Rio de Janeiro’s security forces launch raids in 3 favelas to target criminals

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro’s state government deployed hundreds of police officers early Monday to three of the city’s sprawling, low-income neighborhoods, saying it aimed to clamp down on organized crime groups. Security forces targeted not only the Mare complex of favelas by Rio’s international airport, but also the adjacent Vila Cruzeiro neighborhood and the City of God neighborhood on the city’s opposite side. All three are controlled by the Red Command drug trafficking group. Recent intelligence had indicated that crime bosses had migrated from Mare to the other two communities, Rio’s government said on X, formerly Twitter.

Death toll from floods in Cameroon’s capital reaches 27

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — At least 27 people were killed and more than 50 were injured in floods set off by heavy rains in Cameroon’s capital, authorities said Monday as rescuers intensified the search for those missing following the deluge the previous day. The rains unleashed floodwaters in the district of Yaounde 2 of the country’s capital on Sunday, sweeping away buildings and reducing many to rubble. Rescue workers are still digging through the mud and rubble “with the hope of saving lives,” Daouda Ousmanou, the top government official in the district, said Monday.

Heavy flooding in southern Myanmar displaces more than 14,000 people

BANGKOK (AP) — Flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in Myanmar’s southern areas has displaced more than 14,000 people and disrupted traffic on the rail lines that connect the country’s biggest cities, officials and state-run media said Monday. State television MRTV reported Monday evening that the number of displaced people in Bago township, about 42 mile northeast of Yangon, the country’s biggest city, had climbed to that figure, and they were taking shelter in 36 relief camps. It said almost 1,000 more people in Mon state’s township, just east of Bago, were sheltering in three relief camps, and there some evacuations in a northern part of Yangon.

Mexico is bracing for a one-two punch from Tropical Storms Lidia and Max

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico is bracing for a one-two punch from Tropical Storms Lidia and Max, which are expected to make landfall Monday and Tuesday in different parts of the country. Max strengthened to tropical storm status and was expected to hit land later Monday east of the resort town of Zihuatanejo with winds of about 95 kph.

Lidia was gaining strength farther north off Mexico’s western Pacific coast, and was expected to make landfall Tuesday as a hurricane on a sparsely populated stretch of coast north of the resort of Puerto Vallarta with winds of as much as 100 mph.