Global Controversies Unfold in Latest Developments

A Canadian man, Marcel Breton, has lost a 16-year legal battle to reclaim over C$1.2m (£651,000) in cash seized from his home in 2009. The money was found buried in various places around his north-western Ontario home during a search for an illegal firearm and drugs. Breton was convicted of various offences but was acquitted at a retrial after arguing the search was unlawful. An Ontario appeals court upheld a 2023 ruling that most of the seized money should go to the Canadian government, as the trial judge concluded that Breton did not lawfully possess the cash. However, the court ruled that C$15,000 found in the under-floor heating ducts of the living room should be returned to Breton as it could not be proven to be obtained unlawfully.

The family of Alejandro Carranza, a Colombian fisherman, is seeking answers after a US strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in international waters. The US claims the strike killed three 'narco-terrorists', but the family is unsure if Carranza was on the boat. The strike is part of a US operation targeting alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, which has killed 83 people in 21 strikes. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has criticized the strikes, saying they breach international law and has suspended intelligence sharing with the US. The US justifies the strikes as self-defense against 'narco-terrorists' threatening American lives. The family of Carranza is represented by a US lawyer who plans to sue the US government, arguing that the strikes are extrajudicial killings.

Venezuela's attorney general has warned opposition leader María Corina Machado that she will be considered a 'fugitive' if she travels to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize. Machado has been living in hiding since the start of the year to avoid arrest on charges of 'acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, and terrorism'. The Nobel Committee praised Machado for her efforts towards a 'peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy'. Machado has long been a critic of President Nicolás Maduro's government, which many nations view as illegitimate. The opposition leader has been trying to encourage the Venezuelan military to switch sides and turn on Maduro.