Ecuador

Five people died and 16 were injured in an explosion Sunday in the Ecuadoran port city of Guayaquil in an attack the government blamed on organized crime, officials said.

President Guillermo Lasso declared a state of emergency in the country's second largest city of Guayaquil, where eight houses and two cars were destroyed in the blast.

With a notion on his mind "all one need is a piece of land and 1,000 liras," Hayrettin Çağrı Ezerer decided to leave the city life and his doctoral academic career behind to settle in his hometown in the southern province of Mersin.

Ezerer, 35-year-old, returned to his hometown six years ago, built a farm and continued his life at the summit of the Taurus Mountains.

The United States has said it will step up cooperation with Vietnam and Taiwan among others to combat illegal fishing, a problem that environmentalists and Western nations increasingly attribute to China.

U.S. President Joe Biden signed a memorandum that aimed to step up coordination and enforcement within the US government against illegal fishing and the use of forced labor.

Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate quickened to 191.6 percent in June, more than doubling the consumer price increases of two months ago, official statistics showed on June 25.

Inflation which was at 96.4 percent in April, crept up to nearly 200 percent as prices of cooking oil and bread are leaping higher as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A New York City court approved a plan by Latin America's largest airline, LATAM Airlines, to exit bankruptcy under US law, the carrier announced on June 18.     

In addition to Saric and lawyer Dejan Lazarevic, Uros Misic was also questioned.
As "Novosti" previously learned, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (TOK) issued an order to launch a new investigation against Darko Saric.

Turkey appointed ambassadors to 25 foreign diplomatic missions, while ambassadors from 23 countries are recalled to their headquarters in Ankara, according to a presidential decision published in the Official Gazette on June 2.

Ecuador is in first place with 17.61 cm

Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso announced on April 29 he had decreed a state of emergency for two months in three provinces with the highest registered levels of violence due to drug trafficking.

"I have declared a state of exception in the (coastal) provinces of Guayas, Manabi and Esmeraldas, effective from midnight tonight," he said in a speech broadcast by state media.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will start a seven-day South America tour that includes six states.

A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry informed that Çavuşoğlu will visit Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela between April 23 and 29.