- Nigeria refuse to play in Libya as Algeria, Cameroon qualify
- Strike-hit Boeing leaves experts puzzled by strategy
- Leweling rockets Germany past Dutch and into Nations League quarterfinals
- Kolo Muani double fires France to win in Belgium
- Italy sweep past Israel in Nations League amid high security
- UN peacekeepers to 'stay in all positions' in Lebanon
- NASA launches probe to study if life possible on icy Jupiter moon
- 'Unique' Ronaldo an example to everyone, says Martinez
- New lawsuits against Sean Combs allege sex assault, including of minor
- Italy begins migrant transfers to Albania with first group of 16
- Google signs nuclear power deal with startup Kairos
- Carsley open to foreign England manager amid Guardiola links
- Pogba hungry to have his football cake after doping ban
- India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row
- Mbappe says victim of 'fake news' after 'rape' report in Sweden
- Lebanon says 21 killed in strike on northern village
- Netanyahu vows no mercy after deadly Hezbollah drone strike
- Russia could be able to attack NATO by 2030: German intelligence
- EVs seek to regain sales momentum at Paris Motor Show
- Clarke backs Scotland to bounce back from 'tough' run
- Harris, Trump target crucial Pennsylvania as US vote looms
- NASA probe Europa Clipper lifts off for Jupiter's icy moon
- Lebanese Red Cross says 18 killed in strike in north
- Mendy borrowed money from Man City team-mates for legal fees
- Palestinian officials say Israeli forces kill two in West Bank
- Football leagues, unions file EU complaint against FIFA in calendar dispute
- Nigeria boycott AFCON qualifier in Libya after 'inhumane treatment'
- India to recall top envoy to Canada: foreign ministry
- Hezbollah, Israeli troops in 'violent clashes' after drone strike
- China insists won't renounce 'use of force' to take Taiwan as drills end
- Painkiller sale plan to US gives France major headache
- Italy begins landmark migrant transfers to Albania
- Russia jails French researcher for three years
- 'Unsustainable' housing crisis bedevils Spain's socialist govt
- Stocks shrug off China disappointment but oil slides
- New Zealand 4-0 up in America's Cup but British show signs of life
- Russian prosecutor demands 3 years prison for French researcher
- 'Innocent' British nerve agent victim caught in global murder plot: inquiry
- Afghan Taliban vow to implement media ban on images of living things
- Russian prosecutor demands 3 years, 3 months jail for French researcher
- England ready for Pakistan's spin assault in second Test
- New Zealand's Ravindra excited for India Tests with father in crowd
- India's capital bans fireworks to curb air pollution
- Stocks diverge, oil retreats as China disappoints markets
- FIFA to open 'global dialogue' on transfer system after Diarra ruling
- Trio wins economics Nobel for work on wealth inequality
- Starmer vows to cut red tape as he urges foreign investors to 'back' UK
- Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing
- 'Not viable': Barcelona turns against surging tourism
- Hezbollah says targeted Israeli naval base after deadly drone strike
In Mexico, building a rail rival to the Panama Canal
At Mexico's narrowest point, linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the government is building a railway rival to the Panama Canal with promises of economic bounty but amid fears of environmental and social harm.
The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes already dreamed of such a crossing for humans and goods in the 16th century, but most plans came to naught and a prior, rudimentary connection was all but abandoned with the opening of the canal cutting through Panama in 1914.
Then, in 2020, work started on a new coast-to-coast link under the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
It comprises a 300-kilometer (186-mile) railway line from the Pacific port of Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos on the other side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec -- a region rich in biodiversity and Indigenous heritage.
The government has announced an investment of $2.85 billion.
According to project coordinator Adiel Estrada, it has created 800 direct jobs and some 2,400 indirect ones -- a much-needed injection for a largely impoverished part of the country.
Officials expect that once fully operational, by 2033, the "interoceanic corridor" would boost GDP by three to five percentage points.
"We will go... from one ocean to the other in seven hours," Lopez Obrador boasted of the project in a recent video recorded aboard a brand-new train.
Service is expected to start in December with two daily round trips for passengers, and three for cargo.
By 2028, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor (CIIT) should see 300,000 cargo containers transit every year, with 1.4 million -- about 33 million tons -- by 2033.
The 80-km Panama Canal moved about 63.2 million tons in 2022.
- 'Magnificent' -
Lopez Obrador has said the CIIT comes at a time that "our brothers in Panama are having difficulties due to water shortages" in the canal through which three percent of global maritime trade passes.
The Panama Canal Authority has had to reduce traffic to 25 ships per day starting November 3 -- down from 39 per day on average in 2022. By mid-February it will be down to 20 per day.
The Mexican corridor will be accompanied by the development of industrial parks, for which tenders have been opened, and which the government hopes will attract some $7 billion in investment.
But the corridor has had a mixed response.
"It's a magnificent project!" said Angelica Gonzalez, a 42-year-old craftswoman from Ciudad Ixtepec, one of the stops on the new route she hopes will boost sales to tourists.
Gonzalez was five years old when she last took a passenger train linking the two coasts.
That line was fully operational from 1907 to the 1950s, then declined until the 1990s when it finally closed, leaving only one cargo train on the route.
The cargo service has long been in urgent need of an update as Mexico upgrades capacity at its Atlantic and Pacific ports and the CIIT is meant to do just that.
Salina Cruz green activist Rafael Mayoral told AFP people along the route are "very motivated" for its opening.
But, he warned, that "does not erase its environmental and social impact."
According to another activist, Juana Ramirez of the Ucizoni NGO, the isthmus was likely to become polluted and downgraded by the project, with trees felled and vegetation uprooted.
Ucizoni claims that communities were not adequately consulted on the project, and that several people have already been displaced.
Ramirez said locals were being "harassed." She herself faces a large fine -- yet to be determined by a court -- for taking part in a protest against the CIIT.
Activists also fear a rise of violence in the area with organized crime likely to grow as access improves.
By mid-2024, the train is meant to link up to another line to the border with Guatemala via Chiapas -- a gateway for US-bound migrants without travel documents who frequently fall victim to smuggling gangs.
And observers claim gangs are already seizing land near the railway lines -- uprooting residents -- as they expect its value to rise.
The NGO Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) recorded three murders of land activists between October 2022 and July 2023 which it said were linked to the corridor.
M.A.Colin--AMWN