CBS News
California confirms first fatal black bear attack on human
DOWNIEVILLE – An autopsy has found that a California woman who was found dead in her Sierra County home back in 2023 was killed by a black bear — the first-ever recorded case of such a deadly attack.
Initially, deputies with the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office responded to 71-year-old Downieville resident Patrice Miller’s home on Nov. 8, 2023 to do a welfare check. Miller was found dead – and the sheriff’s office said evidence pointed to a suspected bear encounter.
At the time, the sheriff’s office said the initial investigation determined that Miller had died before the bear got in.
However, on Thursday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife revealed that the autopsy report they recently received confirmed that the bear attack killed the woman.
The Downieville incident is now the first documented fatal attack by a black bear in California history, CDFW officials said.
Wildlife officials also revealed that the bear involved in the incident had been trapped and euthanized. DNA analysis was used to confirm that it was indeed the same bear, CDFW said.
Bear attacks in California
While human encounters with black bears are growing increasingly common in the California high country, reports of people being injured by the animals are extremely rare.
Still, some incidents between bears and humans have led to serious injuries – like in 2022, when a North Lake Tahoe woman came face to face with a bear in her home.
The increasing number of visitors to California’s bear country, like the Lake Tahoe region, coupled with carelessness in securing food and garbage are what wildlife experts are blaming for the spike in bear encounters. Earlier in 2024, also noted that a record number of bears had already been evicted from Tahoe buildings.
Downieville is a Sierra Nevada community of less than 300 people, about 60 miles northwest of Truckee.
California is home only to one species of bear, the black bear. Unlike their grizzly bear cousins, the black bear has a more non-confrontational reputation when it comes to human encounters.
A Qantas plane made an emergency landing Friday due to what the airline said was a “contained engine failure” soon after taking off from Sydney Airport, sparking a grassfire on a nearby runway and causing several flights to be diverted.
The Qantas flight, QF520, was bound for Brisbane and was circling for a “short period of time” before landing safely back at Sydney Airport, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in the statement.
There was no initial word on the number of people on board.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
“Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure,” the airline said. “While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion.”
The Reuters news agency explains that in a contained engine failure, the engine’s parts stay inside the protective housing meant to keep them from flying out. If they do, they could cause severe damage to the main body of a plane.
Airservices Australia, the government’s aviation regulator, said the engine failure caused “a grass area adjacent to the runway to catch fire” that was swiftly extinguished by firefighters.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
The Airservices’ National Operations Management Centre enacted a 47-minute ground stop at Sydney Airport to ensure the plane could land as quickly as possible, the regulator said in a statement, adding that no one was hurt.
Reuters reports that the airport said all its runways had re-opened by Friday afternoon after the parallel runway had been closed for inspection because of the fire.
The aircraft is a 19-year-old Boeing 737-800, Reuters said, citing Flightradar24. That type of twin-engine passenger plane is designed to be able to fly using only one engine in an emergency, Reuters noted.
Passenger Georgina Lewis said she heard a “bang.”
“One of the engines appeared to have gone. The pilot came on 10 minutes later to explain that they had a problem with a right-hand engine on takeoff,” she told local outlet Channel Nine.
Another passenger, Mark Willacy, a journalist with Australia’s national broadcaster ABC, said the plane struggled to get airborne following the “loud bang” noise.
“That big bang as the wheels were leaving the ground and the shudder, that was like nothing I have ever felt,” he told ABC. “When we landed, there was a lot of applause and cheering amongst the passengers.”
Tobiano said his staff members were “highly trained” to respond to such emergency situations.
“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” he said in the statement. “We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue.”
Customers were being moved to alternate flights, Qantas said.
Eleven domestic flights were cancelled and four diverted to other airports, a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.
CBS News
Netanyahu sends 2 planes to Netherlands to bring out Israeli soccer fans after violence surrounding match in Amsterdam
Amsterdam — Leaders of Israel and the Netherlands on Friday condemned what they called antisemitic attacks on fans of soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv before and after a Europa League soccer match between their team and Ajax, and Israel said it was sending planes to fly supporters home from the Dutch capital.
The violence erupted Thursday despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the soccer stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who’d feared clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli soccer club.
Amsterdam police had no immediate comment on the violence or numbers of arrests and injuries.
But Halsema said supporters of the Israeli team were hurt and the extent of the violence and number of arrests were still being sorted out, according to the Reuters news agency.
Agence France-Presse reported that a Dutch police spokesperson told the Dutch ANP news agency 57 people had been arrested.
AFP said social media platforms were inundated with unverified images supposedly showing the violence, but authorities offered few confirmed details.
AFP said AT5 reported that the clashes occurred around midnight with numerous fights and acts of vandalism in the center of Amsterdam. “A large number of mobile unit vehicles are present and reinforcements have also been called in,” AT5 said.
X/ iAnnet via REUTERS.
Details were unclear, but Israel ordered that two planes be sent to the Dutch capital to bring the Israelis home.
“The Prime Minister has directed that two rescue planes be sent immediately to assist our citizens,” said a statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
It added that “the harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” and that Netanyahu “views the premeditated antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens with utmost gravity.” He demanded that the Dutch government take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.
Netanyahu’s office added that he had called for increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on X that he followed reports of the violence “with horror.”
“Completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with everyone involved,” he added, saying that he had spoken to Netanyahu and “emphasized that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital.”
The Israeli Embassy in Washington said on the social media platform X that “hundreds” of Maccabi fans were “ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following a game,” according to AFP. The embassy blamed the violence on a “mob who targeted innocent Israelis.”
Geert Wilders, the hard right nationalist lawmaker whose Party for Freedom won elections in the Netherlands last year and who is a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan being surrounded by several men.
“Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” Wilders said.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also condemned the violence in a post on the social media platform X.
When Huntington Beach, Calif., detectives searched Rodney Alcala‘s Seattle storage locker during the murder investigation of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe in 1979, they discovered a cache of photos, many of them young women in suggestive, and even pornographic poses.
In March 2010, after a third jury in 30 years handed Alcala a death sentence, Huntington Beach police released more than 100 of those photos hoping to identify the women and some children, and learn if Alcala claimed still more victims.
Most of those who have been identified are alive and well.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Huntington Beach Police Dept.
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified people in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified person in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified child in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
An unidentified woman in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Serial Killer’s Secret Photos
Unidentified women in an image from Rodney Alcala’s photo cache.
Qantas plane returns to Australia airport, makes emergency landing due to engine failure
Netanyahu sends 2 planes to Netherlands to bring out Israeli soccer fans after violence surrounding match in Amsterdam
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans clash with reported pro-Palestinian protesters at Ajax Europa League match
Qantas plane returns to Australia airport, makes emergency landing due to engine failure