12 boys, coach missing in flooded cave
MAE SAI, Thailand — Anguished parents of 12 members of a boys’ soccer team missing in a flooded cave in northern Thailand were spending a third night without their children Monday as water continued to rise in the sprawling caverns, forcing rescuers led by elite navy divers to suspend their search.
Officials said pouring rain caused parts of the cave to flood with at least 16 feet of water, but they believe the boys are still alive.
The boys, ages 11-15, are believed to have entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province with their 25-year-old coach late Saturday afternoon. A mother reported that her son did not return from soccer practice that day, setting off the search.
About a dozen navy SEAL divers and other rescuers re-entered the cave this morning to resume the search.
Even though more rain fell overnight, the initial chambers inside the cave were dry. A power line was extended into the cave to provide light and ventilation and help divers communicate with those outside.
Germany deporting ex-bin Laden aide
BERLIN — German officials say a former aide to Osama bin Laden has been detained, and they plan to deport him to his native Tunisia.
The dpa news agency confirmed a report that Sami A., whose full name wasn’t released because of privacy rules, was detained Monday. The agency quoted a spokesman for Bochum, the western city where A. lives, saying a valid order for his deportation has been issued.
Daily newspaper Bild reported that the 42-year-old was detained when he reported at a police station, as he is required to do daily.
The case of A., who has been described as a former bodyguard to the al-Qaida chief, made headlines earlier this year when it was reported that German authorities couldn’t deport him because a court ruled he might face torture in Tunisia.
Police in Mexico disarm town’s force
MEXICO CITY — State police detained and disarmed the entire police force of a town in western Mexico where a mayoral candidate was killed last week.
Video of the detention aired by local media showed uniformed officers hitting each other as gunshots go off in the background.
The Michoacan state police force said the “all the officers of the Ocampo municipal police force were detained for internal affairs investigation.”
In statements on its Twitter account Sunday, the state Police Department did not directly tie the detentions to the Thursday killing of Fernando Angeles Juarez, the mayoral candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.
In 2010, the mayor of the northern Mexico town of Santiago, Nuevo Leon was killed by his own police in retaliation for his attempts to oust corrupt officers.
Colombia’s coca cultivation sets record
BOGOTA, Colombia — A new White House report has found that cultivation of the plant used to make cocaine has reached an all-time high in Colombia.
Annual data released Monday indicate Colombia’s coca cultivation increased 11 percent to 807 square miles in 2017, a level unseen in more than two decades of record keeping and $10 billion in U.S. counter-narcotics work. Estimated cocaine production increased 19 percent to 921 metric tons.
Deputy Director Jim Carroll with the White House drug policy office said, “The steep upward trajectory is unacceptable.”
“President [Donald] Trump’s message to Colombia is clear: The record growth in cocaine production must be reversed,” he added.
Colombia is one of the top U.S. allies in Latin America, but the boom in coca production has tested relations between the two nations. Trump threatened to decertify Colombia last year as a partner in the war on drugs if it failed to reverse the surge in production.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders added later that Trump had called Colombian President-elect Ivan Duque on Monday to congratulate him on his election victory and discuss security challenges his new government will face.