RIO DE JANEIRO – When Estefanie Ferraz went to prison, she had been living as a woman for around a decade, had undergone more than half a dozen plastic surgeries including breast and cheek implants to enhance her feminine looks, and was saving up for a sex change operation. But …
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MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities say they are working to clean sargassum seaweed from 112 miles (180 kilometers) of the country’s Caribbean coast and will try to prevent more from coming ashore. The Environment Department said Tuesday that the government is setting up air and sea monitoring of sargassum mats …
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BEIJING – The nephew of lawyer-activist Chen Guangcheng has been released from prison after serving a three-year, three-month sentence widely seen as retribution for his uncle’s daring escape from house arrest. Chen said in an email from the United States that Chen Kegui had returned to his home in eastern …
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BEIJING – The lawyer for imprisoned Chinese journalist Gao Yu says she is in poor health and was recently taken to a hospital for examination. Gao is serving a seven-year sentence on charges of leaking a document detailing the Communist Party leadership’s resolve to aggressively target civil society and press …
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A Puerto Rico senator filed a resolution Friday that would reassign $94 million to the island’s Government Development Bank so it can make a bond payment that the U.S. territory missed earlier this week. Sen. Gilberto Rodriguez said the money would come from a fund …
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BEIJING – Authorities say a landslide at a mining community in central China has buried several dormitories and some homes, trapping 40 people. The fire department in the mountainous county of Shanyang in Shaanxi province says 15 dormitories of the Wuzhou Mining Company were buried, along with three residential homes …
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BANGKOK – Thousands of cyclists are being led through the streets of Bangkok by Thailand’s crown prince on a 43-kilometer (26-mile) tribute to his mother, Queen Sirikit, to mark her 83rd birthday. Sunday’s event, led by 62-year-old Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, was also an exercise in palace public relations at a …
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MOSCOW – Russian police say they have busted an international ring involved in producing contraband cheese worth about 2 billion rubles ($30 million), arresting six people. The Russian government a year ago banned imports of Western cheese and other agricultural products in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the U.S. and …
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MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials say they have begun flying two drones over sea turtle nesting grounds on the Pacific coast to better monitor and protect the sensitive habitats. Federal prosecutor for environmental protection Guillermo Haro Belchez said Wednesday that the drones are watching over La Escobilla and Morro Ayuta …
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BODRUM, Turkey – Turkey’s state-run news agency says a Syrian woman has drowned and nine other migrants were rescued after their boat sank off the Turkish coast as they tried to reach a Greek island. The Anadolu Agency say the fiberglass boat capsized early on Friday off the Bodrum peninsula, …
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