11 Police Hurt At Mexico Protest Over Missing Students

09/22/22 

Protesters demanding justice for 43 Mexican students who disappeared in 2014

 paint graffiti outside the attorney general's office in Mexico City 

AFP / RODRIGO ARANGUA

A protest to demand justice for 43 Mexican students who disappeared in 2014 turned violent on Thursday, leaving 11 police officers injured, authorities said.

A confrontation took place outside the attorney general's office in Mexico City after demonstrators gathered, calling for people linked to the case to be arrested.

"Some protesters physically assaulted officers and threw explosive devices at them," Mexico City's public security secretariat said in a statement.

"Consequently, 11 police were injured by firecrackers and bruises from blows to different parts of the body," it said.

The officers were taken to hospital for evaluation and were found to be out of danger, the statement said.

Demonstrators scrawled graffiti outside the attorney general's office and carried banners demanding the safe return of the students.

So far, the remains of only three victims have been identified.

On Wednesday, relatives of the students protested outside Israel's embassy, demanding the extradition of Tomas Zeron, a former top investigator wanted in connection with the case.

Zeron is one of the architects of the so-called "historical truth," the official version of the case presented in 2015 that was rejected by the victims' relatives and independent experts.

The 43 teaching students had commandeered buses in the southern state of Guerrero to travel to a demonstration in Mexico City before they went missing.

Investigators say they were detained by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel that mistook them for members of a rival gang, but exactly what happened to them is disputed.

Last month, a truth commission tasked by the current government to investigate the atrocity branded the case a "state crime" involving agents of various institutions.

The next day, former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam, who led the controversial "historical truth" investigation, was detained on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors said that arrest warrants had been issued for more than 80 suspects, including 20 military personnel, 44 police officers and 14 cartel members.

Mexico City police injured by explosion at protest

Fabiola Sanchez And Fernando Llano
The Associated Press

Thursday, September 22, 2022

A police officer calls for paramedics after several of their own were injured by an explosive device during clashes outside of Mexico's Attorney General's Office in Mexico City, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. The demonstrators were marching ahead of the anniversary of the 2014 disappearance of 43 students of a teachers' college in Iguala, Guerrero. Multiple police were injured by the explosion and loaded onto ambulances. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

MEXICO CITY -- An explosion occurred outside Mexico's Attorney General's Office on Thursday, injuring police as protesters demonstrating ahead of the anniversary of the 2014 disappearance of 43 students clashed with officers clad in riot gear.

Those injured by the explosion were loaded onto ambulances. Broken glass and blood were visible.

Members of a bomb squad cordoned off the area. One undetonated object that an explosives technician recovered appeared to be a small pipe bomb – a tube with two capped ends.

Mexico City's police department said that 11 police officers were injured by shrapnel from fireworks and some suffered bruises. They were all taken to hospitals and the injuries were not considered life threatening.

The protest was just one of a host of activities planned in advance of Monday's 8th anniversary of the students' disappearances. Protests that includes relatives of the disappeared students have usually remained peaceful.

Thursday's demonstration started that way too, with chants and speeches. Most of the protesters boarded buses and left before a small group that stayed behind clashed with police.

Some masked protesters threw rocks and launched bottle rockets into police lines. Others spray painted areas around the building with demands for the missing students' safe return.

The police bunched together, crouching below their plastic shields and were engulfed in smoke.

"I was in the entrance to my store when four bombs went off like bottle rockets which is what they launched at the Attorney General's Office, toward the windows," said 19-year-old Jose Rivera Cruz, who sells clothing to one side of the office. "There was smoke and they closed the metro bus station (across the street). And most of the police were running and trying to get to the patrol cars and the ambulances."

As more police arrived to help the injured and secure the area, the protesters left, he said.

On Sept. 26, 2014, local police in Iguala, Guerrero abducted 43 students from a radical teachers' college. They were allegedly turned over to a drug gang and never seen again. Three victims were later identified by burned bone fragments.

Last month, Interior Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, who leads a truth commission investigating the case, called it a "state crime" and directly implicated the military, among other state actors including local and state police.

Former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, who oversaw the original investigation into the disappearances, was arrested last month on charges of torture, official misconduct and forced disappearance. Last week, Mexico arrested a retired general, who had been in charge of the local army base in Iguala when the abductions occurred.

