Briefs

BRIEFS

<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Uvalde teacher says police are 'cowards'</span>

A teacher who was shot twice during the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, raged against the police for allowing the gunman to continue his rampage.

"One of the students from the next-door classroom was saying, 'Officer, we're in here. We're in here,'" Arnulfo Reyes told "Good Morning America." "But they had already left."

"Cowards," he branded them.

While the gunman rampaged through Robb Elementary, killing 19 students and two teachers, police stayed outside, instead trying to stop parents from storming the building to save their children.

The teacher remains hospitalized after five surgeries and two blood replacements in the two weeks since the shooting.

<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Car insurance policy to pay $5 million for STD</span>

The Missouri Court of Appeals has affirmed an insurance company must pay a $5.2 million settlement granted to a Jackson County woman who claimed she unwittingly caught a sexually transmitted disease from her former partner in his car.

In an opinion issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel found the judgment entered against GEICO General Insurance Company through earlier arbitration proceedings was valid. The insurance company sought to undo the action, claiming errors were made in Jackson County Circuit Court and the settlement agreement was not done in line with Missouri law.

According to court papers, the woman notified GEICO in February 2021 of her intention to seek monetary damages, alleging she contracted HPV from an insured member in his automobile.

The insurance company declined the settlement, sending the case to arbitration.

In May 2021, the arbitrator found the man and woman had sex in his vehicle, which "directly caused, or directly contributed to cause" the HPV infection. The man was found liable for not disclosing his infection status.

The insurance company filed motions seeking a new hearing of the evidence and for the award to be tossed out, saying the judgment violated the company's rights to due process and the arbitration agreement was unenforceable. GEICO appealed after those requests were denied.

The panel tasked with reviewing the case found the lower court did not make a mistake by denying the company's motions.

<span style="text-decoration: underline;">107 airlifted to safety in Austrian Alps</span>

Authorities in Austria say more than 100 students and teachers on a school trip from Germany had to be airlifted to safety after they followed a map that directed them onto an unmarked and difficult trail.

Police said in a statement Wednesday the group from Ludwigshafen, Germany, became stuck on a ridge after a teacher had found what was described as a "classic evening walk" via an internet search tool.

In fact, the route was partly suspended and involved sections that required climbing, firm shoes and Alpine experience, police said.

Due to slippery conditions and the fact that "not all students were wearing optimal footwear," one teacher decided to turn back. After two students slipped and suffered minor injuries, the teacher dialed emergency services.

Police said the 99 students and eight teachers were plucked from the ridge by helicopter.

- From wire reports