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    Colorado Snowboarder Becomes Fourth Avalanche Victim in a Week

    The victim was traveling on a terrain feature known as The Nose near Silverton, Colo., when the avalanche occurred on Thursday, officials said.A backcountry snowboarder was killed in an avalanche on Thursday in a remote part of southwestern Colorado, the fourth person to die in a mountain slide this week in the western United States following several winter storms.The Colorado Avalanche Information Center said that the victim was traversing a terrain feature known as The Nose, near Silverton, Colo., when the person got caught in the avalanche.A skier who was with the snowboarder escaped the avalanche, the authorities said.Emergency responders used a helicopter to try to rescue the snowboarder, but the person did not survive, the center said. Rescuers were alerted about the avalanche by the staff from a nearby backcountry hut.The avalanche added to what has been a deadly week in the West.On Monday, two skiers were caught in an avalanche in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, one that occurred at a height of 6,700 feet on a south-facing slope. Their bodies were recovered on Tuesday.Also on Monday, an avalanche claimed the life of a backcountry skier in California near Lake Tahoe.The Sierra Avalanche Center said that the skier was traveling alone when he triggered the avalanche, which carried him downslope over rocks and through trees. The victim was buried beneath more than four feet of snow against a tree, the center said. More

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    An Invisible Medical Shortage: Oxygen

    Oxygen is vital to many medical procedures. But a safe, affordable supply is severely lacking around the world, according to a new report.At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people in poor nations died literally gasping for breath, even in hospitals. What they lacked was medical oxygen, which is in short supply in much of the world.On Monday, a panel of experts published a comprehensive report on the shortage. Each year, the report noted, more than 370 million people worldwide need oxygen as part of their medical care, but fewer than 1 in 3 receive it, jeopardizing the health and lives of those who do not. Access to safe and affordable medical oxygen is especially limited in low- and middle-income nations.“The need is very urgent,” said Dr. Hamish Graham, a pediatrician and a lead author of the report. “We know that there’s more epidemics coming, and there’ll be another pandemic, probably like Covid, within the next 15 to 20 years.”The report, published in The Lancet Global Health, comes just weeks after the Trump administration froze foreign aid programs, including some that could improve access to oxygen.Boosting the availability of medical oxygen would require an investment of about $6.8 billion, the report noted. “Within the current climate, that’s obviously going to become a bit more of a challenge,” said Carina King, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute and a lead author of the report.Still, she said, governments and funding organizations should prioritize medical oxygen because of its importance across health care. People of all ages may need oxygen for pneumonia and other respiratory conditions, for severe infections including malaria and sepsis, for surgeries and for chronic lung conditions.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Here We Go Again’: Kentucky Residents Face More Destruction and Anxiety From Storms

    The flood damage over the weekend was not as catastrophic as some previous climate disasters in the state. But the rains still brought widespread havoc, and painful reminders of trauma.As the rains began to drench Eastern Kentucky this weekend, Mimi Pickering looked anxiously out her window in the town of Whitesburg as the North Fork Kentucky River kept rising, and rising, and rising.Would it once again swallow the bridge that leads to the historic Main Street? And would the media and arts education center where she is a board member be damaged, as it was a few years before?“It just looked so much like the 2022 flood — it felt just like, ‘Here we go again, this is unbelievable,’” Ms. Pickering, a filmmaker, said. “It’s been traumatic for people when it rains so heavily — it just adds to that PTSD.”By Sunday, a clearer picture had begun to emerge of the destruction caused by the storms: At least nine people dead throughout the state, with the death toll expected to rise. Nearly 40,000 people without power. More than 1,000 rescues. At least 300 road closures of state and federal roads. Two wastewater systems out of service, including one that was underwater.And more grim news was likely, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said during a news conference on Sunday, warning that a snowstorm was expected in the next few days that could dump as much as six inches. He urged Kentuckians to stay home and allow emergency boats, vehicles and workers to reach people in need.“This is one of the most serious weather events that we’ve dealt with in at least a decade,” he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Gold Mine Collapse in Mali Kills at Least 43

    The accident took place in an open-pit area people had gone into in search of gold. Informal mining is a common and dangerous practice in much of West Africa.At least 43 people, mostly women, were killed after an informal gold mine collapsed in western Mali on Saturday, the head of an industry union said.The accident took place near the town of Kéniéba in Mali’s gold-rich Kayes region, Taoule Camara, the secretary general of the national union of gold counters and refineries, told Reuters. The women had climbed down into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when the earth collapsed around them, he said.A mines ministry representative confirmed the accident had taken place between the towns of Kenieba and Dabia, but declined to give further details, as ministry teams at the scene had not yet shared their report.Informal mining, also known as artisanal mining, is a common activity across much of West Africa and has become more lucrative in recent years because of a growing demand for metals and rising prices. Deadly accidents are frequent, as such miners often use unregulated methods and work in unsafe conditions.Thirteen artisanal miners, including women and three children, died in southwest Mali in late January, after a tunnel in which they were digging for gold flooded. More

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    At Least 4 Killed in Suspected Gas Explosion at Taiwan Shopping Mall

