British police have requested permission to enter Ecuador to search for a British mother who vanished while backpacking alone across South America.
Jennifer Pope sent regular e-mail updates to her husband and son at her home in Mossley, Greater Manchester. Her e-mails and Web log entries ended abruptly on Jan. 9, when it is believed she had reached Banos, a mountain town in the Andes of Ecuador. The 50-year-old practice nurse's bank account was subsequently emptied, adding to fears that she has been kidnapped or murdered.
Police have now written to the Ecuadorian government requesting permission to continue their investigation on its territory, joining Interpol and local police. They are particularly anxious to recover CCTV footage of the bank cashpoint in Santo Domingo, where Mrs Pope's card was used to withdraw the equivalent of £2,500 (US$4,362) over one week.
The account was closed after it exceeded its £1,500 overdraft limit.
Detective Superintendent Kevin Duffy, of Greater Manchester police's major investigation team, said: "We've spoken to the [British] Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the embassy, and a letter has been sent formally requesting that we go out. We've raised the issue of CCTV at the bank, so let's hope the local police have seized it. I'm keen to get over there and find out."
Duffy added that there was nothing to indicate Mrs Pope had broken off contact by choice.
"It appears to be totally out of character. There is no suggestion in this case of mysterious behavior. Everything points to something befalling her and, unfortunately, we have to fear the worst."
It is understood that Pope's husband, David, does not own a passport and last week applied for one with a view to travelling to Ecuador himself. The couple have a son, Stefan, who is 22.
David, 57, has explained that he did not join her on the trek because he "couldn't live out of a rucksack for six months, not even if it contained a feather bed."
But he said that his wife was fearless when planning her trip.
"You don't discuss things of vulnerability with Jen," he told the BBC. "She knows what she is doing and is always in control."
Pope was taking a six-month sabbatical from her job at Lockside Medical Centre in Stalybridge and left for Santiago, Chile, last September. She worked on a farm in Argentina, visited Bolivia and spent new year in Peru before reaching Ecuador early last month.
She withdrew only an average of US$20 a day, possibly because she feared being robbed.
On Jan. 5, she e-mailed her family to say she was in Lima, Peru, but intended to visit Ecuador. In her last e-mail, four days later, she said she was planning to travel to Quito from where she was due to fly home on Feb. 20.
The day after this e-mail was sent a spate of irregular transactions began on her bank account.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not