Nicaragua catches U.S. child porn suspect
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Police in Nicaragua have detained a former U.S. school teacher who was on the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives as a suspect in a child pornography investigation, authorities confirmed Monday.
Eric Justin Toth was detained Saturday in Esteli, a city near Nicaragua’s border with Honduras, and will be immediately deported to the United States, said National Police chief Aminta Granera.
China brings amenities to earthquake zone
LUSHAN, China – The tent village that sprang up in two days to house quake survivors in mountain-flanked Lushan is no ordinary refugee camp. China’s full range of disaster response is on display: Trucks with X-ray equipment, phone-charging stations, bank tellers-on-wheels – even a tent for insurance claims.
The efforts underway Monday in mountainous Sichuan province after a quake Saturday that killed at least 188 people showed that the government has continued to hone its disaster reaction – long considered a crucial leadership test in China – since a much more devastating earthquake in 2008, also in Sichuan, and another one in 2010 in the western region of Yushu.
Syrian regime shoring up hold on capital, coast
BEIRUT – After watching much of Syria’s territory slip into rebel hands, President Bashar Assad’s regime is focusing on the basics: shoring up its hold on Damascus and the strip of land connecting the capital with the Mediterranean coast.
During the last week, government troops have overrun villages near the Lebanese border and suburbs of Damascus, including two districts west of the capital where activists say regime forces killed more than 100 people. The advances have improved the regime’s footing in strategic areas that are seen as crucial to its survival.
Red Cross: 187 killed in Nigeria violence
LAGOS, Nigeria – Fighting between soldiers and Islamic extremists in northeast Nigeria killed at least 187 people, the worst single incident of violence in the region since an insurgency there began three years ago, an aid agency said Monday.
Nigeria’s military blocked access for relief officials to enter the town of Baga, which sits along the shores of Lake Chad in the nation’s far northeast, said Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, a Red Cross spokesman. Another 77 people are receiving medical care there in the ruins of a town where about 300 homes burned down, he said. Local residents blamed angry soldiers for burning down neighborhoods where they knew civilians were hiding.
The fighting in Baga began Friday and lasted for hours, sending people fleeing into the arid scrublands surrounding the community.
Associated Press
