Migrant caravan intercepted in Mexico
TAPACHULA, Mexico -- An estimated 800 migrants trying to continue their journey north were intercepted by Mexican authorities early Friday after they walked out of the southern city of Tapachula overnight.
The attempted caravan followed a day of protest Thursday over the Mexican government's attempts to contain the migrants in the south, far from the U.S. border. The migrants had walked only about 10 miles through the darkness when they were intercepted about 5 a.m. by National Guard and immigration agents.
Migrants from Central America, Haiti, Venezuela and other countries were loaded into vans.
On Thursday, hundreds of migrants had protested outside the local offices of immigration and asylum authorities, complaining that the process of gaining temporary legal status was too slow. Migrants have long said there isn't sufficient work or housing for the thousands who wait for months in Tapachula for some resolution of their status.
Many incur debts to migrate, and anything that delays them in getting paying work stresses their situation, as they still have to pay rent and buy food.
1,900 Italian medical workers suspended
ROME -- Some 1,900 Italian doctors and dentists have been suspended from the country's professional association because they haven't complied with a law requiring them to be fully vaccinated against covid-19, including a booster shot.
That amounts to 0.4% of total membership, but the federation says some 30,000 other members still haven't completed their vaccinations. It noted that some of them might not be violating the law since they might have tested positive and can't now receive the vaccine yet or might have health reasons they can't be vaccinated. Still others are waiting until they are eligible to receive a booster dose at least four months after their last vaccine shot.
"That's a rough number that doesn't photograph the real situation of non-compliant health workers," Filippo Anelli, federation president, said in a statement.
Italy requires all health care workers, teachers, police, armed forces members and those who provide services to nursing home residents to be fully vaccinated. It also requires all people 50 and older to be fully vaccinated or recently recovered from the illness in order to use services such as public transport.
Suspending the unvaccinated "isn't meant to be punitive," Anelli said. "The aim is, as the law says, to protect public health and maintain adequate conditions of safety in providing care."
Taiwan arson, homicide suspect charged
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwanese prosecutors Friday charged a suspect with homicide and arson in the case of an October fire that killed 46 people and injured dozens.
The suspect, Huang Ge-ge, is accused of deliberately pouring hot ashes from mosquito-repellent incense on the sofa in the room where her partner, Kuo Ching-wen, lived, according to a statement posted by prosecutors of the southern port city of Kaohsiung, where the fire took place.
The prosecutors said Huang, 52, was unhappy that Kuo, 53, had not answered her calls or replied to her messages after they had quarreled earlier that night.
Huang has been detained since two days after the Oct. 14 fire, which began about 2 a.m. Kuo, also initially a suspect in the case, was not at home at the time and has not been charged with any crime, according to prosecutors.
Huang left Kuo's first-floor room shortly after she poured the ashes on the sofa, prosecutors say. The fire spread in the wood-furnished space and rapidly engulfed the higher floors of the 13-story building, making it hard for the residents -- mostly poorer and older people who had been asleep -- to escape.
The building had suffered years of neglect and was inhabited by squatters, gamblers, sex workers and older and poorer people.
Ghana mining truck blast kills 13 people
DAKAR, Senegal -- A motorcycle crashed into a truck carrying mining explosives in western Ghana, igniting a huge explosion Thursday that leveled dozens of buildings, killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 100.
Video from the scene showed a crater in the earth and rescuers rushing to collect survivors, who local officials say have filled nearby hospitals. By Friday, a police spokesman said 177 people had been injured.
"The whole place, the whole community, is gone," Isaac Dsamani, municipal chief executive of the rural area, told a news crew.
Police urged residents to move away from the rubble, asking towns in the area to open schools and churches to the people who lost their homes.
Initially, police reported 17 deaths but revised the toll down to 13 on Friday, saying four had been mistaken for dead. After a 24-hour rescue operation, police said, the wounded were taken to medical centers.
Ghana, one of the continent's top producers of gold, is home to several major excavation sites. Companies based in the U.S., Australia, South Africa and Canada all run gold mines there.