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A man with two kilograms of cocaine taped to his legs was arrested at Toronto International Pearson Airport earlier this month.

The Canadian Border Services Agency said the man was travelling through Terminal 3 on June 1, having flown in from Antigua, when border services officers referred him for secondary examination.

During the exam, his answers became inconsistent, so his belongings were swabbed, and tested positive for cocaine online payday loan lenders. He became distressed and admitted to having the drugs taped to him.

Both the traveller and the cocaine were turned over to the RCMP.

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JOHANNESBURG—Former South African President Nelson Mandela is in “serious but stable” condition after being taken to a hospital to be treated for a lung infection, the government said Saturday, prompting an outpouring of concern from admirers of a man who helped to end white racist rule.

Mandela’s wife, humanitarian activist Graca Machel, cancelled an appearance at an international forum on hunger and nutrition in London on Saturday, citing “personal reasons,” said Colleen Harris, a spokeswoman for the meeting.

Mandela, who is 94 years old, was treated in a hospital several times in recent months, with the last discharge coming on April 6 after doctors drained fluid from his lung area after diagnosing him with pneumonia. He has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid.

“During the past few days, former President Nelson Mandela has had a recurrence of lung infection,” said a statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma. “This morning at about 1.30a.m., his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a Pretoria hospital.”

It said Mandela was receiving expert medical care and “doctors are doing everything possible to make him better and comfortable.”

Zuma wished Mandela a quick recovery on behalf of the government and the nation and requested that the media and the public respect the privacy of the former leader and his family, the statement said.

“We need to hold our thoughts and keep him in our minds,” said Mac Maharaj, the president’s spokesman. “He is a fighter, he has recovered many times from very serious conditions and he will be with us. Let’s pray for him and help him to get better.”

The African National Congress, the ruling party that has dominated politics in South Africa since the end of apartheid, said it hoped Mandela, known affectionately by his clan name Madiba, would get better soon quick pay day loan.

“We will keep President Mandela and his family in our thoughts and prayers at this time and call upon South Africans and the peoples of the globe to do the same for our beloved statesman and icon, Madiba,” the party said in a statement.

On April 29, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other ANC leaders to Mandela at his Johannesburg home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage—the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year—showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.

“Nelson Mandela is a father to South Africa and South Africans; every time he is admitted to hospital we feel saddened along with the rest of our country,” the Democratic Alliance, the main political opposition party, said in a statement.

South Africans expressed hope that Mandela would recover from his latest setback.

“He is going to survive,” said Willie Mokoena, a gardener in Johannesburg. “He’s a strong man.”

Another city resident, Martha Mawela, said she thought the former president would recover because: “Everybody loves Mandela.”

Mandela was robust during his decades as a public figure, endowed with charisma, a powerful memory and an extraordinary talent for articulating the aspirations of his people and winning over many of those who opposed him.

In recent years, however, he has become more frail and last made a public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, where he didn’t deliver an address and was bundled against the cold.

In another recent hospitalization, Mandela was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones in December. In March, he spent a night in a hospital for what authorities said was a scheduled medical test.

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A fourth woman could be connected to the shocking Cleveland kidnapping case, the FBI confirms.

Ashley Summers was a 14-year-old girl who disappeared from the same area where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were abducted.

Those three women were rescued on Monday about 10 years after they disappeared in a case that send shock waves around the world.

Knight was abducted in 2002, Berry in 2003 and DeJesus in 2004.

Berry went missing from the area of 110th St. and Lorain Ave. after her shift at a Burger King.

DeJesus went missing at 105th St. and Lorain Ave.

Knight was last seen at 106th St. and Lorain.

Summers went missing in 2007 from 96th St. and Madison Ave.

Here’s a map showing how close the locations of the disappearances were to the house at 2207 Seymour Ave., where the victims were held captive.

Summers was last seen on July 9, 2007.

FBI spokesperson Vicki Anderson told the Toronto Star that the disappearance of Summers has “similarities” that the FBI is investigating.

More from thestar.com:

Cleveland kidnappings: Joy and anger after kidnapped women rescued

Cleveland kidnappings suspect Ariel Castro comforted missing girl’s mom, helped search

McDonald’s reaches out to Charles Ramsey after Cleveland rescue

Ropes, chains in home where missing women found, say police

However, she said the FBI has no proof that the cases are related.

“We continue to look for Ashley,” she said. “She was a young girl too who went missing and it was from the same area.”

However, she says the FBI is holding out hope that this sensational rescue on Monday will spark more tips to the FBI.

