International

Nicaragua detains business union leaders as crackdown widens

AFP

Nicaragua on Thursday arrested the top two leaders of the country’s business owners’ union, police said, bringing the number of government opponents detained ahead of next month’s election to 39.

Superior Council of Private Enterprise president Michael Healy and vice president Alvaro Vargas are being “investigated for the crime of money and asset laundering,” police said in a statement.

Since early June Nicaragua’s authorities have arrested a host of opposition figures, including seven aspiring presidential hopefuls, as well as journalists and business, social and political leaders.

The detainees face charges of trying to overthrow President Daniel Ortega, treason and threatening Nicaragua’s sovereignty by, among other things, “applauding” sanctions and “inciting foreign interference.”

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Healy and Vargas are being investigated “for carrying out acts that threaten independence, sovereignty and self-determination, inciting foreign interference in internal affairs, requesting military interventions (and) planning terrorist acts with financing from foreign powers,” the police said.

A court ordered them to be held in detention for 90 days while the investigation is carried out, the Public Ministry, the country’s equivalent of the prosecutor’s office, said in a statement.

Healy’s predecessor, Jose Aguerri, was arrested in July for conspiracy to undermine sovereignty.

The business union condemned the arrests, which it said “violate the fundamental rights established in Nicaragua’s Constitution” and said such detentions “must cease immediately.”

Critics say the wave of arrests is designed to remove any realistic competition from standing against Ortega, 75, in the November 7 election.

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Detainees have been held under a controversial law approved last December that has been widely denounced as a means of freezing out challengers and silencing opponents.

Family members of those held say the detainees are suffering isolation, daily interrogations, threats and hunger.

On Tuesday, the influential National Coalition of political and social groups called for an election boycott.

The Washington-based Organization of American States on Wednesday demanded the “immediate release” of all opposition figures in Nicaragua.

Ortega, a former left-wing guerrilla leader, has been in power since 2007 and is seeking a fourth consecutive term.

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In 2014, during his second term, the National Assembly, dominated by his Sandinista National Liberation Front party, approved a constitutional amendment to remove term limits, paving the way for Ortega to remain in power indefinitely.

Healy was arrested shortly after leaving the offices of the Public Ministry, where he had been summoned for an “interview” that did not take place and which had been rescheduled, he told reporters waiting outside the building.

When he got into his vehicle, he was followed by armed policemen on two motorcycles.

Sociologist Oscar Rene Vargas said the government is not leaving “any opportunity for a negotiated solution” to the crisis in the country.

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International

Iran Reports 201 Dead, 747 Injured After U.S. and Israeli Strikes

The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported Sunday night (local time) that at least 201 people were killed and 747 injured following attacks carried out by Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic.

A spokesperson for the humanitarian organization said more than 220 rescue teams have been deployed across affected areas and that relief operations are continuing without interruption. The official highlighted the difficulty of treating the large number of wounded and the urgent need for additional resources in impacted provinces.

Out of Iran’s 31 provinces, 24 have reported damage, according to a statement carried by the Isna news agency. This marks the first overall casualty toll released by Iranian state-affiliated media since the launch of the offensive.

Among the dead are 85 schoolgirls from a school in the southern city of Minab, according to the country’s judiciary. “The number of martyrs at the Minab girls’ school has risen to 85,” the local prosecutor’s office said, as quoted by the judiciary’s website, Mizan Online.

Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian described the attack as a “savagery” that “constitutes a new black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors.”

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Meanwhile, the international community continues to monitor the situation closely amid concerns about possible further reprisals and the broader impact on Middle East stability, energy markets, and global security.

AFP noted that it was unable to independently verify the casualty figures or the circumstances surrounding the events.

International

Pope Leo XIV Urges End to ‘Spiral of Violence’ in Middle East

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called for an end to the “spiral of violence” in the Middle East, following military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran and subsequent retaliatory bombardments in the region.

“Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I urge the parties involved to assume their moral responsibility and stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” the pontiff told the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

Speaking during the Angelus prayer, the U.S.-born pope said stability and peace cannot be achieved through threats or weapons. “Stability and peace are not built with reciprocal threats or with arms that sow destruction, suffering and death, but only through reasonable, sincere and responsible dialogue,” he declared.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics also called for diplomacy to “regain its role” amid escalating tensions.

In addition, the pope urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to urgently resume dialogue after several days of clashes between the two countries.

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International

Security Council to Hold Emergency Meeting on Middle East Crisis

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday condemned the “military escalation in the Middle East” following attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes, just hours before an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

“I call for the immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation,” Guterres said in a statement.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on Saturday at 21:00 GMT (4:00 p.m. in New York) to address “the situation in the Middle East,” the United Nations announced.

The meeting, during which Guterres will deliver remarks, was convened at the request of France, Bahrain, Colombia, Russia and China, according to a diplomatic source.