MEXICO CITY: At least eight young people used social media to organize the collective looting of stores in several northern suburbs of Mexico City, leading to clashes with police and more than 100 arrests, authorities said Friday.
Maribel Cervantes, head of public security for Mexico State, which surrounds the capital, said officials identified two Facebook profiles with more than 3,500 followers that were used to organize and coordinate the looting, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday nights in the districts of Zumpango, Ecatepec, Tecamac and Tlalnepantla.
“Once deactivated ... we identified the creation of WhatsApp groups that were used to call people out” using different hashtags, Cervantes said.
Eight young people between the ages of 20 and 30 were identified as the administrators of the messaging groups, the official said. Authorities did not say if they had been arrested.
Cervantes said participants tried to loot about 30 stores and succeeded in 17 of them. The looting led to the deployment of 2,000 state and local police supported by the army and federal police. As of Friday, 113 people had been detained, including 30 teenagers.
Authorities did not provide a motive for the organized looting. In the past year, similar acts were triggered by protests over the rise in gas prices.
Looting in Mexico City suburbs coordinated on social media
Looting in Mexico City suburbs coordinated on social media
Israel releases Palestinian journalist after 6 months in detention
- Asmaa Harish was among dozens of reporters held under administrative detention by Israeli authorities
LONDON: Israeli authorities on Wednesday released Palestinian journalist Asmaa Harish, according to local media reports, after she had spent six months in administrative detention at Damon Prison.
Harish was detained in April without charge or trial under the practice of administrative detention, which Israeli authorities often use for “security reasons.”
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a Ramallah-based human rights organization, said that Harish was among more than 80 Palestinian journalists who had been imprisoned and subjected to ill-treatment and rights violations since Oct. 7 last year.
The group added that dozens of Palestinian journalists remain in Israeli custody, including six women who continue to be arbitrarily detained.
Damon Prison, which is located near Haifa, has been criticized by humanitarian organizations for holding Palestinian detainees and undocumented migrant workers in “inhumane conditions.”
The facility was temporarily closed in 2000 following mounting concerns about the treatment of prisoners.
The prisoner support group Addameer in 2023 reported little evidence of “significant changes or improvements” in the prison’s conditions since the 1950s.
Belgian journalists injured in Beirut bombing
- Israel has been carrying out a bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon and has also sent its troops across the border
- The bombardments in Lebanon have cost more than 1,000 lives
Brussels: Two Belgian journalists were injured in Lebanon while reporting on overnight air raids in Beirut, their employer said Thursday, as fighting raged between Israel and Hezbollah.
VTM correspondent Robin Ramaekers suffered facial injuries and cameraman Stijn De Smet was being treated for a leg wound, said a statement by the broadcaster’s parent company, DPG Media.
“Last night there was a bombing in central Beirut. When Robin and Stijn wanted to run a report on that, they got injured,” the firm said, adding the pair were being treated in hospital.
“Both are now in safety and are being cared for.”
The circumstances of the incident were not yet clear, the company said. Belgium’s foreign ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation.
Israel has been carrying out a bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon and has also sent its troops across the border.
On Thursday, the Israeli military pounded Beirut with overnight air raids. A total of 17 strikes had hit the capital by dawn, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
One of the strikes hit a Hezbollah rescue facility, a source close to the group told AFP, killing at least six people, according to a Lebanese health ministry toll.
Israel says it is trying to secure its border with Lebanon so tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by nearly a year of hostilities with Hezbollah can return home.
The bombardments in Lebanon have cost more than 1,000 lives and seen Hezbollah’s long-time chief Hassan Nasrallah killed.
Authorities in Lebanon say that around a million people have been displaced.
Last year, a journalist was killed and six other reporters, including two from AFP, wounded by Israeli shelling while covering the cross-border fighting in southern Lebanon.
Google Doodle celebrates Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup in the UAE
DUBAI: The latest Google Doodle marks the ninth edition of the ICC Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup, which is being hosted in the UAE.
