Mexico

15 Jan 2021; MEMO: Mexican Cinépolis is planning to open 200 cinemas in Saudi Arabia within two years, local media reported on Wednesday.

Cinépolis recently opened two new cinemas in Saudi Arabia's cities of Jeddah and Dammam as part of the kingdom's "Saudi Vision 2030", which is reported by the government to be aimed at diversifying the country's oil-dependent economy.

MEXICO CITY, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador offered political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday, after a British judge ruled that Assange could not be extradited to the United States "due to concerns about his mental health."

In his customary morning press conference, the president said he will ask Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry to contact British officials over the asylum offer and request Assange be pardoned.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for emergency use Monday, hoping to spur a halting vaccination effort that has only given about 44,000 shots since the third week of December, about 82% of the doses the country has received.

The Pfizer vaccine had been the only one approved for use in Mexico, until Mexican regulators approved the AstraZeneca shot Monday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Saturday that Mexico had lost 277,000 jobs in the month of December, which he attributed to subcontractors cutting employees from the books to avoid paying benefits and year-end bonuses.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Dozens of Cubans protested at the U.S. border in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday night, demanding they be allowed to cross and claim asylum in the United States.

U.S. authorities, including police in anti-riot gear, closed off the bridge that leads into El Paso, Texas, with a concrete barrier topped with barbed wire.

A recording blared from a loudspeaker warning that any person who crossed could be arrested.

Late into the evening, some 200 migrants who had walked right up to the barrier stayed put.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday he is not opposed to private companies buying coronavirus vaccines to distribute to patients who want to pay for the shots.

But he noted there isn’t much existing supply and warned companies not to try to buy vaccines already promised to the Mexican government.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities said on Friday they detained four people in connection with a helicopter crash two years ago that killed the governor of the central state of Puebla, Martha Alonso, and her husband, Rafael Moreno Valle, a senator and former governor.

On December 24, 2018, their helicopter came down shortly after taking off from Puebla, headed to Mexico City.

The Puebla Attorney General’s office said the three men and one woman arrested are being investigated for homicide and making false statements, without offering further details.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An intensive care nurse in Mexico City on Thursday became the first person in Latin America to receive an approved coronavirus vaccine.

Mexico began administering the first 3,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in a broadcast ceremony in which Maria Irene Ramirez, 59, got the first shot, under the watchful eyes of military personnel who escorted the vaccine shipment.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Sunday the army will run the Maya train project and several airports, and use any profits to finance military pensions.

The army is already overseeing construction on some parts of the controversial project, while private firms build the rest.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Saturday committed to work on a humane strategy to regional migration by addressing its root causes in Central America and southern Mexico.

The two leaders in a phone call “discussed working together on a new approach to regional migration that offers alternatives to undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States,” a summary of the call provided by Biden’s team said.