Firefighters launch drone to monitor blaze
GROVELAND, Calif. – Firefighters battling the giant wildfire burning in the Sierra Nevada added a California National Guard Predator drone to their arsenal Wednesday to give them almost immediate views of any portion of the flames chewing through rugged forests in and around Yosemite National Park.
The MQ-1 unmanned aircraft being remotely piloted hundreds of miles away quickly alerted fire bosses to a new flare-up they otherwise wouldn’t have immediately seen.
“They’re piping what they’re seeing directly to the incident commander, and he’s seeing it in real time over a computer network,” said National Guard Lt. Col. Tom Keegan.
The 12-day-old Rim Fire continued to grow, expanding to 292 square miles, and containment remained at 23 percent.
Fast-food workers plan walkouts across U.S.
NEW YORK – Fast-food customers in search of burgers and fries today might run into striking workers instead.
Organizers say thousands of fast-food workers are set to stage walkouts in dozens of cities around the country, part of a push to get chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s to pay workers higher wages.
It’s expected to be the largest nationwide strike by fast-food workers, according to organizers. The biggest effort so far was over the summer when about 2,200 of the nation’s millions of fast-food workers staged a one-day strike in seven cities.
Workers say they want $15 an hour, which would be about $31,000 a year for full-time employees.
That’s more than double the federal minimum wage, which many fast food workers make, of $7.25 an hour, or $15,000 a year.
Woman in China gouges 6-year-old’s eyes out
BEIJING — A woman tricked a 6-year-old boy into going into a field in northern China, and then gouged out his eyes, police said Wednesday.
The boy’s brutal ordeal happened Saturday in a rural area of Linfen city in Shanxi province, the city’s police bureau said in a statement. State media said the boy was recovering in a hospital, but had lost his sight permanently.
A police officer who only gave his surname, Liu, said he couldn’t speculate on a motive because the investigation was continuing.
“We are sparing no efforts trying to solve this case,” Liu added.
Liu said the boy’s eyeballs were found at the scene, and that the corneas hadn’t been removed.
State media previously had raised the possibility that the boy’s corneas were taken for sale because of a donor shortage in China.
Egyptian police arrest more Morsi backers
CAIRO – Egyptian authorities detained more than 60 people associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in less than 24 hours, including relatives of the group’s leaders, officials said Wednesday.
The crackdown on the group, from which ousted President Mohammed Morsi hails, started shortly after the July 3 coup. It intensified this month after security forces cleared out two of the group’s sit-ins, killing hundreds and sparking unrest that killed more than 1,000 people in a few days.
The Interior Ministry says more than 100 policemen and soldiers have also been killed since mid-August.
Associated Press
