What's in the Headlines?

Mexican mayor and wife suspected involvement in disappearance of 43 students

Protesters stormed and set fire to the main government building in Iguala, Mexico on Wednesday as anger continues to mount over the failure of authorities to locate 43 students who have been missing since September 26.

As the attack on the town hall occurred, Mexican federal police forces, which have been in charge of public safety since the September attacks, were nowhere to be found.

Attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam said there was clear evidence that José Luis Abarca, the mayor of Iguala, ordered local police to target the students who are from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa. The students had travelled to nearby Iguala to protest against what they said were discriminatory hiring practices, and to collect funds for their college.

However, the mayor knew of the student’s intentions and had local police intercept them because he feared they would disrupt a speech by his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda. Mr Murillo Karam said police officers testified that they had been told to intercept the students "on the mayor's orders". The local police have been accused of firing upon the three buses carrying the students, killing six. Eyewitnesses described seeing the remaining 43 students being bundled into police cars.

Mr Murillo Karam said the police then handed the students over to a local drug trafficking group, known as Guerreros Unidos, who took them to an area where mass graves have since been discovered. The leader of Guerreros Unidos, Sidronio Casarrubias, was arrested last week and told police that the mayor’s wife María de los Angeles Pineda was the group’s “main operator within city hall”.

Abarca requested leave from his post following the incident on 26 September and neither he nor his wife or the town's police chief, Felipe Flores have been seen since.

What's in the Headlines?

Drug Trafficking and Prostitution boost Spain’s GDP by €9 billion

Spain has decided to include illegal activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution into the country’s gross domestic product. On Thursday the country lifted its GDP figures for 2013 by €26.19 billion to €1.05 trillion thanks to the inclusion of such activities and also from contributions of research and development and military armament. 0.35% of Spain’s newly calculated GDP comes from prostitution and 0.50% of it from drug trafficking, amounting to €9 billion, and reducing

the country’s debt ratio of 98.9 percent to 96.4 percent.

The Spanish national statistics agency, the INE, calculated that in 2011 Spain was home to 300,000 prostitutes and used this number to calculate how much they made in consultation with sex clubs. The quantity of drugs seized in 2014 was estimated as a percentage of the whole illegal drugs industry and used to evaluate it. According to figures from the Government Delegation of National Plan on Drugs cannabis is the most popular substance used in Spain with figures reaching 27.4 percent, followed by powder cocaine at 8.8 percent.

The changes to Spain's GDP are a result of new EU reporting requirements, meaning countries now have to provide details on what proportion of gross domestic product is based on activities as diverse as people smuggling, contraband cigarettes and prostitution.

France refused to provide data on prostitution, arguing that it was not necessarily carried out willingly. Sweden, where paying for sex is a crime, also refused. Italy on Monday published its own revised GDP figure, which rose by 3.8 percent when the new norms were applied. Britain has estimated that counting illegal activities could add €12.3 billion to its production, just below one percent of its GDP for 2013.

What's in the Headlines?

Demonstrators clash with Police in Missouri 

Hundreds marched through the streets of Ferguson in Missouri demanding justice for the Police shooting of an unarmed 18 year old male. Police have withheld the name of the office involved with the shooting. Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer on Saturday in a Ferguson suburb.

Police officers equipped with riot gear and assault rifles cracked down on the protesters when glass bottles were thrown from the crowd on the fourth night of demonstrations. Police used tear gas and military-style tactics to disperse crowds and arrest a number of people.

Reporters from the Washington Post and the Huffington Post were among those arrested. A camera crew from al-Jazeera America said they were shot by rubber bullets.

Many other demonstrators were shocked at the excessive force used by the police. One protester said “This amount of force was unwarranted. This is an abuse of force. No one is firing guns at them or running at them. This is an overreach.”

Jay Nixon, Governor of Missouri has handed policing responsibility of the protests over to the Highway Patrol. Protesters have responded to the “softer front” of the Highway Patrol and tensions have died down. Although removed from protest duty St. Louis County Police have been tasked with investigating the Death of Michael Brown.