Hurricane Odile slams Baja peninsula

Hurricane Odile slams Baja peninsula

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico

Hurricane Odile blazed a trail of destruction through Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula on Monday that leveled everything from ramshackle homes to luxury hotels and big-box stores, leaving entire neighborhoods as disaster zones.

About 30,000 tourists were being put up in temporary shelters in hotels, and Los Cabos international airport remained closed. Emergency officials reported that 135 people were treated for minor injuries from flying glass or falling objects, but there were no serious injuries or deaths so far.

The Mexican government said in a statement Monday night that army and commercial planes would be sent to La Paz and Los Cabos airports to get tourists out of the area.

Judge halts hearing in stabbing case

WAUKESHA, Wis.

A judge halted court proceedings Monday for one of two 12-year-old girls accused of trying to kill a classmate to please a fictional character called Slender Man while the girl undergoes a competency evaluation.

The girl’s attorney, Maura McMahon, told Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren during a brief hearing that a psychologist has questioned the girl’s competency, raising concerns about whether she would be able to help with her defense. Bohren ordered a competency examination to be completed within 30 days.

6 killed, 15 wounded in Ukraine shelling

KIEV, Ukraine

Shelling killed six people and wounded 15 others in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, the city council said Monday — the worst reported violence since a cease-fire between Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops took effect Sept. 5.

Fighting around the eastern city’s government-held airport has left its northern neighborhoods in the crossfire. Two northern neighborhoods were shelled heavily Sunday, leading to the casualties and damaging both homes and offices, the city council said.

Loud blasts could be heard from the direction of the airport all day Monday, and gunfire intermittently rang out downtown in the afternoon.

The Ukrainian government blamed the militants for the civilian casualties.

Smoking rates on the rise in NYC

NEW YORK

For the first time in years, more than 1 million New Yorkers are smoking, according to data released Monday, marking a disturbing rise of tobacco use in the city that pioneered a number of anti-smoking initiatives that were emulated nationally.

Sixteen percent of adult New Yorkers smoked in 2013, up from 14 percent in 2010, which was the city’s lowest recorded rate, according to the findings released by New York City’s Department of Health.

The rise in 2013, which is the most-recent data available, is striking since it comes as smoking rates fall across the country. However, the national average — 18 percent — is still higher than it is in New York.

White House backs cops’ body cameras

WASHINGTON

Requiring police officers to wear body cameras is one potential solution for bridging deep mistrust between law enforcement and the public, the White House said, weighing in on a national debate sparked by the shooting of an unarmed black man last month in Ferguson, Mo.

In the days and weeks after 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death, more than 150,000 people took to the White House’s website to sign a petition urging Obama to create and sign a law requiring all police to wear body cameras — small, lapel-mounted gadgets that record law enforcement’s interactions with the public.

Associated Press