ARGENTINA
Ruling party keeps Congress
President Cristina Fernandez’s governing bloc held onto control of the Congress in Sunday’s elections, but the results buried hopes of changing the constitution to let her run for a third term and revealed a former loyalist as a political threat. The president’s former chief of the Cabinet, Sergio Massa, beat the candidate that Fernandez hand-picked to lead her slate for Congress, Martin Insaurralde, by a decisive 12-point margin in Buenos Aires Province, where 37 percent of voters live. With 72 percent of the votes counted nationwide, the governing Front for Victory Party won 33 percent of the congressional votes overall, far short of the 54 percent Fernandez carried in her re-election in 2011.
MEXICO
Power stations attacked
Unidentified assailants armed with guns and Molotov cocktails attacked power stations on Sunday, causing blackouts in 14 towns. The Ministry of the Interior said in a statement that national power company equipment, six fueling stations and a convenience store were targeted in Michoacan State, but nobody was hurt. More than 420,000 people were left without power, but service was restored to 60 percent of customers late on Sunday, Federal Electricity Commission spokesman Estefano Conde said. A government official told foreign media that authorities suspect the Knights Templar cartel launched the assault to send a message to the population and self-defense forces in the state. The cartel accuses the self-defense forces of being backed by rivals the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
UNITED STATES
S African activist arrested
Businessman and anti-apartheid stalwart Mosima Gabriel “Tokyo” Sexwale was briefly arrested in New York last week after his name appeared on a list of people banned from entering the country, the South African Broadcasting Corp (SABC) said on Sunday, citing his lawyer, Lesley Mkhabela. Sexwale, a rival of President Jacob Zuma who was ousted as minister of housing in a Cabinet reshuffle in July, was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport while on a business trip, the SABC said. Some anti-apartheid activists were banned from visiting the US during apartheid. The ban has been lifted, but not all the names have been removed from the list, Mkhabela told the SABC.
ITALY
Aung San Suu Kyi honored
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Sunday picked up an overdue honor from Rome. The Nobel Peace Prize winner received Rome’s honorary citizenship in City Hall on Capitoline Hill. In 1994, Rome had conferred the honor in absentia on Aung San Suu Kyi, a champion of democracy who spent years as a political prisoner. In picking up the honor, she fondly recalled visiting Rome while a student at Oxford University. She was to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican yesterday.
IRAN
Paper banned for criticism
The country’s press watchdog has imposed a ban on reformist newspaper Bahar for an article seen by critics as questioning the beliefs of Shiite Islam, media said yesterday. Bahar issued an apology note saying the article was an “unintentional mistake” and that it had temporarily suspended activities on Saturday to “ease the tensions.” “The article, which has sadly hurt the feelings of the believers, was published due to a technical error... Editorial has apologized several times and criticized the article to show it was contrary to Bahar’s [political] line,” the note said.
NEW ZEALAND
Climbers die on mountain
Two climbers died on a mountain after being trapped for two nights in high winds, police said yesterday. Japanese Hiroki Ogawa, 31, and local Nicole Sutton, 29, were part of a group of climbers who reached the summit of Mount Taranaki on Saturday before encountering bad weather on the descent, police said. Two other climbers in the group made it to safety after spending one night on the mountain. Ogawa and Sutton dug themselves into the snow as best they could and had been texting police until Sunday night. However, poor conditions prevented rescuers from reaching the pair until early yesterday morning. Police said that Sutton was still alive when rescuers reached them, but soon became unresponsive. Poor conditions forced rescuers to leave the bodies on the mountain yesterday. They plan to try to recover them today. Sutton’s parents told reporters that Sutton and Ogawa were in a relationship and they thought they might one day marry.
INDIA
Man admits to bombing rally
Police say a man has confessed his involvement in bombings near a rally by Hindu nationalist opposition leader Narendra Modi and said the attacks were ordered by an outlawed Islamic group. The six blasts in Bihar’s capital of Patna killed six people and injured 83 on Sunday. Police official Manu Maharaj says one of five men being questioned said the bombings had been ordered by the Indian Mujahideen, which has been linked to the banned Pakistan-based Islamist rebel group Lashkar-e-Taiba. No group has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blasts.
BANGLADESH
Two die in strike violence
The opposition alliance enforced a nationwide strike yesterday marred by violence that resulted in two deaths. A 40-year-old man belonging to the ruling Awami League party was stabbed to death by opposition supporters after a street altercation as the protesters tried to stop vehicles defying the shutdown in Dhaka’s central district of Jamalpur, local police official Qazi Sayedur Rahman said. In the southeastern district of Chittagong, a trucker lost control of his vehicle when it was attacked by the strike supporters, local police official Nazmul Hasan said. The 32-year-old driver died at the scene when his truck overturned. Meanwhile, at least 50 people were injured when a train derailed in northern Lalmonirhat district as the strike supporters uprooted the rail line, Channel 24 TV station reported. In Dhaka, opposition supporters torched an office of the ruling party.
AUSTRALIA
Fleetwood Mac cancels tour
Rock group Fleetwood Mac yesterday canceled their tour of Australia and New Zealand after founding member John McVie was diagnosed with cancer. The band, who have just completed the European leg of their hugely successful world tour, were due to play 14 shows in the two countries from Nov. 10.
AUSTRALIA
Bar Syria returnees: Carr
Former foreign minister Bob Carr yesterday urged the government to consider barring citizens who fight in Syria from returning home. Security officials fear Australians are being radicalized through fighting in Syria and will heighten the terrorism threat. Carr told Australian Broadcasting Corp that as minister, he had been advised by his department that preventing citizens from returning from the Syrian civil war would be illegal because it would leave them stateless. Carr urged the new government to seek a legal option.
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
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