Quarantined nurse who treated Ebola patients headed home to Maine

Kaci Hickox, who called her quarantine ‘inhumane,’ left New Jersey Monday night, health officials say

October 27, 2014 8:10AM ET Updated 11:00PM ET

Kaci Hickox, a nurse who was quarantined in New Jersey after working with Ebola patients in West Africa, was released on Monday after being symptom-free for 24 hours, the state’s Health Department said. Hickox, who has made high-profile complaints about what she called her "inhumane" isolation, was returning to her home in Maine by private transportation, the department said Monday night.

Maine officials announced that Hickox would be quarantined at home for 21 days after the last possible exposure to the disease under state health protocols.

Hickox agreed to be quarantined at her home in Fort Kent, but her lawyer Steven Hyman and state officials disagreed over how long she'll have to stay out of public places.

INTERNATIONAL

LORGINA MINGUITO / REUTERS

US Marine to be tried for killing transgender Filipina

Prosecutors mull whether to charge Pfc. Joseph Pemberton with murder or homicide in death of Jennifer Laude

October 27, 2014 7:34AM ET

The Philippines will put a U.S. Marine on trial for killing Jennifer Laude, a transgender Filipina, outside a former U.S. Navy base.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to charge the Marine, Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton, with murder or the lesser crime of homicide. He failed to answer a murder complaint filed by police on Monday, the deadline set by prosecutors, leaving it to the prosecution to determine what charge he faces.

Pemberton skipped the prosecutor's preliminary investigation in Olongapo City, north of Manila, but his lawyer, Rowena Garcia-Flores, said that any planned murder charge should be reduced to homicide, or killing without intent.

"Do not teach us what to do," Olongapo chief prosecutor Emelie Fe delos Santos told Garcia-Flores in a conversation broadcast live on TV. "We will base our resolution on the evidence that we've gathered. We should respect the process."

Delos Santos said prosecutors would inspect the crime scene on Nov. 5 before deciding whether a murder or homicide charge will be brought.

Laude was found dead on Oct. 11 in a hotel bathroom in Olongapo City. Pemberton, who met her outside a bar near the naval base, was named a suspect.

He is being detained at a U.S. facility at the main Philippine army base in Manila, along with three other individuals identified as potential witnesses.

The crime has added to pressure on the government of President Benigno Aquino to renegotiate the U.S.-Philippine Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), testing the two allies' security relations as they face growing tensions in the South China Sea.

"The VFA allows the U.S. military to act in wanton disregard for Philippine sovereignty … and violates the human rights and dignity of the Filipino people," said Filipino Rep. Walden Bello of the Akbayan Party, an ally of the president.

Bello on Monday filed a joint resolution in the Philippine House of Representatives, seeking to terminate the treaty because it "has not served the interests of the Philippines."

The U.S. military has said it is fully cooperating with local investigators.

"I know the matter has the potential to charge the atmosphere with regards to the relationship between us and the Philippine government, and I hope it doesn't damage it because we have a very close relationship," Marine Corps Commandant James Amos told Reuters from Washington.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/10/27/philippines-us-soldiermurder.html

UPDATE 6-Uruguay's presidential election heads to a runoff

9:37pm EDT

(Recasts with Vazquez saying vote goes to runoff)

By Malena Castaldi and Esteban Farat

MONTEVIDEO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Leftist ruling coalition candidate Tabare Vazquez led Uruguay's presidential election on Sunday but he fell short of a first-round victory and will go to a runoff vote next month with the country's pioneering marijuana bill hanging in the balance.

Vazquez of the Broad Front coalition said as results trickled in that the race would go to a second round and he is likely to face a nerve-jangling contest against young center-right opposition candidate, Luis Lacalle Pou.

Exit polls showed Vazquez winning 44-46 percent of the vote compared with 31-33 percent for Lacalle Pou of the National Party.

