21st CENTURY ALCHEMY
Gold-based antibiotics could be key to fighting superbugs, research suggests\
New research that will be presented next week at a conference in Copenhagen suggests that gold-based antibiotics could be the key to fighting so-called drug-resistant superbugs. 

Photo by Petr Kratochvil/Public Domain Pictures

April 7 (UPI) -- For years, scientists have searched for a silver bullet to treat multidrug-resistant superbugs. Now, they may have found the solution in another precious metal: gold.

Several gold-based compounds have shown efficacy against hard-to-treat bacteria, according to new research to be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Copenhagen, Denmark next week.

In a paper prepared for the conference, researchers said they found that gold-based antibiotics showed "great potential," especially against diseases that have proven resistant to other drugs.

Sara Soto Gonzalez, of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health in Barcelona, Spain, and fellow researchers studied the activity of 19 gold compounds against a range of multidrug-resistant bacteria isolated from patients.

Drug-resistant 'superbugs' may spread between people, pets

Those bacteria studied included Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA; Staphylococcus epidermidis; pseudomonas aeruginosa; stenotrophomonasmaltophilia; acinetobacter baumannii; and pneumonia.

Scientists found that 16 of the 19 gold compounds were highly effective against MRSA and S. epidermis, and 16 were effective against the other bacteria, all of which are gram-negative. Researchers said that "gram negative" bacteria have a greater resistance to antibiotics, and they need new treatments.

Overall, all 19 compounds tested were effective against at least one of the hard-to-treat bacterium and some were effective against several.

"It is particularly exciting to see that some of the gold complexes were effective against MRSA and multidrug-resistant A. baumannii, as there are two biggest causes of hospital-acquired infections," Soto Gonzalez said.

"The type of gold complexes we studied, known as gold (III) complexes, are relatively straightforward and inexpensive to make. They can also be easily modified and so provide a vast amount of scope for drug development."

Drug-resistant infections kill roughly 700,000 people annually around the world. The World Health Organization classifies antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.

Study: Inappropriate antibiotic use in kids increases healthcare costs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevent said that such antimicrobial resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them, making them almost impossible to treat.

Gold is known to have antibacterial properties, making gold metalloantibiotics -- compounds with a gold ion at their core -- one of the most promising new approaches.

"Gold complexes use a variety of techniques to kill bacteria," Soto Gonzalez said. "They stop enzymes from working, disrupt the function of the bacterial membrane and damage DNA.

"With research on other types of gold metalloantibiotics also providing promising results, the future is bright for gold-based antibiotics."

Future is bright for gold-based antibiotics

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

New research being presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark, (15-18 April) has identified several gold-based compounds with the potential to treat multidrug-resistant “superbugs”.

With all 19 compounds tested effective against at least one hard-to-treat bacterium and some effective against several, the Spanish researchers say that the gold-based drugs hold great potential as new antibiotics.

Drug-resistant infections kill an estimated 700,000 people a year globally and, with the figure projected to rise to 10 million by 2050 if no action is taken, the World Health Organisation (WHO) classes antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.

However, the development of new antibiotics has stalled and the few new antibiotics that are developed are mainly derivatives of existing treatments.

Gold is known to have antibacterial properties, making gold metalloantibiotics – compounds with a gold ion at their core – an exciting potential new approach.

To find out more, Dr Sara M. Soto González, of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues studied the activity of 19 gold complexes against a range of multidrug-resistant bacteria isolated from patients.

The complexes all belong to the same family but have slightly different structures.

The six bacteria studied were: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA, which causes skin and other infections), Staphylococcus epidermidis (which can cause catheter-associated infections), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (which causes infections including pneumonia), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (pneumonia and other infections), Acinetobacter baumannii (blood and urinary tract infections and pneumonia) and Escherichia coli (blood and urinary tract infections and pneumonia).

All of the strains studied were multidrug-resistant. Four (S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, A. baumannii and E. coli) are on the World Health Organisation’s list of antibiotic resistant ‘priority pathogens’1 – meaning they are among the bacteria judged to pose the greatest risk to human health.  Multidrug-resistant S. maltophilia is increasingly being found in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis.

In tests, 16/19 (84%) of the gold complexes were highly effective against MRSA and S. epidermis.

Another 16 of the complexes were effective against the other bacteria, all of which are gram negative. Gram negative bacteria have greater inbuilt resistance to antibiotics and the need for new treatments is particularly pressing.

