Mexican police held in kidnapping case
MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities announced Tuesday the arrest of 13 federal police officers who allegedly belonged to a kidnap and murder gang that operated in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.
The bust was one of the largest single take-downs of corrupt cops in recent years in Mexico, where the government has been struggling with rising levels of kidnapping and extortion, crimes many people don’t report because they don’t trust police.
Federal security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said the 13 officers and five civilian accomplices “are linked to at least seven homicides and four kidnappings, in which two of the victims were killed in a cowardly way.”
Acting on a tip, prosecutors began investigating the gang, and the probe led them to three clandestine burial sites on a hill in Acapulco, where three bodies were found. Other members of the gang were arrested with guns and marijuana.
They face possible prison sentences of as much as 70 years if convicted.
North Korea reactor restarted, officials say
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Tuesday that North Korea has restarted a plutonium reactor at its main nuclear facility, according to two parliamentary members who attended the closed-door briefing session.
North Korea said in April it would restart the reactor after tensions ran high after its third nuclear test in February, but it has not confirmed that it has done so.
Recent satellite photos have shown signs that the reactor may be operating. The National Intelligence Service told a parliamentary committee meeting Tuesday that North Korea restarted the five-megawatt reactor at its Nyongbyon complex in August but did not say how they obtained the information, according to the office of lawmaker Jung Chung-rae.
Venezuela president seeks to rule by decree
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has asked Congress to give him special decree-making powers that he says he needs to fight corruption and economic sabotage.
The opposition says Maduro is simply following the playbook of his late mentor, Hugo Chavez.
Four times during his 14 years as president, Chavez got the National Assembly to give him the power to rule by decree. In all, Chavez used the power to enact 200 legal changes that strengthened state control over Venezuela’s economy.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles says giving Maduro decree power won’t end food shortages and will only strengthen the hand of an executive he calls incompetent.
Magazine raises count for Africa’s wealthy
LAGOS, Nigeria – A pan-African magazine says Africa has many more billionaires than previously reported, 55 of them worth more than $143 billion including a Nigerian said to be the richest black woman in the world.
“Move over, Oprah!” Ventures Africa says in its edition published this week.
Editor-in-chief Uzodinma Iweala said Tuesday the magazine’s estimates are “on the conservative side.”
The report predictably identifies Nigerian manufacturer Aliko Dangote as the richest African worth $20.2 billion, among 20 Nigerians listed.
Africa Ventures put the average net worth of Africa’s billionaires at $2.6 billion and their average age at 65.
Associated Press
