Rutgers students rally around bus driver who says he lost his job for 'praying'

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Four Marines were killed Wednesday in a training accident at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, base officials said.

The accident happened at 11 a.m. during a range maintenance operation at the San Diego County coastal base. Officials were investigating the cause and provided no further details on the training or the accident.

The identities of the dead were being withheld pending notification of relatives.

"We offer our heartfelt prayers and condolences to the families of the Marines lost today in this tragic accident," said Brig. Gen. John W. Bullard, commanding general of Marine Corps Installations West at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. "Our first priority is to provide the families with the support they need during this difficult time."

The deaths come about eight months after a mortar explosion killed seven Marines during a live-fire training exercise in Nevada.

A military investigation determined human error was to blame for that accident. According to the probe's findings, a Marine operating a 60 mm mortar tube and ammunition did not follow correct procedures, resulting in the detonation of a high explosive round at the mortar position.

The investigation also determined that the mortar team involved in the accident had not conducted "appropriate preparatory training."

The accident occurred during a range maintenance operation at Camp Pendleton in San Diego.
Officials investigating the cause

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder speaks during the Community Memorial Service at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama September 15, 2013. REUTERS/Marvin Gentry

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday, in the hopes of removing a cabinet member they say has lied to Congress as well as failed to uphold federal law.

"This was not a decision that I made lightly. Since the House voted in 2012 to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, the pattern of disregard for the rule of law and refusal to be forthright has only continued," Texas Representative Pete Olson, who drafted the articles, said in a statement provided to Reuters on Wednesday.

"The American people deserve answers and accountability. If the attorney general refuses to provide answers, then Congress must take action."

The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on the possibility of an impeachment move.

The resolution could pass the Republican-dominated House but would likely sputter in the Democratic-dominated Senate, which would have to hold a trial to remove Holder, who has been attorney general since 2009, from office.

Still, an impeachment drive would further fuel the tensions that exist between the federal government's top law enforcement officer and conservative lawmakers. According to the media firm CQ Roll Call, 10 other Republicans would co-sponsor the articles of impeachment, five of whom are from Texas.

According to an outline, the first article is based on "Operation Fast and Furious" a bungled attempt to build cases against major gun traffickers who supplied firearms to Mexican drug cartels, while electing not to immediately prosecute low-level traffickers even as they bought 2,000 potentially illegal guns.

The operation came to light after two of those firearms were found in Arizona at the scene of the fatal shooting of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

After Holder refused to give a congressional committee subpoenaed documents about the Justice Department's involvement in "Fast and Furious" he was found in contempt of Congress. The House oversight committee has also sued for the documents.

The other impeachment articles rest on issues that have raised conservatives' ire in recent years, including Holder's decisions not to enforce laws on same-sex marriage, on prison sentences for certain drug crimes and not to prosecute an official in the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative political activists.

They also say Holder lied to Congress about a Justice Department investigation into Fox News correspondent James Rosen.

(Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Paul Simao)

Republican lawmakers aim to draft a resolution that would remove the U.S. attorney general from office.
'Refusal to be forthright'

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) — Soldiers sat atop trucks distributing rice and water on Thursday in this typhoon-devastated city and chainsaw-wielding teams cut debris from blocked roads, small signs that a promised aid effort is beginning to pick up pace even as thousands flocked the airport, desperate to leave.

The first C-130 transport planes arrived at 3 a.m. at Tacloban airport, the first nighttime flight since the typhoon struck on Friday, suggesting air control systems are now in place for a 24-7 operation — a prerequisite for the massive relief operation needed.

Food, water and medical supplies from the U.S., Malaysia and Singapore sat on pallets along the tarmac.

The U.N.'s World Food Program distributed rice and other items to nearly 50,000 people in the Tacloban area Wednesday. Nearly 10 tons of high energy biscuits were also delivered to the city on Wednesday, with another 25 metric tons on the way.

Military officials were among the thousands waiting outside the airport trying to get their families out.

"My family has nothing to eat, and we have no place to stay," said Sgt. William Escala. We cannot bear the stench. The kids are getting sick."

Typhoon Survivor: 'There Is No Hope'Play video."

Hundreds of injured people, pregnant women, children and the elderly have poured into a makeshift medical center at the ruined airport. The run-down, single-story building with filthy floors has little medicine, virtually no facilities and very few doctors.

Doctors who have been dealing with cuts, fractures and pregnancy' complications said Wednesday they soon expect to be treating more serious problems such as pneumonia, dehydration, diarrhea and infections.

The medical woes add to the daunting tasks for authorities, including dealing with looters and clearing the bottlenecks holding up thousands of tons of aid material from coming in.

While the cogs of what promises to be a massive international aid effort are beginning to turn, it is still not quick enough for the 600,000 people displaced, many of them homeless, hungry and thirsty, their livelihoods destroyed.

Much of the aid — and the staff needed to distribute it — is stuck in Manila and the nearby airport of Cebu, a 45-minute flight away.

Raw: Typhoon Survivors Desperate to LeavePlay video."

"The priority has got to be, let's get the food in, let's get the water in. We got a lot more come in today, But even that won't be enough, We really need to scale up operation in an ongoing basis," U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters after touring Talcoban, the capital of Leyte province. Her office has released $25 million in emergency relief fund, accounting for a chunk of the millions of dollars pledged by countries around the world.

Some among the desperate residents have resorted to raiding for food. Mobs overran a rice warehouse on Leyte, collapsing a wall that killed eight people. Thousands of sacks of the grain were carted off. But police say the situation is improving on the ground.

