NEW YORK

Eight-year-old dies in fire trying to save little brother

An 8-year-old-boy ran back into his burning apartment to save his little brother but died along with him in the thick smoke and flames, according to neighbors and relatives.

Tyanthony Duckette and his sister were carried out of Thursday morning’s blaze at the Queens duplex by his grandmother Carlota Wilson. But when she was unable to find 17-month-old Daniel Wilson, Tyanthony ran back to save him.

Shortly afterward, the two children were pulled out of the house by firefighters. They couldn’t be revived at a hospital.

“The boy was very close, very, very tight-knit with all of his siblings,” the boys’ grandfather, Andrew Wilson, told the Daily News of New York. “I’m not surprised that he would do it. He would never want to see his little brother suffer.”

The cause of the fire remained under investigation Friday.

WADENA, Minn.

Twisters kill at least three, leave dozens more injured

Police and National Guard soldiers blocked off neighborhoods Friday as city officials organized a cleanup from tornadoes that ripped through the city the night before, part of a turbulent system that fueled twisters across the state and killed at least three people.

Dozens more were injured in Thursday’s heavy weather. The National Weather Service collected 36 reports of tornado sightings, with northwestern and southern Minnesota hit hardest. If the sightings are all confirmed, it would exceed the previous state record of 27 in one day, in 1992.

In northwestern Minnesota, a woman was killed in Almora and a gas station owner was killed in Mentor. In southern Minnesota, a woman was killed when her home west of Albert Lea was destroyed.

WASHINGTON

Senate vote comes too late to spare Medicare payments

After a week of partisan wrangling, the Senate on Friday passed legislation to spare doctors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments looming for months. But the last-ditch effort came too late.

Moments after the Senate acted, Medicare announced it would begin processing claims it has already received for June at the lower rate. The reason: the House cannot act on the fix until next week.

That means doctors, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and other providers who bill under Medicare’s physician fee schedule will have to resubmit their claims if they want to be made whole, with added paperwork costs both for the providers and for taxpayers.

“Congress is playing Russian roulette with seniors’ health care,” Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement. “This is no way to run a major health coverage program.”

NEW YORK

Koppel son died from overdose, examiner rules

The son of former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel, who was found dead in a stranger’s apartment after a day of bar-hopping, overdosed on a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol, the medical examiner’s office said Friday.

Andrew Koppel’s May 31 death was ruled an accident. He died from acute intoxication due to the combined effects of alcohol; heroin; cocaine; diazepam, the generic form of Valium; and Levamisole, a drug used to cut other drugs, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office. Police had said no criminality was suspected.

The 40-year-old Koppel had been out most of May 30 drinking heavily and was eventually taken to an apartment to sleep it off.