COSTA RICA
Volcano disrupts flights
Smoke and ash spewing high into the sky from the Turrialba volcano led officials to cancel classes in a dozen nearby schools on Friday and disrupted operations at the nation’s main airport. The Juan Santamaria international airport in the capital, San Jose, reopened around midday on Friday after remaining closed through Thursday night. The Turrialba volcano erupted three times on Thursday and state observers recorded a smaller eruption on Friday morning. The air security agency said ash on the runways could pose a risk as could the impaired visibility from the plume of ash.
COLOMBIA
Six FARC fighters killed
Six suspected Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters were killed in military operations this week, the army said, at a fragile time when the leftist guerrilla group is conducting a unilateral ceasefire. According to an army statement, military operations in the southwestern department of Huila and the central region of Tolima also resulted in the capture of 18 other guerrilla suspects. The Marxist FARC rebels declared an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire on Dec. 18 and peace talks with the government have been under way in Havana since 2012.
CHILE
Blaze threatens port city
The government on Friday declared a state of emergency and precautionary evacuation of up to 16,000 people as a raging forest fire threatened the historic port city of Valparaiso, where 15 people died in blazes last year. The fire started on Friday in an area of grassland and pine forest near a major thoroughfare connecting Valparaiso — a UNESCO world heritage site — with several villages. Warm temperatures and strong winds fanned the flames and the blaze was spreading, destroying about 500 hectares of land and advancing to within just a few kilometers of Valparaiso. There were no immediate reports of death or injury, but the national emergency office declared a red alert in the area.
HONDURAS
US man tested for Ebola
A US citizen has been hospitalized while he is screened for Ebola, health authorities said on Friday. The 66-year-old American, who has not been identified, had spent time in Liberia before coming to Honduras on Wednesday, they said. Although he did not have any symptoms when he arrived in the country, he was hospitalized with a 38?C fever on Friday in Comayagua, about an hour north of the capital Tegucigalpa, hospital owner Juviny Ochoa said. Deputy Minister of Health Francis Contreras told local television that authorities were taking precautions because the patient had been in an African country.
UNITED STATES
Fed leak probe questioned
House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling said he has been informed by the Federal Reserve’s inspector general that “there is currently an open criminal investigation” into the leak of confidential Fed information in 2012. Bloomberg News previously reported that potentially market-moving inside details of the Federal Open Market Committee’s September 2012 meeting were published by Medley Global Advisors in a report to clients on Oct. 3 that year, one day before the Fed released minutes of the gathering. Hensarling wrote to both Fed Chair Janet Yellen and Inspector General Mark Bialek on Friday requesting more information on the leak. He also said that Fed Board officials dropped the matter after an initial probe.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing