BOULDER, Colorado — Deion Sanders already has a victory under his belt in 2025. The Colorado University Buffaloes football coach announced Monday that he beat bladder cancer.

The CU Buffs coach addressed his health Monday at the CU Touchdown Club adjacent to Folsom Field. He was flanked at the table by Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of Urologic Oncology at CU Cancer Center, and by Lauren Askevold, CU’s assistant athletic trainer.

Sanders was diagnosed with an aggressive cancerous tumor in his bladder during a health check-up this past spring.

The coach had his bladder removed. Kukreja said he is now cancer-free.

“We’re gonna beat this, (aren’t) we?” Sanders asked Kukreja Monday.

“It’s beaten,” she replied.

Sanders, 57, has coached through health challenges before. The Pro Football Hall-of-Famer missed three games with Jackson State in 2021. He’s battled blood clot issues in the past, and had surgery to address a clot in his right leg in 2023.

Related Articles

Singer Cleo Laine, regarded as Britain’s greatest jazz voice, dies at 97

Hulk Hogan, icon in professional wrestling, dies at age 71

Doctor pleads guilty to selling Matthew Perry ketamine in the weeks before the actor’s death

Ozzy Osbourne, who led Black Sabbath and became the godfather of heavy metal, dies at 76

Hunter Biden lashes out at George Clooney, other Democrats, over Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign

Askevold said the tumor was diagnosed during CU’s spring football practices this past April and that the surgery was completed by early May.

The CU coach was notably absent from June camps in Boulder, leading to multiple reports that Sanders was still dealing with an unspecified health issue that would keep him away from campus.

The Florida native told Asante Samuel that he recently had lost 14 pounds. Sanders said Monday that he’d dropped about 25 pounds.

Coach Prime encouraged men to “get checked … without wonderful people like this, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

The Buffs opened their preseason camp this week and will start the 2025 season on August 29 at Folsom Field against Georgia Tech. Coach Prime indicated he intended to return to work as normal when asked how much he had relied on his staff while he was getting treatment.

“Rely on my staff?” Sanders replied. “I’m back, baby.”

WEST FORK, Ark. (AP) — Police in Arkansas were searching Monday for a suspect in the deaths of a couple who investigators said were attacked while on a wooded walking trail with their two young daughters.

Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were found dead Saturday at Devil’s Den State Park in Washington County in a suspected homicide, Arkansas State Police said.

Their daughters, who are 7 and 9, were not hurt and are being cared for by family members.

“Clinton and Cristen died heroes protecting their little girls, and they deserve justice,” the Brink family said in a statement provided to ABC News. “They will forever live in all of our hearts.”

Officials described the suspect as a white male wearing dark shorts, a dark ballcap, sunglasses and fingerless gloves. He was seen driving toward a park exit in a black, four-door sedan with a license plate partly covered by tape.

The car, possibly a Mazda, may have been traveling on State Highway 170 or State Highway 220 near the park in a rural, wooded area with limited cellphone service, police said.

“We are heartbroken by today’s horrific news from Devil’s Den State Park and are in close contact with State Police and the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism as they work to apprehend the suspect,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement over the weekend. “We are praying for the family and friends of the victims, and know that law enforcement will not rest until the perpetrator is brought to justice.”

Devil’s Den is located near West Fork, about 136 miles northwest of Little Rock. The 2,500-acre park is known for its hiking trails and rock formations, and is a short drive from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and Walmart’s Bentonville headquarters.

Shea Lewis, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, said rangers had stepped up patrols at Devil’s Den.

Related Articles

Multiple people shot at Nevada’s Grand Sierra Resort casino in Reno with a suspect in custody

Pilot arrested on child sex abuse material charges after landing at San Francisco airport

Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI

Tariffs threaten Asian beauty product boom in US

Attorneys: ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainees held without charges, barred from legal access

“Our hearts are with the victims’ loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Lewis said in a statement Sunday. “The safety of our visitors and staff is our highest priority, and we are working closely with Arkansas State Police and various law enforcement officials as the investigation continues.”

Investigators asked for potential witnesses to review their photos and videos from the park south of Fayetteville. There was no information about a possible motive.

“We’re just really hoping that anybody who captured any video or pictures or anything suspicious, just let us know,” State Police spokesperson Nick Genty said. “We’re investigating any and all tips that we get.”

Officials said the victims had recently moved to Prairie Grove, Arkansas, from another state. Their bodies were taken to the state crime lab, where the manner and cause of death will be determined.

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Food insecurity is rising in many parts of Africa, with the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet surpassing 1 billion — some two-thirds of the continent’s population — in 2024, according to a United Nations report published Monday.

Related Articles

Chilean investigators close in on the notorious Venezuelan gang targeted by Trump

Cyberattack on Russian airline Aeroflot causes the cancellation of more than 100 flights

Israeli strikes kill 36 in Gaza, including a mother and newborn, as more aid is allowed in

Kim Jong Un’s sister rejects outreach by South Korea’s new president

Trump says he wants Netanyahu to ‘make sure they get the food’ in Gaza amid humanitarian crisis

The prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Africa is more than double the global average of 28%, whereas figures from Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania don’t reach that mark, the report said.

