CBP orders medical checks

after second child’s death

HOUSTON — U.S. Customs and Border Protection ordered medical checks on every child in its custody Tuesday after an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died, marking the second death of an immigrant child in the agency’s care this month.

The death came during an ongoing dispute over border security and with a partial government shutdown underway over President Donald Trump’s request for border wall funding.

The boy, identified by Guatemalan authorities as Felipe Gómez Alonzo, had been in CBP’s custody with his father, Agustin Gomez, since Dec. 18. CBP said in a statement late Tuesday that an agent first noticed the boy had a cough and “glossy eyes” at about 9 a.m. Monday. He was eventually hospitalized twice and died just before midnight, the agency said. CBP earlier said that the boy died just after midnight.

CBP said in the statement it needs the help of other government agencies to provide health care. The agency “is considering options for surge medical assistance” from the Coast Guard and may request help from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A CBP spokesman could not immediately answer how many children are currently in the agency’s custody. But with border crossings surging, CBP processes thousands of children — both alone and with their parents — every month.

Post-holiday, partial government shutdown to gain impact

WASHINGTON — Christmas has come and gone but the partial government shutdown is just getting started.

Today brings the first full business day after several government departments and agencies closed up over the weekend due to a budgetary stalemate between President Donald Trump and Congress. And there is no end in sight.

So far, the public and federal workers have largely been spared inconvenience and hardship because government is closed on weekends and federal employees were excused from work on Christmas Eve and Christmas, a federal holiday. The shutdown began at midnight last Friday.

Trump said Tuesday that the closed parts of the government will remain that way until Democrats agree to wall off the U.S.-Mexico border to deter criminal elements. He said he’s open to calling the wall something else as long as he ends up with an actual wall.

Asked when the government would reopen fully, Trump said he couldn’t say.

Koreas break ground on railways

but sanctions block project

SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korea broke ground today on an ambitious project to modernize North Korean railways and roads and connect them with the South, but without progress in nuclear negotiations, regular trains won’t be crossing the border anytime soon.

The ceremony at the North Korean border town of Kaesong came weeks after the Koreas conducted a joint survey on the northern railway sections they hope to someday link with the South. It’s one of several peace gestures agreed between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-in as they push ahead with engagement amid a stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.

But beyond on-site reviews and ceremonies, the Koreas cannot move much further along without the removal of U.S.-led sanctions against the North.

A South Korean train carrying about 100 people — including government officials, lawmakers and aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War — rolled into the North Korean border town of Kaesong, where they were greeted by North Koreans including Ri Son Gwon, who heads an agency dealing with inter-Korean affairs.

North and South Korean officials signed a concrete railroad tie, unveiled a new signboard and observed a ceremonial connecting of northern and southern tracks at Kaesong’s Panmun Station, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

Japan to resume commercial

whaling, but not in Antarctic

TOKYO — Japan announced today that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings.

Japan switched to what it calls research whaling after the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s, and now says stocks have recovered enough to resume commercial hunts.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would resume commercial whaling in July “in line with Japan’s basic policy of promoting sustainable use of aquatic living resources based on scientific evidence.”

He added that Japan is disappointed that the IWC — which he said is dominated by conservationists — focuses on the protection of whale stocks even though the commission has a treaty mandate for both whale conservation and the development of the whaling industry.

“Regrettably, we have reached a decision that it is impossible in the IWC to seek the coexistence of states with different views,” he said.

Indonesia says avoid coast near

volcano, fearing new tsunami

CARITA BEACH, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities asked people to avoid the coast in areas where a tsunami killed more than 420 people last weekend in a fresh warning issued on the anniversary of the catastrophic 2004 Asian earthquake and tsunami.

