International
They find a body and continue to look for 6 missing people after the shipwreck of a sailboat in Sicily
The body of one of the seven missing from the sailboat that sank this Monday in front of the town of Porticello, in Palermo, on the Italian island of Sicily, was located by the divers of the Fire Force inside the hull at a depth of 49 meters, while six other people who could be trapped in the cabins are being sought.
The first shipwrecked, initially recovered by a ship present in the vicinity, were brought ashore by 4 ships of the Coast Guard.
According to some media, the body that has been recovered would be the crew member who worked as a cook and has Canadian nationality, although born on the island of Antigua.
The six people who are still missing are British and American tourists.
The sinking occurred at 05.00 local time (03.00 GMT) and according to some witnesses the British-flagged sailboat, called ‘Bayesian’, was anchored in front of the port of Porticello when the strong tornado that hit the area broke the main mast and this would have caused the imbalance of the boat that overturned and sank.
The sailboat was from a group of tourists who had chosen Sicily to spend their vacations and the survivors who have already disembarked are mostly English citizens, but there is also a New Zealander, an Irishman and another from Sri Lanka
Among the 15 survivors, a mother and her one-year-old daughter were transferred to the Palermo Children’s Hospital for checks, while the father was admitted to another hospital in the Sicilian capital and five other passengers were treated in an outpatient clinic.
The mother of the girl, of whom they have communicated only that her name is Charlotte, explained to the doctors who treated them that at a time when she slept the boat overturned and they found themselves in the water and that for a few seconds she lost the girl at sea, but then immediately picked her up again.
He pointed out that people were heard screaming and that they were saved because a lifeboat launched by another ship that was nearby arrived almost immediately.
“The baby is fine and the mother only has abrasions and a wound that needed to be sutured,” said Domenico Cipolla, director of pediatric admission and emergency and surgery at the “Di Cristina” hospital in Palermo.
“Yesterday afternoon we saw this boat in the port. He arrived before dusk from the west, from Palermo, and docked about 300 meters from the entrance of the marina,” Giovanni Lo Coco, one of the fishermen of Porticello, a coastal town in the province of Palermo, told the Italian media.
It continues while the search for the divers in the sunken hull of the ship that is 49 meters deep, as well as patrol boats and helicopters of the Coast Guard look for the missing in the area and more reinforcements of divers are arriving from Naples and Rome.
International
Chile declares state of catastrophe as wildfires rage in Ñuble and Biobío
Wildland firefighting crews are battling 19 forest fires across the country, 12 of them concentrated in the Ñuble and Biobío regions, located about 500 kilometers south of Santiago.
“In light of the severe fires currently underway, I have decided to declare a state of catastrophe in the regions of Ñuble and Biobío. All resources are now available,” the president announced in a post on X.
Authorities have not yet released an official report on possible casualties or damage to homes.
According to images broadcast by local television, the fires have reached populated areas, particularly in the municipalities of Penco and Lirquén, in the Biobío region, which together are home to nearly 60,000 people. Burned vehicles were also reported on several streets.
“The Penco area and the entire Lirquén sector are the most critical zones and where the largest number of evacuations have taken place. We estimate that around 20,000 people have been evacuated,” said Alicia Cebrián, director of the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred), in an interview with Mega TV.
In recent years, forest fires have had a severe impact on the country, especially in the central-southern regions.
On February 2, 2024, multiple wildfires broke out simultaneously around the city of Viña del Mar, located 110 kilometers northwest of Santiago. Those fires resulted in 138 deaths, according to updated figures from the public prosecutor’s office, and left approximately 16,000 people affected, based on official data.
International
Former South Korean President Yoon sentenced to five years in prison
Former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison for obstruction of justice and other charges, concluding the first in a series of trials stemming from his failed attempt to impose martial law in December 2024.
The sentence is shorter than the 10-year prison term sought by prosecutors against the 65-year-old conservative former leader, whose move against Parliament triggered a major political crisis that ultimately led to his removal from office.
Yoon, a former prosecutor, is still facing seven additional trials. One of them, on charges of insurrection, could potentially result in the death penalty.
On Friday, the Seoul Central District Court ruled on one of the multiple secondary cases linked to the affair, which plunged the country into months of mass protests and political instability.
International
U.S. deportation flight returns venezuelans to Caracas after Maduro’s ouster
A new flight carrying 231 Venezuelans deported from the United States arrived on Friday at the airport serving Caracas, marking the first such arrival since the military operation that ousted and captured President Nicolás Maduro.
On January 3, U.S. forces bombed the Venezuelan capital during an incursion in which Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured. Both are now facing narcotrafficking charges in New York.
This was the first U.S.-flagged aircraft transporting migrants to land in Venezuela since the military action ordered by President Donald Trump, who has stated that he is now in charge of the country.
The aircraft departed from Phoenix, Arizona, and landed at Maiquetía International Airport, which serves the Venezuelan capital, at around 10:30 a.m. local time (14:30 GMT), according to AFP reporters on the ground.
The deportees arrived in Venezuela under a repatriation program that remained in place even during the height of the crisis between the two countries, when Maduro was still in power. U.S. planes carrying undocumented Venezuelan migrants continued to arrive throughout last year, despite the military deployment ordered by Trump.
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