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Ecuador’s youngest mayor and an aide were shot dead on Sunday, police in the South American country have said.

Brigitte Garcia, 27-year-old mayor of San Vicente, and her communications director Jairo Loor, were found dead in Manabi province, officers said.

Police added that the pair had both suffered gunshot wounds and that the gunfire had come from within the car, which was rented.

Ms Garcia – a member of former president Rafael Correa’s left-wing Citizen Revolution Movement party – is the latest political figure assassinated in Ecuador.

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Scene of Mayor shooting

Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was killed last August while leaving a campaign event two weeks before the election. He was a vocal critic of corruption and organised crime.

In July 2023, the mayor of Manta Agustin Intriago was murdered while touring a construction site.

Mr Correa and Luisa Gonzalez, the party’s presidential candidate in the recent elections, called Ms Garcia’s killing an assassination on social media platform X.

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“I’ve just found out they’ve assassinated our fellow mayor of San Vicente Brigitte Garcia,” Mr Gonzalez said on social media.

“I have no words, in shock, nobody is safe in Ecuador NOBODY.”

Read more:
The hardcore methods being using to destroy drug gangs
Streets deserted as president declares ‘state of war’ on gangs

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From February: Fighting drug cartels in the Pacific

In a statement, Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa’s government condemned the killings and said it was working with police and the prosecutor’s office to ensure “immediacy in the investigation”.

He declared a state of emergency in January after armed men invaded a TV station during a live broadcast. Mr Noboa also designated 22 criminal groups as terrorist organisations.

The state of emergency was extended earlier in March.

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France prison convoy attack: Inmate on the run after guards killed in ambush

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France prison convoy attack: Inmate on the run after guards killed in ambush

Hundreds of police are hunting armed men who attacked a prison van in France – with a convict reportedly nicknamed “The Fly” escaping.

Two male prison officers were shot dead and three others seriously injured during the ambush on a motorway in Incarville, northwest France, at around 9am.

Eric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister, said one of the officers leaves behind a wife who was five months pregnant, while the other was a 21-year-old father-of-two.

He said two of those injured are in a critical condition after Tuesday’s ambush.

The officers were transporting convict Mohamed Amra, 30, when they came under heavy fire, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.

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CCTV shows car smash into prison van

Footage shows a black car driving into the front of a white van, and later two armed men patrolling near a tollbooth on the A154 motorway.

Several men used two vehicles to target the van – with one later found burnt-out, a police source told French news agency AFP.

Mohamed Amra
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Mohamed Amra’s nickname is said to be ‘The Fly’, according to French media

Amra had been serving an 18-month sentence for “aggravated thefts” in the suburbs of Evreux, northwest France, according to BFM TV.

The French broadcaster said his nickname is “The Fly”.

Police sources also said Amra was involved in drug dealing, suspected of ordering a murder in Marseille, and had ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.

He had reportedly appeared before a judge in Rouen on Tuesday morning, accused of attempted homicide.

The attack on the van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, according to reports in France.

Who is ‘The Fly’?

Footage shows the aftermath of a collision
Image:
Footage shows the aftermath of a collision

A prison source told Le Parisien that the escaped inmate had tried to saw the bars off his cell two days ago.

He had reportedly been placed in solitary confinement and his surveillance level raised after the escape attempt.

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Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Amra was a “particularly monitored detainee” while in prison.

Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said “several hundred police officers” had been deployed to “find these criminals”.

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X: “This morning’s attack, which cost the lives of prison officers, is a shock to us all.

“The Nation stands alongside the families, the injured and their colleagues.

“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people. We will be intractable.”

“Everything, I mean everything, will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime,” added justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.

“These are people for whom life weighs nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged, and they will be punished according to the crime they committed.”

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Georgia: Protesters and riot police face off outside Tbilisi parliament after divisive ‘foreign agents’ bill passes

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Georgia: Protesters and riot police face off outside Tbilisi parliament after divisive 'foreign agents' bill passes

Protesters have smashed barriers at Georgia’s parliament after it approved a divisive “foreign agents” bill.

Riot police used tear gas and sprayed crowds with water cannon as they entered the grounds of the Georgian parliament in the capital Tbilisi.

Sky’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, who is covering the protests in Tbilisi, said there was a “febrile atmosphere” and a “real sense anger, frustration and massive disappointment” that MPs voted for the bill.

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Pic: Reuters
Law enforcement officers stand guard near the parliament building as demonstrators hold a rally to protest against a bill on "foreign agents" in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze
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Hundreds of law enforcement officers guarded parliament. Pic: Reuters

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Protesters break through parliament barricades

The legislation is seen by some as threatening press and civic freedoms and there are concerns it’s modelled on laws used by President Vladimir Putin in neighbouring Russia.

