PERU
Weather hampers search
A search and rescue mission battled snow and fog on Friday to hunt for eight South Koreans, three Europeans and three Peruvians whose helicopter went missing in the mountainous south of the country. The bad weather prevented aircraft from participating in the mission, while mountain patrols that left on Thursday from the villages of Ocongate and Marcapata saw their progress hampered by deep snow. “The conditions are very adverse. Snow in the area is now about 30cm deep and fog makes it impossible to view the ground from the air,” Cusco police chief General Hector Dulanto said.
UNITED STATES
Pro-NASA events hosted
More than a dozen US universities were scheduled to host events yesterday to urge support for NASA, which faces major cuts to its planetary programs in the next fiscal year. Ranging from shoe shines to car washes and bake sales, the events were not actually designed to raise money to send to NASA, the organizers stressed. “Our goal is not to raise money but to raise awareness and to have people tell [US] Congress to put the funds back to last year’s funding level,” said Cindy Conrad, an assistant at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
UNITED STATES
Drug baron gets 23 years
A court sentenced Jamaican drug baron Christopher “Dudus” Coke to 23 years in prison on Friday, bringing the curtain down on the career of one of the Caribbean’s most notorious gangsters. Coke pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit assault in aid of racketeering, following his 2010 extradition from Jamaica. The sentence passed in New York federal court by Judge Robert Patterson was the maximum. It did not reflect the multiple murders and years of cocaine trafficking that Coke presided over in his Kingston stronghold. The head prosecutor for Manhattan, US Attorney Preet Bharara, said that Coke’s crime empire had finally crumbled.
UNITED STATES
Man seeks phone pay-off
A man assigned the old phone number of Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who has been charged with murder for shooting dead an unarmed black teenager, is seeking compensation after a rash of threatening calls. Junior Alexander Guy, 49, got his first cellphone last month. Immediately he was besieged by callers angry at Zimmerman, who gave the number to a police dispatcher in a recorded call the night of the shooting. Guy told the Sentinel he was forced to move out of his home and relocate his mother, who lived with him. Orlando lawyer Robert Trimble has asked T-Mobile to pay damages, “a fair and reasonable sum,” to Guy, but the cellphone provider, according to reports, has refused.
BRAZIL
Tribe seeks end to logging
A tribe that calls the Amazon rainforest home is urging the government to stop illegal logging on its land, a watchdog said on Friday. In a statement, Survival International said the Awa tribe had made a “desperate appeal” to the minister of justice to “evict loggers from our land immediately ... before they come back and destroy everything.” Consisting of just 450 people, the Awa tribe suffers the fastest rate of deforestation in the Amazon, according to the group. The appeal calls on the public to show their support for the Awa by sending protest messages to the Minister of Justice Jose Eduardo Cardozo. So far, more than 27,000 people have done so, Survival said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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