Gold complexes use a variety of techniques to kill bacteria.  They stop enzymes from working, disrupt the function of the bacterial membrane and damage DNA. Crucially, this multimodal mechanism should prevent antimicrobial resistance from developing.

Dr Soto González concludes: “All of the gold compounds were effective against at least one of the bacterial species studied and some displayed potent activity against several multidrug-resistant bacteria.

“It is particularly exciting to see that some of the gold complexes were effective against MRSA and multidrug-resistant A. baumannii, as there are two biggest causes of hospital-acquired infections.

“The type of gold complexes we studied, known as gold (III) complexes, are relatively straightforward and inexpensive to make.  They can also be easily modified and so provide a vast amount of scope for drug development.

“With research on other types of gold metalloantibiotics also providing promising results, the future is bright for gold-based antibiotics.”

Dr Sara M. Soto González, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona, Spain. M) +34 6555 11177 E) sara.soto@isglobal.org

Please note that Dr Soto González is travelling until April 14.  For urgent enquiries during that time, please contact co-author Raquel Soengas

Professor Raquel Soengas, University of Oviedo, Oviedo Spain. M):+34 6040 07552 E) rsoengas@uniovi.es

Alternative contact: Tony Kirby in the ECCMID Media Centre. T) +44 7834 385827 E) tony@tonykirby.com

Notes to editors:

References:

1. https://www.who.int/news/item/27-02-2017-who-publishes-list-of-bacteria-for-which-new-antibiotics-are-urgently-needed

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

This press release is based on abstract 1079 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) annual meeting. The material has been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee. There is no full paper available at this stage.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Apr-2023

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare no conflicts of interest

Ukrainian dolphins find new home in Romanian aquarium

April 06, 2023 
Written by Anca Cernat for Reuters 

BUCHAREST, April 6 (Reuters) - At the dolphinarium in the Black Sea port city of Constanta, Romanian and Ukrainian trainers are letting dolphins guide them despite language barriers.

Last year, the dolphinarium took in four dolphins and three sea lions alongside their trainers and doctors fleeing the shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

"Now we have more colleagues ... Ukrainian colleagues and Ukrainian dolphin colleagues," Romanian trainer Mona Mandrescu said at the edge of the pool after a mid-morning performance for hundreds of delighted school children.

"We get along together very well, we speak the same 'language'. It's the best thing that could happen to our dolphins."

Romania is one out of some fourteen European Union states that have dolphinariums and captive sea animals.

The Constanta dolphinarium, part of a wider natural science museum and research complex, has been home to female dolphins Ni Ni and Chen Chen since 2010.

In Kharkiv, the local dolphinarium sought to move their dolphins and sea lions as soon as the shelling started last February.

The dolphins - Kiki, Maya, Marusia and Veterok - and sea lions - Alex, Mary and Zosya - were immediately moved to Odessa, where they waited for two months for Romanian and Ukrainian officials to complete the carousel of paperwork needed to bring them into the EU.

The animals arrived in Constanta in early May and were quarantined for a month before being introduced to the two resident dolphins.

"It was a new experience for us and our animals because we are different, they have two very old and very beautiful girls, we have very young animals, at first it was a disconnect," Ukrainian team leader Elena Komogorova said.

"But right now ... we're very good friends - same with our team."

The animals started performing together in late June, swimming with trainers, jumping through hoops and balancing balls. The sea lions mingle with the audience.

"We want them to stay with us for as long as possible," the dolphinarium's manager Iulian Calin said. "They are hard working people and dolphins and we want them to be with us because we make a beautiful family."

(Reporting by Anca Cernat; Writing by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Sonali Paul)

China plans $500 mln subsea internet cable to rival US-backed project

Workers install the 2Africa undersea cable on the beach in Amanzimtoti, South Africa, February 7, 2023. 

REUTERS/Rogan Ward/File Photo/File Photo

Chinese state-owned telecom firms are developing a $500 million undersea fiber-optic internet cable network that would link Asia, the Middle East and Europe to rival a similar US-backed project, four people involved in the deal told Reuters. The plan is a sign that an intensifying tech war between Beijing and Washington risks tearing the fabric of the internet.

China's three main carriers – China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Mobile Limited and China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd(China Unicom) – are mapping out one of the world's most advanced and far-reaching subsea cable networks, according to the four people, who have direct knowledge of the plan.

Known as EMA (Europe-Middle East-Asia), the proposed cable would link Hong Kong to China's island province of Hainan, before snaking its way to Singapore, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France, the four people said. They asked not to be named because they were not allowed to discuss potential trade secrets.

The cable, which would cost approximately $500 million to complete, would be manufactured and laid by China's HMN Technologies Co Ltd, a fast-growing cable firm whose predecessor company was majority-owned by Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the people said.

They said HMN Tech, which is majority-owned by Shanghai-listed Hengtong Optic-Electric Co Ltd, would receive subsidies from the Chinese state to build the cable.

China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, HMN Tech, Hengtong and China's Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

News of the planned cable comes in the wake of a Reuters report last month that revealed how the US government, concerned about Beijing eavesdropping on internet data, has successfully thwarted a number of Chinese undersea cable projects abroad over the past four years. Washington has also blocked licenses for planned private subsea cables that would have connected the United States with the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, including projects led by Google LLC, Meta Platforms, Inc and Amazon.com Inc.

Undersea cables carry more than 95% of all international internet traffic. These high-speed conduits for decades have been owned by groups of telecom and tech companies that pool their resources to build these vast networks so that data can move seamlessly around the world.

But these cables, which are vulnerable to spying and sabotage, have become weapons of influence in an escalating competition between the United States and China. The superpowers are battling to dominate the advanced technologies that could determine economic and military supremacy in the decades ahead.

The China-led EMA project is intended to directly rival another cable currently being constructed by US firm SubCom LLC, called SeaMeWe-6 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-6), which will also connect Singapore to France, via Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and half a dozen other countries along the route.

The consortium on the SeaMeWe-6 cable – which originally had included China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and telecom carriers from several other nations – initially picked HMN Tech to build that cable. But a successful US government pressure campaign flipped the contract to SubCom last year, Reuters reported in March.

The US blitz included giving millions of dollars in training grants to foreign telecom firms in return for them choosing SubCom over HMN Tech. The US Commerce Department also slapped sanctions on HMN Tech in December 2021, alleging the company intended to acquire American technology to help modernize China's People's Liberation Army. That move undermined the project's viability by making it impossible for owners of an HMN-built cable to sell bandwidth to US tech firms, usually their biggest customers.

China Telecom and China Mobile pulled out of the project after SubCom won the contract last year and, along with China Unicom, began planning the EMA cable, the four people involved said. The three state-owned Chinese telecom firms are expected to own more than half of the new network, but they are also striking deals with foreign partners, the people said.

The Chinese carriers this year signed separate memoranda of understanding with four telecoms, the people said: France's Orange SA, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), Telecom Egypt and Zain Saudi Arabia, a unit of the Kuwaiti firm Mobile Telecommunications Company K.S.C.P.

The Chinese companies have also held talks with Singapore Telecommunications Limited, a state-controlled firm commonly known as Singtel, while other countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East are being approached to join the consortium as well, the people involved said.

Orange declined to comment. Singtel, PTCL, Telecom Egypt and Zain did not respond to requests for comment.

American cable firm SubCom declined to comment on the rival cable. The Department of Justice, which oversees an interagency task force to safeguard US telecommunication networks from espionage and cyberattacks, declined to comment about the EMA cable.

A State Department spokesperson said the US supports a free, open and secure internet. Countries should prioritize security and privacy by "fully excluding untrustworthy vendors" from wireless networks, terrestrial and undersea cables, satellites, cloud services and data centers, the spokesperson said, without mentioning HMN Tech or China. The State Department did not respond to questions about whether it would mount a campaign to persuade foreign telecoms not to participate in the EMA cable project.

DIVIDING THE WORLD

Large undersea cable projects typically take at least three years to move from conception to delivery. The Chinese firms are hoping to finalize contracts by the end of the year and have the EMA cable online by the end of 2025, the people involved said.

The cable would give China strategic gains in its tussle with the United States, one of the people involved in the deal told Reuters.

Firstly, it would create a super-fast new connection between Hong Kong, China and much of the rest of the world, something Washington wants to avoid. Secondly, it gives China's state-backed telecom carriers greater reach and protection in the event they are excluded from US-backed cables in the future.

"It's like each side is arming itself with bandwidth," one telecom executive working on the deal said.

