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Rio to allow fans for Brazil-Argentina final of Copa America

AFP

Rio de Janeiro, one of the Brazilian cities hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, on Friday gave the go-ahead for thousands of fans to attend Saturday’s Copa America final against Argentina at the Maracana stadium.

The city has decided to allow a crowd of up to 7,800 people, 10 percent of the stadium’s full capacity of 78,000.

This would make it the first match in the 2021 Copa America, South America’s largest international football tournament, with fans in the stands.

The decision was based on the organizers presenting protocols “of operation and accreditation that adopt measures to protect the health of those involved, using appropriate tools to prevent contagion and the propagation of Covid-19”, said a notice in the official gazette Friday.

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Those wishing to attend must arrive with a negative coronavirus test taken no longer than 48 hours earlier. Once inside, they will be required to observe social distancing.

Each side will receive 2,200 tickets for their fans.

Argentina’s football association said it would give its share out free to Argentines living in Brazil.

The hosts have not said how they will distribute theirs.

The tournament, organized by CONMEBOL, the South American football federation, kicked off on June 13 in Brasilia amid widespread criticism of the decision to give the event to Brazil, the country with the second-highest Covid-19 death toll after the United States.

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The pandemic has claimed more than 530,000 lives in the country — some 29,000 of them in Rio alone.

The city’s mortality rate from the virus is 432 per 100,000 inhabitants, almost double the 252/100,000 countrywide figure.

Despite opposition from politicians, citizens and some players and coaches, Brazil agreed at the 11th hour to host the world’s oldest international tournament after CONMEBOL took it from co-hosts Argentina, battling a pandemic surge, and Colombia, where dozens have died in anti-government protests.

Strong support for hosting the event came from Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose much-criticized handling of the pandemic is the subject of a parliamentary investigation.

The Copa America is taking place at the same time as the European Champions, which are being played at 11 venues, with fans.

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The Euros final at the 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium on Sunday will be played with some 60,000 spectators.

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FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Arrested in Mexico and Deported to U.S.

Authorities in Mexico announced Thursday that Samuel Ramírez Jr., a U.S. citizen accused of murdering two women and listed among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, was arrested in the northern state of Sinaloa.

Ramírez Jr., 33, was detained Tuesday in Culiacán just 1 hour and 13 minutes after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Ten Most Wanted list, the agency said in a statement.

The suspect, who was born in California, has already been deported to the U.S. state of Washington, where he faces charges related to the fatal shooting of two women at a bar in Federal Way in May 2023.

A court issued an arrest warrant for Ramírez in November last year, and the FBI initially offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, later increasing the amount to up to $1 million.

“To protect individuals’ privacy and ensure continued cooperation from the public, the FBI does not confirm the identity of those who provide information,” the agency said in its statement.

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UN experts warn Nicaragua runs vast transnational network to monitor exiled dissidents

Nicaragua maintains an “extensive” transnational network to monitor and intimidate opposition figures living in exile, affecting “hundreds of thousands” of people, the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua warned on Tuesday.

In a statement, the experts said their report “details an extensive transnational architecture of surveillance and intelligence used to monitor, intimidate and attack the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans living abroad.”

The report, which will be presented on March 16 to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, states that the structure maintained by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo includes the army, the police, migration authorities and diplomatic missions.

According to the statement, “the government has arbitrarily stripped 452 Nicaraguans of their nationality, left thousands more exiled in a situation of de facto statelessness, and prevented many from returning to Nicaragua.”

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Trump: ‘We Think It’s True’ Amid Claims Iran’s Supreme Leader Was Killed

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he believes multiple reports claiming the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the U.S. and Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic are likely true, though he stopped short of confirming the news.

“We have a feeling that the information is correct,” he said, according to NBC News. “I don’t want to say anything definitive until I see it, but we think that’s the case. And many of their leaders have disappeared,” he added.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “many indications” that Khamenei had died in an attack on his residential compound.