Dozens of student protesters arrived at the Attorney General's Office aboard buses Thursday morning. Police with helmets and riot shields formed several lines of defence in front the entrances.

On Wednesday, activists had vandalized the exterior of Israel's embassy in Mexico City. Mexico is seeking the extradition from Israel of another key figure in the investigation of the students' disappearances.

Canada launches review of cannabis legalization four years on

Issued on: 22/09/2022 - 

Canada has launched a review of its cannabis act, four years after legalizing its recreational use -- which was celebrated by thousands including this man pictured smoking a joint in Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto in October 2018 

Geoff Robins AFP/File


Ottawa (AFP) – Canada on Thursday launched a long-awaited review of its cannabis regulations, four years after becoming the first major economy to legalize its recreational use.

An expert panel led by Morris Rosenberg, a former deputy minister of justice, is to measure the impact of legalization on youth, Indigenous peoples and others, as well as the economy and an illicit market that the new regime was meant to displace.

The panel is also to examine regulatory burdens on the industry and determine if a separate framework for medical marijuana -- which has been legal since 2001 -- needed to be maintained in order to provide access to patients.

The mandated review, coming one year late due to the pandemic, is expected to take 18 months.

The industry has complained about what it calls exceptionally high taxes on cannabis, a glut of stores -- both licensed and unlicensed -- and restrictions on advertising and marketing that have made it harder to compete with the black market.

At a news conference, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said preliminary data this year showed 69 percent of the cannabis market has moved from illicit sources to legal, regulated suppliers.

The review, he said, will help the government "strengthen the (cannabis) act so that it meets the needs of all Canadians while continuing to displace the illicit market."

Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett said, "We knew that young people are at increased risk of experiencing harms from cannabis, such as mental health problems including dependence and disorders related to anxiety and depression."

Public awareness campaigns, she said, have made "young people more aware of the harms of consuming cannabis," but their level of consumption has not fallen since legalization, as hoped.

Rather, it has remained relatively stable, she said.

According to government data, 25 percent of the population, or 9.5 million Canadians, used cannabis in 2021, down slightly from the previous year.

They spent an average of Can$69 (US$51) on pot per month.

© 2022 AFP

IN THE TWENTIES AND THIRTIES OF LAST CENTURY 

A JOINT, BLUNT, SPLIFF,DOOBBIE, ETC. WAS KNOWN AS A 'VIPER'

 

Football disorder on the rise in England and Wales

Issued on: 22/09/2022 -

Pitch invasions became a common occurrence at English football matches last season 

Oli SCARFF AFP/File


London (AFP) – Football arrests in England and Wales reached their highest level for eight years last season, while pitch invasions more than doubled compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the British Home Office.

A series of matches towards the end of the campaign were marred by players being assaulted by pitch-invading fans.

Premier League clubs this week agreed to give pitch invaders and supporters using smoke bombs or pyrotechnics a minimum one-year ban.

A pitch invasion of some kind was recorded at 441 matches last season, a 127 percent increase on the figure for the 2018-19 season, the last full campaign to be played without any Covid-19 restrictions.

The 2,198 football-related arrests recorded last season was the highest figure since 2013-14.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for football policing, said there needed to be "collective responsibility" from fans to stamp out criminal behaviour.

"Once there are several hundred people on the pitch it's impossible to separate those people who just want to enjoy themselves from those who want to assault players, threaten players and aggravate the opposition fans, and then it gets difficult to manage," said Roberts.

Chief Constable Roberts added alcohol was a "perennial driver" of poor behaviour in football, but said cocaine was a rising cause for concern.

"When we do operations on the rail network and when we do operations at grounds, we are consistently finding the presence of cocaine," he said.

"Clearly it's a prevalent thing to take at football and we need to clamp down on that. There is ample evidence that cocaine, particularly with alcohol, in a heightened state of emotion which you often get with football, leads to aggressive and violent behaviour."

That cocktail of drink and drugs was blamed as the root cause for the disorder which marred the Euro 2020 final at Wembley in July last year.

Football banning orders have recently been extended to cover convictions for online hate crime linked to the sport and convictions for selling or taking Class A drugs will also come under the banning order regime from October.