The construction of parallel US- and Chinese-backed cables between Asia and Europe is unprecedented, the four people involved in the project said. It is an early sign that global internet infrastructure, including cables, data centers and mobile phone networks, could become divided over the next decade, two security analysts told Reuters.

Countries could also be forced to choose between using Chinese-approved internet equipment or US-backed networks, entrenching divisions across the world and making tools that fuel the global economy, like online banking and global-positioning satellite systems, slower and less reliable, said Timothy Heath, a defense researcher at the RAND Corporation, a US-based think tank.

"It seems we are headed down a road where there will be a US-led internet and a Chinese-led internet ecosystem," Heath told Reuters. "The more the US and Chinese disengage from each other in the information technology domain, the more difficult it becomes to carry out global commerce and basic functions."

Antonia Hmaidi, an analyst at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, said the internet works so well because no matter where data needs to travel, it can zip along multiple different routes in the time it takes to read this word.

Hmaidi said if data has to follow routes that are approved in Washington and Beijing, then it will become easier for the United States and China to manipulate and spy on that data; internet users will suffer a degradation of service; and it will become more difficult to interact or do business with people around the world.

"Then suddenly the whole fabric of the internet doesn't work as it was intended," Hmaidi said.

The tit-for-tat battle over internet hardware mirrors the conflict taking place over social media apps and search engines created by US and Chinese firms.

The United States and its allies have banned the use of Chinese-owned short video app TikTok from government-owned devices due to national security concerns. Numerous countries have raised fears about the Chinese government gaining access to the data that TikTok collects on its users around the world.

China, meanwhile, already restricts what websites its citizens can see and blocks the apps and networks of many Western technology giants, including Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

THE FASCIST INTERNATIONAL
Portugal Party Chega Sets Far-Right World Summit With Brazil's Bolsonaro, Italy's Salvini

By Reuters
April 7, 2023

Far right political party Chega leader Andre Ventura gestures during a rally on the final day of campaigning ahead of Portugal's general election, in Lisbon, Portugal, January 28, 2022.

 REUTERS/Pedro Nunes

LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese party Chega will hold a world summit in Lisbon with several far-right party leaders in May, including former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, the president of Chega said on Friday.

In a video statement, the president of Chega, Andre Ventura, said Bolsonaro and Salvini "already accepted the invitation to the great right-wing world summit" on the 13th and 14th of May.

"The presence of Jair Bolsonaro, Matteo Salvini and many other leaders of the European right, places Lisbon as one of the strongest new centers of the right in Europe and one of the world references in the fight against socialism", he said.

In January 2022, Portugal's ruling Socialist Party gained an unexpected outright majority and the Social Democrats finished second, but Chega increased its support and became the third largest party in parliament.

In March, Ventura told journalists he also planned to invite Marine Le Pen of France or Geert Wilders of the Netherlands, leaders of far-right parties in their countries.

DEFENDING BENEFITS FROM CLAWBACK

Pension protesters target Paris bistro favoured by Macron

Laurent Berger, French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) union's general secretary and Sophie Binet, newly elected CGT trade union general secretary, sit prior to talks between Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and inter-unions representatives at Hotel de Matignon in Paris, France April 5, 2023 after a pensions reform was pushed through parliament by the French government without a vote, using the article 49.3 of the constitution. 

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt arrive for talks with inter-unions representatives at the Hotel de Matignon in Paris, France April 5, 2023 after a pensions reform was pushed through parliament by the French government without a vote, using the article 49.3 of the constitution. 

Bertrand Guay/Pool via REUTERS POOL▲

Updated Apr 6, 2023
By Antony Paone, Sarah Meyssonnier and Ingrid Melander

PARIS (Reuters) -Clashes erupted in Paris next to a Left Bank brasserie favoured by French President Emmanuel Macron as protesters torched garbage cans and smashed two banks during the eleventh day of nationwide demonstrations against pension reform.

The bistro La Rotonde, whose awning was set alight as protesters threw bottles and paint at police, is known in France for hosting a much-criticised celebratory dinner for Macron when he led the first round of the 2017 presidential election.

Protests against the flagship reform of Macron's second term, which lifts the retirement age by two years to 64, began in mid-January and have coalesced widespread anger against the president.

Labour unions on Thursday evening called for another day of nationwide protests on April 13.

"Strike, blockade, Macron walk away!" protesters chanted in the western city of Rennes, where police fired tear gas at protesters who threw projectiles at them and set bins on fire.