    The deadly blast occurred in a food court. The island’s president ordered an investigation into the cause.Windows and walls were blown out by the blast at the building in Taichung, the island’s second-largest city.Yufu Liao/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAt least four people were killed and 30 others injured in a suspected gas explosion in the food court of a Taiwan shopping mall on Thursday morning, according to Taiwan’s state-owned news outlet.The explosion occurred in the city of Taichung, about 100 miles southwest of Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, local officials said. The fire department received a report at 11:33 a.m. about a possible gas explosion on the 12th floor of the mall and dispatched 136 personnel, the department said in a statement. Search and rescue teams stayed on site until about 5 p.m., the news outlet, the Central News Agency, reported.Two of the people who died in the blast, and five of those injured, were tourists from Macau, the Macau Government Tourism Office said in a statement.Clearing debris after the explosion.Ritchie B Tongo/EPA, via ShutterstockIt is unclear what caused the blast, the fire department said. Video shared online by the Taiwanese station TVBS News shows an explosion in the middle floors of the building that sent debris and dust into the street. The station also aired clips from inside the building, showing shoppers reacting to a convulsion nearby and scrambling to evacuate the building.President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan, writing on his Facebook page, called for a prompt investigation into the cause of the accident. He said that the health ministry was coordinating medical resources to provide care to the injured.The explosion comes less than two months after nine people died in Taichung in a large fire at a food-processing plant that was under construction. An initial investigation by the city’s fire bureau in December found that the blaze was caused by welding sparks that ignited on paint and rapidly spread through insulation materials in the building, the Taipei Times reported.Claire Fu More

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    Girl, 6, Is Dead After Being Found in a Water-Filled Bathtub, Police Say

    The girl was unconscious when officers found her in a Brooklyn apartment Friday afternoon, officials said.A 6-year-old girl died on Friday after being found unconscious in a bathtub filled with water at a Brooklyn apartment, the police said.The cause of the girl’s death was unclear. She had blood clots in her eyes when the officers found her, suggesting the possibility of a struggle, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation.Officials did not identify the girl, and the police said Friday night that the investigation into her death was continuing. The medical examiner’s office was conducting an autopsy, a spokeswoman said.Officers answering a 911 call for help at a home on Elton Street in the Highland Park section found the girl at around 1:30 p.m., the police said. Her parents were home at the time, the police said.Emergency services workers took the girl to Brookdale Hospital, where she was pronounced dead just before 3 p.m., the police said.Several hours later, two officers stood watch in the darkness outside the gated entrance to the small, two-story brick duplex where the girl had been found, on a residential block not far from the elevated J train tracks.Investigators filed in and out of the building’s basement unit through an entrance under a staircase. A small Christmas tree was visible through a front window.Helen Cunningham, who lives across the street, said she had seen officers and emergency workers arrive at the home at around 2 p.m. After a while, she said, they had brought out a small girl on a stretcher, her head visible from beneath the sheet covering her.“I don’t know if she was alive,” Ms. Cunningham, 74, said.She said that the man she knew as the girl’s father had climbed into a second ambulance that followed the one carrying the girl. Some time later, she said, she saw the police leading a young woman away in handcuffs. She said it was the second time in the past week she had seen officers at the address.Ms. Cunningham said she knew the family as neighbors but not by name. “We’re not friends,” she said. She said that two or three children lived at the home and that she had seen the man taking them to school.She said the family had moved into the home within the past few months from a building across the street.The man Ms. Cunningham identified as the father worked at a Bravo supermarket around the corner, according a manager there, Emmanuel Pichardo.Mr. Pichardo said that the father, who has worked at the store for two years and whom he knew only as George, had texted him in Spanish shortly after 4 p.m. to say he would not be coming to work because his daughter had been killed.“I’m going crazy,” the father said in the messages, which Mr. Pichardo shared with a reporter. “I’m here until God gives a miracle. I don’t know what to do.”Chelsia Rose Marcius More

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    Plane Crashes Into Street in Brazil, Killing 2

    Six people on the ground were also injured by the plane, part of which struck a bus on the road when it crashed.A small plane crashed into a road in São Paulo, Brazil, around 7:20 a.m. local time Friday, killing both people on board and injuring several people on the ground, according to the city’s fire department.Six people sustained minor injuries and were not in serious condition. One of them was a motorcyclist who was passing by. The other five were passengers on a bus that was struck by a part of the plane, according to Capt. Ronaldo Melo, a spokesman for São Paulo’s fire department.Firefighters arrived on the scene just before 7:30 a.m., finding the plane and the bus on fire, Captain Melo said. “The fire was very aggressive,” he added. The bus passengers had all escaped the vehicle before the fire started, he said.Five passengers on a bus were injured in the crash on Friday, which killed both occupants of the small aircraft.Nelson Almeida/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesVideos on social media showed the remnants of the plane in flames, as well as a large, black plume of smoke rising into the air.It’s unclear what caused the incident, but the plane appeared to have crashed shortly after taking off. It struck the Avenida Marques de São Vicente, a major road in the Barra Funda neighborhood, about four miles from the Campo de Marte Airport, where the plane took off.The plane was on its way to Porto Alegre, nearly 700 miles south of São Paulo.About three hours after the crash, the fire department had left the scene, Captain Melo said. More

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    12 Die at Georgian Ski Resort From Suspected Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

    The police say the bodies were found dead in a room above an Indian restaurant not long after a generator had been plugged in nearby.Twelve people were found dead of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Gudauri, a ski area in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia, the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.The people were found on Friday in a resting area above an Indian restaurant, where all of the victims were employed. Officials reported no evidence of violence, but found a power generator nearby. The device had been plugged in the previous day and left inside, probably after the restaurant lost power, the police said.One of the 12 who died was a Georgian national, and the other 11 were from other countries, the police said. The deaths are being investigated as negligent homicides, officials said in a statement.Gudauri, near the Russian border, is the largest and highest resort in the country, making it a popular destination for skiing and paragliding.Power generators are supposed to be run only outdoors because of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. In the United States, portable generators are some of the deadliest household products, in large part because of their carbon monoxide emissions and the tendency to run them indoors. More