CHILE
Violent protests continue
Politicians say they have to figure out how to draft a new constitution quickly following another night of violent protests. Police on Wednesday said that they had documented 348 serious incidents, including looting and attacks on police stations, from Tuesday into the early morning. Twenty people have died since mostly peaceful demonstrations about inequality and other issues broke out on Oct. 18. Chileans are demanding a range of reforms and an overhaul of their dictatorship-era constitution. The sticking point is who drafts the new document. President Sebastian Pinera’s plan relies on legislators, but the opposition says citizens need more input. Members of the National Renewal Party, part of the ruling coalition, and the Christian Democratic Party agree “there isn’t much time” to reach an agreement.
MEXICO
Dismembered bodies found
Investigators have found plastic bags containing the hacked-up bodies of 12 people near Guadalajara. The Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday said that the dead included seven men and five women, but the count could increase because experts have so far analyzed only 33 of the 52 plastic bags found at the property. It said all the body parts in the 33 bags came from 12 victims. The area around Guadalajara has witnessed a rise in clandestine burial pits. Drug and kidnapping gangs frequently use such pits to dispose of rivals or victims.
UNITED STATES
Gosar sends Epstein tweets
Representative Paul Gosar on Wednesday sent a series of tweets regarding a theory that Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, including allegations of sex with children. Gosar sent 23 tweets about the first public impeachment hearing on Capitol Hill examining President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. The first letter of each tweet spelled out “Epstein didn’t kill himself.” A New York City medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death in jail a suicide, but theories that he was murdered have persisted, fueled by Epstein’s links to princes, politicians, and other famous and powerful people. When Gosar spokesman Ben Goldey was asked whether the representative sent the tweets himself, his e-mailed response used the first letter of each sentence to spell “Area 51.”
UNITED STATES
‘Unicorn’ puppy a star
A rescued puppy is attracting a lot of attention because of his resemblance to a unicorn. The nearly 10-week-old puppy, Narwhal, has a tail-like appendage growing from his forehead. Narwhal was rescued over the weekend and sent to Mac’s Mission in Jackson, Missouri, which specializes in fostering animals with special needs. Mac’s Mission founder Rochelle Steffen said that Narwhal does not notice the extra tail and is otherwise a happy, healthy puppy. Although it looks like a tail, Narwhal cannot wag it, she said.
UNITED STATES
Fifth WWII sub discovered
A team of ocean explorers said that a US submarine with 80 sailors aboard when it disappeared in 1944 has been discovered in Japanese waters. The “Lost 52 Project” on Sunday announced that the World War II submarine USS Grayback was found in June. The group said that it was the fifth wartime submarine discovery for the team led by undersea explorer Tim Taylor using robotics, and other underwater technological methods and vehicles. The project’s objective is to find the 52 US submarines that were lost during the war.
JAN. 1 CLAUSE: As military service is voluntary, applications for permission to stay abroad for over three months for men up to age 45 must, in principle, be granted A little-noticed clause in sweeping changes to Germany’s military service policy has triggered an uproar after it emerged that the law requires men aged up to 45 to get permission from the armed forces before any significant stay abroad, even in peacetime. The legislation, which went into effect on Jan. 1 aims to bolster the military and demands all 18-year-old men fill out a questionnaire to gauge their suitability to serve in the armed forces, but stops short of conscription. If the “modernized” model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of compulsory service, German
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
Filipino farmers like Romeo Wagayan have been left with little choice but to let their vegetables rot in the field rather than sell them at a loss, as rising oil prices linked to the Iran war drive up the cost of harvesting, labor and transport. “There’s nothing we can do,” said Wagayan, a 57-year old vegetable farmer in the northern Philippine province of Benguet. “If we harvest it, our losses only increase because of labor, transportation and packing costs. We don’t earn anything from it. That’s why we decided not to harvest at all,” he said. Soaring costs caused by the Middle East
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s officially declared wealth is fairly modest: some savings and a jointly owned villa in Budapest. However, voters in what Transparency International deems the EU’s most corrupt country believe otherwise — and they might make Orban pay in a general election this Sunday that could spell an end to his 16-year rule. The wealth amassed by Orban’s inner circle is fueling the increasingly palpable frustration of a population grappling with sluggish growth, high inflation and worsening public services. “The government’s communication machine worked well as long as our economic situation remained relatively good,” said Zoltan Ranschburg, a political analyst
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