2 die in Ky. flooding
2 die in Ky. flooding
FLAT GAP, Ky.
Floodwaters in Kentucky have killed one man and one woman, left six more missing and sent rescue crews to comb the hilly Appalachian terrain Tuesday, as the threat of more floods bore down on rescue efforts.
Kentucky State Police Trooper Steven Mounts said emergency personnel in the hardest-hit neighborhoods in Johnson County struggled with the debris and difficult communication as they went door-to-door Tuesday, searching for those who might be trapped in their homes. Some people were rescued from trees they climbed to escape the floodwaters, according to county Sheriff Dwayne Price. The missing range in age from 22 to 74.
NAACP to Miss.: Change state flag
JACKSON, Miss.
The NAACP is calling on Mississippi legislators to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, days after South Carolina removed a stand-alone Confederate banner from its Capitol grounds.
“The state of Mississippi now remains the sole state in our country to embrace a symbol of war, hate and a failed attempt to perpetuate its right to slavery, into its flag while regarding it as ‘heritage,’ despite inflicting degradation upon its citizen descendants of slaves,” the civil-rights organization said in a resolution it adopted Tuesday at its national convention in Pennsylvania.
The resolution does not call for a boycott of the state. However, it says the organization’s national leaders will bring attention to local NAACP chapters in Mississippi as they seek a new state flag “which all its citizens can look upon with pride and allegiance.”
Stampede at festival in India kills 27
HYDERABAD, India
Tens of thousands of pilgrims taking part in a Hindu religious bathing festival surged forward and triggered a massive stampede on a riverbank in southern India, leaving at least 27 dead and dozens injured in chaotic scenes in which rescuers struggled to respond quickly.
The stampede Tuesday along the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh stampede was triggered by some pilgrims who were trying to retrieve their shoes, which had fallen off in the rush to the riverbank, police said.
Killer executed
BONNE TERRE, Mo.
A Missouri inmate who sexually attacked a 19-year-old woman before tying her to a cemetery tree and killing her was executed Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court and the governor declined to intervene.
David Zink, 55, was put to death at a state prison near Bonne Terre, south of St. Louis, hours after the nation’s high court rebuffed his last appeals and Gov. Jay Nixon rejected his clemency request. Corrections Department spokesman Mike O’Connell said the lethal injection began at 7:33 p.m. and Zink was pronounced dead at 7:41 p.m.
Mall to reopen 2 years after attack
NAIROBI, Kenya
Nairobi’s Westgate Mall is to re-open Saturday, nearly two years after it was attacked by Somalia’s Islamic extremist rebels who killed at least 67 people, Kenyan officials said Tuesday.
The mall has been extensively refurbished since the devastating four-day siege.
The violence erupted Sept. 21, 2013, when four Islamic militants entered the mall and fired on shoppers. Kenyan police and army responded hours later, and the gunmen held the building for four days. The four attackers are believed to have died from smoke inhalation from a fire that collapsed part of the roof. The mall was left in shambles, with bullet-scarred walls, shattered windows, flooded floors and bloodstains. Kenyan army soldiers also were accused of looting shops.
Associated Press