~theguardian-world | Bookmarks (241)

Lorenza Cano seized by gunmen in Guanajuato state after her husband and son shot dead in attackA Mexican woman who spent five years looking for her disappeared brother has herself been abducted in an attack in which her husband and son were shot dead.Lorenza Cano, one of Mexico’s many volunteer searchers trying to find the country’s 114,000 desaparecidos, was seized late on Monday by...

Employees will earn same salary but hours will be reduced from 44 to 36 hours as part of national voluntary trial, says governmentCompanies in the Dominican Republic are preparing for a voluntary six-month pilot of a four-day work week, the first move of its kind for the Caribbean country.The initiative would launch in February, with employees earning the same salary, the Dominican government said,...

The country saw record-breaking blazes during the summer and Brian Paré pleaded guilty to lighting more than a dozen firesA Canadian man who claimed forest fires were the result of a government conspiracy has pleaded guilty to lighting more than a dozen blazes during the country’s record-breaking wildfire season, as nearly 100 fires persist in drought-stricken regions.Brian Paré admitted to 13 counts of arson...

Presidency makes announcement nearly a week after wave of violence hit South American countryScores of hostages have been released from Ecuador’s gang-controlled prisons, the government has claimed, nearly a week after the South American country was shaken by a massive wave of violence.“All of the hostages have been freed,” the Ecuadorian presidency announced on social media on Saturday night. Continue reading...

Dozens of people also injured after mudslide in mountainous area on road connecting major citiesThe death toll from a mudslide in western Colombia has risen to 34, authorities have said.The mudslide struck a busy municipal road on Friday in a mountainous area connecting the cities of Quibdó and Medellín. Continue reading...

After criminals storm TV station and take prison guards hostage, Daniel Noboa pledges to stop his country becoming a narco-stateEcuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has denied that his government is embarking on an indiscriminate campaign to hunt down and kill gang members, as the South American country continues to reel from a week of chaos and deadly violence that he has classified as a war.In...

At least 24 reports of adverse events related to products recalled in December but no illnesses confirmed linked to foods, FDA saysThe Quaker Oats Company has added two dozen additional types of granola bars, cereals and snack foods to a December recall over possible salmonella contamination.The company, which is owned by PepsiCo, announced the additional recall in the US and Canada on Thursday. Continue...

Wife of Dési Bouterse, sentenced last month to 20 years for 1982 killings of opponents, says ‘he’s not going to turn himself in’Surinamese authorities are searching for ex-president Dési Bouterse after he failed to turn himself in to start a prison sentence for involvement in the murder of 15 political opponents in 1982, the prosecutor general’s office said on Friday.Bouterse was ordered this week...

As cartels and crime syndicates flock to Ecuador for cocaine trade profits, its murder rate has soared, with a TV station assault the crescendo of a week of bloodshedPolitical upheaval and street protests, gun battles and floods. José Luis Calderón has seen it all during his 23 years as one of Guayaquil’s top television journalists. Never had the Ecuadorean reporter been the story himself.That...

Rev Franco Reverberi is accused of crimes against humanity during country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980sItaly’s justice minister has refused Argentina’s request to extradite a priest accused of crimes against humanity during the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.The Rev Franco Reverberi, 86, who served as military chaplain during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military regime, faces charges related to the alleged murder...

Guayaquil eerily quiet as armed forces patrol in wake of stunning wave of arson, bombings and prison riots that killed as many as 15Ecuador’s largest city has been transformed into a virtual ghost town by a stunning wave of criminal violence that prompted the South American country’s recently elected president to declare his country was in “a state of war”.On Thursday, the streets of...

US embassy issues warning after US citizens died in Medellín following suspected drugging and robbing on app-arranged datesForeign visitors to Colombia should take serious caution when using dating apps after a spate of suspicious deaths in the South American country, the US embassy in Bogotá has warned.In the last two months of 2023, eight US citizens died in the city of Medellín, in incidents...