© 2022 AFP

WHO chief says end of Covid pandemic ‘still a long way off’

"being able to see the end, doesn't mean we are at the end."

Issued on: 22/09/2022 - 

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers a speech during the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe on September 12, 2022 in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. © Jack Guez, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

The head of the World Health Organization on Thursday tempered his assertion that the end of the Covid-19 pandemic was near, warning that declaring the crisis over was "still a long way off".

Last week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the world had "never been in a better position to end the pandemic... The end is in sight."

And US President Joe Biden went further in an interview broadcast Sunday, declaring that the pandemic in the United States "is over".

But speaking to the media again Thursday from the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Tedros appeared less upbeat, making clear that "being able to see the end, doesn't mean we are at the end."

He reiterated that the world was in the best position it had ever been in to end the pandemic, with the number of weekly deaths continuing to drop -- and now just 10 percent of what they were at the peak in January 2021.

Tedros pointed out that two-thirds of the world's population has been vaccinated, including three-quarters of health workers and older people.

"We have spent two-and-a-half years in a long, dark tunnel, and we are just beginning to glimpse the light at the end of that tunnel," he said.

But, he stressed, "it is still a long way off, and the tunnel is still dark, with many obstacles that could trip us up if we don't take care."

"We're still in the tunnel."

In its latest epidemiological update, the WHO said over 9,800 fatalities were reported last week, down 17 percent from a week earlier, while 3.2 million new cases were reported.

The UN health agency has warned that the falling number of reported cases is deceptive, since many countries have cut back on testing and may not be detecting less serious cases.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid, told reporters the virus is still "circulating at an intense level," although the situation varied in different countries.

But she pointed out that the world has the tools needed to rein in the spread.

"Our goal is to end the emergency in all countries. And we will keep at this until we reach that goal," she said.

Since the start of the pandemic, the WHO has tallied more than 609 million cases and some 6.5 million deaths, though the true toll is believed to be substantially higher.

A WHO study published in May based on excess mortality seen in various countries during the pandemic estimated that up to 17 million people may have died from Covid in 2020 and 2021.

(AFP)

Fossil fuels make up 90% of Middle East air pollution: study

Issued on: 22/09/2022 -

An aerial view of the Tigris river and the old western side of Iraq's northern city of Mosul Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP/File


Paris (AFP) – More than 90 percent of harmful air pollution in the Middle East and parts of North Africa comes from fossil fuels, according to research Thursday that showed the region "permanently exceeded" dangerous air quality levels.

The World Health Organization this year said the MENA region had some of the poorest air quality on Earth.

The long-standing assumption was that the smog choking most of the region's cities was primarily composed of desert sand, given their location on the world's "dust belt" where there are frequently more than 20 major sand storms each year.

In 2017, an international team of researchers set off on an epic voyage across the eastern Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal and around the Gulf, using specialised equipment to analyse air quality and particulate matter on shore.

They found that the vast majority of small particles -- which can penetrate deep into the lungs, resulting in greater health risk -- were manmade, mainly from the production and use of fossil fuels.

Writing in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, they showed how the region is blanketed in particularly harmful compounds such as sulphur dioxide, which is a direct result of oil extraction.

Emissions from container vessels in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world also contributed to the smog.

"We have refineries such as those in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that are a big source of air pollution as well as ships on the Red Sea, and in the Suez Canal region," said Jos Lelieveld, lead study author from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.

"So the combination of all of these means that the air is much more polluted than what most people hope it to be."

The team used health and mortality metrics to calculate the number of excess deaths caused by air pollution in the MENA region annually.

The percentage of fossil-fuel driven mortality varied between nations, with 5.9 percent of deaths in Cyprus attributable to air pollution versus 15.9 in Kuwait.

This is a far higher mortality rate than in other industrialised regions. The US and Germany, for example, have 3 percent and 3.7 percent mortality due to air pollution, respectively.

Region-wide, the team calculated that air pollution from fossil fuel use caused one in eight deaths, noting that air quality there "permanently exceeded" WHO guidelines.

"It is very comparable with things that are really of great concern, for example, tobacco smoking and high cholesterol, which are major health risks in the region," Lelieveld told AFP.

"And the realisation of this in the region is practically zero."

