UNITED STATES: Amtrak crash site to get safety tech

Public rail company Amtrak will install speed restriction technology at the site of a rail disaster which killed eight people last week.

The automatic train control system is already being used for southbound trains approaching the curve where Tuesday’s derailment occurred.

Amtrak may eventually have to pay up to $200 million (£127m) in compensation to victims of the crash and their relatives — the limit set by Congress.

NICARAGUA: Anti-canal ‘lawyers’ deported over drugs

Two men claiming to be human rights lawyers were deported from Managua airport on Friday for drug trafficking.

Swiss citizen Luis Carlos Buob and a Spanish colleague, who are opposed to the construction of an interoceanic canal, were denied entry to the country.

The canal, being constructed by Chinese company HKND, will be longer, deeper and wider than the existing Panama Canal.

MACEDONIA: Protesters call for Gruevski to resign

Tens of thousands of people gathered in the centre of the capital Skopje yesterday to demand the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

The protest followed the release of a massive cache of wiretapped conversations by opposition Social Democrats leader Zoran Zaev, who claims that Mr Gruevski was behind the mass wiretapping of more than 20,000 Macedonians.

YEMEN: Peace talks begin without Houthis

Peace talks aimed at ending the three-month civil war began in Saudi Arabia yesterday — without the presence of the main Houthi rebel faction.

Around 400 Yemeni politicians met on the fourth day of a humanitarian ceasefire that has been honoured only in the breach.

The Houthis oppose the main aim of the talks — the imposition of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi as president.

GUATEMALA: Thousands call for  Molina to resign

Thousands of protesters packed the capital’s Constitution Plaza and a dozen other cities on Saturday to demand the resignation of President Otto Perez Molina.

Protesters blamed the retired general, who has been accused of atrocities in Guatemala’s dirty war, for a corruption scandal which has already seen vice-president Roxana Baldetti resign.

At least 50 people, including Guatemala’s current and former tax chiefs, are suspected of paying and taking bribes to avoid import duties.

MOLDOVA: Protesters demand to join Romania

Some 3,000 people shouted anti-Russian slogans and called for annexation by Romania on Saturday.

Demonstrators organised by the Action 2012 group shouted: “Goodbye, Russia! Don’t forget Bessarabia is not yours” outside parliament, using the Romanian name for the country.

Moldova was first annexed by Romania in 1918 during the fallout of the first world war, when it was under French occupation, but joined the Soviet Union in 1940.

CAMBODIA: Russia extradites ‘fraud’ oligarch

A fugitive Russian oligarch wanted for embezzling over 5.7 billion rubles (£110 million) in his homeland was extradited to Moscow yesterday.

Sergei Polonsky was arrested on Friday in the southern Cambodian coastal town of Sihanoukville, where he had been living for two years on an expired visa.

He was charged in Russia in June 2013 with defrauding some 80 property investors.

GEORGIA: Troops join US Nato force preparations

About 600 US and Georgian troops held joint exercises yesterday to prepare for involvement in the Nato Response Force.

US 173rd Airborne Brigade commander Colonel Michael Foster said the exercises on Russia’s southern border were “an absolutely unique opportunity for us” and “the way we are going to be fighting in the future.”

The exercises will end on May 24.