A Texas-born man who prosecutors say rose to the top ranks of a Mexican drug cartel using ruthless violence to defeat rivals and secure control of drug trafficking routes was sentenced Monday by a federal judge in Atlanta to serve nearly five decades in prison. Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as “La Barbie” because of his light eyes and complexion, was sentenced to serve 49 years and one month and was also ordered to forfeit $192 million, which prosecutors say is a conservative estimate of the value of the cocaine Valdez was responsible for importing into the United States. Valdez, 44, was accused of bringing trucks full of cocaine from Mexico to the eastern United States and shipping millions of dollars in cash back to Mexico.

He was arrested in Mexico in 2010 and was among 13 people extradited to the US from Mexico in September 2015 to face charges. He pleaded guilty in January 2016 to charges of conspiring to import and distribute cocaine, and conspiring to launder money. Valdez was born in Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border. His father was a nightclub and bar owner, and they lived in a middle-class subdivision populated by border patrol agents, police officers and firefighters.(theguardian)…[+]

Hundreds of the migrants and refugees onboard the Aquarius rescue ship are being transferred to Italian coastguard and naval vessels to begin their journey to Spain, despite pleas for them to be allowed to recuperate in the nearest port. On Tuesday afternoon, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said the crew of the Aquarius had been instructed by the maritime rescue coordination centre in Rome to transfer 400 of the 629 people onboard to the two vessels, which will then sail for Valencia.

The migrants and refugees, including children and pregnant women, were saved by the French NGO SOS Méditerranée from waters off the coast of Libya on Saturday, but the Aquarius was caught in a dramatic standoff over the weekend in which both Italy and Malta refused to allow it to dock.(theguardian)…[+]

Pope Francis has accepted the resignations of a Chilean bishop he robustly defended earlier this year despite claims of a cover-up of clerical sexual abuse, a move that later forced the pontiff into making a public apology.

In his continuing efforts to show he has grasped the extent of the Catholic church’s sexual abuse scandal, and intends to deal with those embroiled in it as perpetrators or colluders, Francis accepted the resignations on Monday of Juan Barros, as well as his fellow bishops Gonzalo Duarte and Cristián Caro. They were among 34 Chilean bishops who offered to resign last month after Francis said the country’s religious hierarchy was collectively responsible for “grave defects” in handling sexual abuse cases and the church’s resulting loss of credibility.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor who has been a vocal critic of Barros and repeatedly called on the Vatican to take action, said: “A new day has begun in Chile’s Catholic church. “I’m thrilled for all those who have fought to see this day. The band of delinquent bishops … begins to disintegrate today.” On Monday, a Vatican statement said Francis had accepted the resignations of the bishops and appointed temporary replacements. In January, the pope caused an outcry when he denounced sexual abuse survivors on a visit to Chile, saying claims Barros was complicit in a cover-up were a “calumny”.(theguardian)…[+]

The idea of killer robots rising up and destroying humans is a Hollywood fantasy and a distraction from the more pressing dilemmas that intelligent machines present to society, according to one of Britain’s most influential computer scientists. Sir Nigel Shadbolt, professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, predicts that AI will bring overwhelming benefits to humanity, revolutionising cancer diagnosis and treatment, and transforming education and the workplace. If problems arise, he said, it will not be because sentient machines have unexpectedly gone rogue in a Terminator-like scenario. “The danger is clearly not that robots will decide to put us away and have a robot revolution,” he said. “If there [are] killer robots, it will be because we’ve been stupid enough to give it the instructions or software for it to do that without having a human in the loop deciding.”(theguardian)…[+]