Syria’s Assad shows solidarity with Iran

Syria’s Assad shows solidarity with Iran

beirut

Syrian President Bashar Assad made his first appearance on state TV in nearly three weeks Tuesday in a show of solidarity with a senior Iranian envoy, even as the U.S. urged stepped up international planning for the regime’s collapse.

The visit to Damascus by the highest-ranking Iranian official since the uprising began coincided with a warning by an increasingly agitated Tehran that it holds the U.S. responsible for the fate of 48 Iranians seized by Syrian rebels.

Appearing together on state TV, Assad and Iran’s Saeed Jalili vowed to defeat the rebels and their backers, while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton predicted Assad’s regime was quickly unraveling, with high-level defections such as his prime minister’s switch to the rebel side.

Hurricane Ernesto closes in on border

cancun, mexico

Hundreds of tourists evacuated beach resorts along Mexico’s Caribbean coast as Hurricane Ernesto closed in for a Tuesday night landfall near Mexico’s border with Belize, bringing the threat of powerful winds and torrential rains.

Ernesto strengthened from a tropical storm earlier in the day, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it had sustained winds of 85 mph by early evening and was moving west- northwest at 18 mph.

Girl found clinging to body in lake

carmel, n.y.

Boaters rescued a 6-year-old girl from a small reservoir north of New York City after finding her clinging to the floating body of a family friend who had taken her to the water to cool off, officials said Tuesday.

The cause of the woman’s death was not yet known, and an autopsy was planned, said Carmel Police Chief Michael Johnson. The woman was identified as Pamela Kaner, 59, of Brewster. Police said she was caring for the girl while the girl’s mother ran an errand.

The girl, whose name was not released, told police that Kaner took her into the water in the afternoon Monday and was holding her when something went wrong.

Texas executes man

huntsville, texas

A Texas man convicted of killing a police informant was executed Tuesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty.

Marvin Wilson, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m., 14 minutes after his lethal injection began at the state prison in Huntsville. Wilson’s attorneys had argued that he should have been ineligible for capital punishment because of his low IQ.

Kids’ cholesterol is down, study shows

atlanta

Finally some good news about cholesterol and kids: A big government study shows that in the past decade, the proportion of children who have high cholesterol has fallen.

The results are surprising, given that the childhood obesity rate didn’t budge.

How can that be?

Some experts think that while most kids may not be eating less or exercising more, they may be getting fewer trans fats. That’s because the artery-clogging ingredient has been removed or reduced in many processed or fried foods such as doughnuts, cookies and french fries.

“That’s my leading theory,” said Dr. Sarah de Ferranti, director of preventive cardiology at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Associated Press