Mes: septiembre 2019

Updated 11:36 PM ET (AP) VERACRUZ, Mexico – Tropical Storm Ernesto made landfall Thursday near the oil port city of Coatzacoalcos, killing two people as it moved inland and began weakening after drenching Mexico’s flood-prone southern Gulf region. Ernesto came ashore after spinning across the far southern Gulf of Mexico in waters dotted with oil rigs operated by the state oil company. The government closed its largest Gulf coast port, Veracruz, and the smaller ports of Alvarado and Coatzacoalcos. In neighboring Tabasco state, two fishermen drowned when the stormed passed through the area, Gov. Andres Granier told reporters. Granier said the storm’s strong winds ripped rooftops from several homes but residents refused to evacuate, fearing their possessions might be stolen. “People have chosen to stay in their homes and we are helping them,” he said. Coatzacoalcos, a major oil port, got seven inches (177 millimeters) of rain in the 24 hours before Ernesto’s center passed just a few miles (kilometers) away, according to Mexico’s weather service. San Pedro in the neighboring state of Tabasco had seen more than 10 inches (273 millimeters). “It’s raining intermittently. It rains, its stops, and then it rains again,” said Juventino Martinez, the civil defense chief in Coatzacoalcos. “We have some flooding, some water building up” on streets in lower-lying sections of the city. He said 40 shelters were ready but hadn’t been used...

Updated 11:36 PM ET (AP) VERACRUZ, Mexico – Tropical Storm Ernesto made landfall Thursday near the oil port city of Coatzacoalcos, killing two people as it moved inland and began weakening after drenching Mexico’s flood-prone southern Gulf region. Ernesto came ashore after spinning across the far southern Gulf of Mexico in waters dotted with oil rigs operated by the state oil company. The government closed its largest Gulf coast port, Veracruz, and the smaller ports of Alvarado and Coatzacoalcos. In neighboring Tabasco state, two fishermen drowned when the stormed passed through the area, Gov. Andres Granier told reporters. Granier said the storm’s strong winds ripped rooftops from several homes but residents refused to evacuate, fearing their possessions might be stolen. “People have chosen to stay in their homes and we are helping them,” he said. Coatzacoalcos, a major oil port, got seven inches (177 millimeters) of rain in the 24 hours before Ernesto’s center passed just a few miles (kilometers) away, according to Mexico’s weather service. San Pedro in the neighboring state of Tabasco had seen more than 10 inches (273 millimeters). “It’s raining intermittently. It rains, its stops, and then it rains again,” said Juventino Martinez, the civil defense chief in Coatzacoalcos. “We have some flooding, some water building up” on streets in lower-lying sections of the city. He said 40 shelters were ready but hadn’t been used...

(AP) UNITED NATIONS – Former Algerian foreign affairs minister Lakhdar Brahimi is a strong candidate to replace Kofi Annan as peace envoy to Syria, diplomats said Thursday. Diplomats who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly said that Brahimi was a strong possibility, while other contenders are ex-Spanish foreign affairs minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Spain’s Javier Solana, a former NATO chief and European Union foreign policy head. Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, announced his resignation last week as joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, ending a frustrating six-month effort that failed to achieve even a temporary cease-fire. He leaves at the end of the month. Clashes rage in rebel bastions of Syria’s AleppoVideo: Amid defections, Syria names new PM Divisions within the Security Council prevented a united approach to stop the fighting in in Syria, Annan said when he announced his resignation. Russia and China have twice used their veto power to block strong Western- and Arab-backed action against President Bashar Assad’s regime. While he singled out the regime for blame for the escalating violence, Annan also said the opposition’s increasingly militant tactics contributed to dooming his six-point peace plan, which included a cease-fire and a Syrian-led political process to end the crisis. Annan did succeed in getting the Syrian government and its allies to at least agree to the plan. Brahimi, 78, served as Algeria’s...