Noboa made armed forces central, initially leading to drop in crime but also to surge in reports of rights violations
In an election seen as a referendum on his “war on drugs”, Ecuador’s rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, won Sunday’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftist candidate Luisa González.
With 97% of ballots counted, the incumbent had secured 55.65% of the vote, compared with 44.35% for the former congresswoman.
Continue reading...Secretary of state says ‘criminals’ were taken to country thanks to alliance between Trump and Nayib Bukele
The US has deported another 10 people that it alleges are gang members to El Salvador, secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Sunday, a day before that country’s president is due to visit the White House.
“Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador,” Rubio said in an Twitter/X post.
Continue reading...Leftwing challenger Luisa González in statistical tie with President Daniel Noboa who champions ‘iron fist’ policy
Ecuadorians go to the polls on Sunday in a vote seen as a referendum on a “war on drugs” offensive that has led to numerous human rights violations, as the incumbent Daniel Noboa faces the leftist Luisa González in a tightly contested runoff.
Noboa, 37, edged out González, 47, in the first round in February by just 16,746 votes (0.17%) from a 13.7 million electorate.
Continue reading...Prolific Canadian director also made one of the country’s first internationally successful films, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, starring Richard Dreyfuss
Ted Kotcheff, the prolific Canadian director of films including First Blood, Weekend at Bernie’s, Wake in Fright and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, has died aged 94. His daughter Kate Kotcheff told the Canadian Press that he had died of heart failure on Thursday in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, where he lived. His son Thomas said: “He died of old age, peacefully, and surrounded by loved ones.”
In an amazingly varied career, Kotcheff’s work ranged from hardhitting TV plays and low-budget features in the UK, to hit Hollywood comedies and prestige-laden award-winners and cult films. Kate Kotcheff said: “He was an amazing storyteller. He was an incredible, larger than life character [and] he was a director who could turn his hand to anything.”
Continue reading...Discontent with government handling of diplomatic crisis rises as Pete Hegseth says US troops moved to country
Panamanian opposition politicians have accused the US of launching a “camouflaged invasion” of the country, amid simmering discontent over the government’s handling of the diplomatic crisis.
After a three-day visit by the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump appeared to confirm that US military personnel had been deployed to the Central American country on Thursday, telling reporters: “We’ve moved a lot of troops to Panama.”
Continue reading...‘Average man from Derbyshire’ shocked to find photo of tattoo celebrating child’s birth was used to deport migrants
A British man was shocked to discover that a photo of his tattoo was included in a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document used to identify alleged members of a notorious Venezuelan criminal gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA).
Earlier this week, 44-year-old Pete Belton, who lives in the English county of Derbyshire, told the BBC that he was stunned to find a photo of his forearm tattoo featured in a DHS document among nine images of tattoos intended to assist in “detecting and identifying” TdA members.
Continue reading...Mexico’s failure to keep up 81-year-old water-sharing treaty has sparked a diplomatic spat with the US
Mexico will make an immediate water delivery to Texas farmers to help make up its shortfall under a treaty that has strained US relations and prompted tariff threats by Donald Trump, said Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Friday.
Mexico is looking for alternatives to comply with the 81-year-old water-sharing treaty with the US, Sheinbaum said in her regular news conference. A proposal had already been sent to US officials, she said.
Continue reading...Justices uphold judge’s order and say Trump officials must ‘facilitate’ return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to United States
The US supreme court upheld on Thursday a judge’s order requiring Donald Trump’s administration to facilitate the return to the United States of a Salvadoran man who the government has acknowledged was deported in error to El Salvador.
US district judge Paula Xinis last week issued an order that the administration “facilitate and effectuate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in response to a lawsuit filed by the man and his family challenging the legality of his deportation.
Continue reading...Trump administration says it’s enforcing existing mandate applying to people age 14 and older without legal status
A federal judge is allowing the Trump administration to move forward with a requirement that noncitizens in the US must register with the federal government, in a move that could have far-reaching repercussions for immigrants across the country.
In a ruling on Thursday, judge Trevor Neil McFadden sided with the administration, which had argued that they were simply enforcing an already existing requirement for everyone in the country who wasn’t a US citizen to register with the government.
Continue reading...Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 64, to stand trial for plotting multiday slaughter carried out by 10 Islamist gunmen
A Pakistan-born Canadian citizen wanted for his alleged role in the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege has landed in New Delhi after his extradition from the United States.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 64, arrived at a military airbase outside the Indian capital under heavily armed guard late on Thursday, and will be held in detention to face trial.
Continue reading...Rome prosecutors expected to send team to Santa Marta where body of Alessandro Coatti was found dismembered
Prosecutors in Rome have opened an investigation into the murder of an Italian scientist in Colombia, with one theory being that he could have been killed by warring criminal clans in a case of mistaken identity.
Alessandro Coatti, who until late last year worked at the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) in London, was last seen leaving a hostel in Santa Marta, a port city on the Caribbean coast, on 3 April.
Continue reading...Camilla Hempleman-Adams, who says she is first woman to traverse Canada’s Baffin Island solo, accused of ‘privilege and ignorance’
A British adventurer has apologised after her claims to be the first woman to traverse Canada’s largest island solo were dismissed by members of the Inuit population who criticised her dangerous “privilege and ignorance”.
Camilla Hempleman-Adams, 32, covered 150 miles (240km) on foot and by ski while pulling a sledge across Baffin Island, Nunavut, in temperatures as low as -40C and winds of 47mph during the two-week expedition last month.
Continue reading...An official statement said “all reasonable possibilities of finding more survivors” had been exhausted in a disaster that has killed at least 184 people.
Rescue workers in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday ended the search for survivors of a nightclub roof collapse as the death toll surpassed 180 in the Caribbean nation’s worst disaster in decades.
Emergency personnel late Wednesday reported 60 more deaths compared to the morning’s count, with the total confirmed tally reaching 184.
Continue reading...Actions allow the detained men to fight the government’s attempt to remove them under rarely invoked law
Federal judges in New York and Texas on Wednesday took legal action to block the government from moving five Venezuelans out of the country until they can fight the government’s attempt to remove them under a rarely invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war.
The men were identified as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute.
Continue reading...Alessandro Coatti described by former colleagues at Royal Society of Biology as ‘passionate and dedicated’
Tributes have been paid to a “passionate and dedicated” scientist after parts of his dismembered body were found in a suitcase in Colombia.
Alessandro Coatti, who worked at the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) in London, was discovered on the outskirts of Santa Marta, a port city on the Caribbean coast. The 42-year-old molecular biologist was travelling and conducting research in South America after working in London for eight years.
Continue reading...Chinese government asks: ‘Who represents the real threat?’ after US defense secretary vows to keep canal secure
US secretary of defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the Panama canal faces ongoing threats from China but that together the United States and Panama will keep it secure.
Hegseth’s remarks triggered a fiery response from the Chinese government, which said: “Who represents the real threat to the Canal? People will make their own judgement.”
Continue reading...Former Major League Baseball pitcher Octavio Dotel was among the dozens killed when the roof of a nightclub in the Dominican Republic collapsed during the early hours of Tuesday morning.
At least 58 people died and 160 were injured at the nightclub in Santo Domingo where a crowd that included athletes and politicians were attending a merengue concert.
Continue reading...Crews search for survivors after more than 160 injured at Jet Set in Santo Domingo
More than 70 people have died and about 160 others injured in the Dominican capital early on Tuesday after the roof collapsed at a nightclub where politicians, athletes and others were attending a merengue concert, authorities said.
The death toll reached 79 by the late evening as crews continued to search for survivors in the rubble at the one-storey Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, said Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the Center of Emergency Operations.
Continue reading...Barbados PM and Caricom chair calls on Washington to engage in talks to ‘keep prices down for all of our people’
The Caribbean is a friend, not an enemy, leaders in the region have told Donald Trump after the US president’s imposition of worldwide import tariffs.
The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, invited Trump to talk with leaders in the region and “work together to keep prices down for all of our people”, adding: “I say simply to President Trump: our economies are not doing your economy any harm in any way. They are too small to have any negative or distorted impact on your country.”
Continue reading...Elaborate deception was only recently discovered when judge visited government office to renew his ID card
Police in the Brazilian state of São Paulo have uncovered that a judge spent 23 years working under a false identity – and a distinctly British one.
Born José Eduardo Franco dos Reis – a name fairly typical in a country once colonised by Portugal – he entered law school and served for over two decades as a judge using the false name Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield.
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