Midday Roundup: Five soldiers dead in Fort Hood flood

Fatal flood. Rising floodwaters swept away a truck carrying 12 soldiers from the Fort Hood Army base in Texas, leaving five people dead and four missing. Post spokesman Chris Haug said today the soldiers were being trained on how to operate the 2½-ton truck when it overturned Thursday morning along a creek. Officials were in the process of closing flooded roads around the base when the accident happened.

Safe and sound. A Japanese soldier found a 7-year-old boy who got lost in the woods in Japan after his parents made him get out of the car for misbehaving. The boy survived nearly a week on his own in an abandoned military hut that had a water spigot. The soldier who found him said he looked a bit worn out but was “genki,” a Japanese word describing healthy children. The Japanese have been riveted by the boy’s abandonment, which prompted intense soul-searching in the media about how parents in the country raise and discipline their children. The boy’s parents said they were trying to teach him a lesson for misbehaving and throwing rocks, so they made him get out of the car last Saturday. They couldn’t find him when they returned several minutes later. The father appeared on Japanese media after the boy was found and said, “We have raised him with love all along. … I really didn’t think it would come to that. We went too far.”

Disturbing body count. A Libyan navy spokesman said the bodies of more than 100 migrants have been retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea after a smuggling boat capsized offshore. The expected death toll is likely to be higher, since such boats usually carry as many as 125 people. He said the Libyan coast guard found the empty boat on Thursday and that it’s possible the boat capsized a day earlier. Col. Ayoub Gassim blamed Europe for “doing nothing but counting bodies” to stop the massive illegal migration from the country.

In memory. Robertson McQuilkin, a missionary, theologian, and former president of Columbia International University (CIU), died Thursday. He was 88. McQuilkin was the son of the first president of CIU, which was founded in 1923 as Columbia Bible College in Columbia, S.C., and grew into a four-year college, graduate school, and seminary. McQuilkin served as president from 1968 to 1990. He resigned to care for his wife, Muriel, who died from Alzheimer’s disease in 2003. His book A Promise Kept tells the story of her prolonged illness. McQuilkin wrote 18 other books, including Understanding and Applying the Bible, The Great Omission, Introduction to Biblical Ethics, Life in the Spirit, and The Five Smooth Stones.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.