NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Major storm: Iota became the thirteenth hurricane of the Atlantic season Sunday, threatening to bring another dangerous system to Nicaragua and Honduras — countries recently clobbered by a Category 4 Hurricane Eta. Iota was already a recordbreaking system, being the 30th named storm of this year’s extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season. Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms. Forecasters said Iota would continue to strengthen before reaching the coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras on Monday evening. Up to 30 inches of rain is expected. 2 Egypt relics: Antiquities officials announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins, some with mummies inside, and around 40 gilded statues in a vast Pharaonic necropolis south of Cairo. Colorful, sealed sarcophagi and statues that were buried more than 2,500 years ago were displayed in an exhibit at the feet of the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled elAnany said the items date back to the Ptolemaic dynasty. The artifacts will be moved to at least three Cairo museums. The Saqqara site is part of the necropolis at Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the famed Giza Pyramids. The Memphis ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage site. 3 Mosque fire: A historic wooden mosque in Istanbul erupted in flames Sunday. Turkish firefighters worked from both land and sea to put out the blaze. The Vanikoy Mosque, built in the 17th century during the reign of Ottoman Sultan IV Mehmed, is located on the Asian side of Istanbul along the Bosporus Strait. Videos showed heavy smoke pouring from the structure. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined and the city’s governor said an investigation is under way. Firefighters prevented the blaze from reaching a forest behind the mosque and neighboring houses that line the Bosporus. They were aided by the coast guard. 4 Missing students: Mexican authorities arrested the first military officer in connection with the investigation into the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from a teachers’ college. A federal official confirmed to the Associated Press that Capt. Jose Martinez Crespo was detained. On the sixth anniversary of the students’ disappearance in September, Mexico’s attorney general said that 25 arrest orders had been issued for suspects in the case, among them soldiers and federal police. On Sept. 26, 2014, police in the town of Iguala attacked several buses that had been taken by students from the Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa. The police are believed to have turned over the students to a local drug cartel. Families of the students have long demanded that authorities investigate the possible involvement of police. 5 Marine reserve: Tristan da Cunha, an island with 245 permanent residents, is creating a marine protection zone to safeguard endangered rockhopper penguins, yellownosed albatross and other wildlife in an area of the South Atlantic three times the size of the United Kingdom. The government of the British overseas territory, which calls itself the most remote inhabited island on Earth, said fishing and other “extractive activities” will be banned from 242,181 square miles of ocean around Tristan da Cunha. The sanctuary will be the biggest “notake zone” in the Atlantic Ocean and the fourth biggest anywhere in the world, protecting fish that live in the waters and tens of millions of seabirds that feed on them, the territory said. Britain took possession of Tristan da Cunha in 1816.