CELAYA, Mexico: Twelve bodies were found on Thursday in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, local authorities said, attributing the killings to disputes between organized crime groups.
Guanajuato, a thriving industrial center that is also home to popular tourist destinations, is currently Mexico’s most violent state, according to official homicide statistics.
The 12 bodies were found within two hours in five locations in the city of Salamanca, according to the state prosecutor’s office, which is investigating the crime.
The victims — three women and nine men — were found on roads, bridges and avenues, their bodies bearing gunshot wounds and signs of torture, while one was dismembered.
The state prosecutor’s office also said the perpetrators left messages in which a cartel claimed responsibility.
The bodies were found less than 24 hours after gunmen attacked a residential center for people suffering from addictions in the same municipality, killing four.
“This month of October has started with very high crime rates here. That makes 16 people (murdered) so far,” Salamanca Mayor Cesar Prieto told reporters.
But he said the violence affecting the city was “a temporary issue” that flares up “when one group decides to attack another.”
In Guanajuato, two cartels, the Santa Rosa de Lima and the Jalisco New Generation, are currently at war.
Hit by spiraling violence linked to organized crime, Mexico has recorded more than 450,000 murders since December 2006, when a controversial military anti-drug operation was launched.
New President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that she will present her national security plan next Tuesday.
12 bodies found in Mexico’s Guanajuato state in latest cartel violence
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12 bodies found in Mexico’s Guanajuato state in latest cartel violence
- Guanajuato, a thriving industrial center that is also home to popular tourist destinations, is currently Mexico’s most violent state
- In Guanajuato, two cartels, the Santa Rosa de Lima and the Jalisco New Generation, are currently at war
Nigeria’s Borno state hit by cholera amid flood devastation
- Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in Borno, the epicenter of a 15-year-old Islamist insurgency
- Flooding in Borno began when a dam overflowed following heavy rains
Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in Borno, the epicenter of a 15-year-old Islamist insurgency that has displaced thousands into camps and strained sanitation facilities and potable water sources.
Borno Health Commissioner Baba Mallam Gana told reporters that 17 cases have been recorded following tests, but no deaths so far.
“However, we are recording an increasing number of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD)/suspected Cholera which is not unconnected with the flood devastation,” Gana said.
Almost 500 cases of AWD have been recorded, Gana said, with five local government areas mostly affected.
Flooding in Borno began when a dam overflowed following heavy rains, displacing millions from their homes and damaging health facilities and other infrastructures.
Gana said that to combat the latest outbreak, the state got 300,000 oral cholera vaccine (OCV) doses from the federal health ministry, which have been distributed across displacement camps and flood-hit communities.
The state is waiting for an additional 600,000 doses of the vaccine to ensure adequate coverage, he said.
Donald Trump tries to blunt Democrats’ momentum in North Carolina
- The former president’s visit to Fayetteville, home to a large military community, comes as the state has been convulsed by literal and political storms
FAYETTEVILLE: Donald Trump is heading to North Carolina on Friday for the fourth time in a month, as the Republican presidential candidate tries to firm up support in a state he was winning handily a few months ago but is now among the most competitive in the race.
The former president’s visit to Fayetteville, home to a large military community, comes as the state has been convulsed by literal and political storms.
Once-in-a-generation floods triggered by Hurricane Helene killed dozens in the state’s western mountains, while the Republican candidate for governor has faced damaging reports about past inflammatory and lewd comments.
Some Trump allies privately say the race in North Carolina, which Trump won in the 2016 and 2020 elections, is too close for comfort, even as they think he still has a slight leg up on Democratic rival Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
By some metrics, the vice president is doing marginally better here than she is in Arizona and Georgia, even though Trump lost both of those states in 2020. Those three states are among a handful of battlegrounds that both candidates have a legitimate shot of winning next month.
“I’m freaking out about North Carolina,” said one major Trump donor, who was granted anonymity to give his candid assessment of the race. “Georgia and Arizona are not in the bag, but heading in the right direction.”
