Bruce McArthur was charged with killing eight men, after police found remains in large planters at a property where he worked
A former landscaper accused of sexually assaulting, killing and dismembering men he met in Toronto’s Gay Village district over seven years has pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder.
Bruce McArthur, wearing a black sweater, stood up and said “guilty” eight times as the charges were read on Tuesday. Sentencing will start on 4 February.
Continue reading...Water resources are tapped with often reckless abandon and poor regulation. And it looks set to go on under new president
The Brazilian government has been urged to step up punishments for environmental crimes after the deadliest mining disaster in decades.
The torrent of mud and iron ore tailings that engulfed the community of Brumadinho on Friday continues to inflict a toll on residents, river systems and freshwater species.
Continue reading...Tarek Saab said opposition leader would be investigated over his supposed role in ‘crimes that threaten the constitutional order’
Venezuela’s political crisis deepened on Tuesday as the country’s attorney general ordered an investigation into the opposition leader, who last week declared himself interim president in a rare challenge to the incumbent, Nicolás Maduro.
Tarek Saab, a Maduro loyalist, announced that Juan Guaidó – who has received the backing of the US and other regional powers including Brazil and Colombia – would be investigated over his supposed role in “serious crimes that threaten the constitutional order”.
Continue reading...Three employees of Vale and two subcontracted engineers held over Brumadinho disaster
Brazilian police have arrested five people in an investigation into the causes of the Brumadinho dam disaster.
The dam break on Friday at an iron ore mining complex operated by the minerals firm Vale killed at least 65 people, and a further 279 are missing.
Continue reading...Rescue workers in Brazil waded through treacherous mud looking for bodies as pressure mounted on the mining company responsible for a dam that burst and spilled a flood of iron-ore waste
Continue reading...The planned transformation of Quebec’s Grand Mosque is haunted by the deadly attack on the Islamic centre in 2017
Until 29 January 2017, random motorists on the busy Chemin Sainte-Foy would sometimes pull over to the Quebec City Grand Mosque to withdraw some money.
Converted from a Desjardins Bank, it still looks like one, with its rows of rectangular glass panes and a barricaded drive-through. Its only crescent and minaret are in graphic form on a small plastic sign, blocked from the road by trees.
Continue reading...Foreign minister Winston Peters says country needs to ‘decide its future through free and fair elections’
In a stark departure from its allies, the New Zealand government is refusing to take sides in the escalating Venezuelan leadership crisis, declining to give official recognition to either leader.
Last week opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself Venezuela’s interim president, and quickly won the support of the US, the UK, Canada and some Latin American countries, who issued strong public statements recognising his authority. On Monday New Zealand’s closest neighbour, Australia, recognised Guaidó as Venezuela’s president. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has also urged countries to “pick a side” in the crisis.
Continue reading...The Trump administration has tightened the screws on Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, announcing sanctions against the country’s state-owned oil giant PDVSA in what the US national security adviser admitted was partly an attempt to counter strategic threats from Cuba and Iran.
Related: Juan Guaidó: Venezuela has chance to leave chaos behind
Continue reading...Minas Gerais locals recall another dam collapse involving mining firm Vale as hunt continues for 292 people still missing
The dirt road which once led to the Nova Estância guesthouse and a handful of nearby farms now ends in a slew of sticky, acrid sludge that stretches as far as the eye can see, a deep red gash across the green of the rolling Brazilian countryside.
The road, a small bridge it once crossed, the guesthouse and hundreds of people were all swallowed by mud when a tailings dam at the Córrego de Feijão mine collapsed on Friday, unleashing a torrent of liquid waste.
Continue reading...Bolsonaro’s move allowing more people to own firearms is causing unease in a society where domestic violence is rife
A pledge to make it easier for “good citizens” to buy guns for self-defence helped sweep Jair Bolsonaro to power. But there is alarm that the Brazilian president’s decree loosening firearms laws will make pervasive violence against women even worse – and more deadly.
“I believe this is a very negative measure that will lead more women to be threatened by violence,” said Maria da Penha, the women’s rights activist whose case changed Brazil’s domestic violence laws. “This decree should be reviewed.”
