MEXICO
Activist among 15 killed
At least 15 people were killed over the weekend in the southwestern state of Guerrero, including an activist who helped lead efforts to find 43 students who disappeared and were presumed murdered last year, according to Mexican officials. Ten of the murders took place in the resort city of Acapulco, which is packed with tourists due to summer vacations, local police said. Miguel Angel Jimenez, a leader of a community police organization, was found shot to death inside the taxi he drove in the rural outskirts of Acapulco on Saturday night, according to local police. Jimenez led a group that searched for approximately 300 people who have disappeared in the state, helping uncover mass graves found around the city of Iguala, where 43 Mexican students went missing last year. The government has said the students were abducted by police and handed over to drug traffickers, who allegedly killed the students and burned their bodies.
UNITED STATES
Dog found after nine years
An Alabama family on Saturday drove to Colorado to be reunited with their dog Boozer after a nine-year separation. Boozer, now 10, had gone missing while the family was moving from Tennessee to Alabama. KUSA-TV reports that a man who had owned Boozer, a boxer, recently moved to Denver and gave the dog to Foothills Animal Shelter in Golden, Colorado, on Aug. 2. The man said he was unable to take care of Boozer. The shelter scanned Boozer’s microchip and discovered that he was registered to Lloyd Goldston of Alabama. Goldston said he kept an album about Boozer and the dog was always in their hearts. “We never forgot him,” he said. Goldston and his two children drove 18 hours to the animal shelter, where a teary-eyed Goldston got to spend time with Boozer again. “He’s beautiful. Yes you are. Yes you are,” Goldston told his pet, giving him a hug. “Hey Boozer! Welcome back, buddy.”
FRANCE
Family ‘forget’ baby on trip
A family on their way to the French Riviera for their vacation left their three-year-old daughter at a highway rest stop on Sunday and drove more than 150km before realizing they had “forgotten” her, police said. They only twigged she was missing when an alert was issued on the radio, officers said. The child was found by other travelers in a rest area off the A7 Autoroute du Soleil (Highway of the Sun) near Loriol in the Drome department just after lunch on Sunday. All she could tell them was that she had a brother and a sister and that she was “going to the seaside” when she saw “daddy’s car pull away,” a gendarme told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Catholic school fires lesbian
The pope’s vision for an “open door” church is bumping up against sometimes wrenching decisions involving gay employees at Catholic schools and institutions. The issue has stirred debate in Philadelphia since the June dismissal of a married gay teacher at a Catholic elementary school. Margie Winters said she was open with Mercy Waldron Academy officials about her marriage, but believes a parent’s complaint to the archdiocese forced the school’s hand. Archbishop Charles Chaput argued that Catholic schools must hold to church teachings, including its ban on same-sex marriage. An advocacy group said more than 50 people have lost their jobs at Catholic institutions over their sexual identity or orientation. Winters plans to ask the pope for a moratorium on such firings if she gets to meet him next month when he travels to Philadelphia.
UNITED STATES
Gator bites off woman’s arm
A woman is recovering after being attacked by an alligator that bit off her arm while she swam in central Florida. Rachael Lilienthal, 37, was swimming in Wekiva River on Saturday afternoon when the gator attacked her, biting her twice, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission spokeswoman Karen Parker said. The 2.67m male gator bit off her arm just above the elbow. Parker said doctors were not able to reattach the arm because too much time had passed. Kayakers helped rescue the woman. One of the kayakers struck the alligator with a paddle, causing the animal to release Lilienthal. Two kayakers brought her to the marina, where deputies gave her first aid. She was taken to an Orlando-area hospital. Her condition is not known. Wildlife officers captured the 135kg to 157kg gator hours later and euthanized it.
PORTUGAL
Huge forest fires rage
Nearly 1,000 firefighters as well as six helicopters and three planes were deployed on Sunday to battle forest fires raging in the north and center of the country, authorities said. The worst fire scorched Vila Nova de Cerveira in the northern Minho region and was continuing to spread due to “difficult to access terrain, wind, high temperatures and the ongoing drought,” a fire service spokesman said, with 250 men battling the blaze. Television broadcast images of frightened residents as the flames approached their homes. Another major fire was raging at Miranda do Corvo, not far from the central city of Coimbra, with homes there also threatened. About 100km to the east at Covilha, two firemen were injured tackling another blaze that forced authorities to evacuate a camp site and a hostel before it was brought under control.
MEXICO
Dentists treat US seniors
The high percentage of US senior citizens who lack dental insurance coverage has driven many to border towns in the country that offer low-cost services. There are hundreds of dentists within a two-block perimeter in Los Algodones, a small town across the Arizona and California border. The dentists say many of their clients are elderly Americans. A study by Oral Health America found that nearly 70 percent of seniors in the US lack dental coverage. The government-funded Medicare healthcare program for seniors does not offer dental coverage and many employers no longer offer post-retirement benefits. That means that people from as far away as Alaska travel all the way to Los Algodones, where many dentists speak English.
Spain
Gibraltar ‘violated’: the UK
British and Gibraltar officials said several Spanish police vessels and a customs helicopter illegally entered and violated the territorial waters and airspace of the tiny British territory of Gibraltar on the country’s southwestern tip. British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire said the vessels “repeatedly entered” the area on Sunday without properly notifying Gibraltarian authorities. He said that although the incursions were believed to be part of the pursuit of a suspected drug-smuggling speedboat, the actions were unlawful. Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said the chase, which included the customs helicopter flying low over his territory, was a display of “bravado” that backfired by allowing one suspected drug smuggler to escape, although two others, both Spaniards, were arrested. Authorities did not immediately comment on the accusations.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number