US links newspaper to drug cartel
A leading Mexican newspaper has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for having links to drug trafficking. Mexico City-based daily Unomasuno was added to the department’s “Kingpin” list this week because its owner allegedly supported the Cuinis drug cartel. Three other companies, including an air taxi firm, were also placed on the list that freezes their assists in the United States. Americans dealing with any designated firm on the list would be breaking U.S. law.
Mexico gets US satellite data
Mexico will be better qualified to monitor the development of hurricanes and other impeding climatic disasters thanks to a new agreement that will allow this country to capture and process land-surface imagery and data directly from a U.S.-operated satellite. The new arrangement will allow analysts at Mexico’s government-operated space agency in Chetumal, Quintana Roo to review downloads from the Landsat 8 satellite directly without the information first being vetted by U.S. authorities. The data will be shared with universities and research organizations, Mexican government officials say.
Marijuana permits issued
Mexico’s equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios (Cofepris), has issued permits to the four plaintiffs who recently won a Supreme Court ruling allowing them to cultivate and use marijuana. The plaintiffs, however, will not be smoking any weed, as they only filed their case to move forward the legalization debate. The permits only allow the plaintiffs to consume marijuana in the company of adults. They are also prohibited from commercializing the drug.
UK toy store opens in capital
Hamleys, the most iconic and representative toy store in the United Kingdom, has opened an outlet in Mexico City – its first in Latin America. U.K. Minister of Culture, Media and Sport John Whittingdale, along with Ambassador Duncan Taylor, were both on hand for the inauguration of the store in the plush Antara mall in the Polanco district of the capital.