■ United States
Man shot twice in same spot
Kenyatta Bostic was shot by Georgia police twice in the same shoulder at two different times on the same night. The girlfriend of Bostic, 33, called police with a domestic violence complaint early Saturday. He returned soon after, but when police ordered him to turn off his car's engine he sped off, barely avoiding an officer who dived out of the way. An officer fired through the car's passenger window, hitting Bostic in the shoulder. Police then chased him through the Atlanta metropolitan area until Bostic returned to his girlfriend's apartment complex, where he crashed his car and set out on foot. During the ensuing chase, he was shot in the same shoulder. He is now being held on several charges.
■ Cuba
Castro urges release of `spy'
President Fidel Castro managed to speak by telephone with a suspected Cuban spy jailed in the US and urged Washington to free the man and four others whose US convictions were recently overturned. Castro was meeting with the family of the five imprisoned Cubans Saturday when one of the men was allowed to call his wife in Havana. Castro, who was celebrating his 79th birthday, spoke with the prisoner, Gerardo Hernandez. Hernandez was arrested in Florida in 1998 along with four others accused of monitoring US military installations. They were convicted of spying in 2001.
■ Peru
Toledo's ratings sink, more
President Alejandro Toledo's approval rating has sunk to 8 percent after his appointment of a controversial foreign minister. A poll published in El Comercio newspaper showed Toledo's popularity inched up to 14 percent last month and had hit 16 percent at the start of this month but last Thursday's appointment of Fernando Olivera slashed it by half. It was Toledo's worst showing since May of last year when his rating hit 6 percent. His appointment of the abrasive Olivera -- until now his closest ally -- was greeted with incredulity from ministers who disagreed with him over a regional law in southern Peru legalizing some cultivation of crops that make cocaine. Olivera, the head of the government's junior coalition party, is widely distrusted for his priviliged access to the president.
■ United States
Hurricane Irene turns away
Tropical Storm Irene strengthened into the season's third hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday but turned away from the US East Coast on a path that posed no threat to land. Irene's top winds reached 30kph, crossing the 119kph to become a minimal hurricane. Irene was expected to turn more to the northeast and fizzle by midweek as it moved over colder water. Irene was the ninth tropical storm of a busy Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season that is just approaching what is traditionally the most active period. Irene was this year's third hurricane, marking the first time since 1966 that three have formed so early.
RSS