Continue reading...Self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó tells troops they have ‘a guarantee of protection’
Members of Venezuela’s opposition canvassed military bases across the embattled nation on Sunday, offering amnesty to troops and police officers who defect from the South American nation’s embattled president Nicolás Maduro.
The bold attempt to dent Maduro’s grip on the military – long seen as the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela – was led by Juan Guaidó, the leader of the opposition-held national assembly, who last Wednesday declared himself interim president until fresh elections are held.
Continue reading...Exclusive: self-declared interim president tells the Guardian he is set on forcing out Nicolás Maduro
The opposition leader who last week declared himself Venezuela’s rightful interim president has played down fears of a possible armed conflict and claimed his economically devastated nation was living through an “almost magical moment” in its newly revived quest for democracy.
In one of his first interviews since last Wednesday’s surprise move, Juan Guaidó told the Guardian he was set on “getting the job done” to force Nicolás Maduro from power and ending a humanitarian emergency which has fuelled the largest exodus in modern Latin American history.
Continue reading...European leaders toughen stance on Venezuela as hawkish US steps up rhetoric
The UK government’s decision to swing behind calls by the EU and US for the Venezuelan government of Nicolás Maduro to call elections within a week, and to join efforts to switch off Maduro’s finances, is evidence of a three-fold strategy.
The government wants to maximise pressure on Maduro to allow elections while keeping the EU united; protect its remaining UK diplomats in Venezuela; and repeatedly point out the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s associations with the governments of Maduro and of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
Continue reading...People evacuated after high water level warning at another Vale mining dam in Brumadinho
An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture was issued early on Sunday near Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where the collapse of a dam killed 34 and left hundreds more feared dead.
The alarm, warning of dangerously-high water levels at a dam that is part of the Córrego do Feijão mining complex in south-east Brazil went off at 5:30 am, a statement by the mining company Vale said.
Continue reading...Venezuela’s generals did not immediately announce where they stood when Juan Guaidó, a young parliamentarian, was sworn in as “interim president” in front of a huge crowd in the streets of Caracas.
It was a largely symbolic assumption of office, since Guaidó has no power to enforce any decisions. But the new champion of the opposition was recognised as “legitimate president” by the administration of Donald Trump and other American and European powers, including the UK.
Continue reading...Juan Guaidó welcomes support from Washington attache, who urges other officers to recognise the ‘only legitimate president’
Venezuela’s top military envoy to the United States has defected from the government of Nicolás Maduro as the South American nation’s political crisis deepened.
Days after opposition leader Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself interim president amid social and economic chaos, Col Jose Luis Silva released a video on Saturday calling on other military officers to back the pretender.
Continue reading...It was Friday lunchtime in Venezuela’s crumbling capital and Omar Mejías – for years a disciple of the comandante Hugo Chávez – had come to a plaza in the city’s east for what he hoped might be a glimpse of a brighter future.
On stage before him stood Juan Guaidó, a fresh-faced and until recently little-known politician, catapulted into the spotlight last week by the decision of the United States – and then a succession of other world powers – to recognise him, and not the incumbent Nicolás Maduro, as the legitimate president of this oil-rich but economically ravaged South American nation.
Continue reading...John McCallum had said Meng Wanzhou could make a strong argument against being sent to the US
In an unprecedented move, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said he had fired his ambassador to China, who had prompted a political furor with comments about Huawei’s high-profile extradition case.
Related: 'I misspoke': Canada ambassador to China regrets saying Huawei chief had 'strong case'
Continue reading...Mike Pompeo urged countries to disconnect from Maduro’s government financially as Britain issued eight-day ultimatum
Britain has issued the embattled Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, a stark ultimatum, warning him it would throw its weight behind the country’s self-declared interim leader unless he called an election within the next eight days – as the US government called on the world to “pick a side” in the crisis.
Echoing calls from Berlin, Paris and Madrid, Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, said on Saturday it was clear Maduro was no longer the legitimate leader of the Latin American country after last year’s “deeply flawed” election.
Continue reading...Homicides in Tijuana have skyrocketed recently, returning the city to levels of hyper-violence it last saw a decade ago
This week, the Trump administration pushed ahead with its plan to return asylum seekers to Mexico while their cases are considered, moving the first group through San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing late on Friday.
Related: 'The US can't dump people in Mexico': Trump asylum policy in doubt
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