5 October 2013 Last updated at 08:36 GMT
The new mayor of Messina is a man of the people. The tireless nonpartisan is known to go barefoot through the city. And in the land of Berlusconi, he is fighting against corruption, organized crime and widespread disenchantment with politics.
By tradition, the men who carry the Madonna are dockworkers, ex-convicts and henchmen with the Sicilian Mafia, and these men look the part. They hope for redemption from the Virgin Mother for crimes ranging from extortion to drug dealing and murder. Along the side of the road, law-abiding bystanders hand their small children up onto the cart to be blessed.
By Richard Fausset
MEXICO CITY — An alleged drug cartel leader suspected of masterminding the June slayings of nine Guatemalan federal policemen was arrested Friday in the southern Mexico border state of Chiapas, officials said.
US commitment to Asia remains despite shutdown
The US commitment to Asia remains undiminished despite President Barack Obama's absence from regional summits, Secretary of State John Kerry has said.
Mr Kerry was speaking at the start of the Apec summit in Indonesia.
Mr Obama cancelled his Asia trip after the partial US government shutdown.
The US government closed non-essential operations on Tuesday after Congress failed to agree a new budget. Thousands of federal employees have been sent home. Some are working but not paid.
US-EU trade negotiations have also been postponed because of the shutdown.
Foreign forces launch pre-dawn attack Somali town of Barawe
Foreign military forces have carried out a pre-dawn strike in the same southern Somalia town where US Navy Seals four years ago killed a most-wanted al-Qa'ida operative.
The strike was carried out in the town of Barawe in the hours before morning prayers against what one Somali official said was "high-profile" targets.
The strike comes exactly two weeks after al-Shabab militants attacked Nairobi's Westgate Mall, a four-day terrorist assault that killed at least 67 people in neighbouring Kenya.
The leader of al-Shabab, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in retaliation for Kenya's military deployment inside Somalia.
TOURISM
North Korea tourism 'finances nuclear program'
While critics say traveling to North Korea puts money in the pockets of its repressive regime, those in favor say they are opening up the world's most isolated state to new ideas and opportunities.
Human rights activist Ken Kato has called on foreign travel firms that are offering vacations in North Korea to withdraw from the country to assist the people of the repressive state, to safeguard regional security and for their own sakes.
"I am completely against these companies selling holidays in North Korea and they should be aware of exactly what is happening in the country," Kato, director of Tokyo-based Human Rights in Asia, told DW.
"If people in Europe had known what had been happening in Nazi Germany in 1938 or 1939, they would not have gone there on their holidays," he said. "It's just unimaginable.
The Barefoot Mayor: Local Hero Takes on Sicilian Corruption
The new mayor of Messina is a man of the people. The tireless nonpartisan is known to go barefoot through the city. And in the land of Berlusconi, he is fighting against corruption, organized crime and widespread disenchantment with politics.
Men with coarse features and shaved heads are pulling a heavy cart through the streets of Messina. The men, barefoot with tattoos on their upper arms, are sweating as they shout, again and again: "Viva Maria!"
Online education inspires eager students in Latin America
The world of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, is shaking up academia in the US. But many are actively embracing it in regions like Latin America.
Roosemberth Palacios sports braces on his teeth and a curly mop of hair. At 16, he finds high school boring. So after school, he logs onto his computer and hunts for challenges.
He’s found them in difficult online courses offered by professors at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He says he’s aced a course called “Machine Learning” by hotshot Stanford professor Andrew Ng, scoring a perfect 100. And he took a sophomore-level course by MIT professor Anant Agarwal called “Circuits and Electronics,” tallying 91 percent.
To patch up some weakness he saw in his own math skills, he took a course, “Numerical Analysis,” offered online by the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland. The class was in French.
Suspected mastermind of Guatemala police massacre arrested in Mexico
By Richard Fausset
MEXICO CITY — An alleged drug cartel leader suspected of masterminding the June slayings of nine Guatemalan federal policemen was arrested Friday in the southern Mexico border state of Chiapas, officials said.
The suspect, Eduardo Francisco Villatoro Cano, became one of the most wanted men in Guatemala after more than a dozen armed men believed to be allied with his drug-running organization stormed a police substation June 13 in Salcaja, a municipality near Quetzaltenango, the country’s second-largest city.
The assailants fatally shot eight officers and abducted a police sub-inspector, whose partial remains were found later. The attack may have been in retribution for a cocaine seizure.
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