Missing Mexican lawmaker's body found
MEXICO CITY -- The body of a missing Mexican congresswoman from the western state of Colima has been found in a hidden grave more than a month after armed men abducted her, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday.
Lopez Obrador expressed his condolences to the family of Anel Bueno, a 38-year-old legislator from his Morena party.
Armed men took Bueno on April 29 while she was promoting health measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in Ixtlahuacan, Colima.
The president said that one suspect was in custody.
The Colima state prosecutor's office said in a statement Wednesday that the lawmaker's body was found in a grave with the bodies of three men. The bodies were found Monday, but the remains of the lawmaker were not identified until Tuesday. Relatives were informed Wednesday, it said. Additional genetic testing of the remains was planned.
Colima Gov. Jose Ignacio Peralta said those responsible would be found, and that the state security chief had resigned.
The announcement came one day after Peralta confirmed that seven bodies found inside a vehicle in the port of Manzanillo were seven missing state police officers from neighboring Jalisco state.
Freed by U.S., scientist returns to Iran
TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian scientist imprisoned in the U.S. and acquitted in a federal trade-secrets case returned to his homeland on Wednesday morning, a semiofficial Iranian news agency reported.
The report by the ISNA news agency included an image of Sirous Asgari, wearing a mask and being welcomed by relatives.
A professor at Iran's Sharif University of Technology, Asgari was indicted in April 2016, accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of trying to steal secret research from Case Western Reserve University. The Cleveland school had been working on a project for the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research to create and produce anti-corrosive stainless steel.
Asgari was ultimately acquitted in November after U.S. District Judge James Gwin tossed out the case by the prosecutors.
Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy Homeland Security secretary, earlier told The Associated Press that his agency had started to try to deport Asgari in December after his acquittal. However, he said, Iran refused to recognize him as legitimately Iranian and provide him with a valid passport until late February.
Storm Cristobal makes land in Mexico
MEXICO CITY -- Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall Wednesday in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Campeche, dumping heavy rain on the already soaked region ahead of an expected eventual turn toward the United States, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The Mexican army evacuated 138 people in Campeche after floodwaters threatened homes, and police in Campeche reported water washing across highways.
The storm's sustained winds weakened to 50 mph after it moved inland, where it was expected to weaken a bit further before heading back into the Gulf on Friday, where it could gather strength again.
It was moving south-southeast at about 3 mph but was expected to turn north by today and start moving into the Gulf of Mexico. By Sunday it could move north and threaten the U.S. Gulf Coast.
For now, forecasters expect Cristobal to meander along Mexico's Gulf coast, causing flooding. The Hurricane Center said it made landfall Wednesday morning near Atasta, just west of the major oil production town of Ciudad del Carmen.
Russian strikes again target Syria rebels
BEIRUT -- Russian warplanes carried out the first airstrikes in three months on the last remaining rebel stronghold in northwestern Syria, opposition activists said. There was no immediate word on any casualties.
Wednesday's airstrikes, along with ground bombardment over the past few days, have forced hundreds of people to flee their homes to safer areas farther north, the activists said. The strikes on and near Idlib province were the first to be conducted by Russian planes since a truce brought relative calm to the volatile region in early March, they said.
The truce, brokered by Turkey and Russia, halted a three-month air and ground campaign that had killed hundreds and sent 1 million people fleeing toward the Turkish border.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said Russian warplanes targeted rebel-held areas just south of Idlib province late Tuesday and Wednesday morning. It had no immediate word on casualties in the four airstrikes.
A Section on 06/04/2020