A ninth person has died in South Carolina because of Hurricane Florence bringing the total death toll for the massive storm and its subsequent record-shattering flooding to 42 people.The South Carolina state public safety department said in a Twitter message Thursday evening that the body of an 81-year-old man was found in a pickup truck submerged in water in Dillon county.

Highway patrol corporal Sonny Collins said the pickup ran off state highway 57, crashed and ended up in the water. Corner Donnie Grimsley said Friday morning that he’s still working to contact the victim’s family before he releases the name. Florence is blamed for at least 42 deaths in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Well over half of those killed were in vehicles.

In North Carolina, many people have started returning to flooded homes as the rivers receded. They were met by silty mud on walls and floors, blown out windows and terrible odors. South Carolina governor Henry McMaster estimated his state has already suffered $1.2bn in damage. He asked Congress for help. North Carolina governor Roy Cooper says the state is still tallying its storm damage, but says it will be in the billions.(theguardian)…[+]

Four children, including three from the same family, have died after a train struck an electric transport wagon in which they were travelling near the eastern Dutch town of Oss, local media have reported.

A fifth child and the woman driving the wagon, known as a bolderkar or Stint, were critically injured. The ANP news agency said the accident happened at about 8.25am on Thursday on a manned level crossing as the woman was taking the children, aged between four and 11, from the before-school daycare centre where she worked to local primary schools.

Witnesses told the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper that the barriers on the level crossing had been lowered but that the vehicle – a mode of transport popular with daycare centres in the Netherlands and Belgium for ferrying young children around – passed underneath them and became stranded on the tracks. Some witnesses said the the driver appeared to have lost control and was calling for help as the train approached.(theguardian)…[+]

Authorities in Zimbabwe are struggling to control a deadly cholera outbreak, underlining the enormous challenges that face the country’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. More than 5,000 people have been infected and 30 killed in the outbreak. A state of emergency has been declared and all public events cancelled, but the disease has nevertheless spread to five of the country’s 10 provinces.

In July, Mnangagwa won Zimbabwe’s first election since Robert Mugabe was ousted by the military last year. Observers criticised the poll, which the opposition claimed was rigged. The health emergency has shone a light on the appalling state of Zimbabwe’s infrastructure after decades of Mugabe’s autocratic and corrupt rule.(theguardian)…[+]

The World Anti-Doping Agency is facing the gravest crisis in its 19-year history after it lifted Russia’s suspension, despite pleas from the rest of the anti-doping community that such a decision would be unwise and premature.

The news, officially announced by Wada on Thursday afternoon after a meeting of its executive committee in the Seychelles, means that Russia will be free to test its own athletes again and issue therapeutic use exemption certificates. The decision makes it more likely that its track and field athletes will return to competing under the Russian flag, while the country is likely to start bidding for sporting events again too.However Wada’s critics are furious that it has secretly shifted the goalposts for the return of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) – especially as Russia has still not accepted that it was running a massive state-sponsored doping programme across major events such as the London 2012 Olympics, the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.(theguardian)…[+]