Category Archives: Americas

Manslaughter trial over 2009 Air France crash begins with cries of ‘shame’

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Anger as airline and Airbus plead not guilty to charge 13 years after flight AF447 crashed, killing 228 people

A manslaughter trial over the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 has opened in Paris, with the courtroom falling silent as a judge read out the names of 228 passengers and crew who died in the airline’s worst ever accident.

The grief of the victims’ families quickly erupted into anger as the chief executives of Air France and Airbus pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and offered their condolences.

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El Paso struggles to house migrants after shelter closes as border crossings surge

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City’s new facility has to find shelters for those without alternative after a 40-year beacon of refuge shuttered earlier this year

Chairs and tables lined El Paso’s new Migrant Welcome Center in west Texas, where families who have crossed the US-Mexico border without immigration papers were meeting with volunteers and city employees, or making phone calls to loved ones elsewhere in the United States.

Children amused themselves in a designated play area, while their parents worked out where the next steps of their journey would take them and how they would get there.

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Venezuela floods kill 25 after month’s worth of rain falls in eight hours

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At least 52 missing as military and rescue personnel searched for survivors

At least 25 people died and 52 were missing after five small rivers in central Venezuela flooded due to heavy rains, the government said.

The downpour on Saturday night swept large tree trunks and debris from surrounding mountains into the town of Tejerias, 67km south-west of the capital, Caracas, damaging businesses and farmland, according to the vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez.

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‘I’d eat an Indian’: rivals seize on unearthed Bolsonaro cannibalism boast

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In a now viral video of a 2016 interview, the Brazilian president claims he would eat human flesh

It was a shocking statement, even for a politician who has glorified torturers and called for rivals to be shot.

“I’d eat an Indian, no problem at all,” Jair Bolsonaro bragged to a foreign journalist in 2016, as he described a trip to an Indigenous community where he had purportedly been offered the chance to consume human flesh.

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‘More bullets, more bloodshed’: Haiti aid groups warn against request for foreign forces

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Medical NGOs and activists have said that calling in military intervention risks escalating brutal Port-au-Prince violence

Medical NGOs and civil society groups in Haiti have warned that the government’s plan to request foreign military intervention to restore order will only cause more bloodshed in the beleaguered nation.

On Friday, the government formally authorized the prime minister, Ariel Henry, to request “specialised armed forces” to take back control of Port-au-Prince from the hundreds of gangs who have tightened their grip over the capital in recent weeks.

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Hurricane Julia: Nicaragua braces amid flash flood and mudslide warnings

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Nicaraguan soldiers assist evacuations as up to 38cm of rain forecast across Central America after tropical storm strengthened into hurricane

Hurricane Julia swept by just south of Colombia’s San Andres island on Saturday evening soon after strengthening from a tropical storm, as Nicaraguans rushed to prepare for the storm’s arrival on their coast overnight.

After gaining power throughout the day, Julia’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 120km/h (75mph) by Saturday evening, the US National Hurricane Center said.

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Haiti government prepares to ask for ‘specialized armed force’ from abroad

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Prime minister authorized to ask international community to help end blockade of main fuel port that has led to crippling shortages

Haiti’s government has authorized the prime minister, Ariel Henry, to ask the international community for a “specialized armed force” to address a crisis caused by a blockade of the country’s main fuel port that has led to crippling shortages, according to a decree circulating on Friday.

Haiti has ground to a halt since a coalition of gangs blocked the Varreux fuel terminal last month. The lack of gas and diesel has crippled transportation and forced businesses and hospitals to halt operations.

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Trouser snakes: US man accused of smuggling three reptiles in his pants

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New Yorker accused of hiding large Burmese pythons in trousers while crossing from Canada in July could face 20-year sentence

A New York City man faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to smuggle three large snakes across the US-Canada border – in his pants.

Queens resident Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of hiding three Burmese pythons while on a bus crossing into the US at the Champlain port of entry in New York state on 15 July 2018, the Associated Press reported.

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Amazon loses London-sized area of rainforest in a month with Bolsonaro’s reign under threat

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Large area destroyed in September, as environmental criminals raced to wreck the region before possible change of president

Amazon deforestation has soared ahead of Brazil’s environmentally vital presidential election, with an area almost the size of Greater London lost last month alone.

Government satellites show a 1,455-sq km area of rainforest was destroyed in September, as environmental criminals raced to wreck the region before a possible change of president could bring Jair Bolsonaro’s era of destruction to an end.

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Easter Island fire causes ‘irreparable’ damage to famous moai statues

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Forest fire that swept through more than 100 hectares of national park, with some moai ‘totally charred’

A forest fire that tore through part of Easter Island has charred some of its monumental carved stone figures, known as moai, authorities have said.

