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Tag: Caribbean

  • Veronica Ryan wins Turner Prize for evocative sculptures

    Veronica Ryan wins Turner Prize for evocative sculptures

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    LONDON — Artist Veronica Ryan has won the prestigious Turner Prize for work that transforms materials including fruits, seeds and volcanic ash into elusive and evocative sculptures.

    The Montserrat-born British artist was awarded the 25,000-pound ($30,000) prize at a ceremony in Liverpool, England on Wednesday evening. She won for work including public sculptures in London’s Hackney area in the shape of tropical fruits – custard apple, breadfruit and soursop — that honor the contribution to Britain of post-World War II immigrants from the Caribbean.

    “Better late than never,” said Ryan, who at 66 is the oldest artist ever to win the prize.

    The Turner Prize judges praised the “personal and poetic way she extends the language of sculpture” through found and often forgotten objects and materials including fruits, plants, seeds and volcanic ash from the Caribbean island where she was born.

    Work by Ryan and three other finalists is on display at the Tate Liverpool museum in northwest England until March 19.

    Named for 19th-century landscape painter J.M.W. Turner, the award was founded in 1984 and helped make stars of potter Grayson Perry, sculptor Anish Kapoor, shark-pickling artist Damien Hirst and filmmaker Steve McQueen.

    But it has also been criticized for rewarding impenetrable conceptual work and often sparks debate about the value of modern art. In 2019, all four finalists were declared winners after they refused to compete against one another. Last year all five finalists were collectives rather than individual artists. The 2021 winner was the 11-member Array Collective from Northern Ireland.

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  • Polynesian pride: Three-day canoe voyage in mid-Pacific

    Polynesian pride: Three-day canoe voyage in mid-Pacific

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    RAPA NUI, Chile (AP) — The causes are worthy, the course is daunting – almost 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) across a stretch of the Pacific Ocean in a large canoe.

    It’s the Hoki Mai Challenge, which started Saturday in Rapa Nui, a territory in the Pacific that is part of Chile and is better known as Easter Island.

    The event consists of a canoe voyage in which nine Rapanuis, two Chileans and one Hawaiian seek to raise awareness about the importance of women in the world, urge protection of the environment, and celebrate the union of the islands of Polynesia.

    The 12 athletes have been training six days a week since mid-September, preparing for a voyage that will take them from Rapa Nui to Motu Motiro Hiva, another island in the mid-Pacific that belongs to Chile.

    “It won’t be easy,” said Gilles Bordes, coordinator of Hoki Mai. “Three days and three nights.”

    Bordes moved to Rapa Nui earlier this year, but he has lived in Polynesia for three decades, devoting much of his time to rowing.

    “I am very grateful to all the Tahitians for teaching me their culture and how to row,” he said. “I came from France, but they accepted me and allowed me to share this with them.”

    Hoki Mai pursues three goals. The first is to honor canoeing in Polynesia, which has been practiced for centuries. The second relates to the environment. Motu Motiro Hiva –also called Salas y Gómez– is an uninhabited island, but its land and the surrounding waters have been affected by pollution.

    The third purpose relates to gender equality. The team will carry a small female moai – one of the ancient statues that Easter Island is famous for — to raise awareness about the importance of women in the world. A bigger statue — carved by a local artisan for Hoki Mai — will be taken to Motu Motiro Hiva in March.

    During the voyage, rowing will be done in relays: groups of six will row for about four hours, then be replaced by the next shift. Those who need to rest will do so in a Chilean navy ship escorting the canoe.

    “The training has been hard, especially for those of us who are less experienced,” said Konturi Atán, a 36-year-old historian.

    Atán said a crewmember invited him to join a few months ago while he was out paddling a one-person canoe.

    “He told me: I need you to come on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help us; we’re lacking enough people to train,” said Atán, who rowed with them, shared a meal, then said “yes” to joining the challenge.

    On training days, they often started before dawn to get accustomed to the darkness they will face during much of the Hoki Mai.

    “We practiced rowing at night, we practiced getting little sleep, we practiced training every day. Gym, rowing, gym, rowing, gym, rowing. Except for Sunday, when we rest,” Atán said.

    Spirituality and sacredness are pervasive in Rapa Nui, including with cooking rituals and songs about their history. Sports also incorporates spirituality.

    Several days before the trip, the canoe built for Hoki Mai was blessed with a “umu”, which involves cooking underground with hot stones in a sacred ceremony.

    “We did it with a white chicken,” Atán said. “It is something spiritual. Eating a piece is a connection to our roots.”

    Their cultural legacy is also linked to the moai, like the one they’ll carry with them to Motu Motiro Hiva.

    The moai are perhaps the most recognizable symbols of Rapa Nui.

    Carved in volcanic stone between 1000 and 1600 AD from the slopes of the Rano Raraku volcano, they represent the ancestors of the various clans whose descendants still inhabit Rapa Nui. They were placed on ceremonial platforms called “ahus” with their torsos facing the island to provide protection. They attracted international attention in October after a fire damaged dozens of them.

    Ahus were built in some other places in Polynesia, but moais are exclusive to Rapa Nui. The bond between neighboring islands is still strong. Rapa Nui, Tahiti, Hawaii and even New Zealand share language similarities and other features.

    Now, with Hoki Mai, there’s also an expectation that those ties expand beyond Polynesia. That’s why the Rapanui and the Hawaiian will row with two “continental” Chileans, as the locals identify those who come from the Chilean mainland in South America.

    “The idea of the canoe is also union,” said Gilles Bordes. “Six people doing the same thing to go forward. The union of cultures. That is why people from Chile are going to row, to show that together we can move towards a better future.”

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • Mexico pledges to complete huge elevated train in one year

    Mexico pledges to complete huge elevated train in one year

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    MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s troubled Maya Train tourist project will now include a 45-mile (72 kilometer) stretch of elevated trackway through the jungle, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday.

    López Obrador has changed his mind a number of times on his pet project, which is intended to ferry tourists around the Yucatan peninsula. The project was initially supposed to run on an elevated line over the coastal highway, where most hotels are.

    But opposition from hotel owners led him to change the route by cutting a 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath through the jungle between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum.