Classmates of missing Mexico students vow 'radical action'

Dozens of students disappeared after police opened fire on protest; mass grave discovered over weekend

October 7, 2014 1:45PM ET

by Renee Lewis & Alfonso Serrano  

Classmates of dozens of missing students in Iguala, a town in Mexico’s Guerrero state, have promised to take radical action if the students — who classmates said were “disappeared” for participating in a political protest last month — are not returned alive.

Federal police on Tuesday took over security in Iguala and began searching for 43 students still missing after clashes with local police that took place on Sept. 26 and left at least six people dead. The federal officers arrived after the discovery of a mass grave near the rural town, amid suspicion that local police conspired with an area drug gang to massacre dozens of students.

In response to the violence, the students — from a teachers college in nearby Ayotzinapa — have taken control of federal highways and tollbooths in Guerrero in recent days.

"We ask that all human rights organizations, from the local to the international level, help us in demanding justice," José Solano Ramírez, a student at the Ayotzinapa teachers college, told the Mexican human rights group Serapaz. "They (the students) were taken alive. We want them back alive."

Guerrero State Attorney General Iñaky Blanco said Sunday that 28 bodies were found in a mass grave near Iguala. It is probable, he said, that some of the missing students are among the remains found at the site. Blanco said local police officials had handed over 17 students to the drug gang Guerreros Unidos, a remnant of the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO), a once powerful criminal group in the region recently decimated by high profile arrests of its leaders. DNA testing to confirm the identities of the remains is expected to take weeks.

News > Latin America

Uruguay Prepares to 

Receive First Syrian 

Refugees

Syrian refugees walk at Al-Zaatri refugee camp in the Jordanian city of 

Mafraq (Photo: Reuters).

Published 6 October 2014

Uruguay will receive 42 Syrian refugees. 

One hundred twenty will arrive by next 

Thursday confirmed officials.  

Authorities confirmed that Uruguay is preparing to receive 42 Syrian refugees by next Thursday. The first five families will arrive thanks to a solidarity initiate started by President Jose 'Pepe' Mujica. Sixty percent of the refugees are children.

FBI identifies Islamic State militant who beheaded American journalists

• 

© Facebook, AFP | American journalists James Foley (pictured left) and Steven Sotloff (pictured right)

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2014-09-25

The masked Islamic State militant in the videos depicting the beheading of two Americans has been identified, FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday, but he did not give the person’s name or nationality.

Rousseff regains edge in Brazil presidential race as Silva slips

7:13pm EDT

By Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA (Reuters) - President Dilma Rousseff has regained a slight edge in Brazil's presidential race after weeks of aggressive campaigning against environmentalist Marina Silva, who is losing some voter support in the campaign's homestretch, polls showed on Tuesday.

Rousseff and Silva are tied at 41 percent in a likely second-round runoff that is expected to decide the election, according to a survey by the Ibope polling firm.

Another survey by MDA showed Rousseff would get 42 percent of the votes against 41 percent for Silva if the runoff were held today, a one point advantage that amounts to a statistical tie as it is within the poll's margin of error.

Silva, who would be Brazil's first black president, was leading polls on the runoff before the Rousseff campaign unleashed a wave of negative campaign ads questioning Silva's ability to lead Latin America's largest economy.

Brazil Removed From UN World Hunger Map

United Nation report removes Brazil from World Hunger Map

The Associated Press

SAO PAULO

The Brazilian government Tuesday hailed a new United Nations report that for the first time removed Latin America's biggest country from the World Hunger Map.
"Leaving the Hunger Map is a historic milestone for Brazil. We are very proud because overcoming hunger was a priority for the Brazilian state," Social Development Minister Tereza Campello said in a statement.
The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014 was released Tuesday by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the United Nations World Food Program.
According to the report, the number of undernourished Brazilians has fallen by more than 80 percent in 10 years.

Guatemala prisons director arrested

3 September 2014 Last updated at 17:06 ET

Guatemala's Prison Service Director Edgar Camargo has been arrested and charged with involvement in a lucrative corruption and extortion scheme.

Prosecutors say the scheme was run by a high profile convicted criminal, Byron Oliva Lima, who paid bribes to Camargo.