The blaze reportedly swept through the Rapa Nui national park, 3,500km (2,175 miles) off the west coast of Chile, causing “irreparable” damage to the archaeological site.

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Canada mass stabbing suspect’s brother was victim not accomplice, police say

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Myles Sanderson, who died in RCMP custody, was responsible for deaths of all 11 victims, including that of his brother Damien

Canadian police have concluded that Myles Sanderson, who led officers on a multi-day manhunt after a mass stabbing last month, was responsible for all 11 deaths – including that of his brother.

Officers initially named Sanderson’s brother Damien as a suspect in the stabbings in James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby town of Weldon, Saskatchewan.

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Trudeau intervenes as sexual abuse scandal rocks Canada’s ice hockey body

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Prime minister hints at setting up new governing body after major firms pull support for Hockey Canada over handling of allegations

Justin Trudeau has warned Canada’s ice hockey governing body that it has “lost the confidence” of Canadians and could be easily replaced by a new organization, amid growing outcry about its handling of a string of sexual assault allegations.

The prime minister’s comments come as a wave of major companies publicly pulled support for the embattled organization on Thursday.

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Mexico mayor among 18 killed in town hall massacre

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Attack in southern state of Guerrero was followed by fatal shooting of lawmaker in neighbouring state of Morelos

Attackers gunned down a mayor, his father and 16 other people in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero on Wednesday, authorities have said.

The state’s attorney general, Sandra Luz Valdovinos, told Milenio television late on Wednesday that 18 people were killed and two were wounded in the town of San Miguel Totolapan. Among the dead were the mayor, Conrado Mendoza, and his father, a former mayor of the town, she said. Two additional people were wounded.

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Thousands of salmon found dead as Canada drought dries out river

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A lack of rain on the western coasts saw 65,000 dead salmon wash up on the creek

Tens of thousands of dead wild salmon scattered along a creek bed are the latest casualty of a drought that has gripped the province of British Columbia for more than a month and left communities bracing for more devastation.

In a video clip posted to social media, the carcasses of pink and chum salmon are seen piled near the community of Bella Bella.

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Coldplay postpone shows after Chris Martin contracts ‘serious lung infection’

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Band says 45-year-old singer ‘under strict doctor’s orders’ to rest and eight Brazil shows on world tour will be postponed to next year

Coldplay has announced it is postponing several shows in its latest world tour after singer Chris Martin contracted “a serious lung infection”.

In a statement posted on its social media accounts and its website, the band expressed “deep regret” and said the eight postponed shows, all in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, would be rescheduled for early 2023.

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Colombia to restart peace talks with the country’s largest active guerrilla group

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Start date for dialogue with the National Liberation Army will be announced after first week of November

Colombia’s government and the nation’s largest remaining guerrilla group have announced that they will restart peace talks next month for the first time since 2018.

After meeting in Caracas, representatives of the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army issued a statement saying a start date for the peace talks would be announced after the first week of November. The statement added that Norway, Venezuela and Cuba would be “guarantor states” in the talks, and that the participation of civil society groups would be “essential” for the peace talks to succeed.

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Mexico: reporters and activists hacked with NSO spyware despite assurances

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Country’s current government had sworn it would no longer use the hacking software

Journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico were hacked using spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group as recently as 2021, even after the country’s current government swore it was no longer going to use the hacking software, new research has found.

The alleged victims of the spyware include two journalists who report on issues related to official corruption and a prominent human rights defenders, according to digital rights researchers at R3D (Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales) and The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, which tracks such infections.

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Worldwide fertiliser shortage prompts Peru to turn to bird poo

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the South American country’s deposits of bird poo more valuable

As countries around the world wrestle with shortages of imported fertiliser as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Peru has turned to a tried and tested alternative: bird poo.

In the 19th century, fortunes were made and lost on guano, the potent excrement of fish-eating seabirds which was harvested by enslaved people from Africa and indentured Indigenous and Chinese labourers.

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Biden pledges $60m to stormproof Puerto Rico during visit

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The US territory has been frequently battered by hurricanes but is often overlooked by the federal government when it comes to aid

Joe Biden announced on Monday that his administration will allocate $60m in funding for Puerto Rico specifically to help coastal areas become more storm-resilient, as he admitted, following the hit from Hurricane Fiona last month, that the island territory had faced much in the last five years and had not received enough timely assistance.

The US president said the new funding would go toward strengthening flood walls, creating a new flood warning system and other projects.

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Hurricane Orlene strikes Mexico’s Pacific coast with 80mph winds

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Nearby ports are closed and emergency shelters open as 10in of rain and dangerous surf are expected

Hurricane Orlene has made landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast near the tourist town of Mazatlán, with winds of more than 80mph (130km/h).

Electrical cables swayed and sent off showers of sparks in the town of El Rosario, about 40 miles (65km) south of Mazatlán, close to where the hurricane hit.

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