    That faces opposition from environmentalists who say the train will crush or contaminate the network of caves and sinkhole lakes around the resorts of Tulum and Playa del Carmen.

    And engineers worried the fragile, cave-ridden limestone soil will collapse under the weight of the high-speed train. But the president now says two-thirds of the line won’t touch the ground.

    Instead, it will be elevated on thousands of 80-foot (25 meter) pilings sunk into the stony soil, supporting pre-fabricate elevated sections eight feet (2.5 meters) above the ground.

    “This will have a minimal effect, because where they sink the pilots is where there isn’t anything,” López Obrador said.

    Activists rejected the idea that the engineers could avoid caves when they sink the support columns, or that the train won’t have any impact, noting millions of trees have already been clear-cut for the project.

    “They do not have the technical ability to sink the columns where there are no caves, because they (the caves) are everywhere,” said Jose ‘Pepe’ Urbina, a diver who has explored the caverns for decades.

    He said the construction was already contaminating the normally crystalline water that flows through the cave systems in the Yucatan, which has no surface rivers and depends largely on the underground water.

    “It’s stupid to build a train on this soil, build a train in the middle of the jungle, build a train that pollutes the water,” Urbina said.

    The latest change also raised doubts about whether such an elevated trackway — which López Obrador said will include a 260-foot (80 meter) suspension bridge over one particularly extensive cavern — can be completed as the president has promised within one year.

    The 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) Maya Train line is meant to run in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites.

    Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in the sinkhole caves known as “cenotes” on the country’s Caribbean coast, which were often dry and frequented by humans as long as 13,000 years ago.

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  • AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean

    AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean

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    ByThe Associated Press

    December 2, 2022, 12:03 AM

    Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal, left, returns a ball to Norway’s Casper Rudd as they visit the Quito metro station during their Latin American tour, in Ecuador, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022.(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

    The Associated Press

    Nov. 25-Dec. 1, 2022

    This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by Associated Press photographers in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was curated by AP photo editor Tomas Stargardter in Mexico City.

    Follow AP visual journalism:

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews

    AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP—Images

    AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com

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  • US Virgin Islands reach $105M settlement with Epstein estate

    US Virgin Islands reach $105M settlement with Epstein estate

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. Virgin Islands announced Wednesday that it reached a settlement of more than $105 million in a sex trafficking case against the estate of financier Jeffrey Epstein.

    The settlement ends a nearly three-year legal saga for officials in the U.S. territory, which sought to hold Epstein accountable after he was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls and of causing environmental damage on the two tiny islands he owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The islands will be sold as part of the agreement.

    “This settlement restores the faith of the people of the Virgin Islands that its laws will be enforced, without fear or favor, against those who break them,” Attorney General Denise George said.

    Epstein’s estate agreed to pay the territorial government $105 million in cash and half of the proceeds from the sale of Little St. James island where Epstein owned a home and authorities allege many of his crimes took place.

    The estate also will pay $450,000 to repair environmental damage on Great St. James, another island Epstein owned where authorities say he removed the ruins of colonial-era historical structures of slaves.

    The money from the sale of Little St. James island will be placed in a government trust to finance projects, organizations, counseling and other activities to help residents who have been sexually abused, officials said.

    “We owe it to those who were so profoundly hurt to make changes that will help avoid the next set of victims,” said George, who added that she met with three alleged victims who were trafficked and sexually exploited on Little St. James island.

    A real estate company is listing the island for $55 million, noting that its features include three beaches, a helipad, a gas station and more than 70 acres (28 hectares) of land that offer “an array of subdivision possibilities” and “a comprehensive, discreetly located, infrastructure support system.”

    The company also is offering Great St. James for $55 million, an island of more than 160 acres (65 hectares) with three beaches.

    In addition, the estate will return more than $80 million in economic tax benefits that U.S. Virgin Islands officials say Epstein and his co-defendants “fraudulently obtained to fuel his criminal enterprise.”

    The government previously accused an Epstein-owned business known as Southern Trust Co. of making fraudulent misrepresentations to qualify for the benefits.

    Daniel Weiner, an Epstein estate attorney, sent a statement to The Associated Press saying that the settlement does not include any admission or concession of liability or fault by the estate or anyone else.

    “The co-executors deny any allegations of wrongdoing on their part,” he wrote. “The co-executors ultimately concluded that the settlement is in the best interest of the estate.”

    Weiner also noted that the estate has paid more than $121 million to 136 individuals via a victims’ compensation fund.

    Epstein killed himself at a federal jail in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually abusing dozens of girls, some as young as 14 years old.

    Several had sued Epstein and accused him and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, of pressuring them into sexual trysts with powerful men.

    Maxwell, who was convicted on sex trafficking and other charges, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June.

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  • Column: Major champions and the significant shots they hit

    Column: Major champions and the significant shots they hit

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    NASSAU, Bahamas — All it takes is one shot to settle the nerves, to create momentum or restore confidence, or in the case of Justin Thomas, to stop the bleeding.

    Thomas has won the PGA Championship twice, and both times he looked back to a moment before the final round that was crucial to winning.

    It’s like that for other major champions, too.

    In a series of interviews, they shared the signature shot of the major they won, along with a shot that was pleasing because of the subtle quality or the circumstances.

    MASTERS

    Scottie Scheffler was so nervous about his three-shot lead going into Sunday at Augusta National that he was in tears that morning. Two holes into the final round, the lead was down to one and Scheffler was in trouble again on the third hole.

    The memorable shot of what became a runaway victory was chipping in from short of the third green for birdie. Smith made bogey for a two-shot swing, the lead was back to three and no one got closer the rest of the way.

    “The timing of it was great,” Scheffler said with a laugh. “I was trying to get it up there to have a putt. At worse, I’d have a good look at par. And it happened to go in.”

    But it was another wedge a few holes earlier that really stood out. The one place to avoid with the traditional Sunday pin on No. 1 is long. Scheffler was in the trees and hit a good punch shot that rolled just over the back.

    “It’s one of the hardest pitches on the course,” he said. “You have this shelf. You’re down below the green. Everything runs away from you. The odds of keeping it on that top shelf? I don’t know if you can tell on TV but it goes up, down, left to right. It’s such a hard shot. I hit it so well it looked like it wasn’t hard.

    “That was the chip that got me settled in that all right, I can do this.”

    PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

    Thomas was in a three-hole playoff at Southern Hills with Will Zalatoris, both opening with birdie on the par-5 13th. Next was the reachable par-4 17th, with a creek to the right that meanders in front of the green.

    “I hit it in the left bunker in regulation, so I knew that had to be my miss,” he said. “I aimed at the left bunker, cut it to the second one, and if the wind wants to take that up the gap, great. As soon as it came off, it was a perfect shot.”

    It found the green for a two-putt birdie and one-shot lead, and he won with a par on 18.

    The meaningful shot cleaned up a mess from the day before.

    Thomas was sliding from contention with each of the five bogeys he made through 15 holes, one of them on the par-5 13th. The 16th hole looked like another when he drove into the rough, had to chip out and hit a pedestrian wedge to 25 feet.

    “I was leaking oil, playing bad. It was really rough,” Thomas said. “I hit a poor wedge to 25 or 30 feet and made that for par, and I birdied 17. I bogey that hole and don’t birdie 17, it’s over.”

    U.S. OPEN

    “The one thing I’ve been really struggling with this year is fairway bunker play,” Matt Fitzpatrick said after winning at Brookline.

    That’s what led to his first major. He had a one-shot lead when he drove into the bunker left of the 18th fairway. With the steep lip, it looked like his safest option was short of the green. He hit a “squeezy fade” from 156 yards with a 9-iron to 18 feet for par.

    “It was just kind of natural ability took over and just played the shot that was at hand, if I was a junior trying to hit it close,” Fitzpatrick shot.

    Three holes earlier, he hit a 5-iron out of the rough on the 15th that led to birdie. But it was another birdie, even more unlikely, that stands out to him.

    “The putt on 13,” he said. “It was 50 feet. For whatever reason, I genuinely felt good over the putt. I felt like I had a chance, and you don’t often get that. I’ve had it multiple times over 10-footers and 20-footers. That one … I felt good over it.”

    As for the timing? He had missed a 6-foot par putt on No. 10. He three-putted from 15 feet on the par-3 11th, falling two shots behind. And then he dropped the big one.

    “It just changed the momentum for me,” he said.

    BRITISH OPEN

    Imagine leading the 150th Open at St. Andrews by one shot on the 17th hole, 40 yards away with the notorious Road Hole bunker between you and the pin.

    “It was pretty daunting,” Cameron Smith said. “I hit a great putt. I figured somewhere on the putting surface I’d have a good look at par.”

    The danger was losing pace if it started too close to the edge and funneling into the pot bunker. The pace was perfect and settled 10 feet away. Smith made everything on Sunday, and that par putt was no exception.

    “I was trying to hit it to a certain spot on the green and trying not to think of the big bunker that was staring me right in the face,” he said. “That’s probably the one shot on the back nine where if it goes pear-shaped, we’re not talking.”

    He made five straight birdies in that closing 64. But when asked for a meaningful shot, he thought back to the second round, a 3-wood into the par-5 14th for an eagle.

    “My favorite shot of the week,” he said. “I had to take a little off a 3-wood and hold it off the breeze, and it turned out perfect.”

    It told him the long game was in top form. The short game never seems to leave him.

    ———

    AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • Felipe Valls Sr., founder of iconic restaurant central to Miami’s Cuban community, dies at 89 | CNN

    Felipe Valls Sr., founder of iconic restaurant central to Miami’s Cuban community, dies at 89 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Cuban businessman Felipe Valls Sr., founder of the iconic Versailles restaurant in Miami, Florida, died Saturday, his granddaughter, Nicole Valls confirmed to CNN. He was 89 years old.

    Nicole Valls did not provide further details on her grandfather’s death, but said the family’s spokespeople are expected to provide more information at a later time.

    After Valls opened his restaurant on Miami’s emblematic Calle Ocho 51 years ago, it became a vital gathering place for exiled Cubans who could congregate over flaky guava pastelitos and other familiar dishes.

    The landmark spot in the city’s Little Havana neighborhood is still a usual point of concentration for activists and members of the Cuban community in South Florida. It also serves as a meeting point for demonstrations on political issues involving the island.

    Miami Mayor Francis Suarez mourned Valls’ loss on Saturday, describing the businessman as “an extraordinary human being who served his family, his beloved Miami, and the freedom of Cuba with supreme devotion.”

    Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a tweet Valls was “the true embodiment of the American dream.”

    “As a leader, philanthropist and brilliant businessman, he shaped (Versailles) into the pulse of our community for over five decades,” the mayor wrote.

    Those sentiments were echoed by Florida State Representative Daniel Perez, who tweeted his condolences for the loss of “an icon in our community.”

    Media outlets, including CNN, have visited Versailles over the years to gauge the opinions of the Cuban community on various issues and significant events such as Fidel Castro’s death in 2016, when crowds filled the streets around the cafe, banding pots and pans and popping champagne, according to CNN affiliate WSVN.

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  • Mexico wants American extradited on charges in tourist death

    Mexico wants American extradited on charges in tourist death

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    CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Mexican prosecutors have filed charges against a U.S. woman suspected of killing another American seen being beaten in a viral video.

    Prosecutors in the state of Baja California Sur did not name the suspect in the Oct. 29 death of Shanquella Robinson.

    But on Thursday, they said they had approached Mexican federal prosecutors and diplomats to try to get the woman extradited to face charges in Mexico.

    Robinson’s death at a resort development in San Jose del Cabo shocked people in both countries. The video raised suspicions that Robinson may have died at the hands of people she was traveling with.

    Local prosecutor Antonio López Rodríguez said the case was being treated as a potential homicide and an arrest warrant had been issued for the suspect. The group Robinson was traveling with, however, left Mexico after she was found dead in a rented villa.

    State prosecutor Daniel de la Rosa Anaya said the suspect was also an American, but did not identify her.

    News outlets in Charlotte, North Carolina, reported that the people Robinson was traveling with gave differing versions of how she died, but that an autopsy revealed she died of a severe spinal cord or neck injury.

    A video apparently taped at the luxury villa in San Jose del Cabo shows one woman, apparently an American, beating another woman identified as Robinson.

    The video has been reposted many times on social media sites. In it, a man with an American accent can be heard saying, “Can you at least fight back?” The man did not appear to intervene in the beating.

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  • Dominican Republic expels 1,800 children to Haiti: UNICEF

    Dominican Republic expels 1,800 children to Haiti: UNICEF

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    HAVANA (AP) — Dominican authorities have expelled at least 1,800 unaccompanied Haitian migrant children this year, sending them back to their crisis-stricken country, UNICEF said.

    The Dominican Republic denied the claim, which came Tuesday amid the government’s intensifying crackdown on migration in response to a cholera outbreak and ongoing gang violence in Haiti. The two countries share a 240-mile (390-kilometer) border on the island of Hispaniola.

    The crackdown has provoked harsh criticism by international observers, including the United States, which have accused the country of mass deportations, racist treatment of migrants and detentions of Haitians in facilities with poor conditions.

    Among those fleeing to the Dominican Republic are girls and boys, many of whom are sent back to Haiti through different border points, where they have been received by UNICEF partners at the border, according to the organization.

    The information was first reported by CNN, and confirmed by UNICEF, which declined to comment further. It is still unclear if the children were expelled without their parents, got separated during the journey or fled Haiti alone.

    Venancio Alcántara, director of the Dominican Republic’s migration authority, denied the claims, saying the agency follows specific procedures with child migrants and that “minors are with their parents at all times.”

    “All deportations are carried out with complete and absolute respect for human dignity and human rights,” Alcántara wrote in a statement Tuesday.

    Tensions fueled by migration have simmered for years between the two countries, but they have only deepened since the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, which thrust an already crisis-stricken Haiti into chaos.

    Dominican authorities say heightened border enforcement and deportations are crucial to national security amid intensifying turmoil in the neighboring country. An unidentified number of protesters last week attempted to burn down the Dominican consulate in Cap-Haïtien, a municipality in the north of the country, Haitian authorities said Wednesday.

    Haiti last week accused its neighbor of subjecting fleeing Haitians to “inhumane, cruel and degrading conditions,” while the United States Embassy in the country’s capital, Santo Domingo, warned that darker-skinned Americans could be targeted by authorities in the country.

    “There are reports that detainees are held in overcrowded detention centers, without the ability to challenge their detention and without access to food or toilets, sometimes for days, before being released or deported to Haiti,” the U.S. notice added.

    The Dominican Republic said it “profusely rejects” the allegations, which they say are not backed up by evidence, and said they will only increase deportations.

    Authorities say they deported 43,900 migrants, mostly Haitians, between July and October, according to figures from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In September and October alone, deportation figures shot up by about 50%.

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  • No. 20 UCLA beats Marquette for Battle 4 Atlantis title

    No. 20 UCLA beats Marquette for Battle 4 Atlantis title

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    PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Freshman Kiki Rice scored 18 points and Gina Conti added 16 to help No. 20 UCLA hold off Marquette 66-58 in overtime to win the Battle 4 Atlantis championship Monday.

    Senior Charisma Osborne had just nine points after two big tournament games, but she was named the tournament’s most valuable player after joining with Conti and senior Camryn Brown to make down-the-stretch plays that guided the Bruins (6-0) to the title.

    Osborne shot just 4 of 16, but she scored the first basket of OT on a tough runner to put the Bruins ahead to stay. That was part of a game-closing flurry that saw Osborne, Conti and Brown combine to score eight of UCLA’s last nine baskets starting from late in the third quarter.

    Brown finished with just four points but had six rebounds and five steals, including one for a runout basket for a 57-53 lead in OT.

    Chloe Marotta scored 15 points to lead the Golden Eagles (5-1), though Jordan King had just 10 points before fouling out early in overtime.

    The Bruins and Eagles threw the second-ever Atlantis women’s tournament off its projected course with upsets. First there was Marquette beating No. 3 Texas in Saturday’s first round, then UCLA followed with a romp against No. 11 Tennessee in Sunday’s semifinals.

    A year after a 1-vs-2 matchup between South Carolina and Connecticut for the title, this year’s championship paired two unranked teams at tipoff — though the Bruins entered the new AP Top 25 during the game and played the second half as a ranked team.

    BIG PICTURE

    Marquette: The Golden Eagles were picked to finish sixth in the Big East, but beating Texas and then Gonzaga in the semifinals brought them close to cracking the AP Top 25. This tough three-day performance might push them over the hump next week.

    UCLA: The Bruins entered Atlantis with the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class starting to settle into the college game, along with strong play from Osborne. But this was a reminder of the value of veterans to guide talented youngsters like Rice, the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruit.

    UP NEXT

    Marquette: The Golden Eagles host Saint Francis on Sunday.

    UCLA: The Bruins host Jackson State on Friday before making a trip east to play at No. 1 South Carolina next week.

    ———

    Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap

    ———

    AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP—Top25

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  • Collapsed FTX owes nearly $3.1 billion to top 50 creditors | CNN Business

    Collapsed FTX owes nearly $3.1 billion to top 50 creditors | CNN Business

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    CNN Business
     — 

    Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has filed for US bankruptcy court protection, said it owes its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion.

    The exchange owes about $1.45 billion to its top ten creditors, it said in a court filing on Saturday, without naming them.

    FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Nov. 11 in one of the highest-profile crypto blowups, leaving an estimated 1 million customers and other investors facing total losses in the billions of dollars.

    The crypto exchange said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses. A hearing on FTX’s so-called first-day motions is set for Tuesday morning before a US bankruptcy judge, according to a separate court filing.

    FTX’s rapid collapse marked a stunning downfall for one of the biggest and most powerful players in the crypto industry.

    There could be more than 1 million creditors in the US cases that are already filed, FTX Group said, adding that it has been in touch with “dozens” of US and international regulatory agencies including the US Attorney’s Office, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

    Meanwhile, authorities in the Bahamas — where FTX is based — are investigating whether any criminal misconduct occurred related to the company’s implosion, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement last Sunday. The Bahamian authorities have also taken control of cryptocurrency assets held by FTX Digital Markets, The Bahamas-based FTX unit that filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.

    The Securities Commission of The Bahamas announced Thursday night that it had directed the transfer of all digital assets of FTX Digital Markets and that those assets are being transferred to a digital wallet controlled by the Bahamas regulator for “safekeeping.”

    – CNN’s Matt Egan, Chris Isidore and Allison Morrow contributed to this report.

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  • Shootout off the coast of Puerto Rico leaves one CBP agent dead and 2 others injured, agency says | CNN

    Shootout off the coast of Puerto Rico leaves one CBP agent dead and 2 others injured, agency says | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    One US Customs and Border Protection agent is dead and two others injured after a shootout with suspected drug smugglers off the coast of Puerto Rico, according to agency spokesperson Jeffrey Quiñones.

    “An agent that was transported directly to a hospital in Mayagüez, we were told just a few minutes ago, they have confirmed he has passed away. We cannot provide any other details on the agent until family is notified,” Quiñones said.

    The three agents were patrolling off the coast of Puerto Rico Thursday morning when they encountered a suspected smuggling vessel, according to agency. The situation escalated when the agents received gunfire, and in the shootout, one agent was killed and two others were injured, the agency said.

    One suspected smuggler died and another was arrested, the agency said. The nationalities of the suspects were not provided by authorities at this time.

    The identities of the agents have not been made public.

    The two surviving agents are being treated in Puerto Rico for multiple gunshot wounds, according to Dr. Israel Ayala, medical director of Puerto Rico’s Medical Services Administration.

    “One of them was immediately admitted to the stabilization unit and is being treated by emergency physicians and trauma surgeons,” Ayala told CNN in a statement. “Meanwhile, the other agent is in an area that we call minor surgery and is also being evaluated and treated by the emergency room and trauma services.”

    Ayala also said that the hospitalized agents are receiving the attention they require and their progress will be observed for the next 24 hours.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told lawmakers he was briefed on the situation Thursday morning and offered prayers for the agents and their families.

    “We pray for the family of the officer who lost his life and we pray for the swift recovery of those who have been injured,” Mayorkas said during a Senate panel on worldwide threats.

    The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations are looking into the incident.

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  • Guatemala expat community roiled by relic smuggling charges

    Guatemala expat community roiled by relic smuggling charges

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    ANTIGUA, Guatemala — Two Americans, one a photographer and the other a connoisseur of Mayan folk art, are facing charges of smuggling pre-Hispanic artifacts in Guatemala Tuesday in a case that has roiled the normally tranquil tourist-magnet town of Antigua.

    Antigua, just outside Guatemala City, is a place where visitors and expats live among centuries-old ruins of colonial buildings and soaring volcanic peaks, admiring the lively handicraft and art scene.

    American Stephanie Allison Jolluck was part of that community after moving from the Atlanta, Georgia, area. She wrote on her photography website, “I am a designer and social entrepreneur who has always been fascinated by Indigenous cultures. As a lover of ethnographic art, antiques, and handicrafts, I enjoy shopping markets around the world.”

    It was on one such shopping trip that she claims to have picked up two ceremonial basalt stone carvings, which she told a judge she thought were cheap souvenirs at a public market in Antigua, purportedly as a gift for her brother.

    Guatemala’s Culture Ministry said the two stone carvings were made between 600 and 900 A.D. Known as Mayan “axes,” because of their shape, the carved slabs may have been associated with the sacred ball game of the Mayas, rather than have any use as an axe.

    She was released on her own recognizance after her arrest at the airport because she was a long-term resident of Guatemala. But Jolluck and her American companion, Giorgio Salvador Rossilli, were detained again Sunday when they were found with 166 Mayan artifacts in their vehicle.

    Rossilli is listed as an author of a two-volume work on the “Masks of Guatemalan Traditional Dances” and was credited as one of the curators of Los Angeles art exhibitions of pre-Hispanic artifacts several years ago.

    Rossilli is also listed as a donor to the La Ruta Maya Foundation, which lists as its main work “the recovery of archaeological artifacts that have been illegally taken out of the country.”

    After police pulled them over, Rossilli apparently argued ignorance. Prosecutor Jorge Alberto de León said the couple told a judge they thought the artifacts were cheap reproductions.

    “They argued that, because they are foreigners, they cannot tell one piece from another,” de León said. “They told the judge that because they were pieces of stone they had seen sold at the markets, they never imagined that they were ancient archeological pieces.”

    Guatemala’s Culture Ministry says that 90% of the 166 artifacts — mostly stone carvings — found in the couple’s vehicle are authentic. People smuggling relics and archaeological artifacts face between 5 and 10 years in jail if convicted in Guatemala.

    De León said Rossilli also argued the pieces weren’t his, and that he had been given them by someone else to restore, and that he was returning them when he was detained. Why someone would want to restore fakes was unanswered.

    Court secretary Milton Benítez said a local architect, Franklin Contreras, has claimed the pieces belonged to him. Private citizens can hold such artifacts in Guatemala as long as they prove they weren’t looted from ruin sites and register them with the government.

    On Monday, Judge Sherly Figueroa released both Jolluck and Rossilli on bail of about $6,400 apiece and allowed them to keep their passports but prohibited them from leaving the country. They will be required to show up at prosecutors’ offices every two weeks as their case continues.

    Jolluck’s lawyer, Juan Carlos Velasquez, refused to discuss the case with journalists, saying ,“I don’t litigate in the media.”

    The expat community in Antigua and greater Guatemala seemed somewhat divided on the arrests.

    In an expat Facebook group, many warned against a rush to judgement, noting it would take an impartial investigation to determine whether the pieces were in fact genuine.

    Antigua resident Ivan Borja said. “From the people I’ve talked to in the expat community, the news was a shocker.”

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  • Crypto crisis continues. Here’s the latest on the FTX collapse | CNN Business

    Crypto crisis continues. Here’s the latest on the FTX collapse | CNN Business

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    New Delhi
    CNN Business
     — 

    Aftershocks from the massive earthquake in the trillion-dollar crypto industry last week continued to be felt on Monday.