He said that while governments in the region counted on fossil fuel production for the majority of their income, the time would come when the health costs due to pollution compounded growing pressure to decarbonise their economies.

"They're not stupid, they know that fossil fuels will end at some point," said Lelieveld.

"I'm hoping this is an additional incentive."

S.Africa teens build solar train as power

cuts haunt commuters

For years, students in a South African township have seen their parents struggle to use trains for daily commutes, the railways frequently hobbled by power outages and cable thefts.

To respond to the crisis, a group of 20 teenagers invented South Africa's first fully solar-powered train.

Photovoltaic panels fitted to the roof, the angular blue-and-white test train moves on an 18-metre-long (60 feet) test track in Soshanguve township north of the capital Pretoria.

Trains are the cheapest mode of transport in South Africa, used mostly by the poor and working class.

"Our parents... no longer use trains (because of) cable theft... and load shedding," said Ronnie Masindi, 18, referring to rolling blackouts caused by failures at old and poorly maintained coal-powered plants.

The state power company Eskom started imposing on-and-off power rationing 15 years ago to prevent a total national blackout.

The power outages, known locally as load-shedding, have worsened over the years disrupting commerce and industry, including rail services.

Infrastructure operator Transnet has struggled to keep rail traffic flowing smoothly since the economic challenges of the pandemic fuelled a surge in cable theft.

By 2020, rail use among public transport users was down almost two-thirds compared to 2013, according to the National Households Travel Survey with many commuters turning to more expensive minibus taxis.

Masindi said they decided to "create and build a solar-powered train that uses solar to move instead of (mains) electricity".

The journey has not been without its challenges.

A lack of funding delayed production of the prototype locomotive, and the government later chipped in.

"It was not a straight line," said another student, Lethabo Nkadimeng, 17. "It was like taking a hike to the highest peak of the mountain."

The train, which can run at 30 kilometres (20 miles) per hour, was showcased at a recent universities innovation event.

For now, the prototype can run for 10 return trips on the track installed on the grounds of a school.

It will be used for further research, and eventually presented as a model the government could adopt.

Fitted with car seats and a flat-screen TV to entertain passengers, it took the students two years to build.

"What we have realised is, if we you give township learners space, resources and a little mentorship they can do anything that any learner can do around the world," said Kgomotso Maimane, the project's supervising teacher.

vid-zam/sn/gw

GRIFTER CAPITALI$T

Latin America bank directors urge firing Trump-nominated chief

Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of Latin America's largest development bank, was found to have violated ethics rules by investigators. US President Joe Biden's administration has been pushing for his removal.

Claver-Carone has been president of the IDB since October 2020

The 14 directors on the board of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have voted unanimously to recommend firing President Mauricio Claver-Carone, sources said on Thursday. 

The move comes after an independent investigation confirmed misconduct allegations against Claver-Carone, who was nominated for the job in 2020 by then-US President Donald Trump.

His fate now lies in the hands of the governing board of the IDB representing all 48 of the bank's member nations.

US Treasury Department wants him out

A US Treasury spokesperson said Washington backed Claver-Carone's removal from office and urged "swift resolution" by the IDB's governors. 

"His creation of a climate of fear of retaliation among staff and borrowing countries has forfeited the confidence of the [IDB's] staff and shareholders and necessitates a change in leadership,'' the spokesperson said.

The US is the bank's largest shareholder, with 30% of its voting shares.

An independent probe was set up against Claver-Carone after a complaint that he allegedly had an intimate relationship with an employee in violation of the bank's rules.

According to a report cited by The Associated Press, the investigation found that he had favored this top aide with whom he had had a romantic relationship.

In a statement, Claver-Carone slammed the US Treasury's comments. "It's shameful the US commented to the press before notifying me and that it is not defending two Americans against what is clearly fabricated information," he said.

He also claimed that Washington was "handing" the IDB to China by backing his removal from office.

The Claver-Carone affair comes as World Bank President David Malpass is also under pressure to resign after he failed to state that he accepts the scientific consensus on climate change.

fb/aw (AP, EFE, Reuters) 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Boeing to pay $200 million over misleading investors on 737 MAX

US authorities said Boeing and its former leader, Dennis Muilenburg, had "put profits over people" and misled investors about the safety of its 737 MAX planes after the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

The crashes led regulators around the world to ground the plane for nearly 

two years until Boeing made fixes

Aviation giant Boeing has agreed to pay $200 million (€203 million) to settle charges it misled investors over the safety of its 737 MAX planes, US authorities said on Thursday. 