The proposed law would require media and non-governmental organisations and other non-profit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.

Demonstrations have engulfed Georgia for weeks ahead of the bill’s final reading on Tuesday.

Pic: AP
Police use a spray to block demonstrators near the Parliament building during an opposition protest against "the Russian law" in the center of Tbilisi, Georgia, on Monday, May 13, 2024. Daily protests are continuing against a proposed bill that critics say would stifle media freedom and obstruct the country's bid to join the European Union. (AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze)
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Police used a spray to keep back the crowds. Pic: AP

A protester wearing a Georgian and European flag faces off policemen blocking a street during a rally against the 'foreign bill'. Pic: David Mdzinarishvili/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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Pic: David Mdzinarishvili/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Critics also see it as a threat to the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.

The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests.

Pic: Reuters
Demonstrators gather at the fence protecting the gates of the parliament building during a rally to protest against a bill on "foreign agents" in Tbilisi, Georgia May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze
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Pic: Reuters

Pic: Reuters
Law enforcement officers detain a demonstrator during a rally to protest against a bill on "foreign agents" in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 14, 2024. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze
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Authorities were seen detaining protesters near the parliament building. Pic: Reuters

Opponents have denounced the bill as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatise independent news media and organisations critical of the Kremlin.

Read more:
What is the ‘Russian law’ that has Georgians out on the streets?
Georgian opposition politician beaten by hooded thugs
‘Putin’s puppet’: Who is billionaire behind Georgia unrest?

A brawl erupted in the parliament as MPs were debating the bill on Tuesday.

Georgian Dream MP Dimitry Samkharadze was seen charging towards Levan Khabeishvili, the chairman of main opposition party United National Movement, after Mr Khabeishvili accused him of organising mobs to beat up opposition supporters.

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Fighting in Georgia’s parliament

‘Absolutely insane’

Former Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili called the bill a “joke” and a “replica” of one introduced by Vladimir Putin to “control his own society” in Russia.

He said the Georgian people would “not fall under that mistake” and that protesters were standing “firm, calm, peaceful and for freedom”.

“We will not let them prevail. We will overcome,” he told Sky News.

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Protesters angry after ‘Russian law’ passes

A protester said it was “absolutely insane that a country like Georgia has accepted this bill as it’s a complete violation for our future”.

The medical student said the bill “makes us more far away from Europe and the rest of the world”, while bringing Georgia closer to the Russian government.

Another protester outside parliament said: “Our government is a Russian government, we don’t want Russia, Russia is never the way, I’m Georgian and therefore I am European.”

One demonstrator said they had been trying to protest “peacefully” but were now “feeling anger, pain and disappointment that again in our history there is a government that goes against our wishes”.

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The president of the European Parliament has shown support for the Georgian people in a post on social media.

“Tbilisi, we hear you! We see you!” Roberta Metsola said.

Alex Scrivener, director of the Democratic Security Institute, said there was time for the law to be turned around.

He told Sky News: “The law passing isn’t the end of the vote.

“The president of Georgia who is aligned with the protesters can veto legislation and that buys us time.”

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will veto it but her decision can be overridden by another vote in parliament, controlled by the ruling party and its allies.

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Two people killed and inmate ‘on the run’ after attack on prison convoy in France

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Two people killed and inmate 'on the run' after attack on prison convoy in France

Two prison officers have been killed after an attack on a convoy carrying an inmate – with the convict reportedly on the run.

Three other people are seriously injured after the reported “ramming car attack” on a motorway in Incarville in the northwestern France region of Eure.

Footage from the scene shows two hooded men with firearms and a prison van which appears to have been in a collision with a black vehicle.

Several men used two vehicles to target the convoy, a police source has told the French news agency AFP.

The escaped detainee is a man named Mohamed who was convicted of “burglary theft” and is nicknamed “The Fly”, according to Le Parisien.

He had appeared before a judge in Rouen this morning accused of attempted homicide, BFM TV reports.

The attack on the prison van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, the French broadcaster adds.

The escaped prisoner fled with those who attacked the convoy on Tuesday, Le Parisien reports.

One of the vehicles used to target the convoy was found burned-out in a location which was not specified by the police source who spoke to AFP.

The prison convoy was targeted at a tollbooth on the A154 motorway at about 11am local time, according to reports.

French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti posted on X: “A prison convoy was attacked in Eure. Two of our prison officers have died, three are seriously injured.

“All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and their colleagues.”

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