Gerald Ford has surpassed Ronald Reagan to become the longest-living US president. Ford, who turned 93 on July 14, became the oldest president on Sunday by living to 93 years and 121 days. "The length of one's days matters less than the love of one's family and friends," Ford said in a statement this week. "I thank God for the gift of every sunrise and, even more, for all the years he has blessed me with Betty and the children, with our extended family and the friends of a lifetime," he added. Ford was president from Aug. 9, 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal, until January 1977.
■ Colombia
Traffickers blamed for deaths
Six people were shot to death and six others were injured by a roadside bomb this weekend in the port city of Buenaventura, officials said on Sunday. The execution-style murders that included a six-year-old child on Saturday and the bomb on Sunday that injured four soldiers, a police officer and a civilian were blamed by police on drug traffickers, who have turned Buenaventura into a major shipping point for cocaine. The killings bring the death toll this year to 305, said Mayor Saulo Quinones, giving Buenaventura the chilling murder rate of 100 per 100,000 inhabitants.
■ United States
Deer kills owner
A deer being kept in a pen attacked and killed his owner, state police said. The buck that killed Ronald Donah, 43, was among about a half dozen deer penned up on his property in Ellenburg, New York, about 290km north of Albany, said state Trooper Joseph House. Details of Donah's injuries and what may have prompted the attack were not available. Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said Donah had a license to keep the white tail deer on his property but did not know why he was doing so. She said deer attacks, at least in the wild, are extremely rare.
■ Mexico
Youths target McDonald's
Masked youths tossed gasoline bombs at a McDonald's restaurant in the conflict-torn city of Oaxaca, the latest violence in the southern state capital that has been besieged by protesters calling for the governor's ouster. Four youths attacked the restaurant before dawn on Sunday, damaging the store's windows, seats and play area, police said. The restaurant is near a university where leftist protesters set up their headquarters last month after police drove them out of the city's main plaza, which they had occupied since May in a bid to force Oaxaca's state governor to resign. Leaders of the movement, known as the Oaxaca People's Assembly, denied their members were responsible for Sunday's attack.
■ United Kingdom
Radio increases emissions
Digital broadcasting is increasing the threat of global warming by pumping massive amounts of extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, official figures suggest. The millions of Britons who listen to the radio through their digital televisions and computers together release an extra 190,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. According to the recently published Stern review of the economics of climate change, that amount of carbon pollution will cause £8.5 million (US$16.2 million) in damage to the planet.
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