MEXICO
Cocaine found in suitcases
Federal police have seized more than 600kg of cocaine in eight suitcases at the capital’s international airport. The National Security Commission said in a statement on Friday that three people were arrested when they claimed the suitcases from the flight that originated in Caracas, Venezuela. The suitcases contained 545 packages of cocaine wrapped in tape. Authorities did not say when the seizure occurred.
MEXICO
Teachers march on reform
Thousands of teachers from a radical union on Friday marched in Mexico City to protest an education reform and the arrest of two of their leaders. The demonstration along Mexico City’s main boulevard capped days of protests in impoverished southern regions where teachers blocked roads. The National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) union opposes a reform by President Enrique Pena Nietom enacted in 2013, requiring teachers to undergo performance evaluations in an effort to improve the country’s poorly rated education system. The education department has vowed to fire teachers who refuse to take the tests. The reform aims to remove the power that unions have had over jobs and end the practice in which teaching positions were inherited or sold. Protesters were also angry about last weekend’s arrest of the leader of the CNTE’s Section 22 based in Oaxaca state, Ruben Nunez, over allegations that he received illicit funds and laundered US$1.3 million.
PERU
Fujimori taken to hospital
Former president Alberto Fujimori, serving a 25-year prison term for corruption and crimes against humanity, was transferred to a hospital on Friday after experiencing high blood pressure and pain in his tongue. The 77-year-old has been in and out of the hospital in recent months for a series of health problems. Fujimori had “high blood pressure and severe pain in his tongue, so the prison doctor recommended that he be transferred to the hospital,” prison service chief Julio Magan said. He has previously had gastric problems, cataract surgery and five operations for a cancerous growth on his tongue. The hospitalization came 12 days after his daughter Keiko narrowly lost Peru’s presidential election to center-right candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000, was first jailed in 2007 and convicted in 2009 for his role in killings by a death squad targeting supposed members of the Shining Path guerrilla group in the 1990s. Fujimori’s children have asked President Ollanta Humala to grant him a reprieve on health grounds, but the president rejected the request in 2013, saying medical reports indicated Fujimori’s condition was not sufficiently serious.
UNITED STATES
Wap apologizes for video
Rapper Fetty Wap has apologized for a music video that led to the suspension of a high school principal in his New Jersey hometown. The rapper recorded at Paterson Eastside High a video that contained references to drugs and featured a scantily clad pole dancer. He released the video for Wake Up last month. The school’s principal was put on paid administrative leave two weeks ago. Fetty Wap attended a board of education meeting on Wednesday and joined more than 100 residents in protesting the principal’s suspension. The school district is investigating who authorized the filming of the video at the school.
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