PRESIDENT Lenin Moreno and leaders of Ecuador’s indigenous peoples struck a deal late on Sunday to cancel a disputed austerity package and end nearly two weeks of protests that have paralyzed the economy and left seven people dead.
Under the agreement announced just before 10pm, Moreno will withdraw the International Monetary Fund-backed package known as Decree 883 that included a sharp rise in fuels.
Indigenous leaders, in turn, will call on their followers to end protests and street blockades.
“Comrades, a deal is compromise on both sides,” Moreno said. “The indigenous mobilization will end and Decree 883 will be lifted.”
The two sides will work together to develop a new package of measures to cut government spending, increase revenues and reduce Ecuador’s unsustainable budget deficits and public debt.
RESCUE crews in Japan are digging through mudslides and searching for missing people following a typhoon that has left dozens dead.
Typhoon Hagibis unleashed torrents of rain and strong winds on Saturday that left thousands of homes on Japan’s main island flooded, damaged or without power.
Authorities warned more mudslides were possible with rain forecast for the affected area during the day yesterday.
Kyodo News service, assembling information from a wide network, counted 36 deaths caused by the typhoon with 16 people missing. The official count from the Fire and Disaster Management Agency was 19 dead and 13 missing. Hagibis dropped record amounts of rain for a period in some spots, according to meteorological officials, causing more than 20 rivers to overflow.
In Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, 100 centimetres of rainfall was recorded over the last 48 hours. Some of the muddy waters in streets, fields and residential areas have subsided.
But many places remained flooded, with homes and surrounding roads covered in mud and littered with broken wooden pieces and debris.
POPE Francis’s chief bodyguard has resigned over the leak of a Vatican police flyer identifying five Holy See employees who were suspended as part of a financial investigation.
The Vatican said yesterday that Vatican police chief Domenico Giano bore no responsibility for the leaked flyer but resigned so as not to disrupt the investigation and “out of love for the church and faithfulness” to the pope.
The person who leaked the document to Italian newsweekly L’Espresso remains unknown.
Giano has stood by Francis’ side and jogged alongside his popemobile during hundreds of public appearances.
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