Marcelo Crivella arrested days before leaving office, in blow to Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro
Police have arrested Rio de Janeiro’s outgoing mayor Marcelo Crivella, an ally of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, in an investigation into alleged corruption at city hall.
Four carloads of police and prosecutors arrived at the mayor’s house in the affluent Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood before 6am, the website of O Globo newspaper said.
Continue reading...Bolsonaro ally Marcelo Crivella accused of leading ‘well-structured and complex criminal organisation’
Rio de Janeiro’s outgoing mayor Marcelo Crivella, an ally of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been arrested and charged with corruption.
Four carloads of police and prosecutors arrived at the mayor’s house in the affluent Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood before 6am.
Continue reading...President Iván Duque says undocumented Venezuelans will be denied access in a move denounced as unethical and impractical
Colombia will refuse to administer coronavirus vaccines to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees within its borders, President Iván Duque has announced, in a move which stunned public health experts and prompted condemnation from humanitarian groups.
Speaking to a local radio station on Monday, Duque that only Venezuelans with dual nationality or formal migratory status will have access to the vaccine when it is eventually distributed in the country.
Continue reading...Professor and family face up to eight years in prison for their treatment of woman given to them as a child
A Brazilian woman enslaved as a maid from the age of eight for almost four decades and forced into marriage has been rescued in a rare crackdown on domestic slavery.
The 46-year-old was found living in a small room in an apartment in Patos de Minas, in the south eastern state of Minas Gerais. She had worked for the family for most of her life without pay or any time off, according to labour inspectors.
Continue reading...Premier of Canadian province says restrictions will last for up to a month and should save thousands of lives
Canada’s most populous province is to enter a “hard lockdown” as Ontario experiences an alarming rate of new coronavirus cases before the Christmas holidays.
“Thousands of lives are at stake now,” said Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, on Monday, as he announced a slate of new restrictions that go into effect on Boxing Day. “If we fail to take action now, the consequences could be catastrophic.
Continue reading...The last thing Carrot the deer probably wanted in 2020 was a hole in his head.
But the Canadian whitetail deer which made headlines last week for his shocking injury no longer has an arrow impaling his head.
Continue reading...Aristóteles Sandoval was shot in the back in bathroom in Puerto Vallarta, and died soon afterwards at local hospital
The former governor of Mexico’s violence-wracked western state of Jalisco has been shot dead in a restaurant bathroom in the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta.
Aristóteles Sandoval was dining with four others when at around 1.40 on Friday he got up from the table and went to the toilet, where the killer shot him in the back, said the state attorney general, Gerardo Octavio Solís.
Continue reading...Ali Haberstroh’s directory lists nearly 4,000 independent businesses in Toronto, Halifax, Calgary and Vancouver
In cities and towns around the world, darkened shopfronts and shuttered businesses have become an all-too-familiar symptom of the economic collapse triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
But while small businesses and local retailers struggle with lockdowns and restrictions, e-commerce giants like Amazon have raked in billions in new profits.
Continue reading...Wildlife photographer Lee-Anne Carver is trying to share Carrot’s plight in hopes of saving injured deer
The Canadian winter can be tough for deer, as temperatures plummet and food becomes scarce. But Carrot, a whitetail buck living in northern Ontario, faces an additional challenge: he has an arrow sticking out of his head.
“It’s been really tough to see,” said Lee-Anne Carver, a wildlife photographer in the city of Kenora, who named the young animal. “I’ve been photographing animals for years and there’s something special about Carrot. He’s unlike any deer I’ve ever met.”
Continue reading...All-share deal will create world’s largest weed company, as industry hopes for further liberalisation in US
Two of the leading players in Canada’s booming cannabis sector have announced merger plans that will create the world’s largest weed company, as the industry hopes for further liberalisation in the US under Joe Biden.
Tilray and Aphria announced an all-share deal giving the new entity a stock market value of C$4.8bn (£2.8bn), with the two companies’ combined revenues over the past 12 months amounting to an industry-leading £507m.
Continue reading...Law also requires foreign officials in the country to share any intelligence they have obtained with Mexican officials
Mexico’s congress has approved a new national security law restricting the activities of foreign law enforcement officers, in a move which critics say will endanger intelligence sources and threaten the future of international anti-narcotics operations.