“As we go through this process, Ashley has been in all the investigators’ minds and they are keeping their minds open. Maybe this will generate some tips for us.”

The tips are being logged and the FBI is now looking at new leads.

“We’re asking for anything regarding Ashley,” she said. “Our phones have been ringing quite a bit around here.”

WASHINGTON • The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the second-lowest level in more than five years. The decline suggests hiring is improving from last month’s sluggish pace.

Applications for unemployment benefits dropped by 16,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average declined 4,500 to 357,500.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. When they decline, it signals that companies are cutting fewer jobs. Still, layoffs are only half of the equation. Businesses also need to be confident enough in the economic outlook to step up hiring.

Economists were encouraged by the report, though some cautioned against reading too much into one week’s data.

“The downtrend in unemployment remains on track,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

In March, employers added only 88,000 jobs. That was a sharp drop from the previous four months, when hiring averaged 220,000 per month.

The unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent in February. But the drop occurred because more people out of work stopped looking for jobs. The government doesn’t count people as unemployed unless they are actively looking for work.

Most economists expect hiring improved this month from March’s low level high quality business cards. Some economists expect net job gains increased to about 150,000.

A drop in layoffs can make those with jobs feel more confident about keeping them, even when unemployment is high. Layoffs fell in January to their lowest level in the 12 years that the government has tracked the data. When people feel secure in their jobs, they are more likely to spend money and add to economic growth.

More than 5 million Americans received unemployment aid in the week ending April 6, the latest data available. That is about 80,000 fewer than the previous week. Some recipients may no longer receive benefits because they have found jobs. But many have used up all the benefits available to them.

The economy is expected to have grown at a much quicker pace in the January-March quarter. Most economists forecast growth accelerated to an annual rate of more than 3 percent in the first quarter, up from just a 0.4 percent rate in the fourth quarter.

But many analysts now expect growth is slowing in the April-June quarter, mostly because across-the-board government spending cuts that began on March 1. That may have made businesses nervous about adding jobs.

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The South Korean government proposed a $15.3 billion stimulus Tuesday to boost slowing growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

The stimulus would be South Korea’s third-largest supplemental budget ever, exceeded only by those approved after the 1998 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial turmoil.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said the budget will be used to cover a tax revenue shortfall, aid small and medium firms, create jobs and boost the stagnant real estate market. The statement said the ministry will submit the 17.3 trillion won ($15.3 billion) plan to parliament on Thursday.

It estimated a tax revenue shortfall of 6 trillion won due to the slower-than-expected economic recovery and another 6 trillion won shortfall from the delay in selling stakes in state-owned banks. The remaining 5.3 trillion won will be a net increase in the government’s budget.

In addition to the extra budget requiring a parliamentary approval, the ministry will also use 2 trillion won in state funds that do not need to go through the assembly to stimulate the economy.

The stimulus plan comes after the ministry sharply revised down its growth forecast of South Korea’s economy last month paydayloans.

It said South Korea’s economy will expand 2.3 percent this year, instead of 3 percent it had predicted three months earlier, citing the yen’s slide that is hurting South Korean exporters, weak consumer sentiment and sluggish capital investment.

The stimulus move underlines how the government is seeking a quick fix to the slowdown. South Korea’s economy expanded 2 percent in 2012, the slowest rate in three years, as weak global recovery and trade.

The extra budget will stimulate growth by 0.3 percentage point this year and add 40,000 new jobs, it said.

Despite the government’s calls for all-out efforts to boost the economy, South Korea’s central bank resisted calls to lower borrowing costs.

Last week, Bank of Korea kept its key interest rate unchanged at 2.75 percent for a sixth month. Gov. Kim Choong-soo said the economy is on track to a slow recovery and the monetary policy is “accommodative” to encourage borrowing and spending.

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Gold futures have notched their biggest one-day fall in more than a year.

Gold for June delivery plunged $64 to close at $1,501 an ounce Friday, the largest drop since February 2012. It was the lowest price since July 2011.

One trigger for the slide was a government report Friday that U.S. wholesale prices fell in March by the most in 10 months. Investors tend to buy gold when they expect inflation to increase. Any indication that prices aren’t rising will prompt investors to sell gold.

A proposal this week, later dropped, that Cyprus sell some of its gold holdings to help finance a bailout for the country also rattled the gold market.

Gold has been declining this year on strength in the economy and expectations that U.S. interest rates could increase.

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CitiMortgage’s first event this year to assist homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgage will be held in the St. Louis area Thursday. 

CitiMortgage’s ‘Road to Recovery Tour,’ which began in 2011, will also hold homeowner assistance events in at least 10 other cities through June, with more cities to be announced later this year. For the first time, staff at the events will offer assistance on refinancing. 

At the events, CitiMortgage staff work with CitiMortage customers who either have missed a mortgage payment or believe they may be at risk of missing a future payment. Since 2011 through the tour, the company met with more than 5,700 customers in 60 markets saving account payday loan. Last year, 60 percent of attendees were offered a potential solution to their financial challenge, according to CitiMortgage.

CitiMortgage is headquartered in O’Fallon, Mo. The local event will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Louis - Westport at 1973 Craigshire Road in Maryland Heights. 

Reservations are not required, but  customers can register online at: events.citimortgage.com.  

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Congress is finally cleaning up its unfinished budget business for the long-underway 2013 budget year with a bipartisan government-wide funding bill, even as the combatants in the House and Senate gear up for votes this week on largely symbolic measures outlining stark differences between Democrats and Republicans about how to fix the nation’s long-term deficit woes.

The Senate is positioned to approve the catchall spending bill Tuesday after it cleared a procedural hurdle Monday by a strong 63-35 vote. The House, which approved a narrower version two weeks ago, is expected to quickly clear the measure and ship it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

On a separate track, the GOP-controlled House and Democratic Senate are gearing up for votes this week on sharply different budget blueprints for next year and beyond. The dueling, non-binding blueprints veer off in opposite directions at the same time President Barack Obama seeks to nurture a future compromise blending new tax revenues with spending cuts beyond what his Democratic allies are willing to offer now.

The rival House and Senate budgets for the future are party-defining documents with zero chance of making their way into law as written, given the division of power in Washington, where Democrats control the White House and Senate and conservative Republicans dominate the House.

House Republicans are moving first with a plan sharply slashing health care for the poor, budgets for domestic agencies like the FBI and the National Park Service, and safety net programs like food stamps. Senate Democrats are countering with a mostly stand-pat approach that hikes taxes by almost $1 trillion over a decade while reversing already-enacted across-the-board spending cuts that are slamming both the Pentagon and domestic agencies.

The House budget measure, if enacted into law, promises a balanced ledger by the end of a decade; the Senate budget would leave significantly larger deficits but stabilize the national debt as a share of the economy, a measure that economists say is essential to avoiding a debt crisis like Greece and other European nations have experienced.

Avoiding a government shutdown this year, however, required a more delicate approach on the government-wide funding bill.

Republicans controlling the House pushed a catchall spending measure repairing Pentagon accounts devoted to military readiness and training, as well as veterans programs and several initiatives like modernizing the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Senate Democrats countered with full-year, line-by-line budgets for the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, among others. All agencies would be subject to across-the-board cuts of 5 percent to domestic agencies and 8 percent to the Pentagon.

Other agencies, including those responsible for implementing Obama’s health-care plan and an overhaul of Wall Street regulation, would be denied increases and run on autopilot with last year’s budgets in place, subject to the across-the-board cuts.

The catchall bill advanced on a 63-35 procedural vote that sets up a vote Tuesday to pass the measure and send it back to the House, which is likely to clear it later this week for Obama’s signature.

While top Senate leaders like No. 1 Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada focused on the big picture _ preventing a government shutdown _ rank-and-file senators were sweating the small stuff, focusing on local concerns like keeping meat inspectors on the job, preventing furloughs at rural airports and trying to ease layoffs at Army depots.

But 10 Republicans, mostly members of the appropriations committee, joined with Democrats to send the measure over the 60-vote hurdle set by Republicans, probably blocking amendments sought by senators in both parties.

Passage of the huge spending measure would draw to a close a mostly overlooked battle between House Republicans and Obama and his Senate Democratic allies over the annual spending bills required to fund federal agency operations, paving the way for Congress to turn away from the current budget year and resume battling over the future.

Looking ahead, the latest plan crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., generally resembles prior ones, relying on higher tax revenues enacted in January and improved Medicare cost estimates _ along with $4.6 trillion in spending cuts over a decade _ to promise a balanced budget in 10 years.

The budget counterproposal from Senate Democrats would repeal the sequester cuts at a cost of $1.2 trillion over a decade and blends about $1 trillion in modest cuts to health care providers, the Pentagon, domestic agencies and interest payments on the debt with an equal amount in new revenue claimed by closing tax breaks. The net result would cut about $600 billion from the deficit over 10 years.

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Indonesian lawmakers will assess candidates to become the central bank