MEXICO
Nine killed in shoot-out
Nine people have been killed in the southern state of Guerrero in a shoot-out between two groups using high-powered weapons, authorities said yesterday. Several organized crime groups dedicated to trafficking drugs operate in the area and often clash over control of supply routes. The confrontation occurred on Wednesday on a highway in a rural area, the local attorney’s office said in a statement. “The deceased are close to Zenen Nava Sanchez, leader of the criminal group Los Rojos,” it said, adding that it had launched an investigation into the incident. A long-running dispute for territory between Los Rojos and a rival gang has left more than 1,000 people dead and centered on a town about 10km from where the firefight took place, local media said. Experts at the site retrieved 50 bullets used in high-caliber weapons like the AK-47 assault rifle. Last month, 15 people, including a soldier, were killed in the same state after gunmen attacked security forces.
UNITED STATES
Twisters cause hefty losses
The nine tornadoes that struck a Dallas area during a Sunday night outbreak caused an estimated US$2 billion in insured losses, the Insurance Council of Texas said. The estimate, which the council called “pretty conservative,” makes the tornado outbreak the costliest in state history, exceeding the US$1.2 billion in insured losses caused by a Dec. 26, 2015, tornado that killed 10 people in eastern Dallas suburbs, it said. The National Weather Service said that the strongest tornado hit the heavily populated north Dallas area, where the EF3 twister had peak winds of 225kph and was on the ground for more than 25km. The other Texas tornadoes had wind speeds ranging from 130kph to 218kph. Four people died late on Sunday and early on Monday in storms in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
UNITED STATES
Vehicle plunges, killing two
A vehicle plunged from the fourth floor of a downtown parking garage, killing a man and a woman inside, the Indianapolis Fire Department said. The black 2013 Lincoln landed on its roof after falling shortly before 10am on Wednesday from the Market Square Center Garage. It plowed through a parking garage wall and landed in an alley behind the city market. Fire Department Battalion Chief Rita Reith said the woman was driving. She and the man were pronounced dead at the scene. Their names have not been released. Reith said a second man who witnessed the crash was treated for possible shock. Code enforcement was called to check for structural damage to the garage, she said.
UNITED STATES
Man charged with cat abuse
A Missouri man accused of mutilating a cat in a fast-food restaurant restroom is facing animal abuse and property damage charges. Court documents show that 19-year-old Tanner Maggard had worked at an Arby’s in the Kansas City suburb of Lee’s Summit, but was fired in June, WDAF-TV reported. Police said that Maggard entered the restaurant on Saturday last week, placed an order and went into the men’s restroom. When he came out, he said to the manager: “Oh, I see you remodeled the bathroom,” police said, adding that the manager found the remains of a cat that had been mutilated and decapitated on a changing table for infants. Maggard does not have an attorney listed who could comment on his behalf.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS