Desperate Survivors Flee Quake Towns' Chaos

More expected as rescuers dig through rubble

(NEWSER) - The death toll from a powerful earthquake that devastated a province in Peru has reached 450, but the numbers are expected to rise even higher as rescuers dig through rubble. At least 1,500 have been injured. Government doctors have called off a national strike to care for the wounded, and the UN, US and EU have rushed to Peru's aid. More»

(AP) - A tornado that swept through the mountain community of Mena, Ark., killed three people and injured at least 30 others, authorities said today after a house-to-house search. The twister descended quickly on Mena shortly after 8 last night after a series of siren blasts warned residents of tornadoes in the area. "It just looks like a war zone," said the mayor. More»

(NEWSER) - Troops were called in today to earthquake-ravaged Peru to restore order after looters, desperate for food and water, threatened supply depots and deliveries. In hard-hit Pisca, southeast of the capital, homeless families huddled in a makeshift camp in a soccer field, and more than 500 rushed a truck attempting to deliver packages containing food and toiled paper. More»

About 50 people, mostly children, discovered in interior room

(NEWSER) - A tragic confirmation from the Russian Volga river disaster : Divers searching the sunken cruise ship discovered the bodies of about 50 people, mostly children, in one of the ship's recreation areas. The children were known to have been brought to the interior area minutes before the ship went down on Sunday. Though the disaster is thought to have killed up to 129 people, the official death toll remains at 83, with 16 of those children, Reuters reports. More»

Including many, many children

(NEWSER) - The death toll from the sinking of a Russian cruise ship in the Volga River has ballooned to more than 100, and a great many of those were children. Minutes before the boat sank, the children had been brought together in an interior play area, the New York Times reports, making them less likely to survive than the adults above deck. “Practically no children made it out,” one surviving mother said. “There were many children on the boat, very many.” More»