UNITED STATES
Toddler glued to wall
A 22-year-old mother was facing child abuse charges on Friday after police say she glued her toddler daughter’s hands to a wall, kicked her in the stomach and beat her over a potty training issue. Joselyn Cedillo, 2, was on life support with multiple internal injuries at a Dallas hospital on Thursday, the Dallas Morning News reported. The newspaper, citing police records, said glue and paint were stuck to Joselyn’s palms, and that skin had torn away in places. Joselyn’s mother, Elizabeth Escalona, was crying and hysterical when she called her own mother on Wednesday morning from her Dallas apartment, according to police records. The records show that when the grandmother arrived at the apartment, her granddaughter was unconscious on the floor. She took her to the hospital.
CANADA
Portrait triggers anger
A Canadian federal government decree that the queen’s portrait be displayed in all embassies and missions abroad triggered an angry response on Friday from a former diplomat and an opposition lawmaker. “This decision is retrograde and anachronistic,” said Paul Heinbecker, Canada’s erstwhile ambassador to the UN. “After 60 years of emancipation, this is a step back for our country,” he added. The decision also angered Paul Dewar, a lawmaker from the New Democratic Party (NDP). “We don’t have a minister of foreign affairs, we have a minister of interior decorating,” Dewar said.
MEXICO
President sees Dalai Lama
President Felipe Calderon on Friday held “private” talks with the Dalai Lama — a move sure to irritate China, which says the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is bent on independence. Calderon’s office said in a statement that the pair had discussed “the importance of promoting ethical values in contemporary society.” The Mexican leader reiterated his country’s adherence to the “one China principle” and its recognition of China’s full sovereignty over Tibet. The Dalai Lama described the talks as “very good” and taking place in a “friendly atmosphere” — and added that Calderon had “inquired about the situation in Tibet.”
BOLIVIA
Plane crash survivor found
A 35-year-old man was found alive, the only survivor from a private plane that disappeared and crashed three days ago, killing eight people in the northeast, local media said on Friday. Minor Vidal was found with head injuries by rescuers who arrived at the accident site on Thursday night. He was airlifted by military helicopter for examination, radio stations reported. The Aerocon plane was carrying seven passengers and two crew when it took off on Tuesday from the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, headed for Trinidad, when it vanished from radar.
FRANCE
Sailboat crew vanishes
The crew of a French sailboat has gone missing in pirate-infested waters off the coast of Yemen, France’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday. The ministry said the catamaran had sounded an alarm and French authorities then requested a nearby German ship to investigate. The boat was found with no crew aboard. The ministry said: “We are doing everything we can to find those who were aboard this ship.” It is not clear how many people were aboard the catamaran. A Yemeni Coast Guard official said that the French passengers left the port of Aden on Sept. 4.
CHINA
Ferry capsizes, kills 11
A ferry carrying students on a holiday trip capsized in central China, killing 11 people, officials said yesterday. Nine students and two adults drowned after the ferry carrying at least 43 passengers, mostly students returning home for the Mid-Autumn Festival weekend, capsized on Friday afternoon, an official with the Shaoyang County safety bureau in Hunan Province said. He said workers were still searching for at least three missing people after 16 were rescued with injuries. Thirteen passengers managed to swim to safety. The two boat owners have been detained by police, Xinhua news agency reported. It said the ferry capsized after it was blocked by iron cables in the Fuyi River. All of the students killed were taking the ferry chartered by primary and middle schools in the nearby Tantianshi town back home, where they planned to spend the holiday weekend with their families, Xinhua reported.
CAMBODIA
Cow helps raise baby
A Cambodian man says his young grandson has lived partly on milk he suckles directly from a cow since the boy’s parents left their rural village in search of work. Um Oeung says 20-month-old Tha Sophat started suckling the cow in July after he saw a calf do the same. Um Oeung said he pulled the boy away at first. He relented after his grandson protested loudly and the boy has suckled the cow’s milk once or twice a day since then. Tha Sophat has lived with his grandparents in Koak Roka, Siem Reap Province, since his parents moved to Thailand in search of work. Um Oeung said on Friday the cow doesn’t mind the young boy suckling, but he is worried about his grandson’s health if he continues.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion