US-Mexico border detentions top 100,000 for second month in a row

WASHINGTON, May 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of migrants detained entering the United States from Mexico without documents in April topped 100,000 for the second month in a row, US border officials said. “Our apprehension numbers are off the charts compared to recent years,” Carla Provost, the chief of the…

Amid plague of US mass shootings, ‘heroes’ emerge

32 WASHINGTON, May 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — With no end in sight to the mass shootings that have traumatized the country in recent decades, Americans are now finding hope in the actions of “heroes” who have sacrificed their lives to save others amidst hails of bullets. Kendrick Castillo became the latest…

South Africa Readies for Elections, Ruling ANC Expects Win

PRETORIA, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — South Africans are ready to vote on May 8 in its sixth general election since the end of the white apartheid rule in 1994. Facing a different political landscape, as almost 50 parties will compete for the favor of 26.7 million eligible voters, the ruling…

Five dead, 233 detained after attempted coup in Venezuela

CARACAS, May 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — At least five people were killed and around 233 people arrested after the April 30 coup attempt in Venezuela, Venezuela’s prosecutor general Tarek William Saab said Monday. In an interview with local television, Saab said that the coup was carried out through a call by…

Spanish PM Sanchez starts talks to form gov’t

MADRID, May 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez opened talks on Monday with leaders of the country’s main political parties in an attempt to form a government in the wake of his Socialist Party’s (PSOE) victory in the April 28 general election. Sanchez met Pablo Casado, leader of…

U.S. sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, Iran flout int’l code of conduct: UN expert

GENEVA, May 7 (NNN-Xinhua) — The imposition of “unilateral coercive measures” on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran by the United States violates human rights, and the norms of international behavior, an expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said here Monday. Idriss Jazairy, the UN Special Rapporteur concerned with the…

Two more swine fever outbreaks detected in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two more outbreaks of African swine fever were detected in South Africa in April, its agriculture ministry said, following a spate of the disease in the country’s North West province earlier that month. The two further outbreaks were detected in the central province of Gauteng,…

Brazil police shoot dead eight in Rio favela

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian police shot dead eight people in one of Rio de Janeiro’s biggest slums on Monday, an official said, just days after figures showed a record number of killings by state officers in the first quarter. “We confirm that eight suspects were killed…

Mexican president’s new airport flies into turbulence

MEXICO CITY, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — For a groundbreaking ceremony, there was suspiciously little ground broken as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador symbolically inaugurated work on a new Mexico City airport. Smiling and waving an orange flag, the anti-establishment leftist stood before a line of heavy construction equipment last Monday,…

Brazil President Bolsonaro mulls trip to Texas after NYC visit nixed

BRASILIA: Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro is considering travelling to the United States to be honoured at an event in Texas next week, his spokesman said, just days after he cancelled a heavily criticized visit to New York City. Spokesman Otavio Rego Barros, speaking at a regular press briefing, said…