The annual report, produced by five U.N. agencies, analyzes trends in efforts to achieve the goal of zero hunger around the world by 2030. Those agencies include the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program.

An estimated 8.2% of the global population may have faced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5% in 2023 and 8.7% in 2022, a positive trend that “contrasts with the steady rise in hunger in most subregions of Africa” and in western Asia, or parts of the Middle East and South Asia, the report said.

The prevalence of undernourishment, a key measure of progress, surpassed 20% in Africa and rose to 12.7% in western Asia, it said.

The report is the latest to suggest that eliminating food insecurity universally remains a serious challenge. Africa remains the most vulnerable continent.

According to the current projection, 512 million people in the world may be chronically undernourished in 2030, with nearly 60% of them to be found in Africa, the report said.

“We must urgently reverse this trajectory,” said Máximo Torero, chief economist with the FAO.

A major mark of distress is the number of Africans unable to afford a healthy diet. While the global figure fell from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion in 2024, the number increased in Africa from 864 million to just over 1 billion during the same period.

That means the vast majority of Africans are unable to eat well on the continent of 1.5 billion people.

The U.N. warned in a report in October that conflicts, economic instability and climate shocks — in addition to reduced funding for emergency food and agriculture assistance — were driving alarming levels of acute food insecurity in 22 “hunger hot spots.”

That report, by FAO and WFP, mentioned Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, Mali and the Palestinian territories as being of the “highest concern level.”

Chad, Lebanon, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen were classified as “hotspots of very high concern,” where large numbers of people faced or were projected to face critical levels of acute food insecurity.

Torero, the FAO chief economist, said the situation in Africa is “concerning,” driven in part by the failure of agricultural production to keep up with population growth in many areas.

At the same time, he said, many parts of Africa face violent conflict and setbacks stemming from climate change.

“These shocks interact and reinforce each other, weakening already fragile agrifood systems,” he said, speaking about the latest U.N. report. “Conflict zones such as Sudan and the Sahel face particularly acute challenges. Additionally, climate poses a serious threat, particularly to the most vulnerable populations.”

BY ISABEL DEBRE and NAYARA BATSCHKE

ARICA, Chile (AP) — The Venezuelan gang members wrote out even their most minute purchases in blue pen: $15 for a drug trafficker’s Uber; $9 for instant coffee during a lookout shift; $34 for supplies to clean what investigators learned were torture chambers.

The meticulous spreadsheets seized during police raids in Chile’s northern town of Arica, and shared with The Associated Press, suggest the accounting structure of a multinational.

They amount to the most comprehensive documentation to date of the inner workings of Tren de Aragua, Latin America’s notorious criminal organization designated by President Donald Trump as a foreign terrorist group.

An investigation built over years by Chilean prosecutors in Arica, which resulted in hefty sentences for 34 people in March — and inspired other cases which, earlier this month, sent a dozen Tren de Aragua leaders to prison for a total of 300 years — contrasts with Trump’s mass deportations of suspected gang members.

While Trump’s supporters cheer the expulsions, investigators see missed opportunities to gather evidence aimed at uprooting the criminal network that has gained momentum across the region as migration from Venezuela surges and global cocaine demand spreads.

“With the U.S. snatching guys off the streets, they’re taking out the tip of the iceberg,” said Daniel Brunner, president of Brunner Sierra Group security firm and a former FBI agent. “They’re not looking at how the group operates.”

Transnational mafias have fueled an extraordinary crime wave in once-peaceful nations like Chile and consolidated power in countries like Honduras and Peru, infiltrating state bureaucracies, crippling the capacities of law enforcement and jeopardizing regional stability.

The new developments are testing democracies across Latin America.

“This is not your typical corruption involving cash in envelopes,” said former Peruvian Interior Minister Ruben Vargas of the impunity in his country. “It’s having criminal operators wield power in the political system.”

Chile, long considered one of Latin America’s safest and wealthiest nations, is also among its least corrupt, according to watchdog Transparency International, giving authorities an edge in fending off this kind of organized crime.

But with no experience, the country was caught unprepared as abductions, dismemberments and other grisly crimes reshaped society.

Now, three years later, experts hold out Arica as a case study in wider efforts to combat the gang.

While some see El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’scrackdown on criminal gangs as a model, critics see an authoritarian police state that has run roughshod over due process.

“Criminal prosecution, financial intelligence, witness protection and cooperation with other countries, that’s what it takes to disrupt criminal networks,” said Pablo Zeballos, a Chilean security consultant and former intelligence officer.

Using Tren de Aragua documents first recovered in 2022, Chilean prosecutor Bruno Hernández and his unit brought an unprecedented number of gang members to trial last year, dismantling the gang’s northern Chile offshoot, known as Los Gallegos.

