BOLIVIA
Morales has tumor removed
President Evo Morales has undergone an operation for a “small tumor” that was detected during a routine checkup, he said on Twitter on Wednesday. Morales, 58, who has been in power since 2006 and signaled a controversial intention to run for a fourth term next year, posted a picture of himself being checked by medics in a hospital bed and declared that he was “very well, 100 percent” and would be discharged yesterday. “Very grateful for your solidarity, your prayers and your blessings,” he wrote. “In a routine checkup doctors found a small tumor which has been removed satisfactorily through an emergency, but low-risk operation.” The Bolivian President’s Office said that Morales had been treated at a private clinic in La Paz. The state news agency ABI said that Morales, who it added “practices sports regularly and works in his office normally from five in the morning until midnight,” gave no other details about where the tumor was found or the surgery itself.
UNITED STATES
Baby’s dried remains found
The remains of a baby found in a trunk during a drug search in Texas were beyond decomposed, authorities said. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said that the trunk containing the remains was discovered inside a closet of a home near San Antonio on Tuesday. The remains were in a desiccated or dried-up state, he said. “At this point, it’s too early to tell if it’s a homicide,” he said. An autopsy is to be performed to help determine the cause of death and the baby’s identity. Salazar said the baby appeared to be less than one year old. He added a dozen people were found inside the house along with various drug paraphernalia. Authorities were searching the home on a drug warrant.
UNITED STATES
Mother held for selling child
Authorities are accusing a Texas mother of selling her seven-year-old son and trying to sell her two young daughters. The Texas Department of Public Safety on Tuesday said that 29-year-old Esmeralda Garza of Corpus Christi was arrested on Friday last week. She remained in the Nueces County Jail on Wednesday on a charge of sale or purchase of a child. Bond was set at US$100,000. Jail records did not list an attorney for her. The Texas Department of Public Safety said that agents were executing a drug search warrant in Corpus Christi when they located a seven-year-old who had allegedly been sold and purchased. Two girls, ages two and three, were in the process of being sold, authorities said. The case remains under investigation. A man and woman were arrested as a result of the drug investigation.
VENEZUELA
Maduro warns for invasion
President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday urged his armed forces to be on guard following news reports that US President Donald Trump one year ago raised the possibility of invading Venezuela. “You cannot lower your guard for even a second, because we will defend the greatest right our homeland has had in all of its history, which is to live in peace,” Maduro said at a military ceremony. He alluded to reports in the US press that Trump in August last year asked foreign policy advisers about the possibility of invading Venezuela, which the Trump administration has derided as a corrupt, left-wing dictatorship. Trump raised the idea during a meeting about sanctions that the US has imposed on the oil-rich country, CNN said, quoting a senior administration official. Trump’s advisers said no, as did Latin American leaders with whom Trump raised the idea, CNN said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in