World
Ecuador’s President Faces Gang Threats Despite taking on the Army
(V.News) – In response to the deployment of troops to combat armed gangs, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa has challenged them to fight the military rather than civilians. As a result of gang violence sweeping through the Andes on Monday, Noboa declared a state of emergency.
Armed men assaulted a television station and threatened its employees during a live broadcast in the most dramatic event. The state of emergency has resulted in the arrest of over 300 people.
Mr. Noboa’s tone in Wednesday’s radio interview was rather rebellious. Even though he has only been president for two months, the 36-year-old president took a stand against the gangs.
He admonished them, “Be brave, fight the soldiers,” alluding to the reality that the majority of gang victims have been defenseless citizens or parolees. Gang members have been responsible for the recent explosions, car fires, and kidnappings of at least fourteen people, including police officers who were on duty.
According to authorities, 158 prison guards and 20 personnel of the jail system have also been kidnapped. No hostages have been murdered thus far, according to an army officer who announced this on Wednesday.
Despite stating that Ecuador is going through “a very tough moment,” President Noboa threatened retaliation against gangs and “any judges or prosecutors who back these gangs” if continued.
An effort to transfer the notorious gang leader known as “Fito” from the jail he mostly controlled to a more secure facility appears to be what sparked the recent increase in attacks. However, when authorities entered his cell at the Regional Jail on Sunday, they discovered it abandoned.
The news of his escape sparked rioting in neighboring jails, and Fabricio Colón Pico, one of the Los Lobos gang’s commanders, also fled. Fito (Adolfo Macías Villareal) and Colón Pico have yet to be located. The Ecuadorian government has offered a reward for information that leads to their capture.
They’re also giving incentives to 17 additional gang bosses. Ecuador, which was previously considered a reasonably secure country in comparison to the rest of the region, had its murder rate more than double between 2018 and 2022 as drug-trafficking gangs grew in power.
Ecuadorian President Noboa designated 22 of these groups
On Tuesday, President Noboa designated 22 of these groups “terrorist gangs” and said that his country was embroiled in an “internal armed conflict.”. Ecuador’s Congress overwhelmingly passed the proposal, which authorizes soldiers to patrol the streets and search residences for weapons and suspects.
Residents of Guayaquil, the port city struck the hardest by the recent violence, are still trying to make sense of the gang rampage, according to the BBC’s Will Grant, who is in Guayaquil.
Primicias, an Ecuadorean news site, spoke with a journalist who was present during the invasion of the TC television studios in Guayaquil and described the threats made by the assailants.
She went on to say that the host was forced to announce in front of an armed crowd. “They wanted my colleague to say: ‘The mafia is in power; the president can’t beat us.'”
The assailants, she said, did not have any further specific requests. The police ultimately subdued the group and took 18 members into custody.
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World
Fugitive Philippines Mayor Alice Guo Captured in Indonesia
Alice Guo, a former mayor from the Philippine who is thought to have ties to Chinese crime groups, was caught in Indonesia.
The Philippine Senate wants Guo, who is also Chinese and goes by the name Guo Hua Ping, because she refused to go to a congressional investigation into her alleged crime ties, according to the Ministry of Justice.
She has denied the claims, saying that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and that the charges are “malicious.”
Police in Indonesia have confirmed that Ms. Guo is currently in their custody, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Guo was caught in Tangerang City in Jakarta at 11:58 p.m. on Tuesday. He used to be the mayor of Bamban town, which is about 100 km (62 miles) north of Manila. Asian media shared a video on X that showed police agents leading her up a white-walled staircase.
In the Philippines, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and other law enforcement agencies charged Guo and 35 others with money laundering multiple times with the Department of Justice last month.
The AMLC says that Guo and her crime partners laundered more than 100 million pesos ($1.8 million) in stolen money.
Lawyer Stephen David, who is officially Guo’s lawyer, did not reply right away to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.
Al Jazeera news said that Justice Secretary Boying Remulla said in a statement, “The arrest of Alice Guo is a testament to the tireless efforts of our law enforcement agencies and the strength of international cooperation in bringing fugitives to justice.”
People removed Guo from her job as mayor, and she left the country in July, using her Philippine visa to go to Malaysia, then Singapore, and finally Indonesia.
In May, two months after police raided a casino in Bamban town and found scams being run from a building on land partly owned by the mayor, the Senate began an investigation into her activities.
