■UNITED STATES
Knowledge of Islam lacking
More than half of Americans acknowledge having a poor understanding of Islam but support President Barack Obama’s plan to seek improved relations with the Muslim world, according to an opinion poll released on Sunday. The survey by the Washington Post and ABC News showed that 55 percent of those polled said they lacked a good understanding of the teachings and beliefs of Islam. Forty-eight percent said they had an unfavorable view of Islam, while nearly three in 10, or 29 percent, said they saw mainstream Islam as advocating violence against non-Muslims. At the same time, 58 percent said Islam was a peaceful religion, according to the poll. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said Obama would handle this diplomacy “about right.”
■UNITED STATES
Photographer Morabito dies
Photographer Rocco Morabito, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for his shot of a utility worker saving the life of a fellow lineman, died on Sunday in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 88. His dramatic photograph, tagged “Kiss of Life” by a Jacksonville Journal copy editor, appeared in newspapers around the world in 1967. The photo showed an electrical lineman who had come into contact with a 4,160-volt line being resuscitated by a fellow lineman as he dangled from the top of the pole. His Pulitzer Prize was for Spot News Photography.
■UNITED STATES
Texas hit by wildfires
Firefighters from the Texas-Oklahoma border to the Gulf Coast struggled on Sunday to contain wildfires that have destroyed homes, killed cattle and charred thousands of hectares. The largest of those fires, a 6,070 hectare blaze near the Texas town of Wheeler, destroyed eight homes and 26 outbuildings, including barns and garages. An unknown number of cattle were killed, the Texas Forest Service said. Four houses, two businesses and six outbuildings were destroyed in a fire in Aransas County on the Gulf Coast on Sunday afternoon.
■UNITED STATES
Dead whale found on beach
A dead gray whale calf has washed up on a Southern California beach. Marine biologist Alisa Schulman-Janiger said the three-month-old male calf was estimated to have been dead for about 10 days when it washed ashore on Sunday off Orange County. The 7.62m long whale has three deep parallel cuts in its side, indicating it was hit by a ship propeller. Further testing will determine whether the injuries occurred before or after death.
■MEXICO
Worshippers protest policy
About 200 worshippers marched on Sunday to protest the government’s destruction of “Death Saint” shrines, saying the country’s fight against drug cartels had veered into religious persecution. “We are believers, not criminals,” the protesters chanted as they marched to the Metropolitan Cathedral downtown. At shrines, chapels and small churches across the country, tens of thousands of people worship the Death Saint, which is often depicted as a skeleton resembling the Grim Reaper. In crime-ridden neighborhoods, people of all walks of life believe the saint protects against violent death. But it is popular with drug traffickers, too. Last month, army troops accompanied workers who used back hoes to topple more than 30 shrines in the city of Nuevo Laredo. Many were elaborate, one-story, marble-clad constructions with electric lighting and statues of the skeletal Death Saint.
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