Trump leads Harris by 0.5 percentage points in North Carolina, according to a polling average maintained by FiveThirtyEight, a polling and analysis website. The former president leads Harris by 1.1 points in Georgia and 1.2 points in Arizona. All of those figures are within the margin of error for major polls, meaning either candidate could walk away with a victory.
Trump will also travel on Friday to Georgia, where his campaign said he will receive a briefing with Governor Brian Kemp on local storm recovery efforts and then speak to the media.
Trump had been leading Biden by several percentage points in North Carolina before the Democratic president dropped his re-election bid in July and passed the baton to Harris, who has steadily closed the gap with Trump.
While Trump’s ad spending in the state has been relatively modest compared to most other battleground states, he has hit the campaign trail hard. His four campaign events in North Carolina, including stops in Wilmington and Mint Hill, in the last month are more than those in any other state except for Wisconsin and Michigan, according to a Reuters tally.
The Trump campaign referred a request for comment to North Carolina’s Republican Party. Matt Mercer, the party’s communications director, said the Trump campaign was going as planned in the Southern state.
“North Carolina is close and has been for several cycles,” Mercer said. “However, President Trump has won the state twice, and we are confident we will deliver a third time.”
The vice president also has made frequent trips to North Carolina and is expected in the state again on Saturday.
Dory MacMillan, a communications official for her campaign, said Harris “is gaining momentum as voters continue to learn more about Vice President Harris’ vision for a New Way Forward where our freedoms are protected and everyone has the chance to not just get by, but get ahead.”
Among the potential headwinds Trump faces is the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, a Trump ally.
In September, CNN reported that Robinson, a Black man, had advocated bringing back slavery and said he enjoyed transsexual pornography in an online chatroom. Robinson denied making the comments.
Analysts say it is unclear if the Robinson scandal will depress turnout among Republicans on Election Day, potentially hurting Trump. But it will certainly not help.
“It hasn’t necessarily changed voters’ minds, but where I would be concerned is that you want everyone rowing in the same direction,” said Doug Heye, a veteran Republican strategist and North Carolina native, who noted the disarray around Robinson’s campaign was hampering its ability to drive voters to the polls.
Election officials, in the meantime, are scrambling to make sure voters in the western part of the state can cast a ballot after Helene destroyed towns and roads and left many residents displaced.
It is too early to measure the storm’s impact on the race, but analysts said the event has made new opinion polls going forward unreliable, as many potential respondents lack phone service or are preoccupied with recovery efforts.
Russia has decided ‘at highest level’ to remove Taliban from list of terrorist groups, TASS reports
- Russia has been slowly building ties with the Taliban since it seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021
- Moscow formally labelled the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003
MOSCOW: Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that a decision to remove the Taliban from a list of terrorist organizations had been “taken at the highest level,” the state TASS news agency reported on Friday.
The decision needs to be followed up with various legal procedures in order to make it a reality, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov was quoted as saying.
Putin said in July that Russia considers Afghanistan’s Taliban movement an ally in the fight against terrorism.
Russia has been slowly building ties with the Taliban since it seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war but the movement is still officially outlawed in Russia.
Moscow formally labelled the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003.
US, South Korea agree on five-year plan to share defense costs
- For 2026, the nations agreed to raise defense cost by 8.3 percent to $1.13 billion
- Some 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea as part of efforts to deter nuclear-armed North Korea
SEOUL: The United States and South Korea on Friday agreed on a new five-year plan on sharing the cost of keeping American troops in South Korea, South Korea’s foreign ministry and the US Department of Statement said.
For 2026, the nations agreed to raise defense cost by 8.3 percent to 1.52 trillion won ($1.13 billion), South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Seoul and Washington launched the talks earlier than usual in what was seen as a bid to conclude the negotiations before the US election in November.
