TEHRAN, Iran

Northern Iran train crash kills at least 43, injures 100

A train collision in northern Iran killed at least 43 people and injured 100 on Friday, Iran’s state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Mostafa Mortazavi, a spokesman for the country’s Red Crescent, as saying the latest casualty figures had risen to 43 killed and 100 injured in the accident that occurred in sub-zero temperatures when a moving passenger train struck another parked at Haftkhan station about 150 miles east of the capital Tehran.

BISMARCK, N.D.

Tribe’s chairman: Corps set to close protesters’ camp

The chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said Friday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to close the area where people have been camping for months to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Dave Archambault said in a statement that he received a letter from the Corps, dated Friday, which says all lands north of the Cannonball River will be closed Dec. 5.

“The letter states that the lands will be closed to public access for safety concerns,” Archambault said.

Representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment and verification of the letter.

Archambault said the land to be closed includes the Oceti Sakowin camp, a sprawling encampment on Army Corps land about 50 miles south of Bismarck. For months, opponents of the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline have been camping in the area to protest the pipeline.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Concerns about driver were raised before school bus crash

Students and administrators raised concerns about a Tennessee school bus driver’s behavior behind the wheel in the weeks before a crash that killed six children.

Police have charged driver Johnthony Walker with vehicular homicide after the Chattanooga crash. Federal authorities said Walker was driving off the designated bus route when he wrecked on a curvy road while carrying 37 children on their way home from Woodmore Elementary School.

Records released by the school district Friday include two written statements by students complaining about Walker’s driving.

“The bus driver drives fast,” one student wrote earlier this month. “It feels like the bus is going to flip over … When someone is in the aisle he stops the bus and he makes people hit their heads.”

Another student wrote: “The bus driver was doing sharp turns and he made me fly over to the next seat. We need seat belts.”

On Nov. 2, a school official boarded the bus after the driver complained that students were not listening to him. One student had complained about the heat on the bus and cursed about it to the bus driver.

“The driver was now visibly upset and continued on by saying that he had another job and driving this bus was just a part-time job for him,” wrote Carlis Shackelford, a behavioral specialist at the school. “Driver stated that he could just leave him at the school. He then stated ‘or I can just leave the student on the bus and I will get off the bus and leave the school.'”

– From news service reports