Air turbulence: When can it become dangerous?
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
A retired Roman Catholic bishop who was famous for trying to mediate between drug cartels in Mexico was located and taken to a hospital after apparently being briefly kidnapped, the Mexican Council of Bishops said Monday.
The church leadership in Mexico said in a statement earlier that Msgr. Salvador Rangel, a bishop emeritus, disappeared on Saturday and called on his captors to release him.
But the council later said he "has been located and is in the hospital," without specifying how he had been found or released.
Uriel Carmona, the chief prosecutor of Morelos state, where the bishop disappeared, said "preliminary indications are that it may have been an 'express' kidnapping."
In Mexico, regular kidnappings are often lengthy affairs involving long negotiations over ransom demands. "Express" kidnappings, on the other hand, are quick abductions usually carried out by low-level criminals when ransom demands are lower, precisely so the money can be handed over more quickly.
Earlier, the council said Rangel was in ill health, and begged the captors to allow him to take his medications as "an act of humanity."
Rangel was bishop of the notoriously violent diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, in the southern state of Guerrero, where drug cartels have been fighting turf battles for years. In an effort later endorsed by the government, Rangel sought to convince gang leaders to stop the bloodshed and reach agreements.
Rangel was apparently abducted in Morelos state, just north of Guerrero. The bishops' statement reflected the very fine and dangerous line that prelates have to walk in cartel-dominated areas of Mexico, to avoid antagonizing drug capos who could end their lives in an instant, on a whim.
"Considering his poor health, we call firmly but respectfully to those who are holding Msgr. Rangel captive to allow him to take the medications he needs in a proper and timely fashion, as an act of humanity," the bishops' council wrote before he was found.
It was unclear who may have abducted Rangel. The hyper violent drug gangs known as the Tlacos, the Ardillos and the Familia Michoacana operate in the area. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the crime.
If any harm were to have come to Rangel, it would have been the most sensational crime against a senior church official since 1993, when drug cartel gunmen killed Bishop Juan Posadas Ocampo in what was apparently a case of mistaken identity during a shootout at the Guadalajara airport.
Prosecutors in Guerrero state confirmed the abduction but offered no further details, saying only they were ready to cooperate with their counterparts in Morelos. Morelos, like Guerrero, has been hit by violence, homicides and kidnappings for years.
In a statement, Rangel's old diocese wrote that he "is very loved and respected in our diocese."
In February, other bishops announced that they had helped arrange a truce between two warring drug cartels in Guerrero.
Rev. Jose Filiberto Velazquez, who had knowledge of the February negotiations but did not participate in them, said the talks involved leaders of the Familia Michoacana cartel and the Tlacos gang, which is also known as the Cartel of the Mountain.
Bishops and priests try to get cartels to talk to each other in hopes of reducing bloody turf battles. The implicit assumption is that the cartels will divide up the territories where they charge extortion fees and traffic drugs, without so much killing..
Earlier, the current bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, Jose de Jesus Gonzalez Hernandez, said he and three other bishops in the state had talked with cartel bosses in a bid to negotiate a peace accord in a different area.
Hernandez said at the time that those talks failed because the drug gangs didn't want to stop fighting over territory in the Pacific coast state. Those turf battles have shut down transportation in at least two cities and led to dozens of killings in recent months.
"They asked for a truce, but with conditions" about dividing up territories, Gonzalez Hernandez said of the talks, held a few weeks earlier. "But these conditions were not agreeable to one of the participants."
In February, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he approves of such talks.
"Priests and pastors and members of all the churches have participated, helped in pacifying the country. I think it is very good," Lopez Obrador said.
Critics say the talks illustrate the extent to which the government's policy of not confronting cartels has left average citizens to work out their own separate peace deals with the gangs.
One parish priest whose town in Michoacan state has been dominated by one cartel or another for years said in February that the talks are "an implicit recognition that they (the government) can't provide safe conditions."
The priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said "undoubtedly, we have to talk to certain people, above all when it comes to people's safety, but that doesn't mean we agree with it."
For example, he said, local residents have asked him to ask cartel bosses about the fate of missing relatives. It is a role the church does not relish.
"We wouldn't have to do this if the government did its job right," the priest said.
In February, Rangel told The Associated Press that truces between gangs often don't last long.
They are "somewhat fragile, because in the world of the drug traffickers, broken agreements and betrayal occur very easily," Rangel said at the time.
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked and sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues the 'Team Canada' charm offensive to U.S. lawmakers and business leaders, Canada's ambassador to the United States downplayed the effect of another Trump presidency on Canada.
New inflation data is 'welcome news' for consumers and an economist says it could signal the possibility for a interest rate cut as several core measures also continue to ease.
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is facing fresh Conservative-led calls to resign, this time over "very partisan" and 'inflammatory' language used – the Liberals say mistakenly – to promote an upcoming event.
The Toronto Blue Jays have offered tickets and a signed baseball to a fan who says she was struck in the face by a 110 m.p.h (177 km/h) foul ball at Friday’s game.
Ontario Provincial Police continue to investigate a long weekend fatal boat collision on Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont.
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
The organizers of a month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned stores say they've decided to extend the boycott past May.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.