Young couple and their boy, and nine-year-old girl and her grandmother, among dead
A landslide in Brazil’s northeastern city of Recife on Tuesday caused two houses to collapse, killing seven people, according to local firefighters.
A young couple and their two-month-old boy, as well as a nine-year-old girl and her grandmother, were among the dead, according to Brazilian media outlet G1.
Continue reading...A Guardian report revealed an RCMP strategy document calling for ‘lethal overwatch’ in a January raid
Indigenous people across Canada, and members of the Canadian parliament, have expressed outrage following revelations by the Guardian that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police prepared for the possible use of lethal force against Indigenous land defenders in northern British Columbia earlier this year.
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, which represents more than 150,000 First Nations people in the province of Manitoba, issued a scathing statement concerning an RCMP strategy document which said that “lethal overwatch” would be required during the 7 January raid.
Continue reading...Law kept mining projects out of Argentina province – now water for wine-growers will be threatened in drought-stricken area
Argentina’s wine-growing province of Mendoza, renown for its inky red Malbec varietal, has erupted in protest against the surprise overturning of a 2007 water protection law that had successfully kept water-intensive mining projects out of the province.
Thousands of people joined demonstrations on Monday outside the office of provincial governor Rodolfo Suarez in the capital city, also called Mendoza, after he overturned the law, known as 7722 late last week.
The peaceful protest turned violent on Monday afternoon, as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd in response to stone-throwing by angry demonstrators.
Continue reading...The year 2019 saw devastating wildfires in the west, rising sea levels on the Gulf coast, melting permafrost in Alaska and a destructive hurricane in the neighboring Bahamas. But the year to April 2019 had also been the US’s wettest 12 months since records began as extremes became the norm
Continue reading...Mario Sandoval charged with dictatorship-era crimes in Argentina – so how could he have worked undetected at a top French university?
Mario Sandoval had been living in France for 14 years when he became a lecturer at the Institute of Latin American Studies (IHEAL) at the Sorbonne in Paris.
The Argentinian security specialist was in his mid-40s, spoke good French and had recently obtained French citizenship. His credentials were impeccable – he’d spent the previous five years teaching international relations at another Paris institute, the Université Marne-la-Vallée – and he soon became a valued asset at the Sorbonne.
Continue reading...Leader of ultra-conservative group was ordered to retire over allegations, but died before facing accusers
Sexual abuse of minors was rife among superiors of the Legionaries of Christ Catholic religious order, with at least 60 boys abused by its founder, Father Marcial Maciel, a report by the group revealed.
Maciel, who died in 2008, was perhaps the Roman Catholic Church’s most notorious paedophile, even abusing children he had fathered secretly with at least two women while living a double life and being feted by the Vatican and church conservatives.
Continue reading...Investigators may never recover enough wreckage to know why the Hercules crashed, killing 38
The commander-in-chief of the Chilean air force has said that the struggle to recover the remains of a Hercules that crashed en route to the Antarctic two weeks ago could make it difficult to ever determine what happened to the plane.
The Hercules C-130 cargo plane, which was carrying 17 crew and 21 passengers, disappeared shortly after taking off on 9 December from the southern city of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia.
Continue reading...Firefighters say the passenger bus was struck from behind by a truck near the town of Gualan
At least 21 people, including nine minors, have been killed and a dozen wounded in a crash between a trailer truck and a passenger bus in eastern Guatemala.
The national disaster agency said the collision occurred early onSaturday. Volunteer firefighters told reporters the truck appeared to have collided with the bus from behind.
Continue reading...The big cats’ resourceful new behaviour was recorded by a WWF study on a remote island off the coast of Brazil
A thriving population of jaguars living on a small, unspoilt island off the coast of the Brazilian Amazon has learned to catch fish in the sea to survive, conservationists have found.
The Maracá-Jipioca Ecological Station island reserve, three miles off the northern state of Amapá, acts as a nursery for jaguars, according to WWF researchers who have collared three cats and set up 70 camera traps on the remote jungle island.
Continue reading...Carnival Glory was manoeuvring to dock when it collided with Carnival Legend, leaving one person injured and damage to the boat's stern
Continue reading...Critics interpret president’s attack on journalist as attempt to divert attention from spiralling scandal involving son Flávio
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched a homophobic attack on a journalist from one of the country’s top newspapers in an apparent bid to divert attention from a spiraling corruption scandal involving his son.
