Wednesday, December 02, 2015
U.S. Auto Sales
Hit 14-Year High in November
Detroit — November used to be a slow month for U.S. car sales. Not anymore.
Black Friday promotions — some of which began well before Thanksgiving — pushed last month’s sales to a 14-year high of 1.3 million, just short of a record for the month. Sales were up 1.4 percent from last November, according to Autodata Corp.
General Motors’ sales rose 1.5 percent, while Toyota and Fiat Chrysler each saw 3 percent sales gains. Hyundai’s sales jumped 12 percent, while Nissan’s were up 4 percent. Ford’s sales were flat. Honda’s sales fell 5 percent, hurt by lower CR-V sales. But the biggest sales decline was at Volkswagen. VW’s U.S. sales plummeted almost 25 percent, hurt by the company’s admission that its diesel vehicles cheated on emissions tests.
Mexico Experts: Passageway
May Lead To Aztec Ruler
Mexico City — A Mexican archaeologist said his team has found a tunnel-like passageway that apparently leads to two sealed chambers, the latest chapter in the search for the as-yet undiscovered tomb of an Aztec ruler.
The Aztecs are believed to have cremated the remains of their leaders during their 1325-1521 rule, but the final resting place of the cremains has never been found. Outside experts said Tuesday the find at Mexico City’s Templo Mayor ruin complex would be significant.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History said Monday that a team led by archaeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan had discovered an 27-foot long tunnel leading into the center of a circular platform where dead rulers were believed to have been cremated.
The mouth of the tunnel was sealed by a 3-ton slab of rock. When experts lifted it in 2013, they found a hollow space marked by offerings both rich and grisly.
Gold ornaments and the bones of eagles and infants were found in an offering box. Two skulls of children between 5 and 7 years old were found with the first three vertebrae, suggesting they might have been decapitated. The kind of stone knives used in human sacrifices were also found, as well as a hand and bones from two feet.
But one researcher detected signs that a passageway appeared to lead deeper into the ceremonial platform, known as the Cuauhxicalco, where written accounts from after the 1521 Spanish conquest indicated that rulers’ remains were burned.
The passageway proved to be about 18 inches wide and 5 feet high.
Divorce Granted to Mississippi
Same-Sex Couple After 2 Years
Jackson, Miss. — Two years after their divorce filing got entangled in Mississippi’s efforts to prevent same-sex marriage, a judge Tuesday dissolved the legal union of Lauren Czekala-Chatham and Dana Ann Melancon.
Czekala-Chatham and her lawyer, Carey Varnado, said the end came in Water Valley, 50 miles south of DeSoto County, where the pair filed for divorce in 2013.
There, Chancery Judge Mitchell Lundy Jr. called Varnado and Czekala-Chatham into his chambers and signed the order ending the marriage, the woman and her lawyer said.
Czekala-Chatham said Melancon, who moved to Arkansas after the couple separated, did not attend.
Lundy ruled in 2013 that he couldn’t grant the divorce because the Mississippi Constitution and state law didn’t recognize the couple’s 2008 marriage in California. Czekala-Chatham said he was cordial Tuesday.
“The judge was a great guy,” she said. “He couldn’t apologize enough for not being able to grant it the first time.”— Wire reports
A protester wearing tape on his wrists to represent boxing, does push-ups during an anti-corruption demonstration in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday. More than a hundred demonstrators marched to protest against corruption and demand the government crackdown. Some carried boxing symbols to represent the theme “Knock out corruption”.ap