World: Hurricane death toll in Costa Rica climbs to 9

Hurricane death toll in Costa Rica climbs to 9

San Jose — Hurricane Otto caused at least nine deaths in Costa Rica, authorities in the Central American country said.

All of the fatalities are in the hard-hit northern part of the country. Otto made landfall Thursday in neighboring Nicaragua as a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (177 kph) before weakening to a tropical storm.

Two adult women and a girl of 11 were killed in Bijagua de Upala, while an 8-month-old infant perished in nearby Upala. In Bagaces, five people were found dead inside a home buried by a mudslide.

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Wisconsin grants Green Party request for recount

Washington — Wisconsin election officials accepted a request from Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate in the Nov. 8 presidential election, for a recount of the ballots in a state that was crucial to Donald Trump’s surprise victory over Hillary Clinton.

“The (Wisconsin Election) Commission is preparing to move forward with a statewide recount of votes for President of the United States, as requested by these candidates,” Administrator Michael Haas said in a statement.

The second request came from the Reform Party’s Rocky De La Fuente. Stein’s campaign said that it has already raised more than $5 million in donations to finance recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

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50 Arrested in operation outside Mexican capital

Mexico City — Police and military personnel arrested 50 people in a massive operation in the capital suburb of Naucalpan, Mexican authorities said.

Six of the detainees were wanted for offenses such as armed robbery, auto theft and kidnapping, while the other 44 face drug and weapons charges, the Mexico state Attorney General’s Office said.

Around 800 state and federal police officers, marines and army troops deployed Thursday night in five different neighborhoods of Naucalpan, a city of more than 800,000 people in Mexico state, just outside the capital.

Mexico state, the country’s most populous jurisdiction, has seven municipalities on the nationwide list of 50 cities with the highest homicide totals.

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Thousands protest austerity in Brazil

Sao Paulo — Thousands of people took to the streets of cities across Brazil to protest the austerity program of right-wing President Michel Temer, who took office Aug. 31 after Congress ousted the elected head of state, Dilma Rousseff, over alleged budget irregularities.

Most of the demonstrations were peaceful, though activists in some cities blocked roads and occupied government buildings.

Here in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, union members gathered at several different locations to denounce PEC 241, the Temer administration’s proposed constitutional amendment to cap public spending for 20 years.

Opponents say PEC 241 will effectively freeze investment in health care, education and the social programs that have helped reduce economic inequality.

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Colombia rebel chief: New accord a victory over foes of peace

Bogota — The revised peace accord between the Colombian government and FARC rebels signifies a triumph over the opponents of peace, guerrilla commander Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri said.

“This is an accord that tastes of victory because what the forces contrary to peace wanted was for us to not achieve it,” Londoño, better known by the nom de guerre Timochenko, said during a news conference with EFE and other international news agencies.

“We made our positions more flexible, but not our principles, the bulk, the fundamental structure of the (first) accord,” he said of the process that followed the defeat of the original peace pact in an Oct. 2 referendum that saw less than 37 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

Asked about concessions made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the amended document, Timochenko said that the insurgents accepted tradeoffs to achieve agreement.

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Argentina, Croatia knotted at 1-1 in Davis Cup final

International Sports Desk — Argentina and Croatia are tied at a match apiece after the opening singles of the Davis Cup final, with No. 1 players Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro both earning victories at Zagreb Arena.

Cheered on by a sizable Argentine contingent that included soccer legend Diego Maradona, the 38th-ranked Del Potro encountered stiff resistance from the big-serving Ivo Karlovic but used his superior all-around game to pull out a 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 7-5 victory.

Earlier, the sixth-ranked Marin Cilic put Croatia ahead after a roller-coaster match that saw him squander a two-sets-to-love lead before pulling away down the stretch for a 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 1-6, 6-2 victory over Federico Delbonis.