TV images show bus flipping over between south-western cities of Pasto and Popayán
At least 20 people were killed and at least 14 injured after a bus crashed on a road in Colombia on Saturday, police said.
Images on Colombian television showed the bus flipping over in the early morning incident between the south-western cities of Pasto and Popayán, which authorities said may have been caused by a mechanical fault.
Continue reading...Spokesperson confirms plan to continue with immigration stunts which have attracted investigations and lawsuits
The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to continue flying undocumented migrants to Democratic strongholds, his spokeswoman said on Saturday, a day after released records showed the state paid nearly $1m to arrange two sets of flights to Delaware and Illinois.
Documents released on Friday showed that the planned flights will transport about 100 migrants. They were scheduled for before 3 October but were halted or postponed. The contractor hired by Florida extended the window for the trips until 1 December, according to memos released by the state transportation department.
Continue reading...Alok Sharma’s intervention puts pressure on Trump-appointed Bank chief who faces calls to resign
The UK has joined calls for sweeping reforms to the World Bank, to focus much-needed funding on the climate crisis, saying that its current structures are not working.
The intervention from Alok Sharma, the current president of the UN climate talks, heaps further pressure on beleaguered World Bank chief, David Malpass. He has faced calls to resign over an apparently climate-dismissing stance, and the Bank’s perceived failures to deliver climate finance.
Continue reading...Scammers posing as immigration lawyers targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, new report reveals
Scammers posing as Canadian immigration lawyers have targeted Facebook groups with tens of thousands of users, a new report reveals.
The posts, documented in a new report by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), the research arm of watchdog group the Campaign for Accountability, have been flagged as potentially fraudulent by Latin American and Canadian authorities but continue to proliferate.
Continue reading...Exclusive: halt to production of Shanchol vaccine alarms WHO amid ‘unprecedented’ global outbreaks
The manufacturer of one of only two cholera vaccines for use in humanitarian emergencies is to halt production at the end of this year, just as the world faces an “unprecedented” series of deadly outbreaks, the Guardian has learned.
Shantha Biotechnics, a wholly owned Indian subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, will stop production of its Shanchol vaccine within months and cease supply by the end of 2023, causing alarm among health officials.
Continue reading...More than 150,000 fleeing poverty have reached Panama so far this year in pursuit of American dream
The humanitarian crisis in Darién Gap has reached new heights as medical NGOs are overwhelmed by the record numbers of people risking their lives to cross the lawless strip of jungle in Latin America en route to the US.
An exodus of Venezuelans fleeing socioeconomic collapse has led to more people embarking on the perilous journey across the only land bridge connecting South and North America so far this year than in the entirety of 2021, Panamanian authorities say.
Continue reading...Musicians criticise ban that includes ‘urban slang’ to do with making money or acquiring wealth
Jamaica’s broadcasting regulator has banned music and TV broadcasts deemed to glorify or promote criminal activity, violence, drug use, scamming and weapons.
The government has said the ban is meant to cut back on material that “could give the wrong impression that criminality is an accepted feature of Jamaican culture and society”.
Continue reading...High temperatures, rain and mosquitoes make life unbearable for those still affected by the longest blackout in US history
Alexis Robles has slept a mere three hours a night since Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico on 18 September, causing a total blackout across the Caribbean island.
Robles, 52, a systems analyst in the seaside town of Cabo Rojo in south-west Puerto Rico, has been living without power for 25 days.
Continue reading...The head of Hockey Canada and its entire board of directors have resigned amid a growing scandal over how the sport’s governing body failed to address allegations of sexual assault.
On Tuesday morning, Hockey Canada announced its CEO, Scott Smith, was leaving the embattled organization.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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