News Watch

In Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico, three of the arrested members of the Guerreros Unidos gang have admitted to killing 43 students from a teaching college in Iguala who have been missing since Sept. 26. Remains discovered near where the gang members said they had disposed of the bodies are being genetically tested.

Soon after the students went missing, arrest warrants were issued for Iguala’s mayor and his wife and for the town’s chief of police, who were accused of organizing the abduction...

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As of press time, the World Health Organization had not recommended any travel restrictions to Madagascar, but an outbreak of bubonic plague had killed 40 people and infected 119 in that country since the beginning of September.

The first case was discovered on Aug. 31 in the village of Soamahatamana, near the center of the country. That man died on Sept. 3. Only two cases had been identified in the capital, Antananarivo, but that number was expected to rise due to the population...

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Princess Cruises’ Crown Princess was forced to dock in Los Angeles on Nov. 16 after more than 170 people on board, both crew and passengers, became infected with norovirus. On a voyage that started on Oct. 18, the ship, carrying a total of 4,169 people, was returning from a round trip to ports in Hawaii and Tahiti.

The virus, which causes fever, nausea and diarrhea, struck the same ship in April 2014, infecting 129 people. As it was in April, the Crown Princess will be subjected to...

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The last two Americans being held in North Korea, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, were released and allowed to return home on Nov. 9. Their release was the result of direct talks between North Korean authorities and the US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. The North Korean authorities reportedly released them willingly and without asking for concessions.

Both Bae and Miller had been convicted of crimes against the state and sentenced to hard labor. Bae had been...

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As ITN went to press, the State Department had travel warnings on 38 destinations: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Israel/West Bank/Gaza, Kenya, North Korea, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine,...

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Concern about the spread of the ebola virus has prompted some nations to begin screening passengers arriving from affected countries. 

In the United States, ebola screening is being performed at JFK Airport in New York, Washington-Dulles, Chicago O’Hare, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta and Newark Liberty International. Passengers arriving from countries where ebola cases are present will be tested for symptoms and given a questionnaire from which their risk of exposure will be...

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A landslide at a tea plantation near the town of Haldummulla in southeastern Sri Lanka on Oct. 29 engulfed 140 houses over an area of one square mile. Some houses were under 30 feet of mud. As of press time, 10 people were known to have died, with at least 100 still missing.

Heavy rains had triggered landslide warnings across Sri Lanka and washed away sections of major roadways. The landslide in Haldummulla occurred after parents returned home from taking their children to school,...

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Fighting between Ukrainian armed forces and separatists continued in eastern Ukraine in October, despite a cease-fire agreed upon on Sept. 5. The heaviest fighting occurred in and around the rebel-held city of Donetsk. At least 13 Ukrainian soldiers were wounded. Rebel casualties were not reported.

Shelling in Donetsk on Oct. 18-19 killed four civilians and injured nine others, with neither side claiming responsibility. An explosion in the city on Oct. 20 destroyed a munitions factory...

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