■UNITED STATES
No shoes, no service, baby
Like most restaurants, the Burger King in the St Louis suburb of Sunset Hills, Missouri, has a no shoes, no shirt, no service policy. And baby, do they enforce it. Too much so, the company admitted, after apologizing for restaurant workers who asked a mother to leave because her six-month-old wasn’t wearing shoes. Jennifer Frederich, her mother and Frederich’s infant daughter, Kaylin, stopped at the Burger King in Sunset Hills on Sunday. The baby was shoeless — Frederich figured tiny baby feet were immune from the rule. But workers told the family to leave because the shoeless baby was violating a health code. Burger King released a statement on Thursday indicating workers had taken the no shoes, no service policy too far. Frederich said the flap was a bit overblown, and she hoped no one would be fired. But she appreciated Burger King’s apology.
■BRAZIL
Lula affirms sovereignty
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told his Colombian counterpart on Thursday that Bogota’s decision to allow an increase in US troops in its country was a sovereign matter, Brazil’s foreign minister said. After a meeting between Lula and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters Brazil had requested more transparency on the plan and suggested Colombia discuss it at the regional Unasur defense council on Monday. Uribe’s plan to increase the number of US troops in Colombia has drawn opposition from moderate governments in the region as well as from left-wing populist leaders.
■UNITED STATES
Judge pleads guilty to fraud
A former appeals court judge who resigned amid controversy over his financial and personal relationship with a stripper has pleaded guilty to bank fraud. Thomas Stringer appeared in Tampa federal court on Thursday morning. A stripper claimed he helped her hide from creditors by letting her put money into his bank accounts.
RSS