■CANADA
Wildfires ravage coast
Almost 3,000 people have been evacuated since Sunday and 85 percent of British Columbia remains on high alert as lighting strikes and tinder-dry forests continue to fuel wildfires on Canada’s Pacific coast. British Columbia Forest Service spokeswoman Alyson Couch said on Monday conditions remain hot and dry. She said firefighters from across Canada and some from Australia are joining those already in the forests. Since April, 2,200 fires have torched 68,867 hectares compared to 1,066 that burned 11,000 hectares last year.
■MEXICO
Quake rocks gulf
A powerful earthquake on Monday shook fishing villages along Mexico’s Gulf of California and prompted alarm as far away as Phoenix, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The US National Earthquake Information Center said the 6.9-magnitude quake struck at 12:59pm and was centered 122km north-northeast of Santa Isabel in Baja California and 533km southeast of the border city of Tijuana. It was the strongest of four quakes of 5.0-magnitude or greater that struck the area over a 45-minute period late Monday morning. Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Alex Rangel said a high-rise near downtown shook violently enough that workers evacuated, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
■UNITED STATES
Jackson doctor wants say
A Los Angeles judge named Michael Jackson’s mother as permanent guardian of the star’s children on Monday, ignoring a surprise late bid by the singer’s male dermatologist to have a say in their upbringing. Lawyers for Katherine Jackson, 79, and the King of Pop’s ex-wife had last week agreed details of custody arrangements. However, what was expected to be a straightforward hearing to approve the agreement took a bizarre turn when an attorney for Jackson’s Beverly Hills dermatologist, Arnold Klein, appeared at the hearing. Lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan said Klein wanted to “have a voice” in issues concerning the children’s “education, healthcare and welfare.” Klein was “not a presumed parent,” Kaplan said, although Monday’s twist is likely to stir speculation about whether the doctor is the biological father of Jackson’s two eldest children.
■UNITED STATES
Family visits 52 zoos
It’s been a wild year for members of an Ohio family, who say they have visited 52 zoos in 52 weeks. Columbus resident Marla Taviano, her husband and three daughters began last August with the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky and spent weekends and vacations going to zoos across the US. Their visits included the Dallas Zoo, New York’s Central Park Zoo and the San Diego Zoo.
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