Canada should introduce a total ban on the buying and selling of all handguns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said. His government is proposing a new law that would freeze private ownership of all short-barrelled firearms. The legislation would not ban the ownership of handguns outright – but would make it illegal to buy them. Mr Trudeau’s proposal comes days after a deadly shooting at a Texas primary school, in the neighbouring US, killed 21 people. The bill, which was presented to Canada’s parliament on Monday, makes it impossible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in the country. “Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives,” Mr Trudeau told reporters.(BBC)…[+]

A judge in Mexico has delivered a fresh blow to the Maya train project, which aims to link archaeological sites with Mexican beach resorts. The judge ordered that a suspension of construction work on a stretch of the train line be extended until its environmental impact is determined. The ruling is a victory for a group of cave divers who fear that the works will threaten underground caverns. The Maya train is one of Mexico’s most ambitious infrastructure projects. This latest ruling could halt building work by months or even years unless an appeal by the authority behind the project is successful. The $9.8bn (£7.5bn) Maya train project is aimed at building a 1,500km-long (930-mile) railroad linking the south-eastern Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador argues that it will provide an environmentally friendly mode of transport for locals and tourists alike, as well as boosting development and employment in the underdeveloped region. But critics say the megaproject has been rushed and environmental concerns have been overridden. (BBC)…[+]

The black box of a Tara Air plane that crashed in Nepal on Sunday has been recovered, civil aviation authorities have confirmed to the BBC. Search teams first located the crash site on Monday. The remains of all 22 people onboard have been found since. The plane was on a 20-minute flight when it lost contact with air traffic control five minutes before it was due to land. Four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepali passengers were on board the plane. “[The] cockpit voice recorder, also known as [the] black box of the plane has been recovered from the crash site,” Deo Chandra Lal Karna, spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority Nepal (CAAN) told BBC Nepali. “We are preparing to airlift the black box to Kathmandu from a helicopter.” Local rescuer Indra Singh Sherchan said mountain guides and security officials had “cut out” the black box from the wreckage of the plane that was “stuck on the mountain cliff”. The plane – which was made by Canadian aircraft firm de Havilland – had departed the tourist town of Pokhara at around 0955 local time on Sunday (04:10 GMT). It was bound for Jomsom – a popular tourist and pilgrimage site. The news sparked a frantic search for the plane and its passengers, which was frustrated by bad weather and mountainous terrain.(BBC)…[+]