FBI applauds arrest, handover of one of “10 Most Wanted”

Mexico City>> FBI Director Kash Patel applauded Mexican authorities Tuesday for the arrest and handover of one of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” suspects, an alleged gang leader from El Salvador.

Francisco Javier Román Bardales is allegedly a senior leader of the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 gang. He was arrested Monday in the mountains of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz by soldiers and federal agents.

“This is a major victory both for our law enforcement partners and for a safer America,” Patel wrote.

Mexico’s security chief Omar García Harfuch applauded the arrest Monday, which his agency said was the result of international cooperation. The agency referred to his handover as a deportation to the United States.

Román Bardales faces charges related to violent crime, drug distribution and extortion in the Eastern District of New York.

The Mara Salvatrucha was one of eight Latin American criminal organizations declared foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government last month.

Court blocks ban on gender-affirming care for minors

COLUMBUS, Ohio>> Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors is unconstitutional and must be permanently blocked from being enforced, a three-judge panel of appellate judges ruled Tuesday. The law also banned trans women and girls from participating in female sports.

The state attorney general vowed an immediate appeal.

On Tuesday, the state’s 10th District Court of Appeals reversed the decision made last summer to allow the law to go into effect after a judge found it “reasonably limits parents’ rights.” The law bans counseling, gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for minors, unless they are already receiving such therapies and a doctor deems it risky to stop.

The litigation was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Ohio and the global law firm Goodwin, who argued the law not only denies health care to transgender children and teens, but specifically discriminates against them accessing it.

12 killed in plane crash, including Garifuna musician

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras>> A small commercial plane crash off the coast of Honduras left 12 people dead, including a well-known Garifuna musician, authorities said.

The Lanhsa Airlines flight crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff Monday night from the island of Roatan en route to the mainland city of La Ceiba. It carried 17 passengers and crew, five of whom were rescued and hospitalized.

Police reported that the plane failed to reach full altitude and sank quickly after impact. Local fishermen rescued the survivors.

City sets curfew after groups demand demolition of tomb

NEW DELHI>> Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in parts of a western Indian city on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes were sparked by Hindu nationalist groups who want to demolish the tomb of a 17th-century Muslim Mughal ruler.

Clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Maharashtra state’s Nagpur city broke out on Monday during a protest led by Hindu nationalist groups demanding the demolition of the tomb of Aurangzeb, a Muslim Mughal ruler who has been dead for more than 300 years.

Lawmaker Chandrashekhar Bawankule said at least 34 police personnel and five other people were injured and several houses and vehicles were damaged during the violence. Senior police office Ravinder Singal said at least 50 people have been arrested so far.

Peru calls state of emergency to tackle crime wave

LIMA, Peru>> Commuters and residents in Lima were facing new security measures on Tuesday after Peru’s government declared a state of emergency in the capital to combat growing crime rates that have prompted some lawmakers to seek the removal of the interior minister.

National police director Victor Sanabria announced there would be an increase in patrols at train stations and bus stations where tens of thousands of commuters gather each morning. Peru’s military on Monday announced it would deploy 1,000 soldiers in Lima to patrol key areas such as train stations, and support local police.

Some residents of the city of eight million people said they still felt unsafe, while local media reports said there was little sign of extra security at transport stations during the morning.

Teen charged with murder in hit-and-run

ALBUQUERQUE>> Police have charged a 13-year-old with murder and were searching Tuesday for two other boys, ages 11 and 15, in the apparently deliberate hit-and-run of a bicyclist in Albuquerque that was recorded on video inside a stolen car last year.

The detained 13-year-old boy is believed to be the driver of the car involved in a May 2024 hit-and-run that killed 63-year-old physicist Scott Dwight Habermehl while he was biking to his job at Sandia National Laboratories. The other boys are believed to have been passengers.

Video of the crash was recorded from inside the car and circulated on social media. It was reported to authorities by people including a middle school principal after a student flagged it.

Separatists say an army airstrike on market killed 18

BAMAKO, Mali>> A separatist group in Mali said an airstrike on a market in the country’s north has killed at least 18 people. Mali’s army said its attack targeted armed militants.

The Collective for the Defense of the Rights of the Azawad People, part of a Tuareg separatist coalition, said the attack occurred 30 miles north of Lerneb in the Timbuktu region.

Seven people were also injured in Sunday’s strike, the group said in a statement late Monday, denouncing a “barbaric act from another age.”

Mali’s army said on X it carried out airstrikes on a “refuge” in the area and killed 11 “terrorists.”

The West African nation, along with neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and an Islamic State group.

— Denver Post wire services