World, Nation Briefs: Day care fire kills 38 kids in Mexico
Published 10:10 pm Saturday, June 6, 2009
HERMOSILLO, Mexico — Sobbing relatives waited outside a morgue Saturday to claim the bodies of 38 children killed in a day care fire despite desperate attempts to evacuate babies and toddlers through the building’s only working exit. A father crashed his pickup truck through the wall in an effort to rescue his child. The tragedy in Hermosillo once again raised questions about building safety in Mexico. Thirty-three children remain hospitalized. Some of the children had third-degree burns, the fire department said. There were an estimated 142 children in the day care at the time of the fire.
Airline has resumed flights
Mexican airline Aviacsa has resumed flights after winning a court ruling against a government order grounding its fleet over safety concerns. Aviacsa said it resumed operations Saturday after a judge struck down the government order. The airline, which flies Boeing 737 aircraft, denies it has safety problems. The Mexican government suspended Aviacsa flights Wednesday after officials reported irregularities in the maintenance of 25 planes.
Canada: Protectionism plan
Canadian mayors passed a resolution Saturday that would potentially shut out U.S. bidders from city contracts in response to the U.S. administration’s “Buy American” policy. The nonbinding resolution passed 189-175 at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Whistler, B.C. The Federation president said the fair trade resolution was developed in reaction to protectionist provisions in President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill.
China: U.S. climber’s body
The body of an American mountain climber has been found after an avalanche in an isolated part of southwestern China, Xinhua News Agency said Saturday. Rescue workers were still searching for two other American members of the group who went missing on Mount Gongga in Sichuan province, an official with the Chinese Mountaineering Association said. Gongga rises to 24,790 feet above sea level.
Utah: Threat to Obama
Authorities have arrested a man who allegedly told bank tellers while cleaning out his savings account in Utah that he was on a mission to kill President Barack Obama. The Secret Service said Daniel James Murray, 36, was arrested Friday outside a casino in Laughlin, Nev., a gambling town 100 miles from Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona line. He was charged Thursday in Salt Lake City with a federal count of conveying threats. He was described by his father and former neighbors in Rexford as troubled but not dangerous.
D.C.: Forestry pick bows out
President Barack Obama’s pick to oversee the nation’s forests has withdrawn his nomination. Homer Lee Wilkes was nominated on May 5 as undersecretary of agriculture, a position that would have put him in charge of the U.S. Forest Service and the National Resource Conservation Service. A White House spokesman said Saturday that Wilkes has withdrawn his name for personal reasons. Wilkes was a 28-year veteran of the Natural Resources and Conservation Service and state conservationist in Mississippi.
Ohio: First black female rabbi
Describing herself as the “new face of Judaism,” Alysa Stanton became the first black female rabbi in the country during an ordination in Cincinnati. Stanton, of Blue Ash, was among 14 rabbis ordained Saturday at the Plum Street Temple. She will serve as rabbi of the predominantly white Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, N.C., beginning this summer. A native of Cleveland, she studied at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the oldest institution of higher Jewish education of Reform Judaism in the United States.
Texas: Model rocket scare
Investigators in Texas say a flying object that narrowly missed a Continental Express plane last month may have been a large model rocket. The jet’s pilots spotted the object and a long white vapor trail shortly after they took off from Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport on May 29. Pilots spotted the object at roughly 16,000 feet. It was about 5 feet to 7 feet long. A Liberty County Sheriff’s spokesman said no model rocket clubs reported having launches that day, and that a permit would be needed to launch a rocket that high.
From Herald news services