Lee Tae-woo, South Korea’s chief negotiator, and Linda Specht, the top US negotiator for talks on defense cost sharing with Korea, finalized the new deal after eight rounds of talks that began in April, held just before the existing deals were due to expire next year.
Some 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea as part of efforts to deter nuclear-armed North Korea.
South Korea began shouldering the costs of US deployments, used to fund local labor, the construction of military installations and other logistics support, in the early 1990s.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in the November election, had during his presidency accused South Korea, a key Asian ally, of “free-riding” on US military might, and demanded that it pay as much as $5 billion a year for the US deployment.
During his presidency, both sides had struggled for months to make progress, before reaching a deal with his successor Joe Biden, when Seoul agreed to increase its contribution by 13.9 percent, the biggest annual rise in nearly two decades.
The cost sharing rise for 2026 compares with the average annual increase of 6.2 percent for the past five years, to factor in higher maintenance costs and additional local staff, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.
For 2027-2030, they agreed to use the Consumer Price Index as a reference and work to make sure the annual increase does not exceed five percent, it said.
Nobel Prizes to be announced against a backdrop of wars, famine and artificial intelligence
- The announcements begin Monday with the physiology or medicine prize
STAVANGER: Wars, a refugee crisis, famine and artificial intelligence could all be recognized when Nobel Prize announcements begin next week under a shroud of violence.
The prize week coincides with the Oct. 7 anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, which began a year of bloodshed and war across the Middle East.
The literature and science prizes could be immune. But the peace prize, which recognizes efforts to end conflict, will be awarded in an atmosphere of ratcheting international violence — if awarded at all.
“I look at the world and see so much conflict, hostility and confrontation, I wonder if this is the year the Nobel Peace Prize should be withheld,” said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
As well as events roiling the Middle East, Smith cites the war in Sudan and risk of famine there, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and his institute’s research showing that global military spending is increasing at its fastest pace since World War II.
“It could go to some groups which are making heroic efforts but are marginalized,” Smith said. “But the trend is in the wrong direction. Perhaps it would be right to draw attention to that by withholding the peace prize this year.”
Withholding the Nobel Peace is not new. It has been suspended 19 times in the past, including during the world wars. The last time it was not awarded was in 1972.
However, Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, says withdrawal would be a mistake in 2024, saying the prize is “arguably more important as a way to promote and recognize important work for peace.”
Civil grassroot groups, and international organizations with missions to mitigate violence in the Middle East could be recognized.
Nominees are kept secret for 50 years, but nominators often publicize their picks. Academics at the Free University Amsterdam said they have nominated the Middle East-based organizations EcoPeace, Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun for peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians.
Urdal believes it’s possible the committee could consider the Sudan Emergency Response Rooms, a group of grassroots initiatives providing aid to stricken Sudanese facing famine and buffeted by the country’s brutal civil war.
The announcements begin Monday with the physiology or medicine prize, followed on subsequent days by the physics, chemistry, literature and peace awards.
The Peace Prize announcement will be made on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, while all the others will be announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The prize in economics will be announced the following week on Oct. 14.
New technology, possibly artificial intelligence, could be recognized in one or more of the categories.
Critics of AI warn the rise of autonomous weapons shows the new technology could mean additional peace-shattering misery for many people. Yet AI has also enabled scientific breakthroughs that are tipped for recognition in other categories.
David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information, says scientists from Google Deepmind, the AI lab, could be among those under consideration for the chemistry prize.
The company’s artificial intelligence, AlphaFold, “accurately predicts the structure of proteins,” he said. It is already widely used in several fields, including medicine, where it could one day be used to develop a breakthrough drug.
Pendlebury spearheads Clarivate’s list of scientists whose papers are among the world’s most cited, and whose work it says are ripe for Nobel recognition.
“AI will increasingly be a part of the panoply of tools that researchers use,” Pendlebury said. He said he would be extremely surprised if a discovery “firmly anchored in AI” did not win Nobel prizes in the next 10 years.
