Ecuador declares control over prisons, frees hostages after eruption in "war" with drug gangs
CBSN
Quito — Ecuador's security forces on Sunday took back control of several prisons that had fallen into the hands of gang members, after securing the release of more than 200 officials held hostage inside the jails. The country's simmering security crisis erupted last week as the government and powerful narco gangs declared all-out war on each other, after the prison escape of a dangerous drug lord.
Inmates rioted in jails where gangs wield outsize control, taking prison guards and administrative workers hostage, while on the streets a wave of violence has left 19 people dead.
Unverified images on social media of looting, brutal murders and other attacks have struck terror into the population.
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Cries of "It is warm!" rang out across the Seine on Saturday morning as Parisians took a plunge in the river for the first time in more than 100 years.
Ukraine said it struck a Russian airbase on Saturday, while Russia continued to pound Ukraine with hundreds of drones overnight as part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than 3-year-old war.
Scampi and Flounder, a pair of male Humboldt penguins, are stepping up to raise a chick at Chester Zoo in the United Kingdom.
The Hamas terrorist group said Friday it has issued a "positive response" to a U.S.-mediated ceasefire proposal in its war with Israel.
A gas station explosion rocked a neighborhood in southeastern Rome on Friday, injuring at least 25, including 10 first responders, authorities said.
A stash of "unusually large" 2,000-year-old shoes dug up at a Roman site in northern England has left archaeologists searching for an explanation, they told AFP on Thursday.
Two elderly female tourists in Zambia were killed by an elephant Thursday while on a walking safari in a national park, police said, a year after two American women were killed in separate elephant attacks in the country.
An American teenager was detained on an Antarctic island while attempting to pilot his small plane to every continent, said Chilean authorities, who have charged him for allegedly submitting a false flight plan.
The Colombian navy on Wednesday announced its first seizure of an unmanned "narco sub" equipped with a Starlink antenna off its Caribbean coast.
Diogo Jota, Liverpool F.C. soccer player killed in car crash in Spain along with brother, police say
Spanish police say Liverpool F.C. soccer player Diogo Jota and his brother have been killed in a car crash in Spain. The Spanish civil guard confirmed to The Associated Press that Jota and his brother were found dead after their car went off a road near the western city of Zamora.
Catherine, Princess of Wales, said Wednesday during a visit to a cancer support center that recovering from the disease was akin to riding "a rollercoaster" as she spoke of going through "hard times" during her recovery journey.
Six people accused of witchcraft were killed, burned alive, stoned or beaten by a militia in Burundi, a local official told AFP on Wednesday.
It appeared on Wednesday that President Trump likely still has some deal-making to do before he can claim to have brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to end the devastating war in Gaza. Mr. Trump said in a Tuesday evening social media post that Israel had "agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize" a 60-day ceasefire, and he called on Hamas to accept the deal, warning the U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist group that "it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE."