8 NEWS The world at a glance ...
Berlin
Nazis in uniform: Hundreds of German troops—many of them
members of elite commando units—are suspected of involvement
with far-right groups, Germany’s Military Counterintelligence
Service announced this week. The agency said 14 soldiers were
discharged last year for extremism, including eight neo-Nazis, and
some 500 more were under investigation. The number of suspected
extremists in the Special Forces Command is proportionally five
times higher than in the rest of the military. The investigation
began in 2017 after army officer Franco Albrecht was found to
be leading a double life, posing as a Syrian refugee and planning
a terrorist attack that would be blamed on asylum seekers. That
set off fears of a “shadow army” of extremists within the military,
explained counterintelligence head Christof Gramm, but he added
that his investigation had found no such conspiracy.Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Deadly landslides: At least 62
people were killed and more than
30,000 forced from their homes in southeastern Brazil this week
after torrential downpours triggered flooding and landslides. A
state of emergency was declared in 101 towns and cities in Minas
Gerais, Brazil’s second-most populous state. Nearly 7 inches of
rain fell in just one day in the regional capital, Belo Horizonte.
Flooded roads became rushing rivers, sweeping along cars, debris,
and people, and mudslides buried whole streets. The catastrophe
comes a year after a mining dam collapsed in the nearby town
of Brumadinho, releasing millions of tons of toxic sludge that
killed 270 people, polluted nearby rivers, and destroyed surround-
ing forest. January is on track to be the wettest month in Minas
Gerais’ recorded history, and authorities fear the rains could cause
more mining dams to fail.La Paz, Bolivia
Not-so-temporary president? Bolivia was in turmoil again this week
after interim President Jeanine Áñez, who took office following the
October ouster of leftist President Evo Morales, announced that
she will run for the nation’s top job in May’s election. Morales
and his Socialist party were forced from power after the military
backed protests against his fraud-tainted re-
election. Áñez, a conservative former senator,
promised at the time that she would be a
placeholder leader until new elections. Now
Áñez says she is the only one who can unite
a fragmented country. After her communica-
tions minister quit in protest, Áñez this week
fired her whole cabinet and installed a new
one of loyalists. From his exile in Argentina,
Morales said that Áñez’s candidacy was
proof he was the victim of a right-wing coup.
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Fugitive senator caught: Venezuelan special forces have captured
the fugitive Colombian former Sen. Aída Merlano, who escaped
her prison guards during a dental procedure last October.
Merlano, who was serving a 15-year sentence for vote buying,
was seen on surveillance footage climbing out the second-story
window of the dentist’s office and shimmying down a rope to
an accomplice on a motorcycle. Her escape was an embarrass-
ment for Colombian authorities, and the head of the prison
where she had been held was fired for authorizing her treat-
ment at a private clinic. It’s unclear if Venezuela will allow
Merlano’s extradition to Colombia, which does not recognize
the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as legitimate.
Elazig province, Turkey
Earthquake: Rescue workers
pulled survivors from the rubble
in eastern Turkey this week,
after a magnitude-6.7 earthquake
shook the region, killing at least
41 people and injuring more than
1,600. At least 45 people have
been dug out from collapsed build-
ings, including a 2-year-old girl
and her mother who were trapped for 28 hours. A video went
viral in the country of a Turkish woman and her husband thanking
the Syrian refugee who dug them out of their home with his bare
hands. The quake has sparked a bitter online debate over Turkey’s
poor construction standards and its lack of earthquake prepared-
ness. Critics might be punished: The chief prosecutor in Ankara
has opened investigations into 50 people for making “provocative
comments” on social media.
London
No extradition: British officials expressed outrage
last week after U.S. authorities refused to extradite
an American woman charged in the death of a
British teenager. Anne Sacoolas, a U.S. diplomat’s
wife, has admitted that she was driving on the
wrong side of the road last August when she col-
lided with 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn.
Sacoolas told police she would not leave the country while the acci-
dent was being investigated, but soon fled to the U.S. She has been
charged with causing a death by reckless driving. “This amounts to
a denial of justice,” said Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. The U.S.
said Sacoolas has diplomatic immunity from prosecution. “These
extradition requests never go away,” said a spokesman for the
Dunn family. “This will hang over Anne Sacoolas’ head forever.”
AP
,^ FAES,^ NewscomMerlanoRescued from the rubbleDunnÁñez: Power play