911 callers told of carnage at scene of bus wreck

911 callers told of carnage at scene of bus wreck

SHERMAN, Texas — Witnesses who called 911 after the crash of a chartered bus that killed at least 16 people described a chaotic scene, telling emergency workers of bloody passengers crushed beneath the smoking wreckage, according to calls released Saturday by police.

The unlicensed bus carrying 55 members of a Vietnamese Catholic group from Houston to Carthage, Mo., for a religious festival smashed into a guardrail and skidded off a highway early Friday near the Texas-Oklahoma state line. Twelve people died at the scene and four more died at hospitals.

Rabies from bats suspected in deaths in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela — At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats.

Laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, according to two researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts.

The two UC Berkeley researchers — the husband-and-wife team of anthropologist Charles Briggs and public health specialist Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs — said symptoms include fever, body pains, tingling in the feet followed by progressive paralysis, and an extreme fear of water. Victims tend to have convulsions and grow rigid before death.

Poet Darwish dead at 67

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Mahmoud Darwish, whose prose gave voice to the Palestinian experience of exile, occupation and infighting, died on Saturday in Houston. He was 67.

The predominant Palestinian poet, whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages and won numerous international awards, died after open heart surgery at a Houston hospital, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Born to a large Muslim family in historical Palestine — now modern-day Israel — he emerged as a Palestinian cultural icon eloquently describing his people’s struggle for independence while also criticizing both the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian leadership. He gave voice to the Palestinian dreams of statehood, crafted their declaration of independence and helped forge a Palestinian national identity.

Mudslide at illegal mine kills at least 31 people

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Heavy rains caused a mudslide at an illegal gold mine in Burkina Faso that killed at least 31 people, state-run radio said.

Miners dug through the mud to try to rescue survivors and pull out bodies in the mining village of Boussoukoula in southwest Burkina Faso, state radio said.

The accident comes after a June government order for unofficial mines to close until Sept. 30 because of the risk of accidents during the rainy season, when hastily dug tunnels can easily collapse.

Dealers buy vineyards in Washington to hide pot

WAPATO, Wash. — Across central Washington’s fruit bowl, farmers are buying vineyards, hoping to establish roots in the area and capitalize on the booming wine industry.

Authorities believe some of the buyers are living in Mexico and their vineyards are producing tens of thousands of illegal marijuana plants — a crop that could easily surpass grapes in value this year.

Law enforcement officials in the Yakima Valley already have converged on seven vineyards that had been converted to marijuana operations this summer. At least five had been recently purchased — the buyers are still being tracked — and one had been leased to pot growers by an unknowing owner.

Pot growers aren’t just hiding crops in national forests and random cornfields any more, said Washington State Patrol Sgt. Richard A. Beghtol.

“They are able to amass a huge amount of money and using that money to go out and buy land to do their marijuana cultivation,” Beghtol said. “It’s their big moneymaker.”

Somalis fill vacant jobs

POSTVILLE, Iowa — Nearly three months after a federal immigration raid uprooted almost 400 employees at a meatpacking plant in northeastern Iowa, dozens of Somali immigrants are slowly but steadily filling the depleted ranks left by the arrested workers.

Federal officials said the May 12 raid at Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, was the largest single immigration enforcement effort in U.S. history.

As they fill the jobs vacated by the 389 people — mostly Mexicans and Guatemalans — arrested in the raid, the Somalis are beginning to form a community in this town of 2,200.

Associated Press