Related: Murder of Uber drivers may be Brazil gang leader’s ‘revenge’ for cancelled ride
Continue reading...Subterranean ‘cities-under-cities’ are spreading around the world, but for sheer continuous commercial distance, Toronto remains king
I’ve worked in a Path-connected building for over a decade, long enough to remember a time when it had smoking rooms. A couple of years back, I began to notice a guy sitting outside my building, wearing cargo shorts and a T-shirt, huffing a brick-sized vape while gaming on his phone. Summer turned to fall turned to winter, and still the shorts remained, his aloof pose untempered by the sleet or snow. He seemed to me to embody the apotheosis of Pathitude. For him, weather seemed an obsolete curio of a less-evolved time.
Take a walk through Toronto’s financial district and you probably won’t realise that you stand atop the largest underground shopping complex in the world. You might see the occasional doorway at street level bearing the words “Retail Concourse” in a nondescript font, but for the most part the more than 100 entrances to this labyrinth, known as the Path, are accessible only from within the office towers.
Continue reading...Notes from strategy session for raid on Wet’suwet’en nation’s ancestral lands show commanders argued for ‘lethal overwatch’
Canadian police were prepared to shoot Indigenous land defenders blockading construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia, according to documents seen by the Guardian.
Notes from a strategy session for a militarized raid on ancestral lands of the Wet’suwet’en nation show that commanders of Canada’s national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), argued that “lethal overwatch is req’d” – a term for deploying snipers.
Continue reading...Joshua Boyle faced 19 charges after his estranged wife, Caitlan Coleman, accused him of abusing her after the family was rescued
Joshua Boyle, the former hostage who spent five years held by militants in Afghanistan with his family, has been cleared of all charges in a closely watched sexual assault trial.
Boyle, 36, faced 19 charges, including criminal harassment, uttering threats, unlawful confinement and administering a noxious substance after his estranged wife, Caitlan Coleman, accused him of abusing her after the family were rescued and returned to Canada.
Continue reading...Ousted president accused by prosecutors of sedition and terrorism
Prosecutors in Bolivia’s capital have issued an arrest warrant against the former president Evo Morales, accusing him of sedition and terrorism.
The interior minister, Arturo Murillo, recently brought charges against Morales, alleging he promoted violent clashes that led to 35 deaths during disturbances before and after he left office.
Continue reading...Investigators examining Bolsonaro’s senator son Flávio, suspected of overseeing corruption racket during tenure as Rio congressman
Investigators have raided the home of a longstanding friend and associate of the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, as well as addresses linked to Bolsonaro’s ex-wife, in the latest phase of a politically damaging corruption investigation embroiling his family.
Related: Brazil has become a cautionary tale for the world's democracies | Petra Costa
Continue reading...Chain to close all its restaurants for two days of mourning after deaths lead to protests over workplace safety
The death by electrocution of two young employees at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lima has spurred protests and stoked anger over working conditions in the wider economy, which are viewed as exploitative and sometimes dangerous.
Peru’s public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the deaths of Alexandra Porras, 19, and her former boyfriend Gabriel Campos, 18, who were reported to have died in the early hours of Sunday while cleaning the kitchen at the fast-food outlet.
Continue reading...Chileans are gripped by uncertainty – suspended between hopes of progress, and frustration over an elusive political solution
When a tsunami of unrest spilled into Santiago’s fashionable Bellavista neighbourhood in October, Daniel Gajardo, 33, was torn between sympathy for the protesters and frustration at the harm they were doing his fledgling business.
The recording studio and music shop he co-owns had been thriving, and moved to new premises just a day before the first major demonstration.
Continue reading...There are days in a Canadian winter – when the temperature drops well below freezing and the snow hasn’t yet fallen – that transform any body of freshwater into a glass-like sheet of ice.
But what can bring joy to an adventurous human can prove a nightmare for some wild animals.
Continue reading...Ex-police officer alleged to be ‘butcher’ of dictatorship held over student’s disappearance
An Argentinian ex-police officer suspected of links with the murder of hundreds of people during the country’s “dirty war” has been extradited by France to Buenos Aires to face trial over the disappearance of a student.
Mario Sandoval, 66, was arrested on Wednesday at his home near Paris after French authorities gave the final go-ahead for his extradition, ending an eight-year legal battle.
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