FIRST LADY TO VISIT GHANA, MALAWI, KENYA, EGYPT
Melania Trump plans to emphasize child welfare in Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt in October on her first extended solo international mission. The trip will be the first ever to the vast African continent by America’s Sloveniaborn first lady.
She discussed the trip Wednesday at a reception for the spouses of foreign leaders and others participating in the annual U.N. General Assembly.
“Oct. 1 will mark the first day of my solo visit to four beautiful and very different countries in Africa,” Mrs. Trump said during brief remarks to several dozen guests attending the event near U.N. headquarters.
Venezuela’s Maduro makes surprise U.N. trip as pressure grows.
NATIONS» EmbaUNITED ttled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro showed up unexpectedly at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday to “defend his country” as six nations accused him of crimes against humanity and President Donald Trump hinted at taking military action.
The surprise visit came after Maduro had earlier threatened to skip the global gathering, citing fears he could be assassinated as his oncewealthy OPEC nation spirals into a brutal economic crisis and international pressure mounts for the socialist leader to step down.
It appeared unlikely, however, that Maduro would cross paths with Trump, despite the U.S. president’s comments earlier in the day that he was willing to meet with his Venezuelan counterpart if it would help ease suffering in the South American nation.
Second cracked beam found at new transit terminal.
CISCO» A second beam in a celebrated new $2 billion transit terminal shows signs of cracking, an official said Wednesday, a day after a crack in a nearby support beam shut down the building that opened last month.
The first crack found by workers installing roof tiles Tuesday spans a beam holding up a park over the threeblocklong Salesforce Transit Center and runs over a downtown street, said Mark Zabaneh, executive director of Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which operates the facility.
He said the problems were localized to that area of the transit hub but it would remain closed “at least through the end of next week” as inspections continued.
Trump says he would “certainly prefer not” to fire Rosenstein.
WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would “certainly prefer not” to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and that he may delay a highly anticipated meeting with the Justice Department’s No. 2 official.
Trump said Rosenstein denied making remarks first attributed to him in a New York Times report, including that he had discussed possibly secretly recording the president and using the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
“I would much prefer keeping Rod Rosenstein,” Trump said at a news conference in New York. “He said he did not say it. He said he does not believe that. He said he has a lot of respect for me, and he was very nice and we’ll see.”
Man who lost hand in sausagemaking ordeal cut off own arm.
A 69yearold Vietnam vet who lost a hand after it got stuck in a meat mixer while he was making sausage at his North Dakota home says he had to slice off his left arm above the wrist with a butcher knife or risk bleeding to death.
In his first public comments since the Aug. 17 accident, Myron Schlafman said he credits two police officers with saving his life by quickly applying a tourniquet before ambulance crews took him to a hospital.
“I’ve always appreciated life, but not as much as I do now,” he told KFGO radio.
— Denver Post wire services