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Extra! Impeached Guatemalan President Jailed For Corruption

Guatemala's parliament voted to sack President Otto Pérez Molina Thursday, forcing his resignation and immediate arrest for his suspected participation in an extensive corruption ring.

Like an ordinary felon, he will have to "answer to justice," the daily Publinews wrote on its front page. Publinews Guatemala and other Guatemalan dailies also showed the former president surrounded by police and questioned before being sent to a military prison in the capital Guatemala City.

The detainee told media outlets that he had no intention of fleeing, and his arrest was said to be for his security, not to prevent his flight. Pérez, a retired general who took office in 2012 with promises of stamping on the country's rampant crime, is accused of helping run a criminal web dubbed La Linea, which allegedly stole millions of dollars in customs dues that were meant to go to the federal treasury.

Dozens of officials were are believed to be involved, including former Vice President Roxana Baldetti, who was jailed in May. Vice President Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre has become interim president, and the country is scheduled to hold new elections Sept. 6.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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