NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Four-year-old grabs, fires gun, killing deputy’s wife

Authorities say a 4-year-old boy grabbed a loaded gun at a family cookout and accidentally shot and killed the wife of a Tennessee sheriff’s deputy.

Investigators say Wilson County Deputy Daniel Fanning on Saturday was showing his weapons to a relative in a bedroom of his Lebanon home when the toddler came in and picked up a gun off the bed. Sheriff Robert Bryan says the weapon discharged, hitting 48-year-old Josephine Fanning.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. The child is not related to her or her husband.

Bryan says the shooting was a terrible accident and that within seconds of Fanning placing the gun on the bed, the toddler picked it up.

The gun was not Fanning’s service weapon and the sheriff says the deputy’s weapons are normally stored in a safe.

VALLECITOS, N.M.

Driver dies in school bus accident that injures 9 kids

A school bus went off the road and lodged in an embankment Monday morning and the driver died at the scene, investigators said. At least nine children were injured in the crash in a mountainous area of northern New Mexico.

It was not clear if the driver, Pat Valdez, 69, had a heart attack or died from the crash, authorities said.
New Mexico State Police said the Mesa Vista school bus, carrying elementary, middle and high school students, rolled over on State Road 111 near Vallecitos in Carson National Forest.

Investigators said six injured students were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment for what District Superintendent Tracie Phillips described as broken bones and scratches.

DAMASCUS, Syria

At least 15 killed, 53 injured in suicide car bombing

A suicide car bombing in central Damascus killed at least 15 people and wounded 53 others on Monday, Syrian state television reported, highlighting the degree to which Syria’s civil war has reached into the heart of the capital.

The bomb exploded outside Syria’s Central Bank and its tax commission, and not far from a secondary school.

SEOUL, South Korea

North Korean workers snub work at jointly run factory

North Korean workers aren’t showing up for work Tuesday at the factory complex Pyongyang has jointly run with South Korea since 2004.

Some South Korean managers at the Kaesong industrial complex just across the border in North Korea said Tuesday they would stay at work even without their co-workers.

Pyongyang said Monday it would suspend operations at the complex and pull out more than 53,000 workers. Closing the factory would sever North Korea’s last economic link with its rival as tensions escalate. Shutting the complex would show that Pyongyang is willing to hurt its own economy to display its anger with South Korea and the U.S.

Pyongyang has unleashed a torrent of threats following U.N. sanctions punishing the North for its third nuclear test, on Feb. 12.

MISSION VIEJO, Calif.

Pastor’s son fatally shot himself, autopsy shows

Authorities say autopsy results show that the son of popular megachurch pastor Rick Warren died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said Monday that 27-year-old Matthew Warren died at about 10 p.m. on Friday. Amormino says the ruling was also based on evidence found at the scene.

Who the weapon belonged to is still unclear. The Warrens said in an email on Saturday that their son struggled with deep depression and suicidal thoughts.

The elder Warren founded Saddleback Church in 1980, and watched it grow to 20,000 members and several campuses. In 2002, he published the multimillion-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life.”

– From news service reports

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