scandal broke, or pay for repairs. Either way, Volkswagen also will pay owners $5,100 to $10,000, depending on the age of the car and whether the owner had it prior to Sept. 18 of last year.
Volkswagen has agreed to spend up to $10 billion compensating consumers and could start buying back the cars as early as next month. Regulators have not approved any fixes.