Sint Maarten approves plan to cull entire population of vervet monkeys

The Caribbean territory plans to exterminate at least 450 of the invasive primates – but critics disagree with the proposal

The government of Sint Maarten in the eastern Caribbean has approved a controversial plan to cull its entire population of vervet monkeys, as the proliferation of the invasive species becomes an increasing nuisance on the Dutch island territory.

Authorities will fund the Nature Foundation St Maarten NGO to capture and euthanise at least 450 monkeys over the next three years in the territory which borders French St Martin.

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Fears mount over safety of two missing Mexican environmental activists

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca and Antonio Díaz Valencia’s bullet hole-riddled vehicle was found after an anti-mining meeting

Fears are mounting for the safety of two missing Mexican land rights activists after their vehicle was found ridden with bullet holes.

Ricardo Arturo Lagunes Gasca, a human rights lawyer and environmentalist and Antonio Díaz Valencia, leader of the Aquila Indigenous community in Michoacán, were last seen on Sunday evening travelling toward the neighbouring state of Colima after attending an anti-mining community meeting.

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Brazil charges 39 with staging coup after storming of government buildings

Bolsonaro supporters are also accused of armed criminal association and violent attempt to subvert democratic state of law

The office of Brazil’s prosecutor-general has presented its first charges against some of the thousands of people who authorities say stormed government buildings in an effort to overturn former president Jair Bolsonaro’s loss in the October election.

The prosecutors in the recently formed group to combat antidemocratic acts have also requested that the 39 defendants who allegedly ransacked the Brazilian congress building be imprisoned as a preventive measure, and that 40m reais ($7.7m) of their assets be frozen to help cover damages.

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Ex-Mexico security chief’s trial poised to lift lid on US and Mexico’s ‘war on drugs’

Genaro García Luna, accused of accepting millions in bribes from cartels, in trial that could implicate officials on both sides of border

One of Mexico’s most powerful former officials will stand trial in the US this week, charged with accepting million-dollar bribes from a violent cartel in a case with profound political implications that could expose the inner workings of the “war on drugs” on both sides of the border.

Genaro García Luna, a former head of Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI who went on to lead the country’s security ministry, was arrested in Texas in 2019, charged with conspiring to traffic cocaine and lying to the US government.

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Buns for votes scandal did not sway mayoral election, Canadian court rules

In the tiny community of Pouce Coupe, a candidate was accused of using cinnamon rolls as bribes at a campaign event

Efforts to bribe unsuspecting voters, allegations of candidate intimidation and a court challenge to an election result have cast a spotlight on the tumultuous, ruthless politics of a tiny west Canadian community.

British Columbia’s supreme court this week weighed in on the row, upholding the fiercely contested results of a recent municipal election, Pouce Coupe, a town of fewer than 800 people near the border with Alberta.

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Peru declares state of emergency in Lima after weeks of protests

President Dina Boluarte expresses regret for the death of at least 42 people in recent wave of demonstrations, but insists she will not stand down

Peru’s government has declared a state of emergency in the capital of Lima and three other regions following weeks of protests against President Dina Boluarte that have claimed at least 42 lives.

The measure, in force for 30 days, authorises the army to intervene to maintain order and suspends several constitutional rights such as freedom of movement and assembly, according to a decree published in the official gazette on Saturday.

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After the rampage: Brazil’s new leaders to fight hard in wake of ‘insane’ coup attempt

Lula’s government claims it has ‘absolute control’ after storming of capital by Bolsonaro supporters, but failed putsch is not over, say insiders

Sônia Guajajara should have been making history last Tuesday afternoon, being sworn in as the head of Brazil’s first ministry for Indigenous peoples at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Brasília.

Instead, with that building wrecked last Sunday by thousands of far-right extremists, she sat in her office overlooking Brazil’s similarly ransacked congress, reflecting on the stunning attempt to overthrow one of the world’s biggest democracies.

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Key Bolsonaro ally arrested on return to Brazil over alleged coup attempt

Former justice minister Anderson Torres was capital’s security chief when far-right rioters stormed government buildings

One of Jair Bolsonaro’s key allies, the former justice minister Anderson Torres, has been arrested in Brazil’s capital in connection with last week’s alleged attempt to overthrow the country’s new government.

Torres, who was Brasília’s security chief at the time of the attacks, flew back from Florida, where he had purportedly been holidaying, on Saturday morning and was arrested by federal police at the city’s international airport.

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Salvadoran environmental defenders detained for decades-old crimes

Activists worry the arrests are a move by the cash-strapped government to open the country to now banned metals mining

Five prominent environmental defenders who played a crucial role in securing a historic mining ban in El Salvador have been detained accused of civil war era and gang-related crimes, in what rights groups fear is a ruse to restart mining.

Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega were detained on Wednesday in Cabañas in northern El Salvador, accused of killing an alleged army informant more than 33 years ago during the brutal civil war that claimed 75,000 lives.

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Jair Bolsonaro to be investigated as part of inquiry into far-right Brazil riot

Former president shared a video questioning last year’s election result after his supporters stormed Brasília’s democratic institutions

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro will be investigated as part of an inquiry into an alleged attempt to topple the country’s new government, the supreme court has announced.

Thousands of radical followers of the far-right populist marauded through Brazil’s three most important democratic institutions last Sunday, apparently convinced by a tsunami of fake news that last October’s presidential election – which Bolsonaro lost – was rigged.