    Prices of digital currencies fell again as the crisis engulfing the market deepened over the weekend. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest crypto has plummeted about 65% so far this year. It was trading at about $16,500 on Monday, according to CoinDesk, and analysts believe that it could fall below $10,000 in the coming days.

    Meanwhile, the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency ethereum isn’t faring much better. It was trading at $1,231.53 on Monday, having sunk over 20% over the last week, CoinDesk data showed.

    The plunge comes as investors continue to grapple with the stunning implosion of the FTX Group, one of the biggest and most powerful players in the industry.

    Some industry insiders have said the company’s downfall had triggered a “Lehman moment,” referring to the 2008 collapse of the investment bank that sent shockwaves around the world.

    The episode has not just destroyed confidence in the crypto industry, but it will also embolden global regulators to tighten the screws. Some of the biggest names in the business said they will welcome the scrutiny, if it helps restore faith in the industry once again.

    There is a “lot of risk,” said Changpeng Zhao, who runs the crypto exchange Binance. “We have seen in the past week things go crazy in the industry, so we do need some regulations, we do need to do this properly,” he added.

    The Binance boss, known as CZ, was speaking at a conference in Indonesia on Monday. He said last week that comparing the current crypto turmoil to the 2008 global financial crisis is “probably an accurate analogy.”

    Zhao was a key player in events surrounding the downfall of FTX. Binance had reached a tentative rescue deal with FTX earlier last week, but that transaction almost immediately fell apart.

    FTX continued its downward spiral over the weekend, after filing for bankruptcy on Friday. And, another big name from the industry admitting to mishandling funds, spooking investors even more.

    Here is how things have unfolded over the last few days, showing the crisis has only just begun.

    FTX moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to The Bahamas last year, with former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried hailing it as “one of the few places to set up a comprehensive framework for crypto” at the time.

    On Sunday, the authorities in The Bahamas said they were investigating potential criminal misconduct surrounding the company’s implosion.

    “In light of the collapse of FTX globally and the provisional liquidation of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., a team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch are working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred,” the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement.

    It’s not clear which particular aspect of the swift collapse of FTX authorities are investigating.

    Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of the exchange, was one of the faces of the crypto industry, amassing a fortune once totaling $25 billion that has since vanished. He had been viewed as the crypto world’s white knight, stepping in previously to rescue companies struggling after the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin in May.

    FTX, backed by elite investors like BlackRock and Sequoia Capital, rapidly became one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world. Its collapse was preceded by the decision to lend billions of dollars’ worth of customer assets to fund risky bets by Alameda, FTX’s crypto hedge fund, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

    The Bahamas probe came a day after the bankrupt exchange said it was launching an investigation of its own.

    On Saturday, FTX said it was looking into whether crypto assets were stolen and has since moved all its digital assets offline. Crypto risk management firm Elliptic said although the theft was unconfirmed, $473 million in crypto assets were apparently stolen from FTX.

    In a tweet early Saturday, FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller said the company “initiated precautionary steps” and moved all its digital assets to cold storage. The process was “expedited” Friday evening “to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions,” Miller said in a tweet.

    Miller said late Friday that FTX was “investigating abnormalities” regarding movements in crypto wallets “related to consolidation of FTX balances across exchanges.” The facts are still unclear and the company will share more information as soon as possible, he added.

    As scrutiny of big players in the crypto world increases, another major mishap alarmed investors over the weekend. Singapore-based Crypto.com admitted to accidentally sending more than $400 million in ethereum to the wrong account.

    Its CEO, Kris Marszalek, said on Twitter Sunday the transfer of 320,000 ETH was made three weeks ago to a corporate account at competing exchange Gate.io, instead of to one of its offline, or “cold”, wallets.

    And though the funds were recovered, users are withdrawing from the platform fearing the same outcome as FTX.

    ‘We have since strengthened our process and systems to better manage these internal transfers,” Marszalek tweeted Sunday. The platform’s native token has fallen over 20% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk on Monday.

    At the conference in Bali, Binance boss Zhao signaled that regulating the industry won’t be easy.

    Authorities’ “natural response is to borrow regulations from traditional banking systems… but crypto exchanges operate very, very differently from banks,” he said Monday.

    “It is very very normal for a bank to move user assets for investments and try to make returns,” he explained. If a crypto exchange operates that way it is “almost guaranteed to go down,” he said, adding that the industry collectively had a role to play in protecting consumers.

    “Regulators have a role… but no can can protect a bad player,” he said.

    — Matt Egan, Ramishah Maruf and Allison Morrow contributed to this report.

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  • Nicole weakens to a tropical storm after striking Florida’s east coast as the first US hurricane in November in nearly 40 years | CNN

    Nicole weakens to a tropical storm after striking Florida’s east coast as the first US hurricane in November in nearly 40 years | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Affected by the storm? Use CNN’s lite site for low bandwidth.



    CNN
     — 

    Nicole has weakened to tropical storm after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane along the east coast of Florida early Thursday morning, lashing the region with heavy rain and dangerous storm surge as it became the first hurricane to strike the US in November in nearly 40 years.

    The storm struck just south of Vero Beach with winds of 75 mph before weakening to a tropical storm shortly after, the National Hurricane Center said. It’s bringing strong winds and heavy rainfall to some areas hit by Hurricane Ian less than two months ago.

    Follow live updates >>

    Nicole’s colossal path has led to evacuations from some residential buildings deemed unsafe and at risk of collapse due to the storm’s impact. In addition to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the shuttering of amusement parks, many schools, colleges and universities closed ahead of the storm.

    Nicole’s colossal path has led to evacuations from some residential buildings deemed unsafe and at risk of collapse due to the storm’s impact. In addition to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the shuttering of amusement parks, many schools, colleges and universities closed ahead of the storm.

    In Volusia County, officials told people to leave more than 20 buildings found to be structurally unsound due to Ian’s impact in late September.

    “There is a strong potential that one or more buildings will collapse during the storm,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told CNN affiliate WESH-TV on Wednesday. “Right now, ground zero is here.

    “We don’t want to end up like Surfside,” Chitwood added.

    Part of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, crumbled to the ground in summer 2021, killing 98 people. The collapse was not storm-related.

    Nicole, which also threatens to whip up tornadoes, is expected to weaken to a depression early Friday and become a post-tropical cyclone over the Southeast.

