MEXICO
Official clarifies pot remark
Secretary of Tourism Enrique de la Madrid suggested that legalizing marijuana could help reduce drug violence at big tourist resorts, but later said he was not speaking in an official capacity when he made the comment. De la Madrid on Thursday said that legalizing pot could help reduce violence in states like Baja California Sur, which is home to the twin resorts of Los Cabos and has the country’s second-highest murder rate, and Quintana Roo, home of the resort of Cancun. Cancun, while relatively quiet, has had outbursts of shootings, some related to a struggle by the Jalisco New Generation cartel to move into the city. However, late on Thursday, De la Madrid said on Twitter: “I want to emphatically say that my opinion on legalizing marijuana was a personal comment.” Security analyst Alejandro Hope on Friday wrote in a column in newspaper El Universal that “when the law enforcement agenda is being set by the tourism secretary, something is not working. Seriously.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Top BBC men take pay cut
The BBC on Friday reported that six of its highest-paid male broadcasters have agreed to take pay cuts after revelations of a gender divide in salaries. The BBC said in a statement that the public service broadcaster was “very grateful” to Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, John Humphrys, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Vine for agreeing to reduce their salaries. Details of the voluntary salary cuts were not announced. The BBC was embarrassed last year when a list of top earners showed that two-thirds of the best-paid workers were men. Many men were also found to be receiving much larger salaries than women in comparable jobs. Humphrys, 74, a popular host of the influential Radio 4 morning news program, said the wage cut was his idea. “I’ve been at the BBC for an awfully long time and I’ve been paid very well and I’m not exactly on the breadline,” he said.
HONDURAS
Inauguration protest planned
President Juan Orlando Hernandez was scheduled to be sworn in yesterday for a second term as the opposition vowed mass protests over claims he fraudulently won the election in November last year. The leftist Alliance in Opposition against the Dictatorship has called for street protests during the inauguration in Tegucigalpa. Thousands of extra police and troops have been called up to ensure security for the event. On the eve of the inauguration, it emerged that Hernandez’s newly appointed police chief, Jose David Aguilar Moran, would be investigated by a government commission after reports that he had helped a drug cartel ship a consignment of cocaine to the US.
UNITED STATES
Inmate caught on supply run
A Texas inmate who had escaped has been arrested trying to break back into prison with bottles of alcohol, tobacco and home-cooked food. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said 25-year-old Joshua Hansen of Dallas has been charged with escape and possession of marijuana. He was originally imprisoned on a narcotics conviction. Deputies on Wednesday spotted Hansen as he ran onto private land near the prison in Beaumont and grabbed a duffel bag containing three bottles of brandy, some whisky, tobacco and “a large amount of home-cooked food.” They arrested him as he ran back toward the prison. Nearby rancher Michael Latta told KFDM-TV that he has for years contended with low-level offenders who flee the facility only to later return.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS