Colombia’s cartels target Europe with cocaine, corruption and torture
Raids by Belgian police have lifted the lid on a sinister new front in the drugs war
By Daniel Boffey / The Guardian, BRUSSELS
At 5am on a chilly Tuesday morning last month, 1,600 police officers and balaclava-wearing special forces, bristling with arms and battering rams, were ordered into action around the Belgian port city of Antwerp.
More than 200 addresses were raided in what was the largest police operation ever conducted in the country and potentially one of the most significant moves yet against the increasingly powerful narco-gangs of western Europe.
There are hopes that Operation Sky will herald the downfall of a generation of local bosses, although the Belgian and Dutch “godfathers” largely now hide out in Dubai and Turkey, hoping to be out of reach of the authorities.
Twenty years ago, just after the stroke of midnight on April 1, the mayor of Amsterdam married four couples in city hall as the Netherlands became the first country with legalized same-sex marriages.
“There are two reasons to rejoice,” Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen told the newlyweds before pink champagne and pink cake were served. “You are celebrating your marriage, and you are also celebrating your right to be married.”
Same-sex marriage is legal in 29 countries. That includes most of Western Europe. Yet its spread has been uneven Taiwan is the only country in Asia to take the step; South Africa
Lula s comeback is just what Brazil did not need taipeitimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from taipeitimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How fires have spread to untouched parts of the world
Fires are moving to places previously untouched by fire, a phenomenon that concerns scientists
By Pablo Gutierrez,
Ashley Kirk,
Jonathan Watts
and Frank Hu / The Guardian
Wildfires are spreading to fuel-abundant regions of the world that used to be less prone to burning, a new analysis of 20 years of data found.
While the overall area of annual burn in the world has remained relatively static in this period, the research indicates a shifting regional fire pattern that is affecting more forests and fewer grasslands.
In recent years, fires have devastated areas of California, Australia, Siberia and the Pantanal that used to be relatively unaffected. By contrast, there has been a reduction of savannah fires in Africa.
China clamps down in hidden hunt for the origins of COVID-19
Internal government documents show that the release of research must be orchestrated under Xi Jinping’s direction with the help of propaganda and public opinion teams to ‘guide publication’
By Dake Kang, Maria Cheng and Sam McNeil / AP, MOJIANG, China
Deep in the lush mountain valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine shaft that once harbored bats with the closest known relative of the COVID-19 virus.
The area is of intense scientific interest because it might hold clues to the origins of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide. Yet for scientists and journalists, it has become a black hole of no information because of political sensitivity and secrecy.