Costa Rica Election Hands Presidency to Governing Party Stalwart

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Costa Rica Election Hands Presidency to Governing Party Stalwart Photo Carlos Alvarado Quesada after casting his ballot in a presidential runoff in San José, Costa Rica, on Sunday. A former labor minister, he won nearly 61 percent of the vote. Credit Associated Press MEXICO CITY — A former labor minister and novelist from the governing party was decisively elected president of Costa Rica in a runoff on Sunday, holding off an evangelical Christian singer who had built an upstart campaign in part on his opposition to same-sex marriage.
With ballots from about 91 percent of polling stations counted, the former minister, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, had won nearly 61 percent of the votes, while his opponent, Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz, had received about 39 percent, according to the federal election authorities.
Mr. Alvarado Muñoz, a former television journalist who was elected to the national Legislative Assembly in 2014 but resigned in February to focus on his campaign, conceded defeat in a spe..

China Slaps Tariffs on U.S. Products in Warning Shot to Trump

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China Slaps Tariffs on U.S. Products in Warning Shot to Trump Photo A pig farm in Iowa in 2014. China will impose a 25 percent tariff on American pork, an important moneymaker, especially in farming regions in states that voted for President Trump. Credit Daniel Acker/Reuters The Chinese government hit back Monday at President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum by acting on a threat to put tariffs as high as 25 percent on imports of 128 American-made products, including pork and seamless steel pipes.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce indicated that the tariffs, which it first publicly suggested almost two weeks ago, were intended to pressure the Trump administration to back down from a simmering trade war. In addition to imposing additional tariffs on steel and aluminum from China and other countries, President Trump has threatened to put protective duties on other Chinese-made products worth $60 billion.
“We hope that the United States will rescind its measures that violate World Tr..

Poisoned Door Handle Hints at High-Level Plot to Kill Spy, U.K. Officials Say

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Poisoned Door Handle Hints at High-Level Plot to Kill Spy, U.K. Officials Say Photo Police officers searched the home of Sergei Skripal, a former spy, in Salisbury, Britain. He and his daughter were poisoned last month. Credit Jack Taylor/Getty Images LONDON — British officials investigating the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal, a former Russian double agent, believe it is likely that an assassin smeared a nerve agent on the door handle at his home. This operation is seen as so risky and sensitive that it is unlikely to have been undertaken without approval from the Kremlin, according to officials who have been briefed on the early findings of the inquiry.
This theory suggests that an assassin, who Britain believes was working on behalf of the Russian government, walked up to the door of Mr. Skripal’s brick home on a quiet street in Salisbury on March 4, the day that he and his daughter, Yulia, were sickened.
Mr. Skripal, who was freed in a spy swap with the United States in 2010, is sti..

Fire in Mexican Prison Kills at Least 6 Police Officers

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Fire in Mexican Prison Kills at Least 6 Police Officers
VERACRUZ, Mexico — Six police officers died on Sunday from smoke inhalation after prisoners started a fire while resisting an effort to transfer dangerous inmates out of a prison in Mexico’s Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, the authorities said.
Gov. Miguel Ángel Yunes of Veracruz said a seventh person had died, but it was unclear whether that person was an inmate or a prison guard.
Mr. Yunes said four “highly dangerous” inmates had been helping run criminal networks in the area around La Toma prison in the town of Amatlán de los Reyes, so officials had decided to transfer them to a maximum-security federal prison.
The governor did not name the criminal gang involved, but the area was long dominated by the Zetas cartel.

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When local police officers, in support of the state police, entered the prison to get the four inmates for transfer, they were apparently ambushed by prisoners, who b..