The street protests have become increasingly violent since the government pushed the pension legislation through parliament without a final vote due to a lack of support among lawmakers.

But police estimates indicate the number of people taking part may be falling.

On Thursday, black-clad anarchists smashed the windows of two banks and engaged riot police in cat-and-mouse skirmishes along the route of the street protest.

One police officer briefly lost consciousness after being struck on the helmet by a rock.

A total of 77 police force members were injured and 31 people were arrested as of 1820 GMT in Paris, police said.

Polls show a wide majority of voters oppose the pension legislation. But a source close to Macron said that was not what mattered.

"If the role of a president of the republic is to make decisions according to public opinion, there is no need to have elections," the source said. "Being president is to assume choices that may be unpopular at a given time."

'WITHDRAW THE REFORM'

Union leaders and protesters said the only way out of the crisis was for the legislation to be scrapped, an option which the government has repeatedly rejected.

"There is no other solution than withdrawing the reform," the new leader of the hardline CGT union, Sophie Binet, said at the start of the Paris rally.

The number of people striking in schools and disruption to train traffic was down on Thursday from a week earlier. On the streets, the hardline CGT said about 400,000 people joined the protest in Paris, down from 450,000 the week before. The interior ministry said 57,000 people attended in Paris, down sharply from the 93,000 reported a week earlier.

Nationwide, 570,000 people marched against the reform on Thursday, down from 740,000 a week earlier.

The numbers could bring some hope to officials who say they believe the rallies may be losing steam.

Laurent Berger, the leader of the moderate CFDT union told France 5 television that the figures were hefty for an eleventh day of protests.

"The real issue is that there is widespread resentment and social anger," Berger said, adding he condemned the violence.

A crucial date on the issue looms on April 14, when the Constitutional Council delivers its verdict on the pension bill. Constitutional experts say the council is unlikely to strike the legislation down, which may help weaken protests.

"Mobilisation will continue, one way or another ... It's a long distance race," the CGT's Binet said.

At the Paris rally, nurse Soraya Bouadouia said: "I will be here until the withdrawal of the pension reform, which is a completely unacceptable reform."

With Macron on an official trip to Beijing, one protester held a banner that read: "Macron resign. You will hear us all the way to China."

(Additional reporting by Stephane Mahe, Silvia Aloisi, Tassilo Hummel, Lucien Libert, Noemie Olive, Elizabeth Pineau, Michel Rose, Benoit Van Overstraeten; Alain Acco, Dominique Vidalon ; writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by Hugh Lawson, Mark Heinrich, Nick Macfie and Deepa Babington)

GEMOLOGY
Estrela de Fura: Largest Ever Ruby to be Auctioned for $30m

ByTasos Kokkinidis
April 7, 2023

The “once in a century” find is shaking up the gemstone industry.

 Credit: Sotheby’s

The largest ever ruby to be sold at auction, named Estrela de Fura – Fura Star in Portuguese will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York this summer.

The auction house is describing the gem, which was found in July 2022 in Mozambique as “an exceptional treasure.”

The 55.22-carat gem is unusual not only for its size and purity but also for its location. Until the discovery of Estrela de Fura, it was thought that only Burma held rubies of such color and clarity.

Some analysts said the “once in a century” find was shaking up the gemstone industry.

Sotheby’s has placed an estimate of more than $30 million that, if achieved, could make it the most valuable ruby ever sold at auction.

Sotheby’s said that even in its rough, 101-carat untouched state, the ruby “was considered by experts as an exceptional treasure of nature.”

It is celebrated “for its fluorescence, outstanding clarity and vivid red hue, known as ‘pigeon’s blood’ — a color traditionally associated only with Burmese rubies.”

Size and quality of the ruby is “almost unimaginable”

Quig Bruning, head of Sotheby’s Jewelry America, said the find had changed perceptions of African gems, putting them on par with Burmese.

“It is undoubtedly positioned to become the standard bearer for African rubies – and gemstones in general, bringing global awareness to their ability to be on par with, and even outshine, those from Burma, which have traditionally been the most desirable and recognizable source for rubies,” he said.

The Gubelin Gem Lab, one of two laboratories that graded the gem, said the size and the quality of the ruby was “almost unimaginable.”

“To see a natural ruby of this size, with such a combination of quality characteristics spared from treatment was considered almost unimaginable,” the New York-based firm said.

