【65,66,67】Gunman Kills 9 Students, One Teacher at High...

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AS IT IS

【65】Plane Carrying More Than 100 People Crashes in Cuba

May 18, 2018

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Rescue and search workers on the site where a Cuban airliner with 104 passengers on board plummeted into a yuca field just after takeoff from the international airport in Havana, Cuba, Friday, May 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrea Rodriguez)

A passenger airplane crashed Friday, shortly after taking off from Havana’s airport in Cuba. The plane carried 104 passengers and nine crew members.

The number of deaths is not yet known.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel visited the site of the crash, and told Agence France Presse, “It appears there is a high number of victims.”

Cuba’s state broadcaster reported the plane crashed in Boyeros, a rural area about 20 kilometers south of Havana.

The plane, operated by Cuban national airline Cubana, was heading to Holguin in eastern Cuba.

A witness told Reuters the plane’s wreckage spread over the rural area, and that emergency vehicles and firefighters were there.

A worker at Havana’s Calixto Garcia hospital told Reuters three victims of the accident had arrived so far. One died from burns, and the other two were in a serious condition.

Friday’s crash was Cuba’s third major airline accident since 2010.

Last year, a Cuban military plane crashed into a hill in the western province of Artemisa, killing eight soldiers.

In November 2010, an AeroCaribbean flight from Santiago to Havana crashed in bad weather over central Cuba. The accident killed all 68 people, including 28 foreigners.

On Sept. 4, 1989, a charter flight leaving Havana for Italy crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 126 people on board.

I'm Mario Ritter.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on AP and Reuters news reports. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

charter –adj. hired for temporary use

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AS IT IS

【66】Chile’s Catholic Bishops Offer to Resign Over Sex Abuse Cover-up

May 18, 2018

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Chilean bishops Luis Fernando Ramos Perez and Juan Ignacio Gonzalez Errazuriz arrive for a news conference after a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, May 18, 2018. (REUTERS/Max Rossi)

Every active Chilean bishop in the Roman Catholic Church offered to resign Friday.

The offer came after Pope Francis accused the bishops of failing to investigate sex abuse cases and protect children.

All 31 Chilean church officials made the offer to resign at the end of an emergency meeting at the Vatican. The pope can accept their resignations, reject them, or delay a decision.

But their offer is a historic step in the Catholic Church’s long struggle with sex abuse and cover-ups by religious workers. It reportedly is the first time that an entire group of bishops has offered to step down after a scandal.

Mea culpa

Calls for their resignation came after the media learned of a 2,300-page Vatican report about the sex abuse scandal in Chile. Pope Francis had noted information from the report in a document that he gave each Chilean bishop at the start of the meeting.

In the document, he accused the bishops of destroying evidence of sex crimes, pressuring investigators to minimize abuse claims, and failing to protect children from pedophile priests.

In a statement, the bishops asked forgiveness for their mistakes. They said they hoped to help repair the damage they caused.

One of the victims said the bishops exposed helpless people to abuse and then tried to stop justice.

“For this,” he said, “they deserve only to go.”

I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

The Associated Press reported this story. Kelly Jean Kelly adapted the report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in this Story

bishop - n. an official in some Christian religions who is ranked higher than a priest and who is usually in charge of church matters in a specific geographical area

church - n. a particular Christian group

entire - adj. complete or full

scandal - n. an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong

pedophile - adj. a person who has a sexual interest in children

expose - v. to cause (someone) to experience something or to be influenced or affected by something

deserve - v. used to say that someone or something should or should not have or be given something

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AS IT IS

【67】Gunman Kills 9 Students, One Teacher at High School in Texas

May 18, 2018

Law enforcement officers respond to a hooting attack at Santa Fe High School near Houston, Texas. (Photo released on May 18, 2018. Courtesy HCSO/Handout via REUTERS)

A gunman killed at least 10 people, most of them students, at a high school near Houston, Texas, on Friday state officials said.

At least ten others are wounded.

It was the deadliest attack in the United States since a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. That mass shooting led to a campaign by teenagers for new gun control laws.

Police have arrested a suspect in the attack at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas. The state’s governor Greg Abbott said the shooter was armed with a shotgun and a handgun. He said the suspect also had homemade bombs that were found in the school and nearby.

Abbott described the shooting as “one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools.”

He also said the suspect told police that he had planned to kill himself, but did not have the will to end his life and instead surrendered.

People react outside the unification center at the Alamo Gym, following a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.

One hospital reported treating eight wounded individuals. Six were treated and released. One was listed in critical condition, and another in fair condition.

Seventeen-year-old Michael Farina said he was on the other side of the school when the shooting began. Farina said he thought it was a fire preparedness exercise. He was holding a door open for students in wheelchairs when an administrator came running toward him, telling everyone to run. Another teacher shouted, “It is real!”

Students were led to safety at a car shop across the street from the school. Some still did not feel safe and began jumping the fence behind the store to run farther, Farina said.

“I debated doing that myself,” he added.

A law enforcement official identified the shooting suspect as 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis. The official, who asked not be identified, did not have permission to provide the name to the media.

Pagourtzis plays on the Santa Fe High School junior varsity football team. He is also a member of a dance group with a local Greek Orthodox church.

This photo provided by the Galveston County Sheriff's Office shows Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who law enforcement officials took into custody Friday, May 18, 2018, and identified as the suspect in the deadly school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, Friday.

Governor Abbott said the guns he used belong, legally, to his father,.

Abbot added that one or two other people of interest were being questioned in connection with the attack.

The shooting is all but sure to restart the heated national debate over gun laws. Survivors of the February 14 attack in Parkland, Florida, took to social media to express sadness and anger about this latest school attack.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Jaclyn Corin tweeted, “My heart is so heavy for the students of Santa Fe High School. It’s an all too familiar feeling no one should have to experience. I am so sorry this epidemic touched your town — Parkland will stand with you now and forever.”

Corin also directed her anger at President Donald Trump. She wrote “Our children are being MURDERED and you’re treating this like a game. This is the 22nd school shooting just this year. DO SOMETHING.”

At a White House event, Trump described the shooting as "horrific" and one of many that have, in his words, "been going on too long in this country."

I’m Caty Weaver.

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Words in This Story

heinous - adj. very bad or evil

shop - n. store

junior varsity - n. a team whose members are less experienced and usually younger than members on a varsity team

church - n. a Christian place of worship

epidemic - adj. affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time

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