Storm gathers strength on way to Mexico
CANCUN, Mexico -- Zeta strengthened to a hurricane Monday as it continued on a track for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and then a possible landfall on the central U.S. Gulf Coast.
Zeta was centered about 105 miles southeast of Cozumel island Monday afternoon, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph.
The hurricane was moving northwest at about 10 mph after being nearly stationary over the weekend. Forecasters said Zeta was expected to move over the Yucatan Peninsula late Monday before heading into the Gulf of Mexico and then approaching the Gulf Coast by Wednesday, though it could weaken by then.
Local authorities in Mexico are taking the storm seriously, but with a less alarmed tone than when Delta strengthened to a Category 4 storm off the coast three weeks ago. Quintana Roo state suspended alcohol sales Monday, and Gov. Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez said everyone should be off the streets by Monday afternoon.
Residents were pulling their boats from the water, but the sort of panic-buying seen in the run-up to Delta was not evident Monday.
The state government said 71 shelters were being readied.
China targets 6 U.S.-based news outlets
BEIJING -- China has ordered six U.S.-based news media outlets to file detailed information about their operations in China, the latest volley in a monthslong battle with the Trump administration.
A Foreign Ministry statement issued Monday demanded that the bureaus of ABC, the Los Angeles Times, Minnesota Public Radio, the Bureau of National Affairs, Newsweek and Feature Story News declare information about their staffs, finances, operations and real estate in China within seven days.
The announcement came five days after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said six Chinese media outlets would have to register as foreign missions, which requires them to file similar information with the U.S. government.
It was the third group of Chinese media outlets required to do so this year. Each time, China has responded in kind. This time it cited "the unreasonable oppression the Chinese media organizations experience in the United States."
Pompeo has said the targeted Chinese media organizations are state-owned or controlled and that the U.S. wants to ensure that "consumers of information can differentiate between news written by a free press and propaganda distributed by the Chinese Communist Party."
Officer to stand trial in Australia death
CANBERRA, Australia -- An Australian judge Monday ordered a police officer to stand trial over the killing of an Indigenous man who was shot three times in an Outback township last year.
Judge John Birch ordered Northern Territory constable Zachary Rolfe to stand trial after a three-day preliminary hearing in the Alice Springs Local Court.
Rolfe, 29, is free on bail and attended the hearing via a video link from the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court.
He was suspended from the police force with pay after he was charged with murder in Kumanjayi Walker's death at the Yuendumu Indigenous settlement in central Australia on Nov. 9. The 19-year-old's death was protested at rallies around Australia.
Rolfe was part of a four-member elite Immediate Response Team that drove 180 miles from Alice Springs into the Tanami Desert to arrest Walker.
The preliminary hearing in September included evidence that Walker wounded Rolfe and his partner Adam Eberl with a pair of scissors in a darkened room.
Rolfe was said to have shot Walker with a Glock pistol three times as Walker grappled with Eberl. Prosecutors argued that the second and third shots were not justified.
Typhoon displaces thousands of Filipinos
MANILA, Philippines -- A strong typhoon blew out of the Philippines on Monday after displacing more than 120,000 people, leaving several fishermen missing and causing at least six vessels to sink or run aground in storm-tossed waters, officials said.
Authorities reported at least two dead from Typhoon Molave, including a villager who drowned, but the government's main disaster-response agency said it would wait to include the deaths in its casualty count until after they are validated.
At least 13 people were initially reported missing, mostly fishermen, but five were later rescued separately off the eastern island province of Catanduanes, the Office of Civil Defense said.
The fast-moving typhoon blew out of the country to the South China Sea on Monday, with sustained winds of 81 mph and gusts of up to 99 mph, forecasters said. It roared overnight across island provinces south of the capital, Manila, which was lashed by strong winds but escaped major damage.
More than 75,000 people took shelter in hundreds of evacuation centers. The rest took cover in relatives' homes. Officials struggled to set people apart in emergency shelters because of the coronavirus pandemic.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
