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Strong storms ripped through the Midwest over the weekend, generating strong tornadoes that killed 6 in Iowa and a toddler in Minnesota.

A tornado touched down at about 6 p.m. Sunday in the north-central Iowa town of Parkersburg before moving 10 miles east to New Hartford, said Bret Voorhees with the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Video shot Monday in Parkersburg showed homes reduced to scattered boards.

Streets were lined with huge piles of debris that included crumpled vehicles, uprooted trees and unidentifiable material that had been part of houses 24 hours earlier.

We saw footage of some of the damage, and it was eerie how the tornado seemed to pick and choose it’s victims, with one house being completely flattened while another next door looked untouched.

Some good news comes out of the horrific tragedy of the recent earthquake in China. A 3-year-old girl has been rescued alive from under a massive pile of rubble after being there for over 40 hours.

She apparently survived because she had been protected by the bodies of her parents who died in Monday’s disaster, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The girl, Song Xinyi, suffered serious leg injuries but was able to talk when she was hauled out of the many layers of rubble this morning, 43 hours after the 7.9-magnitude quake struck south-west China’s Sichuan province.

“She explained the three Chinese characters that made up her name, and told everybody she loved painting and watching TV. Despite a coin-sized wound on her forehead, she still looked pretty,” Xinhua reported.

In an ironic twist of fate, kindergarteners learning about water safety were poisoned and taken to the hospital, suffering chlorine poisoning.

WAUSAU, Wis. — A kindergartner hospitalized in critical condition after being exposed to a high level of chlorine at a swimming pool was upgraded to fair condition Saturday, a hospital official said.

A group of more than 40 kindergartners from Lincoln Elementary had difficulty breathing Friday while they were in a swimming pool learning about water safety, said Mary Ellen Marnholtz, spokeswoman for the Wausau School District in northern Wisconsin. The pool was at a nursing home run by North Central Health Care in Wausau.

A Seattle father of two young children and one on the way, vanishes mysteriously on his way home from work.

SEATTLE — Seattle police believe a missing father was a victim of a random crime or took off after he didn’t make it home to bake Valentine’s Day cookies with his 4-year-old daughter.

“We really don’t know what happened to him,” Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff’s Department told FOX News.

Nicholas Francisco, 28, was reported missing by his family after he didn’t come home after work on Feb. 13. Christine Francisco, his wife, said he called her from work saying he was “signing off on something” and would be home after running an errand. When he wasn’t home by bedtime, Christine got scared.

Two high school freshman basketball players face charges of sexually assaulting another freshman basketball player.

It is unknown if this was a hazing incident or pure sociopathy, either way, it’s disturbing to say the least.

MIAMI TWP. - Three members of the freshman boys basketball team at Milford High School are expected to be charged Monday with gross sexual imposition involving another ninth-grader on the team, police said Friday.

The freshman basketball game Friday against Anderson High School was canceled, Milford Superintendent Robert Farrell said.

The school will impose disciplinary action against the students on Monday, Farrell said. He declined to say if that would involve suspensions or expulsions.

UPDATE: It’s not Stacy Peterson or Lisa Stebic.

A woman’s body was found in a southern suburb of Chicago, frozen and with a blue barrel in close proximity. Although confirmed reports have not identified the body, speculation about whether or not the body is that of Stacy Peterson, the young mother and wife to Drew Peterson is escalating.

The body appears to be that of a female with reddish-blond hair, a Chicago Police Department spokesman said.

Stacy Peterson — the 23-year-old wife of Drew Peterson, a former police sergeant in a Chicago suburb — has been missing since October 28 of last year.

Drew Peterson, 53, is a suspect in the case but has consistently said he believes she ran away with another man.

Police in Lyons, a suburb of Chicago, said a Chicago environmental surveyor was working in the neighborhood about 2 p.m. when he called supervisors to tell them he’d seen what appeared to be a human foot and leg near a set of railroad tracks.

Heath Ledger, star of numerous films and who just finished filming the highly anticipated role of the Joker in the new Batman movie, was found dead in his apartment this afternoon. The cause is unknown, but it’s being reported that he was found with numerous sleeping pills strewn about the bed.

According to the NYPD spokesman, Ledger, who was living in an apartment at Broome street, “had an appointment for a massage…The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, and found him dead at 3:26 p.m” with “pills strewn all around him.”

The housekeeper and masseuse tried to awake him and called the authorities when he did not respond. When the paramedics responded he was in full cardiac arrest and they attempted to perform CPR. It was unsuccessful, however, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.The police say foul play is not suspected.

Ledger is the father of a 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, who he had with actress Michelle Williams. The couple broke up last year.

I can’t even comment on this, except to say, “Ewwwwwwwww.”

To say this is disturbing is a monumental understatement.

Is this child crazy or was he, himself, so abused that he took out his rage on something he can control? Either way, it’s just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Davis County, UTAH — A 14-year-old Utah boy has been charged with bestiality and lewdness for allegedly raping a dog, according to local affiliate FOX 13.

If convicted, the teen could face up to one year in jail and a fine of $2,500 under state law, which classifies cruelty to animals as a misdemeanor offense.

