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Protesters block Brazil roads for second day after Bolsonaro loss

Photo: Caio Guatelli / AFP

| By AFP |

Truckers and other protesters on Tuesday blocked highways for second day in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has yet to accept his election loss to leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The country’s Federal Highway Police (PRF) reported more than 250 total or partial blockages in at least 23 of Brazil’s 27 states.

On Monday night, protests blocked roads outside Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport, the country’s main international hub, and several flights were cancelled, local media reported. These protests have since been dispersed.

Key routes in other cities such as Rio de Janeiro, were also blocked.

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A banner reading “Lula No!” hung off a bridge in Sao Paulo.

“I hope that I can go back home,” said 62-year-old real estate agent Rosangela Senna at a bus station in Sao Paulo, where she was unable to take her bus back to Rio.

“I could afford to pay for a day to sleep in a hotel here but many people had to wait right here at the bus station.”

Bolsonaro has yet to concede defeat more than 36 hours after official results showed Lula had won the presidential election by only 1.8 percentage points. 

The victory was recognized by several Bolsonaro allies and leaders the world over.

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The state with the most roadblocks was southern Santa Catarina where almost 70 percent of voters backed Bolsonaro.

A Supreme Court judge on Monday night ordered the “immediate clearing of highways and public roads,” in a statement.

The court ordered the PRF to take “all measures” needed to free the roads, threatening to fine or imprison its director for “disobedience” if the order was not carried out.

Traffic police chief Silvinei Vasques came under fire for posting an Instagram story on election day urging Brazilians to vote for Bolsonaro.

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International

Six killed, including baby, in armed attack near tourist beach in Ecuador

Six people, including a baby girl about two years old, were killed on Sunday in an armed attack near a tourist beach in southwestern Ecuador, police said. The shooting, carried out with rifles, also left three people wounded.

The incident took place in the coastal town of Puerto López, in the province of Manabí, a popular tourist destination known for whale watching. The attack occurred amid a surge of violence over the weekend that left at least nine people dead nationwide, according to local media reports.

“There are six fatalities and three injured,” Colonel William Acurio, the local police commander, told reporters on Sunday. He confirmed that one of the victims was a baby “approximately two years old.”

Authorities have not released further details about the motive behind the attack or whether arrests have been made.

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International

Man accused of killing nine in Paramaribo dies by suicide in police custody

The man who killed nine people, including five children, on Saturday night in Paramaribo died by suicide while in custody, Suriname police confirmed in a statement on Monday.

The suspect, identified by the initials D.A., 43, “hanged himself inside a holding cell at the Keizerstraat police station” in the capital, Paramaribo, according to the official report.

Police said the man sustained leg injuries during his arrest and was taken to a hospital before being transferred to the detention facility on Sunday night. Authorities did not provide further details on the circumstances surrounding his death.

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International

Winter storm disrupts holiday travel, forcing 1,500 flight cancellations in the U.S.

Airlines canceled around 1,500 flights across the United States during the peak Christmas travel season after warnings of a severe winter storm and forecasts of heavy snowfall in the Midwest and Northeast. An additional 5,900 flights were delayed due to adverse weather conditions.

More than 40 million Americans were under snowstorm warnings or weather advisories one day after Christmas. Meanwhile, another 30 million people faced flood or storm alerts in California, where an atmospheric river triggered intense rainfall.

New York City was bracing for up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) of snow overnight, which would mark its heaviest snowfall in four years. Cold weather was expected to persist through the weekend in the nation’s largest city. According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, airports in the New York area recorded about 850 flight cancellations.

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