    “Weakening will occur while Nicole moves over Florida,” forecasters at the hurricane center said.

    On Wednesday evening, Nicole strengthened from a tropical storm into a hurricane, smashing into Grand Bahama Island with strong winds and dangerous storm surge, the National Hurricane Center in the US said. The Abacos, Berry Islands and Grand Bahama Island in the northwestern Bahamas remained under hurricane warnings early Thursday.

    Because Nicole is a large storm, its impact will be felt well beyond its center, according to forecasters, who explained that people in its path should not focus on the exact track to prepare.

    Here’s what to know:

    Millions under hurricane warning: More than 5 million people are under hurricane warnings. Up to 8 inches of rain can drench eastern, central and northern portions of Florida. Plus, between 2 to 6 inches are expected from parts of the US southeast to the southern and central Appalachians and western mid-Atlantic through Friday, the hurricane center said.

    Historic hurricane: Nicole’s landfall Thursday was historic because it became the latest in a calendar year a hurricane has ever struck Florida’s Atlantic coast. The storm’s landfall broke a previous record set by the Yankee Hurricane, which hit Florida’s east coast on November 4, 1935.

    Unsafe buildings: Ahead of Nicole’s expected landfall in Florida, officials asked people to evacuate buildings deemed unsafe to withstand the storm. In New Smyrna Beach, officials determined some condos are unsound due to the erosion of a sea wall. And in Daytona Beach Shores, which is still reeling from Hurricane Ian’s impact, at least 11 buildings are at risk of collapse, according to Public Safety Department Director Michael Fowler. Volusia County officials evacuated 22 single homes deemed unsafe in the unincorporated area of Wilbur-by-the-Sea.

    School closures and flight cancellations: Many school districts, colleges and universities have closed as the storm approaches, according to the Florida Department of Education. Orlando International Airport halted operations Wednesday afternoon, and Miami International Airport said cancellations are possible, but it does not plan on closing.

    South Carolina should prepare: People across the state should prepare for the likelihood that Nicole could bring heavy rain and winds. “Given the uncertainty of the storm’s strength and path as it approaches South Carolina, residents need to have their personal emergency plans ready to go just in case we need to take safety precautions later in the week,” said Kim Stenson, who heads the state’s emergency management division.

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  • Nicole strengthens into tropical storm as it churns toward the northwestern Bahamas and Florida’s Atlantic coastline

    Nicole strengthens into tropical storm as it churns toward the northwestern Bahamas and Florida’s Atlantic coastline

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    Nicole strengthens into tropical storm as it churns toward the northwestern Bahamas and Florida’s Atlantic coastline

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  • US supports calls for external ethics probe into OAS chief

    US supports calls for external ethics probe into OAS chief

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    MIAMI — The head of the Organization of American States is facing growing calls, including from the Biden administration, for an external probe into possible misconduct tied to his intimate relationship with a subordinate.

    The Washington-based group’s own inspector general in a memo this week said it is in the organization’s “best interest” to hire an outside firm to investigate allegations that Secretary General Luis Almagro may have violated the ethics code.

    The inspector general’s recommendation was based on a report by The Associated Press finding that Almagro carried on a relationship with a Mexican-born staffer described online, including on the organization’s own website, as “head adviser” to the secretary general.

    The inspector general said the AP report followed a loosely detailed, anonymous whistleblower complaint forwarded to his office by Almagro himself on June 3.

    The peace and democracy-building organization’s ethics code prohibits managers from supervising or participating in decisions that benefit individuals with whom they are romantically involved.

    The proposal to hire an outside firm to look into Almagro’s behavior is scheduled to be discussed Wednesday at the next meeting of the 34-member organization’s permanent council.

    The U.S. — which has contributed about half of the organization’s $100 million in funding this year — has already expressed support for an external probe ahead of the meeting.

    “We take these allegations seriously,” a State Department spokesperson told the AP in an email, adding that any ethics violation “should be investigated in a fair and impartial manner by an appropriate external investigative entity.”

    But at least four members — Almagro’s native Uruguay, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and St. Lucia — have publicly backed draft resolutions that raise concerns about the cost of an external investigation at a time when the 600-employee hemispheric body is under pressure to cut spending.

    Their benchmark is a recent investigation into similar misconduct allegations against the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Mauricio Claver-Carone, who was accused of having a long-running relationship with his chief of staff. The months-long probe by American law firm Davis Polk determined that Claver-Carone had violated ethics rules by favoring the aide, paving the way for the president’s removal.

    Repeated requests for Almagro’s comment on the possibility of an external probe sent to the secretary general’s press office went unanswered.

    But unlike Claver-Carone, who went down denying he ever had a relationship with his aide, Almagro has said only that he never supervised the staffer or participated in any employment-related decisions like authorizing a pay increase. He previously has vowed to cooperate fully with any investigation by the organization’s top oversight authority.

    Almagro faces criticism on other administrative matters as well.

    Mexico this week slammed Almagro for allegedly betraying members’ wishes by renewing a contract for the OAS’ ombudswoman, Neida Perez, days before a long-discussed plan to implement an open and competitive process for the leadership post was approved at the organization’s annual meeting.

    Almagro in September unilaterally extended Perez’s contract by four years and Mexico complained it was an attempt to preempt those new procedures.

    “Unfortunately this isn’t an isolated act,” Mexico’s delegation said in a written statement at a Nov. 1 meeting on administrative matters. “It fits into a pattern of conduct in which the will of the states is disregarded and the OAS’ institutions are violated.”

    Perez — whose contract was set to expire Oct. 21, two weeks after the new procedures were adopted — was recently reprimanded by the OAS’ top review panel for neglecting her duty to serve as an impartial arbiter of workplace disputes.

    That rebuke was in response to Perez’s role facilitating Almagro’s 2020 removal of the head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — an independently run body. The commission´s executive secretary was himself facing workplace complaints but nonetheless enjoyed the unanimous support of the watchdog’s seven commissioners.

    Almagro, 59, was elected as head of the OAS in 2015 with near unanimous support after having served as foreign minister in Uruguay’s leftist government.