“The natural ruby of 55.22-carat is setting a new record not only for Mozambican rubies, but also for rubies in general.”

The other gem lab, Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF), also based in New York, wrote that the gem displays “vivid red hues due to multiple internal reflections.”

They said that a natural ruby from Mozambique of this size and quality can be considered very rare and thus an exceptional treasure of nature.

The current world record for a ruby sold at auction is held by the Sunrise Ruby, a 25.59 carat Burmese stone, which was auctioned at Sotheby’s Geneva in May 2015 for $30.3 million.

This price also established a new record for any ruby per carat ($1,185,451 per carat) at the time.

The ruby was found in an area of Mozambique, Cabo Delgado province, which has seen attacks from ISIS-inspired Islamist militants.

The town of Montepuez was attacked in October, with hundreds of people fleeing their homes, according to Human Rights Watch.

Two mines operating in the area – not run by Fura – were forced to cease operations amid the attacks.

Some people living near Colombian volcano loathe to evacuate

Credit: REUTERS/STRINGER
April 06, 2023 — 
Written by Andres Camilo Valencia for Reuters

BOGOTA, April 6 (Reuters) - Colombia's government is trying to speed up the evacuation of some 2,500 families living closest to the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, which is being monitored for a possible eruption, but some residents are refusing to leave.

The volcano's eruption in 1985 killed more than 25,000 people in Colombia's biggest-ever natural disaster, with avalanches of earth and rock fragments burying entire settlements.

The government has raised the volcano's alert level to orange, following a surge in seismic activity that suggests a heightened chance of an eruption in the coming days or weeks, and begun some preventative evacuations.

President Gustavo Petro has asked for evacuations to move more quickly and disaster officials have said livestock - critical to many livelihoods in the rural area - may be moved as well, or farmers will be allowed to return during the day to care for them.

But some residents, including families who survived the devastating 1985 eruption by the Nevado del Ruiz, which straddles the border between Tolima and Caldas provinces, say they will not go.

"It doesn't scare me because it already exploded," said Evelio Ortiz, a potato farmer who survived the 1985 eruption with his wife and five children. "What was going to erode eroded."



 Evelio Ortiz, a farmer who grows potatoes, plows the land in a field near the Arenas crater, after authorities declared an orange alert at the Nevado del Ruiz volcano and asked the population for a preventive evacuation in Herveo, Colombia April 5, 2023. 

 Evelio Ortiz, a farmer who grows potatoes, poses for a photo holding some potatoes in a field near the Arenas crater, after the authorities declared an orange alert at the Nevado del Ruiz volcano and asked the population for a preventive evacuation in Herveo, Colombia April 5, 2023. 

 Evelio Ortiz, a farmer who grows potatoes, looks for signal on his cell phone while walking through a field near the Arenas crater, after the authorities declared an orange alert at the Nevado del Ruiz volcano and asked the population for a preventive evacuation in Herveo, Colombia April 5, 2023. 

REUTERS/Andres Camilo Valencia

Some 57,000 people live in the volcano's hazard zone, which is spread across parts of six provinces, according to the national disaster management agency.

The preventative evacuations are necessary because poor communication infrastructure may make it difficult to contact those living closest to the volcano in the event of an imminent eruption, authorities have said.

The 1985 tragedy is the fourth-deadliest volcanic eruption in human history, according to the Smithsonian Institution.

The Nevado del Ruiz is a stratovolcano or composite volcano.

(Reporting by Andres Camilo Valencia; Writing by Luis Jaime Acosta and Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Colombia informal miners end month of protests, will dialogue with govt

Reuters | April 7, 2023 |


Informal miners in northern Colombia have ended more than a month of sometimes-violent protests, agreeing to talks with the government to try and improve labor conditions and formalize their operations, the government said on Thursday.


The protests, which began in early March, have included roadblocks which at one point were affecting hundreds of thousands of residents in two provinces, causing shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

The government has accused major crime gang the Clan del Golfo of inciting violence at the demonstrations and of deadly attacks on security forces, leading President Gustavo Petro to call off a ceasefire with the group.

“The suspension of the miners strike in Bajo Cauca and the northeast of Antioquia is a positive decision of communities taking the reins of their own destiny,” Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said on Twitter, adding security forces would remain in the area.

Talks will focus on finding technological alternatives for informal gold extraction, the interior ministry said in its own statement, as well as formalization of mining operations and attention for people living in the area.

