UNITED STATES
FARC member sentenced
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced an ex-member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to more than 10-and-a-half years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. District Judge William Pauley handed down a 130-month prison sentence to Jorge Abel Ibarguen-Palacio, who had pleaded guilty in February. “Today’s sentence marks another successful prosecution of a FARC member and deals yet another blow to this dangerous terrorist organization,” Attorney Preet Bharara said.
BRAZIL
Crackdown on crack begins
The government on Wednesday launched a war on what it called a “crack epidemic,” including medical treatment for addicts and a crackdown on trafficking, particularly in border areas. “We are facing a crack epidemic in our country,” Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, flanked by President Dilma Rousseff and other officials, said in Brasilia. Between 2003 and this year, the number of cases of “chemical dependency” in the nation has increased tenfold, hitting groups and regions which previously had not been affected, Padilha said, without giving further details. The government reacted with a US$2.2 billion plan focusing on prevention, care and repression, Rousseff said. The plan involves medical care for addicts, a crackdown on cocaine trafficking from the border areas to the cities and a legal reform to quickly destroy confiscated drugs to prevent their diversion, officials said.
ARGENTINA
Japan warned on whaling
Latin American members of the International Whaling Commission on Wednesday urged Japan to stop “scientific” whaling in Antarctic waters and to respect sanctuaries. The countries stated “their firmest rejection” of plans to hunt whales, “including endangered species, in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” a statement read. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay were the countries signing the statement. Japan’s whaling fleet left port on Tuesday for this season’s annual hunt in Antarctica, with Japan’s Coast Guard saying it would deploy extra security to protect it from anti-whaling activists. Commercial whaling has been banned worldwide since 1986. Japan on Wednesday said it planned to use some of the public funds earmarked for quake and tsunami reconstruction to boost security for the annual whaling hunt.
UNITED STATES
Sick deportee to return
A Mexican man who was deported while undergoing dialysis will be allowed back in the country on humanitarian grounds, officials said on Wednesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement granted humanitarian parole to Francisco Cortez Lopez, 43, who was removed from the country last month. He spent the last three weeks in Tijuana. “All this time has been very difficult for me. ... I go out but I don’t know where to go. Only now that they’ve given me this news I can see clearly,” Cortez said.
UNITED STATES
Chopper crash kills tourists
A helicopter flying tourists to see the Hoover Dam crashed on Wednesday into a mountainside near Las Vegas, Nevada, killing four passengers and a pilot, a National Park Service spokesman said. The chopper was on a tour of the dam and heading back, the spokesman said. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese