■ United States
Former FBI chief Gray dies
L. Patrick Gray, the Watergate-era FBI chief whose turbulent year at the agency was sullied by the scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation, is dead at age 88. Gray died On Wednesday at his home in Atlantic Beach, Florida, of complications from pancreatic cancer, said his son, Ed Gray. With the recent revelation that his former deputy, Mark Felt, was the secret Washington Post source known as Deep Throat, Gray ended more than three decades of silence about his role in the scandal. The former Justice Department official and Navy captain was appointed by Nixon as acting FBI director in 1972 after the death of J. Edgar Hoover. Six weeks later, on June 17, five burglars broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate complex.
■ Mexico
Woman has sextuplets
A woman in northern Mexico has given birth to six girls and all are doing well, her doctor said Wednesday. Joana Elizabeth Sanchez, 25, gave birth by Caesarean section on Monday to babies that weighed between 1.12kg and 1.3kg at a private hospital in Monterrey, said Dr. Victor Manuel Pina. The girls, with a gestation of 32 weeks, were born without problems "and now have passed the most difficult stage," he said. He said Sanchez had been taking medicine to stimulate ovulation. Her husband, Juan Gabriel Moreno, is a sales agent.
■ United States
Jobs consoles victim's dad
Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs has telephoned a bereaved father whose teenaged son has become the first person murdered in an iPod robbery, a report said Wednesday. The New York Times said Jobs called Errol Rose on Monday as he prepared to bury his 15-year-old son, Christopher, who was stabbed to death on Saturday in Brooklyn during a fight over one of the emblematic music players. "He told me that he understood my pain," Rose told the newspaper. "He told me if there is anything, anything, anything he could do, to not be afraid to call him. It really lightened me a bit." An Apple spokesman refused to comment on the report.
■ Canada
Canadian kids getting fatter
Canadians have grown much heavier in the past quarter century, according to a government survey, by eating too few fruits and vegetables, watching too much television, playing video games and not exercising enough. Obesity rates among children have climbed almost threefold to 8 percent (500,000 kids) from 1978 to last year while almost twice as many adults as before or 5.5 million people are now considered overweight, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.
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