The big waves that followed the eruption of Anak Krakatoa, or “Child of Krakatoa” island volcano, hit communities along the Sunda Strait on Saturday night. The eruption is believed to have set off a large landslide on the volcano, either on its slope or underwater, displacing the water that slammed into Java and Sumatra islands.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency asked people late Tuesday to stay at least 1,640 feet and less than a mile from the coastline along the strait, which lies between the two main islands. Government workers were monitoring Anak Krakatoa’s eruptions and high waves and heavy rain were possible today, said agency head Dwikorita Karnawati.

“All these conditions could potentially cause landslides at the cliffs of the crater into the sea, and we fear that that could trigger a tsunami,” she said at a news conference. She asked that communities remain vigilant and not to panic.

The tsunami struck without warning, taking people by surprise even in a country familiar with seismic disaster. No big earthquake shook the ground beforehand, and it hit at night on a holiday weekend while people were enjoying concerts and other beach and resort activities.

Girl finds Santa gifts, despite

Trump’s ‘marginal’ comment

WASHINGTON — A 7-year-old girl who talked to President Donald Trump on Christmas Eve still left out milk and cookies for Santa despite the president telling her it was “marginal” for a child of her age to still believe.

Then again, Collman Lloyd of Lexington, South Carolina, says she had never heard the word “marginal” before.

Collman had called the NORAD Tracks Santa program Monday night to check on Santa’s journey delivering toys. In an interview with the Post and Courier of Charleston, she said the scientist who answered the NORAD phone asked her if she would like to speak to the president.

Six minutes later, Trump was on the line. “Are you still a believer in Santa?” Trump asked. When she responded, “Yes, sir,” the president added, “Because at 7, that’s marginal, right?”

Collman didn’t know what “marginal” meant and simply answered, “Yes, sir.” Trump closed by saying, “Well, you just enjoy yourself.”

Lobster divers risk injury,

death in Honduras

PUERTO LEMPIRA, Honduras — Saul Ronaldo Atiliano was diving for lobster in the clear waters off Honduras’ Caribbean coast when he felt a pressure, a pain in his body. And he knew he’d gotten the sickness that has killed or disabled so many of his Miskito comrades.

“The pressure attacked me deep in the water,” said Atiliano, a 45-year-old Miskito who for 25 years has dived for lobster, most of which winds up is exported to the United States.

Thousands of men across the Mosquitia region of Honduras and Nicaragua depend on lobster fishing to eke out a living. And like Atiliano, hundreds have been stricken with the bends — decompression sickness caused when nitrogen bubbles form in divers’ bodies. Some are paralyzed. Some are killed.

With more than 60 per cent of its 9 million people living in poverty, Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and the Mosquitia is one of the most impoverished areas.

Among exotic, tropical vegetation along the Caribbean coast, the region is sprinkled with small fishing villages where indigenous villagers live in clapboard houses. A sign of the poverty — and also the innocence of childhood — kids play with trucks made of plastic juice boxes with lids for wheels. For many grown-ups, the only option they’ve found to cope with poverty is diving, no matter the risks.

Quake from Mount Etna

volcano jolts Sicily; 10 injured

ROME — A quake triggered by Mount Etna’s ongoing eruption jolted eastern Sicily before dawn today, slightly injuring 10 people and prompting frightened Italian villagers to flee their homes.

Italy’s Civil Protection officials said the quake, which struck at 3:19 a.m., was part of a swarm of some 1,000 tremors, most of them barely perceptible, linked to Etna’s volcanic eruption this week.

The quake struck north of Catania, the largest city in the eastern part of the Mediterranean island, but no injuries or damages were reported there. Italy’s national seismology institute said it registered a magnitude of 4.8 and occurred at a relatively shallow depth, 0.6 of a mile under the mountain’s surface.

The temblor damaged some rural homes, including structures that had been abandoned years ago, toppled a Madonna statue in a church in the town of Santa Venerina and opened up cracks on a highway, which was closed for inspection, Rai state radio said.

One 80-year-old man was safely extracted from the rubble of his home, the Italian news agency ANSA said.