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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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