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Release of Bolsonaro spending records shows love of high living and … ice-cream

Brazilian government overturns former president’s 100-year ban to publish credit card records

Brazil’s new government has released the personal spending accounts of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, revealing the far-right leader’s apparent penchant for expensive hotels, big meals out – and ice-cream.

Bolsonaro, who lost his re-election bid in October, once boasted he did not withdraw “a single penny” from the corporate credit cards given to him and his closest advisers.

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‘Out of your league’: Shakira song mocking ex Gerard Piqué breaks YouTube record

Video with DJ Bizarrap ridiculing footballer’s new relationship racks up 63m views in 24 hours

A savage new song by Shakira in which the Colombian star, philanthropist and committed believer in the veracity of hips ridicules her former partner Gerard Piqué has logged more than 63m YouTube views in 24 hours, making it the most watched new Latin song in the platform’s history.

Shakira and Piqué, who played football for Barcelona, Manchester United and the Spanish national team, separated last year after more than a decade and have two children. The former centre-back, 35, has since begun a relationship with a 23-year-old woman, Clara Chía.

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Democratic lawmakers demand Biden revoke Bolsonaro’s visa after Brazil riot

Former president entered the US after his election loss and is staying in Florida

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including some of the top members of the House foreign affairs committee, sent a letter to Joe Biden on Thursday demanding former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s diplomatic visa be canceled in the wake of the rampage in Brazil’s capital by his supporters.

“We request that you reassess his status in the country to ascertain whether there is a legal basis for his stay and revoke any such diplomatic visa he may hold,” said the letter. It continued: “The United States must not provide shelter for him, or any authoritarian who has inspired such violence against democratic institutions.”

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Usain Bolt reportedly missing millions from investment accounts

  • Athlete’s manager says Jamaican authorities investigating
  • Olympic champion noticed discrepancies this week

An investigation has been launched after millions of dollars reportedly went missing from an account belonging to eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt.

Bolt’s manager, Nugent Walker, told the Gleaner that Jamaica’s Financial Investigations Division and Financial Services Commission are looking into the case at investment firm Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL). SSL is also understood to have called the police.

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Reward offered to find Iran-born woman seized by fake police in Canada

Elnaz Hajtamiri woman was abducted on 12 January 2022 from an Ontario house by three men disguised as police officers

Investigators in Canada are offering a C$100,000 reward in a bid to solve the brazen kidnapping of an Iranian Canadian woman by assailants disguised as police officers that continues to baffle detectives.

Elnaz Hajtamiri was violently abducted on 12 January 2022, from a house in an Ontario beach community, by three men disguised in police gear, who hauled her barefoot through the snow and into a waiting SUV.

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Woman ordered to repay employer after software shows ‘time theft’

Company tells Canadian tribunal it installed software on Karlee Besse’s laptop after finding files over budget and behind schedule

A Canadian woman has been ordered by a civil tribunal to compensate her former employer for “time theft” after she was caught misrepresenting hours worked by controversial tracking software.

Karlee Besse, who worked remotely as an accountant in British Columbia, initially claimed she was fired from her job without cause last year and sought C$5,000 ($3,729; £3,066) in compensation – both in unpaid wages and severance.

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Lula suspects pro-Bolsonaro staff helped mob enter presidential palace

President vows thorough investigation and says ‘many people were complicit … the truth is the palace was full of Bolsonaristas’

The Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said he suspects hardcore supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro among the presidential staff facilitated the entry of insurrectionists who stormed his presidential palace seeking to overthrow Brazil’s government.

Speaking to a group of political journalists in Brasília’s Planalto palace – one of three buildings trashed by the pro-Bolsonaro mob last Sunday – Lula vowed to carry out a “thorough screening” of employees in the wake of the historic attack.

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Cat call: Bolivia state airline enlists psychic to find missing feline

‘Interspecies communicator’ consulted to track down cat lost in transit, prompting criticism of country’s state companies

Bolivia’s state airline has enlisted an “interspecies communicator” – or animal psychic – to track down a lost cat, after a passenger’s pet went missing in transit.

The incident has prompted pointed questions over the performance of Bolivia’s many state companies, a continual source of debate between the leftist government and its opposition.

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Security tightened in Brazil amid fears of new attacks by Bolsonaro supporters

Far-right activists loyal to ex-president have launched what the government called a botched coup attempt

Security has been stepped up in Brazil’s capital amid concerns that hardcore supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro were planning to mobilise again, three days after thousands of extremists launched what the government has called a botched coup attempt.

Reports in the Brazilian media said far-right activists had summoned “a mega nationwide protest to retake power” on Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday night, members of the national public security force in black SUVs could be seen taking up position along the esplanade leading to Brazil’s congress, supreme court and presidential palace – the three buildings stormed and ransacked during Sunday’s turmoil in Brasília.

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Honduran environmental defenders shot dead in broad daylight

Aly Domínguez and Jairo Bonilla, co-founders of grassroots resistance group to iron ore mine in Guapinol, murdered in street

Two environmental defenders have been shot dead in broad daylight in Honduras, triggering fresh calls for an independent investigation into the persecution and violence against a rural community battling to stop an illegally sanctioned mine.

Aly Domínguez, 38, and Jairo Bonilla, 28, from Guapinol in northern Honduras, were murdered on Saturday afternoon as they returned home on a moped after finishing work collecting payments for a cable company. They were intercepted by armed assailants and died at the scene, according to relatives.

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