TRUMP ISSUES PARDON TO FORMER REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN STEPHEN BUYER AFTER INSIDER TRADING CONVICTION. (PHOTO).

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Trump issues pardon to former Republican congressman Stephen Buyer after insider trading conviction    President Donald Trump has issued a full pardon to former Republican congressman Stephen Buyer, who served nearly two years in prison after being convicted of insider trading tied to post-congressional consulting work. Buyer was sentenced in 2023 to 22 months in prison for illegal stock trades made while working as a consultant and lobbyist. He was ordered to forfeit more than $350,000 in ill-gotten gains and pay a $10,000 fine. He was released from custody in 2025 after his conviction was upheld, with the Supreme Court declining to take up his appeal earlier this year. In issuing the pardon, Trump described Buyer’s service as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Army and his time in Congress as “distinguished and highly productive.” The pardon, dated Thursday and released by the White House on Friday, grants Buyer “a full, complete, and unconditional pardon.” Buyer has maint...

SHOOTOUT AT ECUADOR NIGHTCLUB KILLS 8 AMID RISING VIOLENT CRIME. (PHOTO).


Shootout at Ecuador nightclub kills 8 amid rising violent crime, police say

A shooting at a nightclub in Ecuador’s rural Santa Lucía area on Sunday left eight people dead and three others injured, authorities reported. The incident occurred in Guayas province, one of the country’s most violent regions. Seven victims, aged between 20 and 40, died at the scene, while the eighth succumbed to injuries at a hospital.

Officials said heavily armed assailants arrived on motorcycles and two vehicles, though the motive for the attack remains unclear. This shooting follows a deadly assault on a boat near El Oro province two days earlier, where four people were killed and several remain missing after suspects used explosives.

Recent months have seen a surge in violence across Ecuador’s coastal provinces—El Oro, Guayas, Manabí, and Los Ríos—all under a state of emergency. Authorities attribute the spike in killings to rivalries among organized crime groups tied to transnational drug cartels, especially active in the Pacific region, which is a key drug trafficking route to Central America, the U.S., and Europe.

Last month, nine people were killed during a pool game in a southwestern tourist city. Ecuador has already recorded more than 4,600 homicides so far this year, following a 2024 total of nearly 7,000 and a record 8,000 in 2023. To combat the rise in drug-related violence, the government declared a 60-day state of emergency in April across seven provinces, including the capital, Quito. 

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