Foreign News
Eight arrests after two officers die in ‘narco-boat’ chase in Spain
Eight people have been arrested in Spain after two officers were killed in a boat chase with suspected drug traffickers.
Miguel Angel Gomez Gonzalez, 39, and David Perez Carracedo, 43, died when a speedboat rammed the police’s smaller vessel. Two other officers were injured, one seriously.
The incident happened in the southern port of Barbate, near Cadiz, on Friday night.
According to Spanish daily El Pais, Barbate’s mayor, Miguel Molina, contacted the Civil Guard asking for assistance after six “narco-boats” were spotted by residents sheltering from a storm in the city’s port. The deadly boat chase occurred later that evening. In a video shared on social media, people on the shore can be heard seemingly cheering the traffickers on as the speedboat collides with the police boat.
The incident has shaken the local community – and sparked calls to give police more powers to fight drug traffickers.
Local media said the eight people arrested include known drug dealers and money launderers. As they were brought into court on Monday morning, they were heckled by onlookers, who shouted “murderers” and “rot in jail”.
More than a thousand people attended the agents’ funerals, which were held on Sunday.
In a statement, the Spanish Guardia Civil officers’ association (AUGC) said it has long demanded a “real plan” to provide officers with better means and resources to fight drug traffickers, and called for the resignation of Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
For his part, Mr Grande-Marlaska said the deaths of the two officers amounted to an “assassination” and promised “zero impunity” in efforts to stop drug trafficking.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he “deeply regrets” the deaths and paid tribute to “the great work” done by security forces in the fight against trafficking.
Cadiz and the surrounding region are known to be key points of entry for traffickers smuggling drugs. In particular the nearby 15km-wide (9 mile) Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Europe from Africa, is a favoured route among drug smugglers.
(BBC)
Independent Wexford TD Verona Murphy will be the next Ceann Comhairle (speaker) of Dáil Éireann.
She will become the first woman to ever hold the role after being elected by her fellow TDs (members of the Irish parliment).
Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness and Seán Ó Fearghaíl as well as Aengus Ó Snodaigh from Sinn Féin also ran for the position.
Politicians in the Republic of Ireland met for the first time since the general election on Wednesday.
[BBC]
A plot to assassinate Pope Francis during a trip to Iraq was stopped following a tip-off from British intelligence, according to his upcoming autobiography.
The Pope writes that, after landing in Baghdad in March 2021, he was told an event at which he was set to appear was being targeted by two suicide bombers.
Both attackers were subsequently intercepted and killed, he said in excerpts published by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The visit, which took place over three days during the coronavirus pandemic, was the first ever to Iraq by a pope and saw an intense security operation.
The years before had seen increased sectarian violence in Iraq, with fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims as well as the persecution of religious minorities.
The country’s Christian community had shrunk dramatically, having been targeted in particular by the Islamic State group and other Sunni extremists.
In excerpts of his autobiography, the Pope says “almost everyone advised me against” the visit but he felt he “had to do it”.
He says the plot was uncovered by British intelligence, who warned Iraqi police, and they in turn told his security detail once he had touched down.
“A woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was heading towards Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit,” he says.
“And a van had also set off at great speed with the same intention.”
The Pope adds that he asked a security official the following day what had happened to the would-be attackers.
“The [official] replied laconically: ‘They are no more’. The Iraqi police had intercepted them and blown them up,” he wrote.
The book, entitled Hope, is due to be published on 14 January.
[BBC]
A woman from the Philippines who spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad is on her way home.
Mary Jane Veloso was sentenced to death in 2010 after she was found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin through an Indonesian airport.
But the 39-year-old mother of two has always maintained she was tricked into carrying the drugs.
She was handed over to Philippine officials on Tuesday night, after the two governments reached a deal to allow her to return home.
“I have to go home because I have a family there, I have my children waiting for me.”
While the agreement states that Ms Veloso will return as a prisoner, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos could grant her a reprieve.
Ms Veloso was arrested in April 2010 at Yogyakarta airport.
She said she was convinced by the daughter of one of her godparents to travel to Indonesia to start a new job as a maid.
She claimed that the woman’s male friends gave her new clothes and a new bag, which she was unaware had heroin sewn into it.
She was due to face the firing squad in 2015, but the Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for her after the woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking, while Ms Veloso was named a prosecution witness.
Her reprieve was so late that several newspapers in the Philippines went to print with front pages and headlines reporting it had happened.
The case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines (BBC)Ms Veloso’s case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines, which does not have the death penalty.
Her circumstances were familiar to many in the Philippines, where it is common for women to escape poverty by seeking work abroad as domestic helpers.
“I bring a lot of things, such as guitar, books, knittings … even this T-shirt I’m wearing was given by my friends,” she said while leaving prison for the airport.
Her transfer comes just days after the five remaining members of the infamous Bali Nine drug ring returned home after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.
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