NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
_1 Baja storm: Tropical Storm Lidia has caused four deaths in Mexico’s Los Cabos, officials said Friday as it continued to lash the resort-studded southern Baja California peninsula with heavy rains. Arturo de la Rosa Escalante, mayor of the twin resorts of Los Cabos, said two people were electrocuted by power lines, a woman drowned after being swept away by water on a flooded street and a baby was ripped from its mother’s arms as she crossed a flooded area. About 1,400 people sought refuge at storm shelters.
_2 Mexico poverty: The Mexican government says poverty has declined, but still affects 43.6 percent of the population. It says about 53.4 million of Mexico’s 122 million people were poor in 2016, compared to 53.3 million in 2012. But population growth meant the percentage dropped from 45.5 percent in 2012, when President Enrique Peña Nieto took office. The number living in extreme poverty who can’t buy even basic items dropped from 9.8 percent of the population in 2012 to 7.6 percent in 2016.
_3 Brain injuries: U.S. diplomats who served in Cuba have been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury following mysterious, unexplained attacks on their health, the union that represents U.S. diplomats said Friday, in the most detailed account of the growing list of symptoms. In addition to mild TBI — commonly called a concussion— permanent hearing loss has been diagnosed among the 10 diplomats who have spoken to the American Foreign Service Association. The union did not say how many of the 10 had been given either diagnosis, but said other symptoms had included brain swelling, severe headaches, loss of balance and “cognitive disruption.”
_4 English activists: Authorities in Cameroon have released dozens of Englishspeaking activists who had organized peaceful protests against what they considered discrimination by the country’s French-language majority. Several of the most highprofile activist leaders were released earlier this week following a presidential decree. They had been in jail for more than six months after taking part in demonstrations against the official use of French in their regions. The arrests in December and January provoked a wave of violence that paralyzed businesses in the affected regions, which also suffered Internet disruptions.
_5 Pope’s therapist: Pope Francis says that when he was 42 he had sessions weekly with a psychoanalyst who was female and Jewish to “clarify some things.” It wasn’t specified what the future pontiff wanted to explore. The revelation came in a dozen conversations Francis had with French sociologist Dominique Wolton, who is writing a soon-tobe-published book. La Stampa, an Italian daily, quoting from some of the conversations on Friday, said Francis went to the analyst’s home. At the time, Francis was a Jesuit official in his native Argentina, which was then ruled by military dictatorship. _6 Sandcastle: The world’s highest sandcastle is now standing 54.72 feet tall in the German city of Duisburg. The mammoth sandcastle used 3,500 tons of sand over the past 3½ weeks at a site on a former steelworks in the inland city. A representative of Guinness World Records, certified the record on Friday. It takes the title from a 48.69foot sandcastle built early this year in India. The new sandcastle is decorated with sand models of tourist attractions such as Athens’ Acropolis, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.