Pope Urges Dialogue, Participation Upon Arrival in Ecuador

QUITO – Pope Francis on Sunday arrived in Ecuador, the first leg of his three-nation South American tour, and urged Ecuadorians to foster dialogue and participation without exclusion in a speech at the Quito airport.

After citing several of the country’s saints, Francis urged Ecuador “to confront the current challenges, valuing differences, fostering dialogue and participation without exclusion so that the achievements in progress and development that are being (made) may guarantee a better future for all.”

He assured Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa that he could count on the “commitment and cooperation of the (Catholic) Church” in that task.

Francis was welcomed when he disembarked from the papal jet by Correa and by children dressed in traditional costumes.

The pontiff said he was happy and grateful at the warm welcome accorded him at the first stop on his three-country tour, which will also take him to Bolivia and Paraguay.

“Your country is a paradise,” Francis added, referring to remarks Correa had made beforehand in his welcoming speech.

Putin Congratulates Obama, Calls for Talks as Equals

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin called for talks on an equal footing between Moscow and Washington, while congratulating his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, on the occasion of American Independence Day, the Kremlin announced Saturday.

“In his message of congratulations, the Russian President noted that, despite the differences between the two countries, Russian-American relations remain the most important factor of international stability and security,” a press release from the Russian presidency said.

Putin expressed his certainty that “Russia and the USA can find solutions to the most complicated international issues and efficiently resist global threats and challenges as they base their dialogue on principles of equality and respect of each other’s interests.”

On Friday, the head of the Kremlin asked the Russian Security Council for an analysis and evaluation of the risks and threats facing the country in order to proceed with a renovation of its national security strategy.

Russia must react to the decisions taken against it in the West and “quickly analyze the entire spectrum of potential challenges and risks – political, economic and informational, and others, and on this basis to adjust the strategy of the national security,” he said.

Putin justified the announcement with the obvious determination of some Western nations, headed by the United States, to maintain and even toughen their sanctions against Russia for its role in the Ukrainian crisis.

The latest events show that “we cannot expect a change in the hostile policies of some of our geopolitical opponents in the immediate future,” he said.

Putin recalled that the European Union recently extended its sanctions against Moscow, while in the United States there is a constant debate about the advisability of imposing harsher penalties on Moscow.

Mexican Police Recover Nearly 10,000 Stolen U.S. Visas

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Federal Police has recovered nearly 10,000 U.S. visas that were stolen nearly a month ago in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, the National Security Commission said.

The officers and personnel from the Tamaulipas state Attorney General’s Office found 23 U.S. Embassy diplomatic bags that contained 9,382 machine-readable Border Crossing Cards, known as “laser visas,” that had been issued to Mexican citizens, the commission said in a statement Friday.

The vast majority of the visas were recovered from an abandoned SUV with Texas license plates that was found in the parking lot of a shopping mall in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, located across from Brownsville, Texas.

On June 7, a cargo truck carrying the BCCs to U.S. consulates in Monterrey and Guadalajara was hijacked in Tamaulipas, and the truck’s cargo was stolen.

The U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs issued an alert to prevent the stolen visas from being used at any U.S. port of entry.

A total of 3,218 BCCs remain unaccounted for, Mexican media outlets reported Friday, citing the Tamaulipas state AG’s office.

New visas have already been reissued to those affected by the robbery.

Some Mexican drug cartels use stolen visas to smuggle undocumented Central American migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, human rights activists say.

Denver - No parent's come forward for little girl found????

Head of Chilean Teachers Union Assaulted During March

SANTIAGO – The president of Chile’s largest teachers union was attacked on Friday by dissident members during a march to oppose an education bill now before Congress.

Teachers went on strike more than a month ago in rejection of the proposed schools overhaul and Friday’s protest brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of Santiago.

Members unhappy with what they see as leader Jaime Gajardo’s recent softening of the union’s stance accosted and struck him at the start of the procession.

When the assailants threatened Gajardo with heavy objects, the union chief was whisked away to a nearby office of the Chilean Communist Party.

The union initially demanded that President Michelle Bachelet’s center-left government withdraw the education bill in favor of a new proposal incorporating the teachers’ demands.

In recent days, however, Gajardo has begun to talk about a “redesign” of the existing bill, indicating that he would be open to joining a dialogue with administration representatives and lawmakers, set to begin next Monday.

The union executive committee was set to meet later Friday to decide on the official position toward the prospective tripartite talks.

“They attacked him, it’s not acceptable. We can have a thousand disagreements, but that’s not appropriate,” union vice president Ligia Gallegos said after the aggression against Gajardo. “He continues to be the president of the Teachers Association.”

Besides the march in Santiago, teachers and their supporters mounted large demonstrations on Friday in the cities of Antofagasta, Concepcion, Chillan, Temuco and Osorno.

The union’s main objection to the education bill centers on a proposal to test teachers on their knowledge of specific academic subjects, a provision critics say will become a tool to stigmatize teachers.

Union members are also unhappy about the expected involvement of for-profit firms in the evaluation process.

30 Infected Lab Monkeys Escape from Facility in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN – About 30 lab monkeys infected with different viruses and used for scientific research escaped over the weekend from a facility in Puerto Rico when someone broke the lock on their cage, police said.

One or more unidentified individuals broke the lock on one of the cages at the Caribbean Primate Research Center, or CPRC, at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus outside San Juan, police said in a statement.

The cage’s padlock was removed and the chain cut, allowing about 30 Rhesus monkeys to escape from the CPRC.

The Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, or DRNA, was notified of the incident so it can assist in recovering the animals, police said, adding that investigators were trying to determine who vandalized the facility.

The animals remained on the CPRC’s grounds and some have already been captured, police said.

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