Mexico ex-governor nabbed in Guatemala
MEXICO CITY • A fugitive former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state suspected of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars has been detained in Guatemala after six months on the run, officials said.
Javier Duarte was arrested at a luxury hotel in the tourist resort town of Panajachel, Guatemalan police said. The 43-year-old will be placed at the disposal of a counter-narcotics court.
He is allegedly responsible for organised crime and embezzlement and Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant against him.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Iraq troops strike ISIS in Mosul's Old City
BAGHDAD • Iraqi forces launched a new attack on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Mosul's Old City yesterday, military officials said, trying to break the stalemate in attempts to seize the militants' last stronghold.
Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, was captured by the Sunni Muslim militants in 2014, but government forces have retaken much of it during a six-month operation.
The advance has hardly moved for more than a month, though, as the militants are holding out in the densely populated Old City in western Mosul, where tanks and heavy vehicles are not able to operate because of its narrow streets.
REUTERS
Drunk soldiers fire shots at PNG camp
SYDNEY • Drunk soldiers "went on a rampage" and fired shots in the air at an Australian asylum-seeker camp in Papua New Guinea, police said yesterday, in the latest violence to rock the scandal-hit facility.
PNG police announced an investigation into the unrest at the Manus Island facility, an offshore processing centre reopened in 2012 to detain people who try to enter Australia by boat.
The incident was sparked by an altercation at a football game played by asylum-seekers at a navy base outside the compound late Friday, according to detainees and refugee advocates. Later, "drunken soldiers in retaliation for one of their colleagues who was allegedly assaulted by an asylum-seeker" entered the detention centre, and "went on a rampage..." the Royal PNG Constabulary said in a statement.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
