International
Simon Harris confirms his candidacy for Irish Prime Minister, without other candidates
The Irish Minister of Higher Education, Simon Harris, announced on Thursday his candidacy for the position of leader of the Christian Democratic party Fine Gael and Prime Minister, after the resignation of Leo Varadkar.
In the absence of other applicants and after already receiving the support of more than half of his parliamentary group, Harris, 37, will be confirmed on Monday as leader of the formation, as a step prior to assuming the head of the Government after Easter.
The next ‘taoiseach’ (prime minister) has previously occupied the Health and Interior portfolios, the latter during a maternity leave of the current holder, Helen McEntee, who today refused to dispute the charges.
In making the announcement, Harris declared himself “honored” for receiving the support of “so many” co-religionists during the last 24 hours, while thanking the leadership shown by Varadkar during his seven years at the head of the party and in two stages as prime minister.
“Leo has guided our party and our country during very difficult times, including Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent rise in the cost of living,” the conservative leader explained in an interview with the public broadcaster RTE.
The deadline for submitting candidacies for the leadership of Fine Gael began this Thursday and will end on Monday, although no last-minute announcement is expected, so Harris will be confirmed in office on April 5, on the eve of the party’s annual conference.
The Dáil (lower house) will meet again after the Easter holidays and the investiture session is scheduled to be held then.
Harris pledged to hold his future positions with “energy and enthusiasm,” to which he hopes to contribute, he said, with his own “life experiences”
“I want to work with my colleagues, I want to listen, I really want to reconnect with our party throughout the country,” he added.
Varadkar announced his resignation on Wednesday by surprise, two weeks after the unexpected defeat of the Executive’s proposal in two referendums aimed at modernizing the concept of family and the role of women in society.
The conservative leader, 45 years old, took the reins of the Government in December 2022, after two years as deputy prime minister in the coalition Executive with the centrists of the Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.
International
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
A 65-year-old Austrian citizen was arrested at a border checkpoint in Croatia after attempting to enter the country in his car with a deceased woman sitting as a passenger, police announced on Tuesday.
The man was detained in a routine check in late November in Gunja, a border area separating Bosnia from Croatia, the police told AFP. Suspicious because they saw “no consciousness or movement” from the passenger, Croatian officers called a doctor, who confirmed the death of the 83-year-old woman, also Austrian, according to her identification.
The woman’s relationship to the suspect is unknown. She had died in Bosnia, and the man intended to repatriate her body to Austria to “avoid the formalities related to transporting a corpse,” according to the police. Croatian media reported that the man was her legal guardian.
Once her death was confirmed, a funeral service took charge of the body.
International
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Colombian authorities arrested two nationals accused of the illegal trafficking of migrants to the United States and of endangering lives due to the disappearance of a boat with 40 people aboard, U.S. Department of Justice officials reported on Tuesday.
Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera Orjuela, 52, and Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 40, both Colombian citizens, were arrested on December 13 in Colombia at the request of the United States for their alleged involvement in a “transnational human trafficking operation,” the department said in a statement.
According to the charges, the detainees were transporting migrants to San Andrés Island in the Caribbean, where they would then be taken by boat to Nicaragua. The goal was to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
The accused are said to have advised the migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, where they personally received them, arranged accommodations, and “took them to the boats that transported them to Nicaragua so they could enter the United States illegally,” the statement reads.
“These defendants put several migrants on the boat that disappeared off the coast of Nicaragua in 2023,” said Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, as cited in the statement.
Both men are “directly and personally responsible for the illicit trafficking of migrants on that vessel,” according to the indictment dated October 23.
International
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Two soldiers were killed and five others were injured by the explosion of homemade landmines planted by a criminal group in a mountainous area of the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), the Secretary of Defense reported on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on Monday morning in the municipality of Cotija, a border area between Michoacán and the state of Jalisco, when the military was conducting a reconnaissance mission after receiving information about an armed camp in the area, explained Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla.
“At that moment, an improvised explosive device detonated. Unfortunately, two soldiers lost their lives, and five others were injured,” the military leader detailed. The affected soldiers were airlifted to hospitals in the region by a military helicopter, while the rest of the team continued with the reconnaissance of the area.
Trevilla stated that before the explosion, the military unit had located the dismembered bodies of three people, and upon continuing the mission, they confirmed the camp was abandoned.
Asked about the individuals responsible for placing the explosives, the general suggested they could be criminals linked to the local group Cárteles Unidos, which operates in Michoacán and uses these tactics in their territorial dispute with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country.
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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