*** The ex-secretary of Public Security of the Mexican state of Guerrero, Leonardo Octavio Vázquez Pérez, was arrested last Friday in Nayarit for the alleged crime of organized crime and links with the criminal organization Guerreros Unidos, report sources from the Federal Security Cabinet. According to the information, agents of the Attorney General's Office (FGR) arrested Vazquez Perez in the town of Tepic along with two other unidentified individuals, as part of a Federal Operation on priority targets in the investigation of the disappearance of the 43 normalistas of Ayotzinapa.
*** The Somali Government informed this Sunday that the death toll from the explosion of two car bombs in the country's capital, increased to 100. The Somali President, Hasan Sheikh Mohamud, indicated that the number of wounded reached 300 and warned that the number of injured and dead could increase in the coming hours. "The ruthless terrorists killed mothers. Some died with their children on their backs," said police spokesman Sadik Dudishe.
*** With a score of one goal to zero, the Brazilian soccer club Flamengo defeated another Brazilian team, Athletico Paranaense, on Saturday and won the Libertadores Cup for the third time. The final match of the competition was played at the Monumental Banco Pichincha stadium in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, where thousands of fans watched as striker Gabriel Barbosa (Gabigol) took advantage of a pass near the opponent's goal to score in the extra minutes of the first half. The winning club showed superior ball possession in both halves of the match and imposed its numerical advantage after the expulsion of center-back Pedro Henrique for a foul on defender Airton Lucas.
*** Brazil's polling stations opened their doors this Sunday at 08.00 (local time) for the second round of the presidential election, in which the current head of state, Jair Bolsonaro, and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face each other. Some 156.4 million Brazilians are called to the polls, which will remain open until 17.00 (local time), although as in the first round, held on October 2, all voters who are in line at closing time will be allowed to vote. In the first round, Lula, standard-bearer of a broad progressive front joined by center and center-right forces, was the most voted candidate with 48.4 % of the votes, against 43.2 % obtained by Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, of the radical right and who aspires to a new four-year mandate.
*** A 1,906-meter-long Swiss passenger train has been officially confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest in the world, according to a statement from Rhaetian Railway, Switzerland's largest private railway operator. The previous world record was set in 1991, with a 1,732.9-meter train. The entire train journey takes one hour and covers about 25 kilometers, from the Albula tunnel in Preda to the world-famous Landwasser viaduct. The route is part of the Albula-Bernina railway line in southeastern Switzerland, which runs for a total of 130 kilometers, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered one of the most spectacular routes in the world.
*** Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday at a soccer stadium in the coastal city of Durban, South Africa, to celebrate the official coronation of the king of the Zulu people, local media reported. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa handed over a certificate formally recognizing Misuzulu KaZwelithini, 48, as king in a ceremony that legitimizes his ascension to the throne of the country's richest and most influential traditional monarchy. Although the title of king does not confer executive power, the certificate confirms that the monarch has the powers to govern his majesty's area of jurisdiction in terms of customs, customary and applicable laws, over more than 11 million Zulus, who constitute nearly one-fifth of South Africa's population, reports SABC News.
*** The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, on Sunday urged Russia to "reverse" its decision to suspend participation in the agreement for the evacuation of wheat and other agricultural products from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea. Borrell said the suspension "puts at risk the largest export route for grain and fertilizers that are badly needed to tackle the global food crisis." Moscow on Saturday pulled out of the agreement "for an indefinite period" following the massive drone attack on its military vessels and civilian ships in Sevastopol Bay (Crimea) that ensured the safety of the humanitarian corridor. The Russian side called the offensive a "terrorist attack" and claimed that Kiev perpetrated it with "the participation of British experts".
*** A team at the University of Maryland has developed an 'invisibility cloak' consisting of a sweater that is capable of turning its wearer into a 'ghost' in the face of common machine learning models of human detection. To do so, the team turned to one of the techniques used to manipulate neural networks: simulated attacks that generate an "antagonistic pattern," which can be applied to detected objects within a given image to prevent the model from recognizing them, Hackster reports. "This stylish sweater is a great way to stay warm this winter. It features a waterproof microfiber lining, a modern fit, and AI-opposing patterns to help it hide from object detectors," the scientists contend.
*** Finnish authorities are preparing for planned winter blackouts due to a lack of energy resources, Bloomberg reported Saturday. Arto Pahkin, an employee of Fingrid Oyj, operator of the country's national power grid, explained that failure to make the planned cuts would result in a large-scale national outage and "people could die." Due to its geographical location and climate, for Finland the risk of running out of electricity in winter is higher and more dangerous compared to other countries, the agency writes. Thus, unlike Sweden and Norway, which have abundant hydroelectric reserves, Finland has few domestic energy resources, buys almost all fossil energy and relies on imports to cover the deficit.
*** The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has signed a decree to deliver 29,241 hectares of land in the municipalities of Guaymas and Cajeme in the state of Sonora to the Yaqui people, in restitution and compensation, according to a government communiqué. "Doing justice to the Yaqui people is a tribute to all those who lost their lives, those who fought in the revolution for justice, for freedom, for democracy, for national sovereignty", declared the President in a public act celebrated in Guaymas. Likewise, he indicated that "the dispossession, suffering and massacres" suffered by the native peoples during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876 - 1911), especially the Yaquis, who were victims of a war of extermination, must never be forgotten.