Public outrage followed the finding, and later, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. banned online gaming companies because he thought they had ties to organised crime.
Marcos also said she would go after those who “helped her escape.”
The government thinks that several hundred illegal online gambling businesses may be running scam sites right in front of them.
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World
Divers Discover Lost RMS Titanic Bronze Statue After 112 Years
A bronze statue from the Titanic, long considered to be gone forever, was unearthed during a recent trip by the corporation that owns salvage rights to the wreck site.
The journey to the desolate North Atlantic Ocean, where the Titanic sank, coincided with the US Coast Guard’s inquiry into the Titan, a submersible owned by another business, which imploded in June 2023.
The Titan submarine catastrophe killed all five persons on board, including RMS Titanic’s director of underwater research, Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
RMS Titanic Inc. described the results of this summer’s voyage as a “bittersweet mix of preservation and loss.”
The finding of the statue “Diana of Versailles,” which had been missing since 1986, was a major highlight. The firm has now provided a clear and updated image of the statue.
Part of the railing has fallen from the bow of the wreck of the Titanic where statue located
However, RMS Titanic reported that a major piece of the railing surrounding the ship’s bow’s forecastle deck had fallen. According to the company, the railing remained in place until 2022.
“Discovering the Diana statue was a thrilling time. However, the loss of the famous Bow railing and other degradation evidence has only increased our dedication to conserving Titanic’s heritage,” said Tomasina Ray, RMS Titanic’s director of collections.
The group spent 20 days at the location before returning to Providence, Rhode Island, on August 9. They took more than two million high-resolution photos of the wreck. The team also employed modern technology to properly map the crash and its debris field, which will help them better comprehend the site.
Meanwhile, a public hearing on the Coast Guard’s probe into the Titan submarine accident will take place later in September.
Nargeolet’s family has launched a wrongful death case against OceanGate, the Titan submarine’s operator, which has since ceased operations.
World
New Titanic Photos Show Major Decay To Legendary Wreck
In the years since the Titanic fell after colliding with an iceberg in 1912, we have grown accustomed to eerie photos of the fatal passenger liner’s bow lying at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. New images shot this summer reveal that the view has changed drastically.
The most recent mission by RMS Titanic Inc., an American corporation with salvage rights to the wreck, discovered that a part of the formerly unbroken railing surrounding the front of the ship’s top deck had fallen off. The 15-foot-long portion is currently on the sea floor, exactly below where it originally was.
Titanic | CNN Image
New Titanic Photos Show Major Decay To Legendary Wreck
“We are saddened by this loss and the inevitable decay of the ship and its debris,” the business said on its website.
“Over the course of the next few weeks and months, we will conduct a more thorough review of Titanic’s condition and her changes over time,” she said.
“Although Titanic’s collapse is inevitable, this evidence strengthens our mission to preserve and document what we can before it is too late,” the statement read.
According to the company, the July expedition was the ninth since it first visited the wreck in 1987. Ocean imaging experts, oceanographers, scientists, and historians collaborated to capture new images of the wreck to review its condition, identify artifacts and areas at risk, and contribute to ongoing conservation efforts.
Over two million photographs were taken, and the crew looked for several relics.
This inquiry led to an exciting discovery.
On the last day of the journey, the team discovered and photographed a two-foot-tall bronze statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of nature and hunting.
According to the business, the statue, which previously sat on the fireplace mantle as a showpiece in the Titanic’s First Class lounge, was wrenched away and flung into the wreck’s debris field when the lounge tore open as the ship sank.
According to the business, the figure was shot during a 1986 excursion, but its position was unknown until this newest voyage due to a tradition of secrecy surrounding the Titanic’s wreck.
New Titanic Photos Show Major Decay To Legendary Wreck
The business said Sunday in an Instagram post about the statue that much of the art that adorned the ship’s halls and quarters “was made of organic materials, breaking down into the earth after many decades submerged in the hostile environment” of the water.
However, Diana “is still resting upright among miles of debris.” Like the ancient Roman deities, she is timeless—and she has been rediscovered thanks to Expedition 2024,” it added.
The renowned wreck is slowly fading as experts rush to preserve its history.
In 2019, footage from a series of dives conducted by Triton Submarines’ research crew revealed the impact of salt corrosion, metal-eating bacteria, and deep current action on the ship’s breakdown.
SOURCE | CNN
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