PERU
Bus accident kills 48
A bus plunged over a seaside cliff on Tuesday, killing at least 48 people after a collision with a truck on a precarious stretch known as the “devil’s curve,” officials said. The bus was traveling from Huacho to Lima with 55 passengers and two crew when it went off the road at about midday. It plunged 100m and landed upside-down on rocks at the edge of the sea. A police helicopter had winched some rescue workers to the wreck of the bus while others made the precarious journey down on foot with the assistance of ropes. The navy sent a patrol boat to assist the rescuers trying to get everyone out before the tide came in. There were several survivors, although most on board the bus perished.
UNITED STATES
Six nations join UN council
Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Peru, Poland and the Netherlands on Tuesday formally joined the ranks of the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council “to make a difference,” the body’s president said. Three women and 12 men are among the 15 ambassadors. The six nations that left the council on Sunday are Egypt, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay.
CANADA
Ex-Taliban captive arrested
A man who was held captive by a faction of the Afghan Taliban for five years has been arrested on 15 charges, according to reports on Tuesday. Joshua Boyle was freed in October last year along with his wife, Caitlan Coleman, and their three children born in captivity. Boyle’s lawyer, Eric Granger, said his client was “presumed innocent” and had never been in any form of legal trouble before. According to news channel CTV, Boyle is facing eight counts of assault, two counts of sexual assault and two counts of unlawful confinement, as well as one each of misleading police to “divert suspicion from himself,” uttering a death threat and administering a noxious substance, Trazodone.
ECUADOR
VP fired after imprisonment
Vice President Jorge Glas on Tuesday lost his title, because he has been absent for more than three months, locked up in prison on a six-year sentence for corruption. Glas is the highest-ranking Latin American politician to be convicted and imprisoned for his role in a continent-wide scandal involving Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, which gave bribes to secure public works contracts. Taking into account his detention since Oct. 2, he has not been able to carry out his duties, meaning that at midnight on Tuesday, Glas had failed to execute his functions as vice president for the three months allowed under the constitution. Two people are seen as best-placed to succeed Glas: acting vice president Maria Vicuna and Minister of Industry and Productivity Eva Garcia.
UNITED KINGDOM
Storm wreaks havoc
A severe storm packing winds of up to 161kph has battered Britain and Ireland overnight. The storm, which included heavy rain, hail and lightning, left tens of thousands of households without power and led to some bridge and road closures. Extremely high tides also caused the partial collapse of a harbor wall in Cornwall. Overturned vehicles forced officials to close portions of three major highways in England. The nation’s main weather forecaster, the Met Office, said gusts reached 161kph in Cumbria 450km northwest of London early yesterday morning when the storm reached its peak. Forecasters said gusts of up to 129kph were possible yesterday.
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
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