MEXICO
Six detained over murder
Police have detained six people in connection with the killing of the father and brother of movie director Alejandro Monteverde. Federal police chief Francisco Galindo on Sunday said that the arrests were made on Saturday during an operation in the south of Tamaulipas state. He said the suspects were holding six Central American migrants hostage at the time of their arrest and their gang has been linked to 20 cases of kidnapping or homicide. The bodies of Juan Manuel Gomez Fernandez and Juan Manuel Gomez Monteverde — the father and brother of the movie director — were found on Sept. 19 in Pueblo Viejo in northern Veracruz. The men had been reported missing on Sept. 4.
SPAIN
Catalonia votes on road map
The regional parliament of northeastern Catalonia is due to vote on a proposal by secessionist parties that hold a majority in the chamber to set up a road map for independence by 2017. The initiative defies the central government, which considers it unconstitutional. A debate preceding the vote was held yesterday. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government has pledged to take legal action against the Barcelona-based parliament if it approves the proposal. Although Catalan branches of the ruling conservative Popular Party and the Socialist and the Citizens opposition parties filed appeals to halt the vote, the Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that it could go ahead.
TURKEY
Tea company fined over ad
A state-owned tea production company has been fined over a TV commercial deemed insulting of ayran, the nation’s yoghurt-based “national drink” as claimed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the commercial for “Didi,” a popular iced tea product made by state-owned Caykur, rap star Ceza sings: “I’ve tried ayran, it makes me sleepy.” The trade ministry ordered Caykur to pay 220,000 Turkish liras (US$75,000) for “insulting ayran without a reason and giving consumers a wrong message aimed at decreasing the consumption of ayran.” The company was also ordered to stop airing the ad, which the ministry said constituted “unfair competition against companies that sell ayran,” Hurriyet newspaper reported on Sunday. Erdogan, who does not smoke or drink, has urged people to imbibe the frothy, salted beverage and declared it in 2013 the “national drink” rather than raki, a strong aniseed-flavored liquor.
VENEZUELA
US denies airspace violation
The government on Sunday said that a US Coast Guard intelligence plane violated its airspace, an allegation promptly denied by the US military branch. The Dash 8 plane took off on Friday from the Hato Rey base on Curacao and entered local airspace close to the western Los Monjes archipelago on the Caribbean coast, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said in a televised address. “The most serious part is that this aircraft violated airspace, our airspace,” he said. The US Coast Guard rejected the claim. “As far as we know, there was no US Coast Guard that was flying through Venezuelan airspace,” spokesman Chief Warrant Officer Chad Saylor said. “If there is an aircraft, it’s not ours.” He said there were no US Coast Guard planes in the area. Padrino said that no US authorities “reported that presence” to the control tower at Simon Bolivar International Airport, “as required by international aviation law.”
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
‘APARTHEID WALL’: Critics said the wall would not stop crime, and that it aimed to hide the poor and the fact that there is a privileged and privilege-deprived Cape Town Cape Town’s plans to build a wall to prevent attacks on the airport highway have divided South Africa’s tourist hotspot, with critics calling it an apartheid throwback to hide poverty. The nearly 9km wall would separate part of the road that leads in from the international airport from the packed, impoverished settlements that line the route. Attacks — some deadly — have been reported for years along the busy multi-lane route, including hijackings and smash-and-grab ambushes. “They’ll come with a stone and break the windscreen,” e-hailing driver Mustafa Hashim said, recounting stories of attacks on the corridor known as the “N2 hell
RSS