    But once installed in Washington, he made common cause with the U.S. in opposing leftist leaders in Cuba and Venezuela, once even echoing President Donald J. Trump’s line that he wouldn’t rule out using military force to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    He was reelected in 2020 with the support of 23 of 34 member states. More recently, as the left has regained power across Latin America, calls for his removal have been growing louder.

    Last month, members of the Puebla Group — an organization of former presidents and political leaders from 16 countries — issued a statement calling for Almagro’s removal, criticizing his “amoral” firing of the rights watchdog and his intervention following messy elections in Bolivia that led to President Evo Morales’ resignation and replacement by a U.S.-backed conservative government.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.

    Follow Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman

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  • Tourists on Peru riverboat freed after pollution protest

    Tourists on Peru riverboat freed after pollution protest

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    LIMA, Peru (AP) — An Indigenous leader in Peru’s Amazon region said Friday that his community had released 98 riverboat passengers — 23 of them foreign tourists — who had been detained overnight as a protest to demand government attention to complaints of oil pollution.

    Wadson Trujillo said the passengers, including citizens of Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France as well as Peru, set off along the Maranon River at 1:45 p.m. local time aboard the vessel named Eduardo 11, which had been held since the day before by residents of Cuninico. The passengers were en route from Yurimaguas to Iquitos, the main city in Peru’s Amazon region.

    But he said the people of Cuninico would continue protests — and blocking the passage of boats — until the government gives them concrete help.

    “We have seen ourselves obliged to take this measure to summon the attention of a state that has not paid attention to us for eight years,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.

    He asked the government of President Pedro Castillo to declare an emergency in the area to deal with the effects of oil pollution.

    Trujillo said oil spills in 2014 and again in September this year “have caused much damage” to people who depend on fish from the river as a significant part of their diet.

    “The people have had to drink water and eat fish contaminated with petroleum without any government being concerned,” he said.

    He said the spills had affected not only the roughly 1,000 inhabitants of his township but nearly 80 other communities, many of which lack running water, electricity or telephone service.

    Peru’s Health Ministry took blood samples in the region in 2016 and found that about half the tests from Cuninico showed levels of mercury and cadmium above levels recommended by the World Health Organization.

    “The children have those poisons in their blood. The people suffer from stomach problems — that is every day,” Trujillo said.

    Prime Minister Aníbal Torres said in response to Indigenous demands that the “evils of 200 years of republican life cannot be resolved in a day, in a few months or in a few years.”

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  • Critical Haiti gas terminal freed after weeks of talks with G9 gang leader | CNN

    Critical Haiti gas terminal freed after weeks of talks with G9 gang leader | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Haitian authorities say they have regained control of the main gas terminal in capital city Port-au-Prince, ending a gang stranglehold on the vital energy facility.

    The news follows two weeks of negotiation with Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier to relinquish control of the Varreux terminal, according to Haitian politician Dr. Harrison Ernest, who met with both Cherizier and the Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

    Chérizier, also known as “Barbecue,” is the leader of G9, a federation of over a dozen Haitian gangs based in Port-au-Prince.

    “I talked to Barbeque and told them to leave the terminal because the kids need to go back to school. And we urged the government to do their part to make sure there is fuel and the fuel need to reach the customer,” said Ernest, a Haitian doctor and politician from the country’s Konstwi Lavi party.

    Konstwi Lavi has been “playing the role of mediator between the government and the gang who blocked the gas terminal,” Ernest added.

    “We’ve been working for two weeks with the government and the gangs to unblock the fuel.”

    Haiti’s government has denied that it negotiated with G9 to reopen the gas terminal, though an adviser to Henry told CNN that the Caribbean nation’s leader did meet with Ernest.

    “We don’t deal with gangs and we don’t negotiate with gangs, we want schools to reopen and to revive the economic activities as soon as possible. The Prime Minister met with (Ernest) but they did not engage in any negotiations with gangs on our behalf,” said special advisor Jean Junior Joseph.

    Haiti National Police spokesperson Gary Desrosiers also confirmed that the Varreux terminal is now under police control. The terminal, located in southwest Port-au-Prince, supplies most of the oil in Haiti. It has been blocked by G9 gang members for the past six weeks, choking off access to fuel in the country.

    G9 abandoned Varreux terminal over the weekend, one high-level security source told CNN.

    But fuel relief for greater Haiti remains in the distance as terminal access roads are still blocked by shipping containers and other obstacles.

    Some Haiti National Police armored vehicles have been seen in the area around Varreux, but so far no movement of trucks and or employee presence at the terminal for operations to resume, the source said.

    Haiti’s government asked for international military assistance almost a month ago as it grappled with interlocked health, energy, and security issues.

    Anti-government protests have also paralyzed the country, with schools, businesses, and public transportation across the country mostly shuttered.

    Since August 22, Haitians have been demonstrating against chronic gang violence, poverty, food insecurity, inflation, and fuel shortages.​

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  • Miss Argentina and Miss Puerto Rico reveal that they’re married | CNN

    Miss Argentina and Miss Puerto Rico reveal that they’re married | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A new power couple has taken the stage.

    A former Miss Argentina and former Miss Puerto Rico shocked and delighted fans by announcing their surprise marriage on Instagram.

    Mariana Varela and Fabiola Valentín met at the 2020 Miss Grand International competition in Thailand, where they represented Argentina and Puerto Rico, respectively. After making it to the pageant top 10, the two beauty queens appeared to remain close friends on social media. What fans didn’t know is they were secretly dating the whole time.

    The pair posted matching Instagram Reels showing moments from their relationship, including romantic walks on the beach, candid cuddles, champagne toasts and a proposal with gold and silver balloons spelling out, “Marry me?”

    The main image of the post shows the pair outside of the city courthouse in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they married on October 28.

    “After deciding to keep our relationship private, we opened the doors on a special day,” the caption reads in Spanish.

    Fans, celebrities and fellow pageant figures congratulated Varela and Valentín on their picture-perfect love.

    “Congratulations,” wrote Ghanaian singer and beauty queen Abena Akuaba, who won Miss Grand International 2020. “MGI brought together a beautiful union.”

    “Thanks for all the love!” Varela wrote in reply to the well-wishes. “We are very happy and blessed.”

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