At least 36 dead after an overcrowded bus falls into a gorge

LUCKNOW, India>> A poorly maintained and overcrowded bus veered off the road and plunged into a deep gorge in northern India on Monday, killing at least 36 people and injuring several others, officials said.

The accident occurred in Almora district in the mountainous state of Uttarakhand. The bus was carrying around 60 people, and more than 20 have been injured, said Deepak Rawat, a senior state government official.

Authorities said earlier they believed there were 42 passengers, which was how many people the bus could accommodate.

Teams of rescue and relief workers were deployed to the site and officials feared the death toll may rise further, especially as seven passengers in hospital were in critical condition.

Television footage showed parts of the bus mangled and destroyed as it lay overturned on a rocky slope, close to a stream. Rescuers were seen working to pull out passengers and carrying bodies on stretchers.

The state’s chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami earlier said rescue teams were working to quickly evacuate the injured passengers to nearby hospitals and that authorities have been instructed to airlift those seriously hurt.

Tropical storm could hit Cuba as a hurricane

Tropical Storm Rafael formed Monday in the Caribbean and will bring heavy rain to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands before strengthening into a hurricane and likely hitting Cuba, forecasters said.

Later in the week, it also is expected to bring heavy rainfall to Florida and portions of the U.S. Southeast, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Jamaica, and a hurricane watch was in effect for the Cayman Islands and for parts of Cuba including the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, La Habana, Mayabeque, Matanzas, and the Isle of Youth. A tropical storm watch was issued for Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, and Las Tunas in Cuba.

A tropical storm watch also was issued for the lower and middle Florida Keys from Key West to west of the Channel 5 Bridge, and for the Dry Tortugas.

Heavy rains in Barcelona disrupt rail service

The recurrent storms in eastern Spain that led to massive flooding last week and killed at least 217 people, mostly near Valencia, dumped rain on Barcelona on Monday, prompting authorities to suspend commuter rail service.

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said he was suspending all commuter trains in northeast Catalonia, a region with 8 million people, on request from civil protection officials.

Mobile phones in Barcelona screeched with an alert for “extreme and continued rainfall” on the southern outskirts of the city. The alert urged people to avoid any normally dry gorges or canals.

Puente said that the rains had forced air traffic controllers to change the course of 15 flights operating at Barcelona’s airport, located on the southern flank of the city.

Families settle court battle over who owns killer’s name and likeness

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.>> A nasty legal rift between the most seriously wounded survivor of the 2018 Parkland high school massacre and the families of some of the 17 murdered victims was settled Monday with all sides now owning an equal share of the killer’s publicity rights and an annuity he might receive.

Under an agreement signed by Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips, survivor Anthony Borges, the families of slain students Meadow Pollack, Luke Hoyer and Alaina Petty and fellow student survivor Maddy Wilford now control any attempt by shooter Nikolas Cruz to profit off his name or likeness or grant interviews. Each of the five parties has veto power.

They would also split a $400,000 annuity Cruz’s late mother left him, if he ever receives it. The victims’ families and Wilford have said they would donate their share to charities. Borges’ attorney, Alex Arreaza, has said his client needs the money for future medical expenses.

The settlement was reached one day before the sides had been scheduled to argue before Phillips over whether a June agreement that Borges, 21, and his parents had reached with Cruz should be thrown out. It would have given Borges ownership of Cruz’s name and image, approval over any interviews he might give and the annuity.

Cruz shot the once-promising soccer star five times in the torso and legs and he nearly bled to death. He has undergone numerous surgeries.

Attorneys for Wilford, who was shot four times, and the families of Pollack, Hoyer and Petty had quickly countered with their own $190 million settlement with Cruz, which they concede they will never receive.

Kenyan man convicted of plotting a Sept. 11-style attack, faces 20 years

new york>> A Kenyan man was convicted Monday of plotting a 9/11-style attack on a U.S. building on behalf of the terrorist organization al-Shabab.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Cholo Abdi Abdullah guilty on all six counts he faced for conspiring to hijack an aircraft and slam it into a building, according to court records.

He’s due to be sentenced next March and faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors, who rested their case Thursday, said Abdullah plotted the attack for four years, undergoing extensive training in explosives and how to operate in secret and avoid detection. He then moved to the Philippines in 2017 where he began training as a commercial pilot.

Abdullah was almost finished with his two-year pilot training when he was arrested in 2019 on local charges.

Fed officials say man sought to destroy Nashville power site

nashville, tenn.>> The Department of Justice said Monday that federal agents have arrested a Tennessee man with ties to white nationalist groups who they say attempted to use what he believed to be an explosive-laden drone to destroy a Nashville energy facility.

According to court documents, 24-year-old Skyler Philippi is accused of planning to attach several pounds of C-4 explosives to an aerial drone with the intent of destroying an electric substation in Nashville.

The newly unsealed court records reveal that Philippi in July allegedly told a confidential source who was working with the FBI that he wanted to attack several substations to “shock the system.” That confidential source later introduced Philippi to an undercover FBI employee, who began to collect information about Philippi’s plan with other undercover agents.

On Saturday, Philippi and undercover employees drove to his intended Nashville launch site and prepared to fly a drone that authorities say Philippi believed had 3 pounds of C-4 attached to it. The material had been provided by the undercover employees, according to court documents.

Law enforcement agents arrested Philippi shortly after arriving at the site.

— Denver Post wire services