News Briefs

Gatlinburg Devastation

Starting on Nov. 28, suspected human caused wildfires swept over 15,000 acres in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, destroying over 250 buildings, leaving the tourist landmine a ghost town.

According to cnn.com, multiple neighborhoods had an emergency evacuation Monday evening, causing people to only leave with the shirts on their backs. As of now, seven are reported dead and several are missing.

Colombia Plane Crash

On Nov. 28, a LAMIA plane crashed near Medellin, Colombia carrying 77 passengers including The Brazil Chapecoense Soccer Club. Just before the plane lost connection to the air traffic control, the pilot of flight 2933 informed them that “The plane is in total electric failure and without fuel” (newyorkpost.com).

Investigators said that the aircraft went into fuel starvation, because of this there was never an explosion or fire, possibly being the reason why there were six survivors. Sadly 71 people lost their lives.

OSU Shooter

Students and staff at Ohio state University were sent into a panic when undergrad Abdul Artan started to attack fellow classmates on Nov. 28. Artan reportedly drove his car up onto a busy sidewalk hitting 6 people, then proceeded to get out and stab five with a butcher knife. All victims are being treated and are expected to recover (newyorktimes.com).

According to the news source, after a few minutes into the vicious attack, campus police officer Alan Horujko shot and killed after Artan failed to obey orders. Currently there is an ongoing investigation if this was an act of terrorism (cnn.com).

China’s Missing Girls

According to the Washington Post, there is an ongoing epidemic of middle-age women coming out of the woodwork and registering in the Chinese census years after birth. It is expected that 25 million women have been kept in secret by their families due to the “one child policy” established in 1979.

The Chinese government thought that the local family planning facilities would enforce this law. However, in smaller villages, officials turned a blind eye by not registering them until later in life (washingtonpost.com).