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California teacher dies after being bitten by a bat inside her classroom

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Minnesota health officials investigating rare rabies death


Minnesota health officials investigating rare rabies death

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A central California teacher died last month after she was bitten by a bat that presumably had rabies inside her classroom, officials and a friend of the woman, marking the third such fatality in North America in recent weeks.  

In the wake of Leah Seneng’s death on Nov. 22, public health officials are warning the public about the dangers of bats, which are the most common source of human rabies in the U.S. Even though fewer than 10 people in the country die from rabies each year, it is almost always fatal if not treated quickly.

Seneng, 60, found a bat in her classroom in mid-October, her friend Laura Splotch told KFSN-TV. She tried to scoop it up and take it outside but it bit her, Splotch said.

Seneng did not immediately have symptoms of rabies but she fell ill weeks later and was taken to the hospital, where she was put into a medically-induced coma and died days later, Splotch told the TV station.

“It’s devastating to see her in that state, with all the machines hooked up and everything, it was pretty upsetting and scary,” Splotch told KFSN.

According to her Facebook profile, Seneng was an art teacher at Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos, California. The Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District, called Seneng “a dedicated and compassionate educator.”

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Leah Seneng

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“We were shocked to learn that Leah’s passing was related to contracting rabies, most likely from being bitten by a bat and we are cooperating with the Merced County Department of Public Health on their investigation,” the school district said in a statement. “We live and work in a community known to have bats and other wildlife around school grounds, and we will continue to help educate our community regarding the dangers associated with coming into direct contact with any wild animal, including bats.”

Merced County confirmed the rabies exposure but, due to privacy laws, did not release the deceased’s name. The California Department of Public Health confirmed that the victim died after contracting rabies.

“Bites from bats can be incredibly small and difficult to see or to detect. It is important to wash your hands and look for any open wounds after touching a wild animal, and to seek immediate medical care if bitten,” CDPH Director Dr. Tomás J. Aragón said in a statement. “It is always safest to leave wild animals alone. Do not approach, touch, or try to feed any animals that you don’t know.”   

At least two other people in North America have died of rabies after encountering a bat in recent weeks. Last month, health officials in Canada announced that a child died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in their room. About a week before that, officials announced a U.S. citizen died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in western Minnesota in July.

How is rabies spread and what are the symptoms?

Rabies is a deadly viral infection that attacks the nervous system in humans and animals, causing brain and spinal cord inflammation. It is typically spread to humans through direct contact with the saliva of an infected animal through scratching or biting.

Rabies is commonly found in bats, raccoons, foxes, skunks and some household pets. Without proper and prompt treatment after symptoms appear, rabies is nearly 100 percent fatal in both animals and humans, according to Haldimand and Norfolk Health Services, where the child was admitted. 

Treatment has proven to be nearly 100% effective at preventing the disease if someone is exposed, though it must start before symptoms appear.  

Bats pose a unique risk because their scratches can be hard to notice due to their small teeth, and bats cannot be vaccinated through provincial programs, health officials said.

If bitten by an animal suspected of carrying the virus, health officials advise washing the wound thoroughly with soap and water for 15 minutes and immediately seeking medical attention.

According to the CDC, the incubation period of rabies may last from weeks to months, depending on the location of exposure, severity of exposure and age.

“The first symptoms of rabies, called prodrome, maybe like the flu, including weakness, discomfort, fever, or headache. There also may be discomfort, prickling, or an itching sensation at the site of the bite. These symptoms may last for several days,” the CDC says.



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184 killed in Haiti, U.N. says, as gang leader allegedly orders massacre of elderly on voodoo priest’s advice

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The United Nations human rights chief said Monday that 184 people were killed over the weekend in the Haitian capital, as Port-au-Prince was rocked by a spike in gang violence that pushed the death toll from Haiti’s spiraling security crisis to at least 5,000.

