WASHINGTON
Work to begin on MLK memorial quote
The National Park Service plans to begin work next week to remove a disputed inscription from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Contractors will start working Monday. On July 29, the sculptor of the memorial, Lei Yixin, will carve grooves over the lettering to match existing marks in the sculpture. The inscription is a paraphrase from King’s “Drum Major” speech. It reads, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” Critics have argued that the quotation was taken out of context and makes King sound arrogant. The park service said the quotation will be removed in time for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on Aug. 28.
ALABAMA
Teen dies in 16-story condo fall
A Louisiana teenager died after falling 16 stories into the pool at a beachfront condominium. Orange Beach police said Challenge Talbot, 18, of Thibodaux, La., was found dead about 3:45 a.m. Friday. Authorities said Talbot fell from a balcony on the 16th floor at Turquoise Place Condominiums and landed in the water. A couple walking by the pool found the body. Police said there were no witnesses.
COSTA RICA
Ex-CIA agent returning to U.S.
A fugitive former CIA base chief detained in Panama this week was sent to the United States instead of Italy, which wanted him to serve prison time in the 2003 abduction of a terror suspect, the Obama administration said Friday. Robert Seldon Lady was held in Panama on Thursday after Italy and Interpol requested his arrest for his role in the anti-terrorism program known as extraordinary rendition. After barely a day in detention, he was put on a plane to the U.S. by the Panamanian government, a close U.S. ally that offered no explanation for its decision.
MEXICO
Drug violence forces residents to flee
Drug cartel violence has forced hundreds of people to flee their villages in the mountains near Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, amid a new surge in gang confrontations that left bodies littered around the region, authorities said Friday. The development comes just days after the arrest of one of Mexico’s bloodiest capos, Zetas cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, near the U.S. border. Better known as “Z-40,” Trevino Morales was taken by helicopter to an undisclosed maximum-security prison Friday.
CANADA
Brake force blamed in oil train crash
Insufficient brake force was applied before an oil train came barreling out of nowhere in the middle of the night July 6 and slammed into a small town in Quebec, killing 47 people, officials said Friday. Donald Ross, chief investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said the insufficient brake force could have been due to mechanical problems with the handbrakes or a problem with the way someone applied them.
TEXAS
Post’s bunker no threat, officials say
Fort Bliss officials downplayed the threat of radiation exposure Friday related to a contaminated bunker on the West Texas military post. Leaders said additional testing shows the contamination is contained to the floor of one bunker at Biggs Army Airfield. Nuclear weapons were assembled and stored in the bunker in the 1950s and 1960s when the facility belonged to the Air Force.
UNITED KINGDOM
Hot weather brings fires, sunburns
For the past few weeks, Britons have enjoyed something they hadn’t seen in years: A real summer. After suffering through one of the wettest years on record in 2012, Britain has spent the past few days baking in temperatures that hit 90 degrees on Friday. The unbroken spell of warm weather and blue skies has delighted many Brits. But the heat has also caused problems: Wales, Scotland, and even London have been hit by wildfires, one English council reported melting roads, and there has been a surge of hospital admissions as Brits get sunburned.
CALIFORNIA
Wildfire forces more evacuations
Residents of another 700 homes were advised to retreat to safety on Friday as crews fighting a wildfire in the mountains above Palm Springs grew increasingly concerned about the possibility of unstable weather and erratic winds. The voluntary departures by people in Pine Cove, on the fire’s western flank, came in addition to mandatory evacuations involving 6,000 others who spent a third day away from home as the fire spread in three directions.
About the Author
