Trump calls for talks with Iran
AP, Washington
President Donald Trump has blamed Iran for attacks on oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but he also held out hope that implicit U.S. threats to use force will yield talks with the Islamic Republic as the Pentagon considers beefing up defenses in the Persian Gulf area.
A day after explosions blew holes in two oil tankers just outside Iran’s territorial waters, rattling international oil markets, the administration seemed caught between pressure to punish Iran and reassure Washington’s Gulf Arab allies without drawing the U.S. closer to war.
Man who stabbed Brazil’s Bolsonaro jailed indefinitely
AP, Rio De Janeiro
A Brazilian judge on Friday absolved the man who stabbed then-presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in his torso last year, citing his mental illness and ordering him held indefinitely in a prison mental facility.
Adélio Bispo de Oliveira has been in police custody since Sept. 6 when he was accused of stabbing Bolsonaro while he was campaigning in the streets of Juiz de Fora, a city 115 miles (186 kilometers) north of Rio de Janeiro. The blade pierced the candidate’s intestine and put his life in danger. The attacker was beaten badly by Bolsonaro supporters after the stabbing.
Paris’s Notre-Dame to celebrate first mass after fire
AFP, Paris
The Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris will host its first mass on Saturday, exactly two months after the devastating blaze that shocked France and the world.
For safety reasons, the mass led by Archbishop of Paris Michel Aupetit will be celebrated on a very small scale. Worshippers will be expected to don hard hats but priests will be wearing their ceremonial garb.
31 test positive for HIV in Pakistan
PTI, Islamabad
Thirty-one people were tested HIV positive during a screening programme conducted in Pakistan’s Sindh province on Saturday, health authorities said amid a probe by international experts from the WHO to check the outbreak of the deadly virus.
The new cases in Shikarpur district see a surge in cases of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) in Sindh after 215 positive cases, including 181 children, were reported in Ratodero district of Larkana last month, Geo News reported.
Mexico migration chief resigns
AP, Mexico City
Mexico’s immigration chief resigned Friday and the country’s prisons director was swiftly nominated to replace him, as the country embarks on a crackdown on irregular migration through its territory in response to U.S. pressure.
The National Immigration Institute said in a brief statement that Tonatiuh Guillén thanked President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the opportunity to serve the country, but it did not give a reason for why he presented his resignation.
