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Mexico suspends relations with Ecuador after arrest of ex-VP
By Alexandra Valencia and Brendan O’Boyle
QUITO/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Ecuadorean authorities arrested former Vice President Jorge Glas on Friday evening, seizing him from the Mexican embassy and prompting Mexico to suspend bilateral relations.
Glas, convicted twice for corruption, had been holed up in the embassy in Quito since seeking political asylum in December, a request Mexico granted earlier on Friday.
Police forcefully entered Mexico’s embassy in Quito before making the arrest, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador posted on X.
The Ecuadorean president’s office said in a statement it had arrested Glas, who was vice president under the leftist government of Rafael Correa between 2013 and 2017.
There was a heavy military presence at the magistrates court in the Andean capital, where the former vice president was taken.
The arrest caps a week of escalating tensions between Mexico and Ecuador, which on Thursday declared Mexico’s ambassador in Quito persona non grata, citing “unfortunate” comments from the leftist President Lopez Obrador.
Ecuador contends that Mexico’s asylum offer was illegal.
In a statement, Ecuador’s presidency accused Mexico of “having abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission that housed the former vice president, and granting diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework.”
Lopez Obrador said he had instructed Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena to suspend diplomatic ties with Ecuador, calling the arrest an “authoritarian” act and a violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty.
Barcena announced the “immediate” suspension of diplomatic ties with the South American nation shortly afterward on X.
Ecuadorean authorities had sought permission from Mexico to enter the embassy and arrest Glas, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 after he was found guilty of receiving bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it government contracts.
Glas, who has a preventive arrest warrant out on another corruption case, has complained that he is being persecuted for his political affiliation, which Ecuador’s government denies.
Ecuadorean officials this week were angered by Lopez Obrador’s comments on the South American country’s bloody elections last year, in which a presidential candidate was assassinated.
Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa took office late last year and quickly faced an escalating conflict with drug gangs, which prompted him to declare a nationwide state of emergency early this year, which he extended last month.
(Reuters) -Private equity firm Insight Partners is on the brink of closing a new $10 billion-plus fund, roughly half the amount originally targeted, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing five people with knowledge of its plans.
Insight will not formally close its 13th fund until early next year, the report said, adding that the final figure may be closer to $12 billion.
Insight Partners declined to comment on the report.
The report said Insight is using a private equity-style structure to sell more than $1 billion worth of stakes in start-ups and to free up cash to return to investors.
One of the start-ups is Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz, which had called off a $23 billion deal with Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) in July, the report said.
New York-based Insight raised $20 billion for its 12th flagship fund in 2022, aiming to ramp up investments in software and technology companies.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.
After initially saying the missile had fallen in an open area, Israel’s military later said it had probably fragmented in the air, and that pieces of interceptors had landed in fields and near a railway station. Nobody was reported hurt.
Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard.
Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.
At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.
“Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October.
The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.
Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.
Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Sarea said.
The deputy head of the Houthi’s media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”.
The Israeli military also said that 40 projectiles were fired towards Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
“No injuries were reported,” the military said.
PARIS (Reuters) – Eight people have died trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.
This latest incident follows the deaths of 12 people earlier this month when their boat capsized in the Channel on its way to Britain and highlights the pressure on the British and French governments to find ways to tackle the boat crossings.
Jacques Billant, the Prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, said that rescue crews were alerted that a boat with 59 people onboard was in difficulty in waters off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais area.
“A new drama took place around one in the morning and we deplore the death of eight people,” he told a news conference, adding that the other 51 onboard were now in the care of rescue and medical crews.
The dead were men from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan, he added.
The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, which makes crossing on small boats dangerous.
The latest incident brings to 46 the number of people who have died trying to cross the Channel from France since the start of the year, Billant said.
On September 14 alone there were eight attempts to cross the Channel from France and some 200 migrants were rescued, he said.
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