Daniel Noboa designates nearly two dozen gangs as terrorist groups after wave of violence across countryEcuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, said on Wednesday that his country was “at war” with drug gangs who are holding more than 130 prison staff hostage and who briefly captured a TV station live on air, in a wave of violence that has left city streets deserted.At least 10 people...

President declares state of ‘internal armed conflict’ as gang leader escapes from jail and gunmen invade TV studioGang storms Ecuador’s TC Televisión studioFew Ecuadoreans were prepared for just how swiftly and steeply the security situation in their country could plummet. Murder and violence linked to drug trafficking has soared, as the country has become one of the most dangerous in Latin America.Until just a...

Ecuador’s president has declared a state of “internal armed conflict”. How did the country find itself in the grip of armed gangs?• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. At about 2pm local time yesterday, a live news broadcast on an Ecuadorian TV channel was interrupted by a group of masked men carrying guns, grenades, and dynamite. The intruders pointed guns...

Lt Col Carlos Luis Malatto fled Argentina in 2011 and will be tried in Rome for premeditated killing of eight people in last military dictatorshipA judge in Rome has ordered Lt Col Carlos Luis Malatto, a former Argentine army officer accused of murder and forced disappearances during Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship, to stand trial in Italy for the premeditated killing of eight people.The former...

Gangsters unleashed wave of terror following move by President Daniel Noboa in response to gang leader’s prison escape‘We should treat it as a war’: Ecuador’s descent into drug gang violenceHeavily armed gangsters have stormed the studio of a major television station in Ecuador during a live broadcast, prompting the country’s president to declare a state of “internal armed conflict” amid a series of seemingly...

Maria Kartasheva’s in-absentia conviction over blogposts about Ukraine war threatened application for Canadian citizenshipCanada has reversed course after initially blocking a Russian anti-war activist from receiving citizenship because she had run afoul of Moscow’s harsh laws criminalizing dissent over the invasion of Ukraine.Maria Kartasheva’s plight had baffled immigration lawyers and exposed the confusing reality of Canada’s immigration bureaucracy. Last year, the 30-year-old was charged...

Brazil president hosts summit amid criticism that easing of crackdown had allowed outsiders to return to forest areasThe Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has insisted his government must not lose the “war” against the environmental criminals devastating Indigenous lands in the Amazon after claims that thousands of illegal miners were resisting eviction from the country’s biggest such territory.After taking power last January,...

Arctic Ice argues its rare, pure product can be part of Greenland’s green transition and greater independenceFrozen daiquiri anyone? Drinking a cocktail on top of a Dubai skyscraper may seem decadent enough, but a Greenland entrepreneur wants to add ancient glacier ice scooped from the fjords to the glass, for the ultimate international thrill.Arctic Ice harvests ice from the fjords of Greenland, and then...

Huge manhunt under way after Adolfo Macías of Los Choneros disappears from cell and guards taken hostage amid prison riotsEcuador has declared a state of emergency after one of the country’s most dangerous criminals vanished from his cell and prison guards were overpowered and taken hostage amid riots at prisons across the country.A huge manhunt was under way on Monday as thousands of soldiers...

Brazilian leaders mark first anniversary of insurrection in Brasília that saw Bolsonaristas attempt to topple new governmentBrazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed the “victory of democracy over authoritarianism”, one year on from the 8 January insurrection in Brasília in which supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in an attempt to topple the newly inaugurated leftist government.Several hundred people...

The new president’s rightwing supporters are targeting journalists and women’s rights activists – but the fight goes onFemale journalists who write about gender issues say they are having to deal with a toxic wave of threats against them in Argentina. Some are fighting back, others are lying low and one has gone into self-imposed exile for her safety.“We are facing a witch-hunt from the...

Temperatures could be 10-15C below seasonal average in some areas, with Calgary and Edmonton experiencing low of -30CArctic air will sweep across western Canada and parts of the US early this week, leading to a cold snap that will probably last through the rest of this week and possibly beyond.By Wednesday, temperatures in western Canada could be as much as 10-15C below the seasonal...