MEXICO
Quake death toll hits 344
As of Thursday, the death toll from the Sept. 19 earthquake had reached 344, with 205 of the deaths counted in the nation’s capital. National Civil Defense chief Luis Felipe Puente announced the new figure via Twitter as recovery teams pulled some of the few remaining bodies out of collapsed buildings in Mexico City. Most of the sites in the capital that have collapsed have already been cleared of rubble. President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday said that preliminary accounting suggests damage from the magnitude 7.1 quake in central Mexico and an even more powerful one earlier in the month in southern Mexico could cost upward of US$2 billion.
PANAMA
US eliminating weapons
The US has started destroying a stock of old, World War II-era chemical weapons it left in the nation decades ago, the Ministry of Foreign Relations said. “The operation started in mid-September to destroy the chemical munitions located on San Jose island” off the south coast, the ministry’s director for legal affairs, Farah Urrutia, said late on Wednesday. US specialists were working with their Panamanian counterparts to carry out the task, she added. The project is supported by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The eight bombs being disposed of were uncovered on the island in 2002 during an OPCW inspection. US tests of mustard gas, phosgene and other chemical weapons for possible use in World War II and the Vietnam War were alleged to have been carried out on the island. The US maintained military bases in Panama from the time it completed the Panama Canal in 1914 until its withdrawal in 1999. The cleanup was initially scheduled for 2013, but never carried out because the Americans failed to set aside money for the procedure.
UNITED STATES
Paul Revere’s outhouse?
Archeologists think they have found an outhouse next door to Paul Revere’s home in Boston that could be flush with artifacts. Archeologist Joe Bagley said volunteers have already recovered fragments of pottery, bottles and a tobacco pipe from the dig outside the Pierce-Hichborn House in Boston’s North End. Bagley said the house built in 1711 was owned by one of Revere’s cousins, and the renowned US patriot himself likely visited on numerous occasions. Nina Zannieri of the Paul Revere Memorial Association said that colonial-era outhouses — “privies,” as they were politely called in the 18th century — often yield surprises. Bagley said that is because trash and household goods typically were dumped in outhouses.
UNITED STATES
No drones at landmarks
The Federal Aviation Administration is banning drone flights within 122m of several national landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. The agency on Thursday announced the no-fly drone zones at 10 Department of the Interior sites, which are to take effect on Thursday next week. The restricted sites also include Boston National Historical Park, Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park and Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St Louis, Missouri. Five dams are also on the list: Nevada’s Hoover Dam, California’s Shasta and Folsom dams, Arizona’s Glen Canyon Dam and Washington’s Grand Coulee Dam. Violators may face civil penalties and criminal charges. The agency said the new restrictions came at the request of national security and law enforcement agencies.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
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