Philippine Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said it may take six weeks before the first typhoon-hit towns get their electric power back. He said that in Tacloban, order needed to be restored "because if there's no peace and order, it's hard to reinstall the power posts."

He said army troops had fired shots Wednesday to drive away a group of armed men who approached a power transmission sub-station in Leyte province. The unidentified men fired back then fled. Nobody was hurt.

The death toll rose to 2,357, according a national tally kept by the disaster agency. That figure is expected to rise, perhaps significantly, when accurate information is collected from the whole disaster zone, which spreads over a wide swath of the eastern and central Philippines but appears to be concentrated on two main islands — Leyte and Samar.

Gegham Petrosyan, from International Committee of the Red Cross, said destruction along the south cost of Samar island had been "massive."

"People are desperate for life-saving aid," Petrosyan said. "However, logistical and security constraints continue to hamper the distribution of desperately needed relief."

__

AP writers Chris Brummitt and Teresa Cerojano in Manila contributed to this report.

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) — Close your eyes and hold your breath, and you could imagine you are in a normal sports stadium. You hear a ball bouncing and the children's cheers echoing under the cavernous dome.

Open your eyes and you see rain-soaked trash littering almost every inch of the ground and exhausted refugees sprawled across seats. A sign taped on the wall next to a small, dank room by the stairwell tells people in rough terms not to relieve themselves there. It is clear from the stench that many have ignored this advice.

For the thousands of people jamming the Tacloban City Astrodome, the great hall with a solid roof was a heaven-sent refuge when Typhoon Haiyan rammed the eastern Philippines last week. Evacuated from their homes along the coast in time, they had a place to hide from the furious winds and gigantic water surge. But along with shelter, their constant companions now are misery and hunger.

It's been six days since the typhoon struck but no aid has arrived at the Astrodome. Not a single relief worker is in sight.

"What can we do? There's nothing we can do!" said Corazon Cecleno, a volunteer with the village council who had handed out food stamps to the occupants — stamps for food that has yet to arrive. "We really want to know why the distribution of help is so slow."

The people staying here find water wherever they can — from a broken water pipe on the side of the road, from a tarp in a former office building nearby. The water tastes bad — salty — but there is nothing else available and they are desperate.

View gallery."

A survivor walks outside the Tacloban City Convention Center known as the Astrodome Thursday, Nov. 1 …

Just as New Orleans residents took refuge in the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina, thousands of Filipinos are squatting here: inside the stadium, in the ruined shops and restaurants that line it, and under tarpaulins on the grass outside.

Maria Consuelo Martinez, 38, is nine months pregnant and jammed in an abandoned restaurant at the dome along with five families. Her naked 2-year-old son, Mark, sits next to her on a piece of plywood. She has only one outfit for him, and it is drying after a wash. Her 5-year-old daughter, Maria, stares vacantly. Sodden laundry hangs from ropes crisscrossing the room. Flies are everywhere and the tiled floor is slick with filth.

Her husband wanders around, begging for food. Some friends found sacks of ocean-soaked rice at a warehouse and gave the family one. They are drying the grains in the sun on a blue tarp, hoping it will be edible, knowing it will be salty. They have a bottle of well water to cook and wash with, but it tastes like the ocean and they aren't convinced it's safe. They drink it anyway.

"We have no choice," says Moses Rosilio, a neighbor who is squatting in the restaurant with Martinez.

Her baby is due by the end of the month. She has no idea where she'll deliver.

View gallery."

A typhoon survivor sits inside the Tacloban City Convention Center known as the Astrodome Thursday, …

"I'm feeling nervous," she says. "There are no clothes for my baby. ... I don't know, I don't know. Maybe I'll give birth here."

In the wreckage of a discotheque next door, facing the street in front of the stadium, a few men have built a small fire to cook noodles. The pot will need to feed a dozen people today.

Nearby, Vicky Arcales, 38, uses a hand-crank charger for her mobile phone. She shakes her arm in exhaustion; she's been at it for three hours. She knows she won't get a signal anyway, but charges it nonetheless. Just in case.

Behind her, a family has crafted a makeshift baby cot out of a pink-and-white-striped sheet, strung up by cords. It cradles a month-old boy in a shirt, but no diaper; they have none, and no other clothes. Nor do they have food for his mother, who is starving.

The baby stares up at visitors and urinates, the urine seeping through the sheet onto the floor below. A few feet away, a 1-year-old girl wails, her face covered in a red rash. There is no medicine for her.

View gallery."

A typhoon survivor dries rice outside the Tacloban City Convention Center known as the Astrodome Thu …

Inside the dome, Erlinda Rosales lies on a steel barrier propped atop the railing and stadium seats, next to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This is their makeshift bed. They are cooking a little nearby on a small burner borrowed from a friend.

Rosales, 72, is one of the lucky ones: Her family has finally received the first supply of relief food. But it was only because her granddaughter has walked every day to their village council to see if the supplies are there. On Thursday's walk, the food was finally available. They got 3 kilograms (7 pounds) of rice and three cans of sardines.

"I wonder when they will bring food here," she says.

Daniel Legaspi has less than Rosales, but more than some other people. The 16-year-old holds up a packet of squeezy cheese, powdered biscuits and cream.

"We don't have bread, but we have the fillings," he says with a laugh.

Thousands of people pack the Tacloban City Astrodome six days after the devastating storm, with no aid in sight.

Horrible conditions