The law passed on Tuesday strips foreign agents of diplomatic immunity and requires foreign officials in the country to share any intelligence they have obtained with Mexican officials.
Continue reading...Designer facing class action lawsuit in US alleging the sexual assault of dozens of women
The fashion mogul Peter Nygård has been arrested in Canada after US authorities charged him with with racketeering and sex trafficking, alleging decades of crimes that left dozens of victims in the United States, the Bahamas and Canada.
Nygård, 79, was arrested in Winnipeg under the Extradition Act on Monday and made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday. He wore a white face mask, a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants, with his long white hair pulled back in a bun. He has denied wrongdoing.
Continue reading...Brayden Bushby hurled metal trailer hitch that hit Barbara Kentner, who later died of complications resulting from trauma
A man who hurled a metal trailer hitch at an Indigenous woman walking along a snowy street in Thunder Bay has been found guilty of manslaughter, in a case widely seen as a grim reminder of the Canadian city’s deadly legacy of racism.
In her ruling Monday afternoon, Justice Helen Pierce found that the actions of Brayden Bushby led to the death of Barbara Kentner, 34, on 29 January 2017.
Continue reading...Our foreign correspondents reflect on the practical and cultural importance of fluency in a country’s native tongue
During the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in China, people described to us deeply personal and traumatic experiences – losing their parents, suffering the death of a child, being harassed and intimidated for trying to speak out. Having these conversations in Mandarin was important not just for capturing nuance and detail but for a sense of empathy.
Continue reading...President accused of ignoring China-produced Covid vaccine because of political expediency
Jair Bolsonaro is facing a furious backlash over what critics are calling his “homicidally negligent” failure to prepare a coherent coronavirus vaccination programme as Brazil’s death toll again soars.
More than 181,000 Brazilians have died from the disease the president calls “a little flu”, with Latin America’s biggest economy now careering into a painful second wave.
Continue reading...The hardline Tory Brexiter’s family made a fortune from their Caribbean plantations where thousands died. Now he faces urgent calls for reparations
Drive into Dorset on the A31 and you roll past a high brick wall butted up tight to the road that seems to go on for ever. Every so often it doglegs at a monolithic gateway crowned by either a lion or a stag. This is the “great wall of Dorset” that runs for three miles, contains some 2m bricks and shields Charborough Park from the outside world. The wall creates an air of foreboding about what might lie inside. This is home to Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, the Conservative MP for South Dorset, who lives in the palatial Grade I-listed Charborough House, hidden from public view within the 283-hectare (700-acre) private grounds.
The park, with its outstanding garden and ancient deer park, is just a part of the 5,600 hectares of Charborough estate that makes Drax and his family the largest individual landowners in Dorset. The mainly 17th-century mansion, with its 36-metre (120ft) folly tower, is the model for Welland House in the Thomas Hardy novel Two on a Tower.
Continue reading...New sections of the tower at the capital’s Templo Mayor Aztec site include 119 skulls of men, women and children
Archaeologists have unearthed new sections of an Aztec tower of human skulls dating back to the 1400s beneath the center of Mexico City.
The team has uncovered the facade and eastern side of the tower, as well as 119 human skulls of men, women and children, adding to hundreds previously found, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (Inah) announced on Friday.
Continue reading...If bill approved in senate Argentina would join Cuba and Uruguay as only Latin American countries where abortion is legal
Lawmakers in Argentina’s lower house have passed a bill that would legalise abortion in most cases, in a big step forward for the legislation that could set the tone for a wider shift across Latin America.
The landmark bill, which needs approval from the country’s senate in a debate expected before the end of the year, allows for voluntary abortions to be carried out up to the 14th week of pregnancy.
Continue reading...Companies respond as investigation finds videos of rape and revenge pornography
Mastercard and Visa said on Thursday they would block their customers from using the credit cards to make purchases on Pornhub following accusations the pornographic website showed videos of child abuse and rape.
They reacted following an investigation by the opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times that also alleged the site depicts revenge pornography and video taken without the consent of participants. Pornhub has denied the allegations.
Continue reading...Brazilian airline Gol has resumed commercial flights using the plane grounded globally since March 2019
Commercial passenger flights have resumed on Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft for the first time in 20 months, after Brazilian airline Gol resumed operations using the plane.
The aircraft was grounded globally in March 2019 after two fatal plane crashes in the space of six months, which killed a total of 346 people.
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