combined briefs

An explosion at a grain silo in northwestern Indiana left one worker dead Monday afternoon, authorities said, and workplace safety officials immediately launched an investigation. The explosion occurred in a concrete grain silo at the Union Mills Co-op. The victim was a co-op employee believed to be working in the silo when the blast happened. The victim’s name was not immediately released. All other employees were accounted for and no other injuries were reported.

OHIO

Wing walker, pilot had clean records

An aerobatic pilot and a wing walker killed in a fiery crash at an air show over the weekend had clean safety records, according to Federal Aviation Administration records released Monday. Neither wing walker Jane Wicker, who had a pilot’s license, nor pilot Charlie Schwenker had accidents in the past or was disciplined for any reason, FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said the agency records show.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Missing red panda found

A Twitter photo and phone tip from a resident helped animal keepers track down a red panda in a Washington neighborhood Monday after it went missing from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. The male, named Rusty, was captured in a tree near a home in the Adams Morgan neighborhood Monday afternoon, National Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said. It had traveled across the leafy Rock Creek Park, perhaps crossing a road or under a creek bridge to reach a residential area nearly three-fourths of a mile from the zoo.

NEW YORK

$11.5M Picasso seized for Italy

A New York federal judge says the U.S. government can hold a 1909 Pablo Picasso painting titled “Fruit bowl and cup” for the Italian government. The painting, estimated to be worth $11.5 million, was held by Justice Department authorities after a Manhattan judge signed an order Monday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington said Italian authorities requested the seizure after the painting’s owner was charged with embezzlement and fraudulent bankruptcy offenses in Italy.

FLORIDA

Tropical Storm Cosme strengthens

Tropical Storm Cosme is strengthening in Pacific waters southwest of the Mexican mainland and forecasters say it’s expected to become a hurricane within a day. The storm’s maximum sustained winds Monday afternoon have risen to 60 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says more strengthening is expected in the coming 48 hours with Cosme expected to become a hurricane sometime today. Cosme is centered about 335 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, and is moving northwest at 14 mph.

MEXICO

Group offers reward for 12 missing

The Citizen Council for Public Safety in Mexico City is offering a $750,000 reward for information that leads to finding 12 young people who were kidnapped in broad daylight from an after-hours bar in the capital. Council’s president Luis Wertman says the group hopes to find the young men and women alive. Surveillance tape shows men herding a few of the missing at a time into compact cars. They haven’t been heard from since.

BRAZIL

$23B hike for transit after protests

Under pressure after more than a week of nationwide protests, Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff said Monday her government will spend $23 billion more on public transportation and other areas that leaders will focus on to speed political reform and improvements to government services. Rousseff made the announcement after meeting with leaders of a free-transit activist group that launched the first demonstrations more than a week ago and has called for new protests today. The president also opened a meeting of governors and mayors from 26 capital cities to discuss ways to make deep improvements.

IRAQ

Bomb attacks kill at least 42

A series of evening bombings near markets in and around Baghdad and other blasts north of the capital killed at least 42 people and wounded dozens of others Monday in the latest eruption of bloodshed to rock Iraq. The attacks were the latest in a wave of violence that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since the beginning of April. Militants, building on Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government, appear to be growing stronger in central and northern Iraq.