TORONTO
Canada takes steps to guard oil-gas area
Canada announced plans Monday to increase its Arctic military presence in an effort to assert sovereignty over the Northwest Passage – a potentially oil-rich region the United States claims is international territory.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said six to eight patrol ships will guard what he says are Canadian waters. A deepwater port also will be built in a region the U.S. Geological Survey estimates has as much as 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas.
U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins has criticized Harper’s promise to defend the Arctic, claiming the Northwest Passage as “neutral waters.” Wilkins declined to comment Monday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
Body of missing boy found in trash truck
The body of a 4-year-old boy who disappeared outside his home near Churchill Downs was found in a garbage truck over the weekend, and authorities said Monday that they believe he was slain.
Cezar “Ivan” Aguilar-Cano was last seen playing outside his apartment building on June 29 near the home of the Kentucky Derby.
Trash workers discovered the body Saturday in a bag inside a garbage truck, in the same neighborhood where he was last seen alive. The trash cans in the area were searched repeatedly in the days after he disappeared. They were last searched Thursday night and Friday morning, said Lt. Col. Tim Emington of the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“We do not believe the body was in any of the garbage cans during any of our previous searches,” Emington said.
Jefferson County Coroner Ron Holmes said he did not know when the boy was killed.
There were no suspects, and Cezar’s family was “not the focus of the investigation right now,” Emington said.
BEIJING
Ex-official executed in drug bribery case
China today executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog who had become a symbol of the country’s wide- ranging problems on product safety.
Zheng Xiaoyu’s execution was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.
Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths and other substandard medicines.
China has been under pressure domestically and internationally to improve its quality controls after a series of health scares attributed to substandard Chinese products, including exported tainted food and fake drugs.
SEOUL, South Korea
N. Korean nuke talks to resume next week
International disarmament talks on North Korea’s nuclear program will resume in Beijing next week, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
Host China has informed participating countries that the negotiations will start July 18, Yonhap reported from Beijing, citing an unidentified diplomatic source familiar with the negotiations.
The talks – involving China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States – were last held in March.
The report came amid optimism that North Korea could shut down its nuclear reactor in coming days as required by an agreement reached among the six parties in February.
