 Outside of Africa, nine children and a young father have been killed when a van and another vehicle slammed together on a rain-drenched Alabama highway during a tropical storm. Butler County Sheriff Danny Bond says a nine-month-old girl and a 29-year-old father died in the Saturday afternoon pile-up of about 18 vehicles, including an Alabama sheriff's youth ranch's vehicle carrying eight other children aged 4 to 17 who were killed. The ranch is home to Alabama's needy, neglected or abused school-aged children according to its website. The cause of the crash on Interstate Highway 65, which was awash from the powerful storm, was under investigation. Fresh news updates