Mexican president: Drug lord Chapo Guzman recaptured ADVERTISING Mexican president: Drug lord Chapo Guzman recaptured MEXICO CITY (AP) — The world’s most-wanted drug lord was captured for a third time in a daring raid Friday by Mexican marines, six months
Mexican president: Drug lord Chapo Guzman recaptured
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The world’s most-wanted drug lord was captured for a third time in a daring raid Friday by Mexican marines, six months after he tunneled out of a maximum security prison in a made-for-Hollywood escape that deeply embarrassed the government and strained ties with the United States.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, writing in his Twitter account: “mission accomplished: we have him.”
Few had thought Guzman would be taken alive, and few now believe Mexico will want to try to hold him a third time in Mexican prisons. He escaped from maximum-security facilities in 2001 and on July 11, 2015, the second breakout especially humiliating for the Pena Nieto administration, which only held him for less than 18 months. The U.S. has sought his extradition, though Mexico in the past has said he would serve sentences here first.
But Pena Nieto gave a brief live message Friday afternoon that focused heavily on touting the competency of his administration, which has suffered a series of embarrassments and scandals in the first half of his presidency.
“The arrest of today is very important for the government of Mexico. It shows that the public can have confidence in its institutions,” Pena Nieto said. “Mexicans can count on a government decided and determined to build a better country.”
Prosecutor: Paris fugitive hid out in suspected bomb factory
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian prosecutors on Friday revealed new details about the biggest mystery in the Paris attacks: What happened to fugitive Salah Abdeslam after he ditched his car and explosive vest?
After slipping through a police dragnet, they said, he apparently hid out in the same Brussels apartment that served as the killers’ bomb factory.
“We found material to make explosives, we found traces of explosives and we found three belts. So you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to make the right deduction,” Belgian Federal Prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt told The Associated Press.
Also discovered during a Dec. 10 police search of the third-floor residence on the Rue Henri Berge: one of 26-year-old Abdeslam’s fingerprints, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced in a statement.
A Brussels native whose older brother, Brahim, was one of the Paris suicide bombers, Abdeslam is believed to have played a key logistical role in the Nov. 13 carnage in which 130 people lost their lives. Islamic State extremists have claimed responsibility for the mass killings.
US employers hire at robust pace, defying global trends
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy is motoring ahead despite slowing global growth that caused upheavals in financial markets around the world this week.
Employers added a robust 292,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate stayed low at 5 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. Job gains in the October-December quarter averaged 284,000, the best three-month increase since last January.
The strong hiring underscores the resilience of the United States at a time of slow global growth and financial turmoil. Healthy consumer spending, modest gains in home construction and an uptick in government spending should offset drags from overseas and bolster growth this year, economists said.
The report “immediately puts to rest a lot of the worries that the U.S. economy will come undone due to the intensifying global headwinds coming out of China and the Middle East,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo.
For all of 2015, employers added 2.65 million jobs, a monthly average of 221,000. That made 2015 the second-best year for hiring since 1999, after 2014.
Powerball soars to $800 million as states see strong sales
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — With Powerball sales breaking previous records, the odds are growing that someone will win Saturday night’s $800 million jackpot — but if no one matches all the numbers, the next drawing is expected to soar past $1 billion.
For this weekend’s record drawing, about 65 percent of the possible number combinations will have been bought, officials with the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game, said Friday. That percentage could rise if the jackpot estimate is increased — but even lottery officials say they don’t know what to expect.
“You can throw out the logic. You can throw out the statistics,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “We’ve never seen jackpots like this. It’s a new experience for all of us.”
Since Nov. 4, the Powerball jackpot has grown from its $40 million starting point as no one has won the jackpot. Grief is more certain what will happen if no one matches the numbers on five white balls and the one red Powerball this time.
“It will definitely go past $1 billion if we roll past this Saturday,” he said.
Armed group not ready to end wildlife refuge occupation
BURNS, Ore. (AP) — The leader of an armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge to protest federal land management policies said Friday he and his followers are not ready to leave even though the sheriff and many locals say the group has overstayed their welcome.
“How long will this go on?” said Ammon Bundy, leader of the group that seized the headquarters of the refuge in southeastern Oregon last Saturday. “We say to you, ‘not a minute too early.”
Bundy met a day earlier with Harney County Sheriff David Ward, who asked Bundy to heed the will of locals and leave the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Ward also offered to escort Bundy and his group out of the refuge to ensure safe passage.
“We will take that offer,” Bundy said on Friday. “But not yet.”
A few hours later Ward said via Twitter that because of Bundy’s stance he was calling off plans to have another meeting with him.
