UNITED STATES
Chocolate plant blast kills 2
An explosion at a chocolate factory in Pennsylvania on Friday killed two people and left nine people missing, authorities said. Several other people were injured by the explosion at the R.M. Palmer Co plant, said West Reading Borough Police Chief Wayne Holben, who did not confirm the exact number of injured. The explosion just before 5pm sent a plume of black smoke into the air, destroying one building and damaging a neighboring building that included apartments. “It’s pretty leveled,” West Reading Borough Mayor Samantha Kaag said of the explosion site. “The building in the front, with the church and the apartments, the explosion was so big that it moved that building four feet forward.” The cause of the blast in the community about 96km northwest of Philadelphia was under investigation, Holden told reporters.
MEXICO
Court suspends elections bill
The Supreme Court on Friday suspended a controversial electoral reform bill after it was slammed by the country’s political opposition as an “attack” on democracy ahead of next year’s polls. The bill, which had been approved last month by lawmakers mostly from the ruling party, slashes the budget of the electoral commission — a key independent institution mandated to safeguard elections. Tens of thousands of people have protested the bill, which they say weakens the commission and tips the balance of power in the upcoming polls in favor of the ruling party. Court said that Judge Javier Laynez had “accepted the suspension requested by the National Electoral Institute concerning all the articles of the decree that are contested.” It granted the suspension because of the “possible violation of the political and electoral rights of citizens,” it said.
UNITED STATES
Haitian pleads guilty
Dual Haitian-Chilean citizen Rodolphe Jaar, one of several men accused in the 2021 murder of Haitian president Jovenel Moise, on Friday pled guilty to charges related to the assassination, court documents show. Jaar, 50, admitted before a judge that he provided “material support and resources” knowing that they would be used to kidnap and kill the president, his plea statement says. Jaar, a businessman, is the first among 11 people charged by US prosecutors in south Florida with a role in planning the assassination. The 53-year-old Haitian leader was gunned down on July 7, 2021, by Colombian mercenaries at his private residence in Port-au-Prince. His security detail did not intervene.
UNITED STATES
Migrants die in train car
Two migrants were found dead and at least 10 were hospitalized on Friday after police in South Texas received a call that they were “suffocating” in a freight train traveling near the US-Mexico border. Border Patrol was informed of the phone call and stopped the train, the Uvalde Police Department said in a statement. Union Pacific railroad said in a statement that the people were found in two cars on the train traveling east from Eagle Pass bound for San Antonio: 12 in a shipping container and three in a hopper car. The two people who died were in the shipping container, it said. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez told the San Antonio-Express News that dispatchers received a 911 call about 3:50pm from an unknown person seeking help. “We’re still trying to determine if it was from someone inside the car,” Rodriguez said. “We’re assuming it was from inside one of the cars.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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