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Arteta defends Arsenal’s Covid postponement request

AFP

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has defended the club’s decision to apply for Sunday’s match with Tottenham to be postponed — a request that was granted by the Premier League but proved controversial.

The Gunners, who will host Liverpool in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final on Thursday, asked for last weekend’s game to be rescheduled with a number of players unavailable due to a mixture of international duty, injuries, suspension and coronavirus cases.

“We didn’t have the players necessary to put a squad out to compete in a Premier League match, that is 100 percent,” Arteta said at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

“This is a no-win situation. When we play the first three games of the season when other games were off, we were killed and called naive. Now we postpone a match for all the right reasons, believe me, and we get these reactions?”

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Spurs reacted angrily to the decision to call off the north London derby.

“It’s the first time in my life — and I’ve had a bit of experience in football — to see postponed games because of injuries,” said Tottenham boss Antonio Conte.

But Arteta hit back, saying: “We have been very consistent. We played (Nottingham) Forest (in the FA Cup) when we had 10 players out.

“It got to a point where we could not put a squad out, that is why we didn’t play. As simple as that.”

The Arsenal v Liverpool match at the Emirates Stadium should have been the first leg of the League Cup semi-final two weeks ago, before a coronavirus outbreak within the Liverpool camp led to its postponement.

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Arsenal held Liverpool to a goalless draw in the first leg last week despite playing more than an hour with 10 men after the dismissal of Granit Xhaka.

In his own press conference, Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders said he had no complaints over recent Covid postponements both in the Premier League and the League Cup.

The Dutchman said it was impossible for anyone outside a club to know the full picture.

“It’s really difficult to judge from outside,” said Lijnders, who himself tested positive earlier this month during an outbreak at Liverpool.

“We saw this with our own situation.

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“I fully respect the submissions because I trust 100 percent the medical departments of each Premier League club. I think this is the most important thing, full trust in these decisions.”

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Eight Killed in Series of Armed Attacks in Ecuador’s Manabí Province

At least eight people were killed in four separate armed attacks reported Sunday night in the cities of Manta and Montecristi, in Ecuador’s coastal province of Manabí, one of the areas hardest hit by the country’s escalating wave of criminal violence, local media reported on Monday.

The shootings occurred between 7:50 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. local time and affected several neighborhoods, as well as a family gathering, according to press reports. Police are investigating the incidents.

The first attack took place in the Los Artesanos sector of Montecristi, where a couple was shot dead in a public street.

Minutes later, in Manta’s 12 de Octubre neighborhood, a man was killed while sitting down. Police arrested a suspect at the scene and seized a 9mm magazine, authorities said.

A third incident occurred in the Bellavista area of Manta, when an armed assailant entered a home and shot a man during a family celebration. The attacker was captured by neighbors and sustained injuries.

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The deadliest attack was reported at 10:50 p.m. in the Leonidas Proaño parish of Montecristi, where gunmen opened fire from two vehicles on a group of people, leaving four dead and five wounded.

According to Jaime Salgado, acting chief of the Manta Police District, officers recovered seven 7.62mm shell casings, consistent with rifle ammunition, and 14 .40-caliber casings at the scene.

With these killings, the Manta police district, a port and tourist area on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, has recorded 51 violent deaths so far in January 2026, according to official figures.

The attacks occurred amid a state of emergency declared by the government in December due to serious internal unrest in Manabí, where military operations have been intensified this month, particularly in high-conflict zones.

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El Salvador Launches Fourth Year of Ocean Mission to Protect Marine Ecosystems

El Salvador’s Ministry of Environment has launched the fourth consecutive year of “Ocean Mission,” a permanent strategy focused on the protection, restoration, and responsible management of marine ecosystems, linking conservation efforts from inland mountain ranges to the coastline.

During an event held at the Los Cóbanos Protected Natural Area, Environment Minister Fernando López highlighted the ecological, social, and economic value of the site, which is recognized as the country’s eighth wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

“We are in one of the most valuable natural treasures of our country, not only because of its beauty, but also due to the enormous ecological, social, and economic importance that Los Cóbanos holds for El Salvador,” López said.

The minister emphasized that this volcanic-origin ecosystem is home to coral reefs and key coastal-marine systems that serve as refuge, breeding, and feeding grounds for emblematic species such as sea turtles, cetaceans, and a wide diversity of fish.

“Protecting Los Cóbanos means protecting biodiversity, community livelihoods, the local economy, and our natural heritage,” López stated.

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He also stressed that Ocean Mission goes beyond rhetoric, focusing instead on direct action framed within the National Environmental Education Policy. “We are not here to talk about environmental education; we are here to practice it,” he said, underscoring the guiding principle of moving from paper to action.

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Convicted gang member challenges Guatemala’s anti-gang law, citing Human Rights Violations

A member of a criminal gang currently facing sentencing for the crime of extortion has filed a constitutional appeal before Guatemala’s Constitutional Court against the recently approved and enacted Anti-Gang Law.

The appeal, submitted by Dylan Smaily Archila García, argues that the new legislation violates his fundamental human rights and claims there were procedural irregularities during its approval process, according to local Guatemalan media.

Archila García filed the motion just hours after the law took effect. The new legislation, passed by Guatemala’s Congress, increases penalties for crimes linked to gang activity and authorizes the construction of a mega-prison, modeled after El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT).

Local outlets reported that in his petition, Archila García contends that the approval of the law did not comply with constitutional requirements and requests that the Court issue a ruling to annul the legislation, effectively halting its enforcement.

The appeal further claims that the Anti-Gang Law infringes on due process rights, as it allegedly fails to guarantee a fair criminal trial in which defendants can prove their innocence, undermining legal certainty and judicial security.

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Through this legal action, the petitioner seeks to have the law suspended and ultimately struck down by the Constitutional Court, preventing it from being debated again in Congress.