MEXICO
Diabetes ‘vaccine’ removed
Regulatory authorities closed a health center that was touting an alleged diabetes “vaccine” and warned consumers that there is no vaccine for the condition. The drug regulatory agency on Thursday said that it closed the offices of a group known as the Live Your Diabetes Foundation in Mexico City. The group allegedly claimed it had come up with a drug it called “Self Blood Therapy Vaccine” that would ward off diabetes. The agency said it would seize all of the supposed medication.
PANAMA
Cracks in canal cause delay
The expansion of the Panama canal could face a new delay due to cracks that emerged a few months ago in one of the locks, a spokesman for the waterway’s authority said on Thursday. The consortium leading the construction project — led by Italian industrial group Salini Impregilo and Spanish construction company Sacyr — expects to finish repairing the cracks by mid-January, but it has not given a new date for completing the work, the authority said. The consortium is trying “to minimize the impact on the final hand over, planned for April next year,” the authority said in a statement. The Panama Canal expansion plan was originally set at US$5.25 billion.
PERU
Human burial site uncovered
Archeologists have found four tombs that are more than 1,000 years old in a pyramid-shaped cemetery that now sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Lima, experts said on Thursday. “There are four human burial sites, for adult individuals, three women and one man, who lived between the years 1000 to 1450,” said archeologist Isabel Flores, director of the program in Huaca Pucllana, a ceremonial complex in Miraflores district. The find confirms the historical presence in Lima of the Ichma culture. It took hold on the central coast around 1000 and disappeared around 1450 as Inca civilization began to spread. “These are the first four tombs of the Ichma culture. We think that we may still find more despite long-term looting,” said Flores, who has been researching the site for more than three decades. The tombs featured seated remains, looking toward the sea, wrapped up in textile and hand-woven natural materials alongside offerings such as ceramics and weaving tools. “So this is the first district in the country that has more than 1,500 years of known history to date,” added Flores, who also runs the Huaca Pucllana Museum. In Lima alone, there are about 350 huacas, the indigenous Quechua-language word for these ceremonial complexes, most of which predate Spanish colonization.
ARGENTINA
Meteorite pieces seized
Police seized 2.5 tonnes of bagged meteorite pieces from a house, authorities said on Thursday, suspecting the potentially hugely lucrative consignment was bound for Europe. The meteorite pieces, which are protected by law, were arranged in bags throughout the house in the northern province of Santiago del Estero. In Europe, about 20kg of meteorite sells for up to US$5,000 to collectors, researchers said. The owners of the house are a couple who sell furniture, but it was not immediately clear if they had been arrested. The site of the discovery is close to an area known as Campo del Cielo, in the neighboring province of Chaco, where about 4,000 years ago there was a meteor shower. Thefts there by scavengers are common.
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