MEXICO
At least 15 killed in battle
At least 15 people died on Wednesday in a huge shoot-out between police and two rival drug gangs in the nation’s north, authorities said. The predawn battle near the remote town of Las Varas started as a firefight between rival drug trafficking gangs, then escalated when police arrived, said Eduardo Esparza of the prosecutor’s office for the state of Chihuahua, which borders the US. The region is hotly disputed territory for the country’s drug cartels, because its mountainous terrain and proximity to the border make it a strategic corridor for shipping narcotics to the US. Investigators believe the groups involved in the shoot-out were “La Linea” — the armed wing of the Juarez cartel — and hit men from the powerful Sinaloa cartel, Esparza told reporters. Fifteen people died — all from the drug gangs — and five more were arrested, Chihuahua State Police Chief Oscar Aparicio told Radio Formula.
UNITED STATES
Authorities hunt ‘arsonist’
Vacationers were spooked on Wednesday as SWAT teams roamed an eastern Arizona forest searching for a man suspected of setting a string of fires and shooting at a Forest Service employee. Authorities began searching for the suspect after eight fires were set on Monday night near Forest Lakes, about 121km southeast of Flagstaff. The blazes, which were set while wildfires burned elsewhere in the state, all stayed small before being quickly extinguished. A Forest Service fire prevention officer encountered the man on Tuesday morning near the campground, officials said, adding that the suspect used a handgun and a shotgun to fire at close range at the unarmed officer, but missed. The officer fled and was not injured. FBI and state Department of Public Safety SWAT teams joined sheriff’s deputies and tribal police to search for the man in the Canyon Point Campground in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.
UNITED STATES
Woman arrested over crash
Authorities on Wednesday arrested a woman suspected of driving into a crowd of people on a Salt Lake City sidewalk near a homeless shelter and killing a woman. The Utah Department of Corrections arrested Shutney Lee Kyzer and was holding her on a parole violation, Salt Lake City police said on Twitter. They had been searching for Kyzer since soon after Tuesday’s crash, as the driver walked away from the scene. No details were given on where or how the prison officials found her. Charges in the hit-and-run are to be evaluated when an investigation is finished, police said. The crash killed 27-year-old Kendra Griffiths and injured five others near the Road Home shelter, police said.
UNITED STATES
Scalise readmitted to ICU
The Washington hospital where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is recuperating from a gunshot wound said he has been readmitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). MedStar Washington Hospital Center said the Louisiana representative is back in intensive care because of new concerns of infection. Scalise was in a serious condition on Wednesday night. Scalise and four other people were last month injured when a gunman opened fire on a Republican baseball practice in nearby Alexandria, Virginia. Capitol Police and other officers returned fire and killed the gunman. The representative was struck in the hip and the bullet tore into blood vessels, bones and internal organs. He has undergone several surgeries and had been upgraded to fair condition.
BANGLADESH
HRW blames agencies
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published yesterday that hundreds of people have been detained and disappeared, and even killed in some cases since 2013 by either the nation’s Rapid Action Battalion or the Detective Branch. The New York-based human rights group said that last year alone, the number of cases reached 90. A spokesman for the battalion has denied it, saying the agency does not break the law in case of detentions and was in no way involved in any disappearances. The report came two days after a prominent Bangladeshi writer, columnist and government critic was abducted and later freed by unidentified people from near his home in Dhaka.
INDONESIA
Widodo’s son under probe
Police are investigating allegations of blasphemy and hate speech against the youngest son of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. They plan to summon Kaesang Pangarep for questioning after receiving a complaint about a video uploaded to YouTube in May, Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said yesterday. The nearly three-minute video entitled “Ask Daddy for a Project” — a reference to children of politicians who seek business favors — includes criticism of Indonesians who during recent sectarian tensions in the Muslim-majority nation said they would refuse funeral rites for those who supported non-Muslims as leaders. The draconian blasphemy law is often used to attack minorities and political foes. The complainant, Muhammad Hidayat, a resident of Jakarta satellite city Bekasi, said in his report to police that Kaesang also humiliated villagers by describing those he criticized for intolerant attitudes as “countrified.” Kaesang, 22, is in Germany with his father who is on an official visit.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was