“Just this past weekend, at least 184 people were killed in violence orchestrated by the leader of a powerful gang in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, in the Cite Soleil area,” Volker Turk told reporters in Geneva. “These latest killings bring the death toll just this year in Haiti to a staggering 5,000 people.”

Volker appeared to be referring to a reported massacre carried out by a gang leader in the impoverished Cite Soleil neighborhood who targeted elderly people he suspected of sickening his own child by witchcraft.

The Reuters news agency quoted the National Human Rights Defense Network (RNDDH) as saying on Sunday that Monel “Mikano” Felix, leader of the Wharf Jeremie gang, had ordered the murders in Cite Soleil, and that all the victims of the attack were over 60 years old.

RNDDH said Felix had sought advice from a voodoo priest who told him elderly people in the area had harmed his child, who died on Saturday, leading to members of his gang killing at least 100 people Friday and Saturday with machetes and knives.

Insecurity continue amid spiraling gang violence in Haiti's capital
People walk past a burning barricade in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in a Nov. 19, 2024 file photo, taken in one of the few areas of the capital city not under the full control of armed criminal gangs.

Guerinault Louis/Anadolu/Getty


Cite Soleil is a densely populated neighborhood near the port in Port-au-Prince. It’s among the most impoverished and violent areas in the small country.

Haiti has been gripped by political chaos for years, leaving room for heavily-armed criminal gangs to seize huge swaths of territory in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. Much of the capital remains lawless despite hundreds of police from Kenya being sent in to help reassert law and order.

International airlines have largely stopped flying in and out of Haiti amid the chaos and bloodshed, with several U.S. carriers halting flights entirely after planes were hit by gunfire in November. American Airlines said over the weekend that it no longer planned to resume flights from February as previously stated, joining Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways in postponing all Haiti routes indefinitely.



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Australia synagogue fire “likely a terrorist incident,” police say as they seek suspects in Melbourne arson

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Melbourne — Australian police said Monday they are hunting for three suspects over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, designating it a terrorist act. Mask-wearing attackers set the Adass Israel Synagogue ablaze before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building. Some congregants were inside the single-story building at the time but no serious injuries were reported.

The fire sparked international condemnation, including from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference.

Investigations over the weekend had made “significant progress,” Patton said, declining to provide further details of the operation.

AUSTRALIA-RELIGION-POLICE-FIRE
A member of the Jewish community staples a poster to the front of the damaged Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea, Australia, Dec. 9, 2024.

MARTIN KEEP/AFP/Getty


Officials from the federal and state police, as well as Australia’s intelligence agency, met on Monday and concluded that the fire was “likely a terrorist incident,” the police chief said.

“Based on that, I am very confident that we now have had an attack, a terrorist attack on that synagogue,” Patton said.

Australia’s reaction to antisemitism “on the rise”

Counterterrorism police have joined the probe. Under Australian law, a terrorist act is one that causes death, injury or serious property damage to advance a political, religious or ideological cause and is aimed at intimidating the public or a government.

The official designation unlocks help from other federal agencies for the investigation, said Australian National University terrorism researcher Michael Zekulin.

“Basically you get additional resources that you might not otherwise get,” he told AFP.

There was no information to suggest further attacks were likely and Australia’s terror threat assessment remained at the level of “probable,” said Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has denounced the synagogue attack as an “outrage,” announced the creation of a federal police taskforce targeting antisemitism.

“Antisemitism is a major threat and antisemitism has been on the rise,” Albanese told a news conference, citing the synagogue blaze and recent vandalism.

The taskforce will be made up of federal police to be deployed across the country as needed, officials said. They will focus on threats, violence and hatred towards the Jewish community and parliamentarians.

The war in Gaza has sparked protests from supporters of Israel and the Palestinian people in cities around Australia, as in much of the world.


Amsterdam bans demonstrations after antisemitic attack on soccer fans

02:33

In January, Australian lawmakers ushered in a series of new laws in a bid to get to grips with a spike in antisemitic acts, including banning the performance of the Nazi salute in public and the display or sale of Nazi hate symbols such as the swastika. The new laws also made the act of glorifying or praising acts of terrorism a criminal offense. 

Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said at the time  that the laws sent “a clear message: there is no place in Australia for acts and symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust and terrorist acts.”

Israeli, Australian leaders “respectfully disagree” on definition of antisemitism

Netanyahu attacked the Australian government’s stance in the run-up to the fire.

“This heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government,” he said after the attack, declaring that “anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism.”

Australia voted last week in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution that demanded the end of Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

New Zealand, Britain, and Canada were among 157 countries that voted for the resolution, with eight against, including the U.S.

Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus rejected Netanyahu’s accusation.

“He’s absolutely wrong. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Netanyahu,” Dreyfus told national broadcaster ABC on Monday. “Australia remains a close friend of Israel, as we have been since the Labor government recognized the State of Israel when it was created by the United Nations. Now that remains the position.”



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Lara Trump steps down as RNC co-chair, addresses speculation about Florida Senate seat

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Lara Trump will step down as co-chair of the Republican National Committee as she considers a number of potential options with her father-in-law, President-elect Donald Trump, set to return to the White House.

Among those possibilities is replacing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom Trump tapped to be the next secretary of state. If Rubio is confirmed, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will choose who takes the seat through the remainder of Rubio’s term, which expires in 2026.

“It is something I would seriously consider,” she told The Associated Press in an interview. “If I’m being completely transparent, I don’t know exactly what that would look like. And I certainly want to get all of the information possible if that is something that’s real for me. But yeah, I would 100% consider it.”

Elected as RNC co-chair in March, Lara Trump was a key player in the Republicans retaking the White House and control of the Senate while maintaining a narrow House majority. What she does next could shape Republican politics, given her elevated political profile and her ties to the incoming president.

The 2024 Republican National Convention
Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, speaks during the Republican National Convention.

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images


The idea of placing a Trump family member in the Senate has been lauded in some Republican circles. Among the people pushing for her to replace Rubio is Maye Musk, mother of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

“The Senate is an old man’s club. We desperately need a smart, young, outspoken woman who will reveal their secrets,” she posted on X. Lara Trump is 42.

Elon Musk, who was with Lara Trump on election night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, responded to his mother’s post: “Lara Trump is genuinely great.”

Led by chairman Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, the RNC invested heavily in recruiting roughly 230,000 volunteers and an army of lawyers for what it called its “election integrity” effort, four years after Donald Trump lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden, citing false or unproven theories about voter fraud. Outside groups such as Turning Point Action and Musk’s America PAC took a greater responsibility for advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts.

While Whatley will remain RNC chairman, Lara Trump said she felt she had accomplished her goals in the co-chair role.

“With that big win, I kind of feel like my time is up,” she said. “What I intended to do has been done.”

Lara Trump praised Musk’s new endeavor, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental task force headed by Musk and and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. They’ve been tapped to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations as part of Trump’s “Save America” agenda for his second term.

“I really don’t think we’ve seen movement like this in our federal government since our country’s founding in many ways,” she said. “And I think if they are successful in what they plan to do, I think it is going to be transformative to America in a great way.”

She said she expects a different presidency this time, beginning with the structure of the administration: While Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner served as White House advisers in his last administration, Lara Trump said she doesn’t see any family member taking any position in the White House this time around with her father-in-law.

“He really wants to get in there and do a good job for the four years, and that’s all he wants to serve,” she said. “Four years, and he’s out.”

Lara Trump also says she expects the Republican Party to be more unified than it has ever been. When she became co-chair in May, the Trump campaign and the RNC merged, with staffers fired and positions restructured. She said the result could spell trouble for GOP lawmakers who do not agree with Trump’s agenda.

“The whole party has totally shifted and totally changed,” she said. “I think people are feeling a little more bold in coming out with their political views.”



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