On January 11, 2008, Marcelle “Marci” Thibault of Bellingham, Mass., walked across I-495 with her niece and nephew, and all three were killed when struck by oncoming traffic. After a week of speculation and the family trying to make sense of this tragedy, the Middlesex District Attorney announced the result of his office’s investigation today, and they have ruled the case a murder/suicide:

“Based on our investigation, we believe Ms. Thibault took her niece and nephew and walked with them into oncoming traffic on Rte. 495, tragically resulting in the deaths of the two young children while taking her own life in the process,” said Leone. “The facts of this matter make it a truly heart-wrenching case, with troubling and very difficult findings.”

Through the DA’s office, the family has released this statement:

“This is a time of terrible tragedy for our families. We love Marci, Kaleigh, and Shane and we miss them very much. We ask everyone to join us in prayer for their souls, and to help us get through this most difficult period of our lives. We ask that the media respect our privacy and allow us the time to grieve and heal as we mourn our great loss.”

New evidence concludes that blood in the McCanns apartment and car is that of missing toddler, Madeleine McCann.

Blood found in a car hired by her parents weeks after she disappeared definitely came from the British girl, it was reported yesterday.

The Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha cited police sources as saying new tests on blood found in the hire car conclusively showed it was Madeleine’s.

“The definitive result of the tests leave no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria. The blood found in the McCanns’ car is that of Madeleine as well as those samples detected in the flat,” the paper said.

Life can be so cruel, so unfair…in a blink of a moment, a mother and her 4 children, ranging from newborn to elementary age, were killed by a drunk driver.

Bethany Griffin, 36, Jordan Griffin, 10, and Verde Griffin, 6 months, all of Parkville, Md., were killed along with Lacie Burkman, 7, and Haley Burkman, 10, both of Redford Township, Mich., near Detroit, according to the Lucas County Coroner’s office.

Both drivers tried to avoid each other, but the crash ripped a side door off the minivan, throwing out some of the victims.

An infant seat wrapped with pink baby blankets landed in the roadway.

“It was among the worst I’ve seen,” assistant fire chief Luis Santiago said.
A man and two other children from the minivan were taken to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, Santiago said.

What possesses somebody to shoot and kill a 3 year old and a 6 year old child??? An extended family was found shot in a suburb of Seattle, Washington who were part of a mass slaying which included two small children, all shot to death.

Horrible. Just so incredibly senseless.

An arrest has been made, a couple in their twenties who are suspects after they conveniently showed up to the crime scene with their bad acting skills.

The victims were a man and a woman in their 50s, another man and woman in their 30s, and two children: a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.

They are believed to be three generations of the same family, and they appeared to have been shot sometime Monday, Urquhart said.

The bodies were found in and around the house, which is on a residential property in Carnation, Urquhart said. The house sits among a cluster of residences and is at the end of a long dirt road on the edge of woods.

UPDATE 2: Sole plane crash survivor, 12 year old Francesca Lewis, is said to be doing well and was walking around when rescue teams located her.

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UPDATE 1: Victims found, one survives. The father and daughter, age 13, on vacation in Panama have parished in a plane crash while the girl’s friend, 12 year old Francesca Lewis survives…The patient is in the hospital. No update on her condition have been given.

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A father and his 13 year old daughter and her 12 year old friend are missing in Panama after their plane is thought to have crashed with rescue efforts being delayed due to dense fog and weather.

The girls are said to be on vacation and were due to be home for Christmas, in California. What tweens go to Panama for a vaca-? The daughter of a hedge fund manager, I suppose…

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A California hedge fund manager, his daughter and her friend were among four people on a small plane that went missing in Panama, the man’s ex-wife said Tuesday.

Kim Klein told The Associated Press that bad weather and other obstacles were preventing rescue crews from looking for the plane, which may have crashed in the western province of Chiriqui.

Klein told The Associated Press during a phone interview from Boquete, Panama, that her former husband, Michael, was aboard the Cessna 172, along with their daughter, Talia, her friend Francesca Lewis of Santa Barbara, California, and a Panamanian pilot, Edwin Lasso.

See. This is why I don’t ride roller coasters…

ORLANDO Fla.-Around 1 PM Tuesday the Orange County Sheriff’s Office responded to 3281 Sherberth Road in reference to a man who died after riding the Mt. Everest Rollercoaster at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom.

Jeffery Reed, 44, of Navarre, Florida appeared to be unconscious and unresponsive at the conclusion of the ride when the cars stopped at the attraction’s unloading area.

UPDATE: Family found on Wednesday, 1:00 pm, December 19, 2007 - alive and well.

Vanished.

A father and 3 kids set off to find and cut down a Christmas tree when a fierce snow storm blows in, covering their tracks and whereabouts…

PARADISE – The Dominguez family set off Sunday afternoon, dressed in T-shirts, jeans, light jackets, and sneakers. Their plan was to drive into the mountains near Inskip, find the perfect Christmas tree and head back home to Paradise.

Later, someone would report seeing them walking into the woods with a saw at about 5 p.m. Sunday.

After that, nothing.

They didn’t reckon on a fierce storm that would dump snow by the yard over the next 48 hours. As darkness fell Tuesday, more than 50 exhausted searchers had found no sign of Frederick Dominguez, 38, and his children Christopher, 18, Alexis, 15, and Joshua, 12.