The model has come under intense criticism for years after two crashes involving the 737 MAX 8 killed 346 people. Both planes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, had been in service for just a few months when they crashed.

Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing's former CEO, is set to pay $1 million to settle the same charges.

Muilenburg had been ousted in December 2019, nine months after the second 737 MAX 8 crash. 

What charges is Boeing paying to settle? 

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement that Boeing "negligently violated the antifraud provisions" of US securities laws.

The SEC charged the company and its former leader with making misleading statements about the safety of the planes involved in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

Boeing and Muilenburg "put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 MAX all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeing's image" after the crashes," the SEC said.  

What did Boeing say?

The company said that it had made "broad and deep changes" since the two accidents to improve the safety and quality of its models.

"Today's settlement is part of the company's broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 MAX accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees and other stakeholders,'' Boeing said in a statement. 

fb/aw (AFP, AP) 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
'Fat Leonard' fugitive in US Navy scandal captured in Venezuela

Issued on: 22/09/2022

An undated handout picture released on September 21, 2022 by the Instagram account of Interpol Venezuela shows Malaysian fugitive Leonard Francis, known as "Fat Leonard," after his capture in Venezuela - Interpol Venezuela Instagram account/AFP

Caracas (AFP) – A military contractor known as "Fat Leonard" who pleaded guilty in the US Navy's worst ever corruption scandal has been captured in Venezuela after fleeing the United States, the Interpol office in Caracas said.

Leonard Francis cut off his GPS monitor and escaped house arrest in California in early September.

"The fugitive was arrested at the Simon Bolivar de Maiquetia International Airport when he was about to leave the country," a post shared on Instagram Wednesday by the Caracas Interpol office said.

Leonard "entered the country coming from Mexico with a stop in Cuba" and aimed to travel to Russia, the post said, adding that he was the subject of an Interpol red notice.

Francis, a Malaysian national who ran a military contracting company out of Singapore, pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering some $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers to steer official work to his shipyards, carrying out work on US vessels that prosecutors say he overcharged the Navy for, to the tune of $35 million.

Police were sent to his San Diego residence on September 4 after the agency monitoring his ankle bracelet reported a problem with the device, and found that he was gone, the US Marshals Service said.

Francis was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty two years later. He suffered numerous health problems, including kidney cancer, which led to him being released to house arrest in 2018 while acting as a cooperating witness for federal prosecutors.

He was due to be sentenced on September 22.

Four Navy officers have been found guilty in the case so far, while another 29 people, including naval officials, contractors and Francis himself, have pleaded guilty, US media said.

© 2022 AFP

Spain plans temporary wealth tax amid high inflation

A government plan calls for a tax on Spain's "big fortunes" would help offset inflation relief measures to assist low and middle-income Spaniards.

Montero says an "exceptional" tax would affect "no more than one percent" of the population

Spain's left-wing government said it would slap a temporary tax on the wealthiest 1% of the country's population to help pay for inflation relief measures.

"We are talking about millionaires, those who are in the 1% of income," Finance Minister Maria Jesus Montero told the laSexta television channel on Thursday.

She said it was important that "we can finance the aid" to support "the middle class and workers" but did not provide details on the tax rate or how much it would raise.

The government has introduced a raft of measures to help people cope with soaring prices, such as free public transport, stipends for students to stay in school and subsidized petrol.

The country's annual inflation rate hit 10.4% in August. It has remained in double digits since June, a level not seen since the mid-1980s.

Spain already targeting banks and energy firms

In July, the government introduced a bill to create a temporary levy on banks and large energy companies.

"We are going to use a similar scheme to that for energy companies and banking. For the next two years...the big fortunes of this country will be asked to make a temporary effort," Montero said on Thursday.

She still has to negotiate the plan with her Socialist party's coalition partner Unidas Podemos and acknowledged that parliamentary approval procedures mean it might not be ready by the start of 2023.

lo/wmr (AFP, Reuters)