More than a thousand people could still be missing after Indonesia’s devastating quake-tsunami, officials said, drastically upping the number of people unaccounted for a week after the disaster.

Palu city on Sulawesi island has been left in ruins after it was hit by a powerful quake and a wall of water which razed whole neighborhoods to the ground, with the official death toll now 1,571.

After days of delays, international aid is slowly making its way to the disaster zone, where the U.N. says almost 200,000 people need humanitarian assistance.

The former president of Colombia’s Constitutional Court Alfredo Beltran said the new law could be an unconstitutional attack on personal freedom.

Until Sunday, citizens were legally allowed to carry 20 grams of cannabis or one gram of cocaine for personal use.

But the new decree gave police the power to confiscate small amounts of drugs in what the government’s says is an effort to combat organized crime, particularly drug dealing.

Colombian human rights NGO Dejusticia and research group The Research Consortium on Drugs and the Law (CEDD) both put together a letter to Duque asking him not to sign the decree – saying it is “a step backwards, a costly idea and also stigmatizes drug users.”

 

Lockheed Martin’s lunar lander would be able to remain on the moon for up to fourteen days – ferrying astronauts back and forth from a space station.

The lander would work alongside NASA’s planned Deep Space Gateway space station, allowing astronauts to visit the moon quickly and for long periods.

According to Lisa Callahan, vice president and general manager of Commercial Civil Space 

‘This is a concept that takes full advantage of both the Gateway and existing technologies to create a versatile, powerful lander that can be built quickly and affordably”.

Former Spain coach Julen Lopetegui is already under mounting pressure at the Bernabeu with the Galacticos failing to score in their last fourtalian coach Antonio Conte could be set for a new job in football

Antonio Conte has emerged as a serious contender for the Real Madrid job - if he can agree a pay-off from Chelsea.

Former Spain coach Julen Lopetegui is already under mounting pressure at the Bernabeu with the Galacticos failing to score in their last four, losing three and drawing another.

Madrid chiefs are understood to have sounded Conte out during the international break as they consider their options.

But Conte is still locked up in a legal fight with Chelsea over he feels was his unfair dismissal during the summer.

 

Head coach of Real Madrid Julen Lopetegui

The club are so far refusing to back down as the title-winning tactician bids to land a £10million kiss-off after he was axed in favour of Maurizio Sarri.

But Conte could give up the ghost if he is offered the chance to take charge at Madrid.

Lopetegui future now hinges on his next two matches, against Levante in La Liga and Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League.

Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri gestures during the match

 

Meanwhile, Real Madrid are stepping up their interest in Raheem Sterling.

England star Sterling is on Real Madrid’s radar for next summer as they watch developments closely on his contract negotiations with Manchester City.

Real Madrid are desperate to bolster their squad with Chelsea’s Eden Hazard also on their hit list but they believe that Sterling has the potential to become a huge star.

Sterling, 23, came of age last season in City’s march to the Premier League title and then went to the World Cup where he helped England reach the semi finals.

Gareth Southgate and Raheem Sterling after World Cup match against Panama

His goalscoring and end product have improved dramatically under Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid are increasing their scouting and monitoring of the England star.

City are keen to extend Sterling’s deal - he currently has 18 months left on his £180,000-a-week deal - but so far they are yet to reach an agreement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military and close the southern U.S. border on Thursday if Mexico did not move to halt large groups of migrants headed for the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

 “I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump threatened to withhold aid to the region as a caravan with several thousand Honduran migrants traveled this week through Guatemala to Mexico in hopes of crossing into the United States to escape violence and poverty in Central America.

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Trump’s threat came as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to travel later in the day to Panama and then Mexico City, where he was to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Friday.

Mexico’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who has sought to curtail immigration and build a border wall on the Mexican border, this week threatened to halt aid if Central American governments did not act.

Frustrated by Congress’ failure to fully fund his proposed wall at the border with Mexico, Trump in April ordered National Guard personnel to help the Department of Homeland Security secure the border in four southwestern U.S. states.

In a string of tweets on Thursday, Trump also said the issue was more important to him than the new trade deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement pact.

“The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border,” Trump wrote. He was referring to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is awaiting ratification.

A Honduran migrant, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., holds a baby as he walks on a bridge during their travel in Guatemala City, Guatemala October 18, 2018. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

More Honduran migrants tried to join a caravan of several thousand trekking through Guatemala on Wednesday, defying calls by authorities not to make the journey. The caravan has been growing steadily since it left the violent Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Saturday.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said on Wednesday his government dismissed threatened constraints placed on foreign aid.

Melania Trump's plane makes emergency landing

He said he had spoken with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez about ensuring the migrants who want to return home can do so safely.

Reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jeffrey Benkoe

The newspaper reported on Monday that in the first six months of 2018, eight land claimants have been assassinated.

The killings are terrorizing the victims who were displaced by violence, and in particular those who want to reclaim the land they say was dispossessed during the armed conflict.

During the height of the armed conflict between 1997 and 2008, 15% of Colombia’s land was abandoned, primarily because of violence by paramilitary groups.

Colombia’s President Ivan Duque has vowed to act against the killing of social leaders, but in the case of land claimants his actions contradict his words.

While on campaign he vowed to change the Victims Law and offer increased legal protection for alleged land thieves. His party, the Democratic Center, proposed a bill that seeks to do exactly this last month.

After taking office in August, the president also put the former chief of controversial palm oil federation Fedepalma in charge of the Land Restitution Unit, the agency is charge of land distribution.

At least two dozen palm oil businessmen were arrested for allegedly using paramilitary groups to displace entire communities to steal their land in 2010, when the current Land Restitution Unit director, Andres Augusto Castro, was the director of Fedepalma.

https://colombiareports.com/killing-of-colombias-victims-of-land-theft-has-become-systematic-report/ 

She holds out her hands at right angles to her body, to show the tremors she still has – the result of years living in terror on a street dominated by violent armed gangs.

Four years ago, Buenaventura found itself in the international spotlight after it was billed as the country’s most violent city. A Human Rights Watch report revealed how powerful successor groups of paramilitaries were terrorising poor neighborhoods. Abductions and disappearances were widespread, and many people were driven from their homes.

The groups also restricted the movements of locals, recruited their children and forced small businesses to pay extortion money. Resistance was met with horrific acts of violence.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary protection measures to the families of Buenaventura and ordered the Colombian state to adopt measures to safeguard their lives. They were granted 24-hour protection.

Today, the results of this unique experiment are clearly visible. Two police officers sit at a table at the entrance to the street, while an armed soldier in fatigues leans against a wall further up, chatting to residents. As children play happily on the street, well after dark, young residents are gathered under a makeshift wooden shelter near the water’s edge, playing cards and dominos. Locals have begun to invest in their homes. Some of the wooden and corrugated iron shacks have been replaced with brick and cement buildings, and one house boasts an extravagant spiral staircase.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/oct/01/it-was-horrible-before-locals-safe-haven-deadly-colombian-city-buenaventura 

The move came after President Donald Trump threatened to use military force to completely close the US-Mexico border over the issue.

He also said aid could be cut to countries allowing the caravan to pass.

The group of Salvadoreans, Hondurans and Guatemalans say they are fleeing violence and poverty.

Mexico's main reaction has been to step up security on its southern border with Guatemala. Hundreds of federal police officers and immigration officers have been sent to the porous border region along the Suchiate River which divides the two neighbours.

In part, the response is intended to both dissuade the migrants from even attempting to enter Mexico and potentially to show the Trump administration that Mexico is willing to, as the government put it, "maintain order".

Beyond that, this situation catches Mexico at a strange time. One administration, that of President Enrique Peña Nieto, is leaving office and the new one, of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, isn't yet through the door.

Migrant caravans of this type are nothing new, they quite often take place. However, this one, coming as it does so close to the US mid-term elections in November, has taken on a highly political dimension, to that point that President Trump has threatened to use the military and close the US southern border.

Local authorities declared a state of emergency after the landslide swept away four homes in the San Silvestre neighborhood in Barrancabermeja, Santander.

Almost 100 families were affected by the natural disaster that struck the neighborhood around 4AM.

Among the fatal victims are five children and four adults, rescue authorities told press. 

Local authorities declared a state of emergency after the landslide swept away four homes in the San Silvestre neighborhood in Barrancabermeja, Santander.

Almost 100 families were affected by the natural disaster that struck the neighborhood around 4AM.

Among the fatal victims are five children and four adults, rescue authorities told press. 

A teenager has been stabbed to death in the street in south east London.

The 18-year-old man was found by police with a knife wound on Armitage Road in Greenwich at 9.25pm.

London Ambulance Service were called but the man was pronounced dead at the scene at 10.03pm.

Officers are in the process of informing the man's next of kin.

Formal identification awaits and a post-mortem examination will be held in due course.

 

Seven people was seriously hurt in the accident at the city-center Repubblica station. None of the injuries were reported to be life-threatening.

State television RAI broadcast a video of the incident that showed the escalator suddenly speed up, leaving people in a tangled crush at the bottom, unable to jump free.

The station was full of Russian fans headed toward Rome’s Olympic Stadium where CSKA Moscow were to play AS Roma in the Champions League.