Much of Colombia’s gold output comes from either subsistence miners – who scrap a living panning in rivers or working in dangerous tunnels – or illegal operations run by armed groups.

The armed forces destroyed at least 13 excavators during the protests in a bid to hit illegal operators, whose use of heavy equipment and mercury are considered serious threats to the environment.

(By Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

U.S. arrests retired Salvadoran officer implicated in atrocities

April 06, 2023 

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - U.S. agents arrested a retired Salvadoran military officer this week on charges of participating in a brutal massacre of civilians during El Salvador's grinding civil war in the 1980s, according to a statement on Thursday.

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Roberto Garay on Tuesday in the state of New Jersey, the agency said.

Garay served as section commander of a special military unit known as the Atlacatl Battalion from 1981 to 1985.

Retired Salvadoran general Juan Rafael Bustillo acknowledged in 2020 that Atlacatl was responsible for the notorious 1981 El Mozote massacre, in which more than 1,0000 villagers, mostly women and children, were slaughtered.

The battalion carried out extrajudicial executions at El Mozote, as well as in three other massacres in which "hundreds of noncombatant civilians" were killed, ICE said.

Garay then "willfully" misrepresented his involvement in the massacre from an immigration application he had submitted, according to the statement.

Reuters was not immediately able to locate Garay's lawyer.

One of several bloody Central American conflicts linked to the Cold War, El Salvador's 1980-1992 civil war pitted the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) rebels against the army of the U.S.-backed right-wing government.

The war left some 75,000 dead and another 8,000 missing.

Touting the agency's investigation team that aims to hold accused war criminals accountable, ICE stressed that individuals like Garay must be investigated, prosecuted and expelled from the United States.

"Individuals who have committed atrocities overseas will not find safe haven in the United States," Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security John K. Tien said in the statement.

(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Valentine Hilaire; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Rosalba O'Brien)

By Nelson Renteria

Sheep Creek Montana rare earth deposits selected by USGS for exploration and mapping

Amanda Stutt | April 7, 2023

 
US Critical Mineral’s Crowley Adit #3 at Sheep Creek, Montana, showing banded carbonatite exposed near the top of the right rib. Credit: US Critical Minerals.

As part of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Mapping Resource Initiative (EMRI), the USGS, in cooperation with the Montana Bureau of Mines, announced it is conducting a high-resolution flyover, an aeromagnetic and aero-radiometric survey at US Critical Materials Corp.’s Sheep Creek property in southwest Montana.


Detailed geologic mapping and geochemical sampling will also be conducted to further define rare earth mineralization already identified. The total claim block held by US Critical Materials is 7 square miles.

US Critical Materials announced in February that rare earth samples from 125 feet underground at its flagship Sheep Creek Montana property reported grades that exceed any other domestic rare earth resource.

The Salt-Lake City, Utah-based privately held company said results from Activation Labs in Ontario, Canada confirm over 10% of total rare earth oxides, (TREO) including high levels of neodymium and praseodymium.

Sheep Creek also has exceptionally low radioactive thorium, which will allow for more environmentally friendly extracting and processing, the company said.

US Critical Materials has nearly 90% TREO (89,932 ppm), far ahead of any other domestic rare earth resource. The deposit also has readings of 2.4% (23,810 ppm) combined neodymium and praseodymium, which are both essential for the green economy.

Critical Materials president Jim Hedrick, a former rare earth commodity specialist for the USGS, said the combination of high-grade rare earths, low thorium, and carbonatites 125 feet below surface is a geological phenomenon that “does not exist in other reported US deposits.”

Hedrick said the pre-resource-stage deposit is valued at a “conservative” $43 billion.

“Over the course of my career independently evaluating rare earth properties within the US, I have never encountered a property with the grades being generated by Sheep Creek,” Hedrick told MINING.COM in an interview in February.

“The company’s geologists have discovered multiple carbonatites and believe there may be a common underground source for these carbonatites,” Hendrick said.

He added that the company’s geologists found 50 carbonites over 800 acres, and they believe there is a ‘continuous source’ underground that ties it all together.

“The goal of Earth MRI is to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework in the United States and to identify areas that may have the potential to contain undiscovered critical mineral resources,” the USGS said in a statement.

“Enhancement of our domestic mineral supply will decrease the nation’s reliance on foreign sources of minerals that are fundamental to our security and economy.”