Ten teams comprising the world’s top female cricketers are divided into two for the group stages, with the top two from each advancing to the knockout semifinals. The victors will battle it out for the title.
Reigning champions Australia are aiming to add a seventh trophy to their collection, while newcomers Scotland are hoping their first-ever appearance in the tournament will result in them taking home the trophy.
The competition was transferred to the UAE from Bangladesh after the South Asian country was hit by political turmoil and domestic instability just months before the tournament was due to open.
A total of 23 games will be played in Sharjah and Dubai, with the final scheduled for Oct. 20.
Bangladesh, who retain hosting rights, kick off the event on Thursday against Scotland in Sharjah. Pakistan will play Sri Lanka at the same venue in the evening.
Defending champions Australia are in Group A along with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand, while Group B features South Africa, England, the West Indies, Bangladesh and Scotland.
Australia, who have twice won three in a row, will be mindful of the threat posed by India
The 2023 semifinalists — they lost to Australia in Cape Town — have improved greatly, thanks in large part to the Indian Women’s Premier League. The league was formed to provide a platform for India’s female cricketers to express themselves and gain in stature.
– with AP
X agrees to pay Brazil fines, court orders finances unblocked
- High-profile judge Moraes has been engaged in a long feud with Tesla and SpaceX owner Musk as part of his drive to crack down on disinformation in Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO: A Brazilian judge on Tuesday ordered the unblocking of the bank accounts of Elon Musk’s X in the country after the social media platform agreed to pay more than $5 million in fines.
The ruling by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes paves the way for the suspension of X to be lifted in Brazil, where it has been off-limits to users since August 31 in a standoff over disinformation between the judge and Musk.
Moraes ordered X shut down in Latin America’s biggest country after Musk refused to remove dozens of right-wing accounts and then failed to name a new legal representative in the country as ordered.
In his latest decision, the judge ordered Brazil’s central bank to unblock X’s bank accounts so it can receive transfers and “immediately make payment of the fines indicated.”
X had informed the court it would pay fines to the tune of some $5.2 million, according to the ruling.
High-profile judge Moraes has been engaged in a long feud with Tesla and SpaceX owner Musk as part of his drive to crack down on disinformation in Brazil.
The clash between the Brazilian court and the billionaire has morphed into a high-stakes tussle testing the limits of both freedom of expression and corporate responsibility in South America’s largest country.
X had more than 22 million users in Brazil before the ban, which was put into place on August 31.
The company has in the last week started complying with the Brazilian court’s conditions to get reactivated.
Musk has repeatedly hit out at Moraes in social media posts, calling him an “evil dictator” and dubbing him “Voldemort” after the villain from the “Harry Potter” series.
Renowned Syrian journalist Safaa Ahmad killed in Israeli airstrike on Damascus
- The Israeli airstrike on Mezzeh, western Damascus, on Tuesday morning killed three civilians and wounded nine others, state news agency says
LONDON: Syria TV anchor Safaa Ahmad was killed on Tuesday morning in an Israeli airstrike on the Mezzeh district in Syria’s capital, Damascus.
State agency SANA said the strike killed three civilians, including Ahmad, and wounded nine others.
The Mezzeh district in western Damascus is home to many residential blocks, local businesses and diplomatic premises, including the Iranian Embassy.
Syria’s state television said in a statement it “mourns anchor Safaa Ahmad, who was martyred in the Israeli aggression on the capital Damascus.”
The Syrian military told SANA that Israel carried out “an air aggression with military aircraft and drones on Tuesday at dawn from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan,” targeting several points in Damascus and its outskirts.
Syria’s air defense said they intercepted and shot down most of the Israeli missiles targeting the capital and its suburbs on Tuesday morning.
Journalist Ahmad, who hails from Homs, joined the state broadcaster Syria TV in 2002 and hosted several cultural talk shows and programs, including the flagship breakfast show “Sabah Al-Kheir.”
Reports of Israel’s strikes on the Syrian capital came as its military launched ground raids in neighboring Lebanon, marking a major escalation of its onslaught, which it claims is targeting the armed group Hezbollah.
