■UNITED STATES
Last octuplet heads home
The last of the world’s longest surviving set of octuplets was released from a hospital in suburban Los Angeles on Monday after spending more than two months in the neonatal intensive care unit. Jonah, the smallest of the octuplets, who were born nine weeks premature on Jan. 26, has gone home to join his brothers and sisters, said a spokeswoman with Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center.
■PERU
Bridge collapse kills nine
Seven children between 11 and 14 years old and two teachers died when a bridge they were crossing collapsed in the Andean district of Cora Cora, Ayacucho Province, officials said. The tragedy left 53 people injured, 14 of them in critical condition. The 100m bridge was said to be poorly maintained and collapsed as children and teachers from three schools were crossing. The victims fell as far as 80m into a precipice, officials said. Maria Torrealva, regional health director of Ayacucho, said rescue efforts were made more difficult because helicopters offered by a private mining company were unable to reach the site because of poor weather conditions.
■MEXICO
‘Texican’ ad draws criticism
An advertisement for Burger King’s Texican Whopper burger that has run in Europe has drawn heavy criticism. The ad shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. The wrestler teams up with a lanky US cowboy almost twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors. “The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican,” a narrator’s voice says. The taller cowboy boosts the wrestler up to reach high shelves and helps clean tall windows, while the Mexican helps the cowboy open a jar. Mexico’s ambassador to Spain said Monday he has written a letter to Burger King’s offices in that nation objecting to the ad and asking that it be removed. Jorge Zermeno told Radio Formula that the ads “improperly use the stereotyped image of a Mexican.”
■COLOMBIA
Suspected rebel arrested
Police said on Monday they had arrested a suspected FARC rebel leader in charge of the group’s drug trafficking operations and who is high up on the US Justice Department’s most wanted list. Ignacio Leal, 34, is the reputed political and financial leader of the FARC’s “Eastern Bloc” faction that operates in near the Venezuelan border, Police Public Security director Orlando Paez said. Arrested in Arauquita, Leal was “a top target of the US Justice Department” in drug-related matters. Police said Leal, also known as “Camilo” or “El Tuerto” (one-eyed), managed drug trafficking operations for the Eastern Bloc, one of the FARC’s most violent units. Leal is wanted for terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, kidnapping and blackmail, the police said.
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