“It marked a milestone,” prosecutor Mario Carrera said last month from Arica’s shantytown of Cerro Chuño, a Los Gallegos stronghold. “Until then, they were acting with impunity.”

Following migrants to ‘virgin territory’

Tren de Aragua slipped into northern Chile in 2021, after the pandemic shut borders and encouraged Venezuelans to turn to smugglers as they fled their nations’ crises and headed to Peru, Colombia and Chile.

Héctor Guerrero Flores — a Tren de Aragua leader nicknamed “Niño Guerrero” — dispatched managers to take over networks of “coyotes” shepherding human cargo across Chile’s desert borders.

“It was virgin territory from their perspective,” said Ronna Rísquez, the author of a book about the group.

Related Articles

Cyberattack on Russian airline Aeroflot causes the cancellation of more than 100 flights

Israeli strikes kill 36 in Gaza, including a mother and newborn, as more aid is allowed in

Kim Jong Un’s sister rejects outreach by South Korea’s new president

Trump says he wants Netanyahu to ‘make sure they get the food’ in Gaza amid humanitarian crisis

Trump says he’s shortening the 50-day deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine

Tren de Aragua put down roots in Cerro Chuño, a former toxic waste dump outside Arica where Venezuelan migrants squeeze into boxlike homes.

Residents said gangsters extracted “protection” fees from shop owners and unleashed violence on those who wouldn’t pay.

“We live in fear of them,” said 38-year-old Saida Huanca, recalling how Los Gallegos extorted her minimarket colleague and sent a knife-wielding man to collect road tolls. “I didn’t leave the house.”

The gang terrorized competitors and turncoats.

Court documents describe members tying up defectors and filming as they administered shocks and slashed fingers in clandestine torture chambers.

Intercepted calls from March 2022, obtained by AP, show a rival panicking about Tren de Aragua’s arrival. “Where am I supposed to run, dude?” Chilean kingpin Marco Iguazo can be heard asking.

Bodies were found, shot or dismembered and stuffed into suitcases. Many were buried alive under cement.

“It was total psychosis,” said Carrera, who reported Arica homicides surging 215% from 2019 to 2022.

Cloud emojis and Christmas bonuses

Last month at Arica’s investigative police headquarters, AP observed Hernández attempt to persuade 23-year-old Wilmer López to talk. The alleged Los Gallegos hitman kept silent, eyes fixed on his Nikes.

As a rule, members don’t collaborate with investigations. Without testimony last year, Hernández’s main recourse was bookkeeping records. They revealed a rigid bureaucracy with centralized leadership that granted local cells autonomy.

“We had to prove not only that they committed crimes, but that there was a structure and pattern,” said paralegal Esperanza Amor, on Hernández’s team. “Otherwise they would’ve been tried as common criminals.”

Documents showed migrant smuggling and sex trafficking as the gang’s primary source of income.

While the per-client price for sex varies by city — $60 in Arica, over $100 in the capital of Santiago — each cell replicated the same structure. The gang confiscated half of women’s earnings, then deducted rent and food in a form of debt bondage.

Salary spreadsheets showed regional coordinators earning up to $1,200 monthly. Hitmen could earn $1,000 per job, plus protection for relatives in Venezuela. Most operatives received $200 Christmas bonuses.

Investigators cross-checked messages among gang members with drone surveillance to decrypt their use of emojis.

Some were self-explanatory — a snake signifying a traitor. Others less so: A bone meant debt, a pineapple was a safehouse, a raincloud warned of a raid.

Getting to trial

With the defendants in custody, the bloodshed abated: Arica’s homicide rate plunged from 17 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022 to 9.9 homicides per 100,000 last year.

After the team secured 34 convictions on charges including aggravated homicide, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors, authorities paid more attention.

Similar investigations proliferated nationwide. Carrera traveled to Washington to share intelligence with the FBI.

“The unit did something that had never been done in Chile, and achieved results,” said Ignacio Castillo, director of organized crime at Chile’s public prosecutor’s office.

Other countries have largely struggled to prosecute Tren de Aragua.

The Trump administration has used the gang to justify deporting migrants, with some arrested for little more than tattoos.

Experts say the Justice Department is too distracted by mass expulsions to conduct thorough investigations.

“Those kind of yearslong investigations are not happening,” said Brunner. “I see the current deportation tactics as working in favor of organized crime.”

A country traumatized, and transformed

The next challenge for Hernández’s unit is tracking Los Gallegos as they regroup behind bars. Some Cerro Chuño businesses said they still receive extortion threats — from prison phones.

“Organized crime will always adapt,” Hernández said. “We need to get ahead.”

Despite the national homicide rate declining, enthusiasm for a more ruthless approach is spreading as leftist President Gabriel Boric, a former student protest leader, battles for his legacy ahead of November presidential elections. Polls show security as voters’ top concern.

The current favorite is far-right candidate José Antonio Kast, who draws inspiration from Bukele and Trump. He vows to build a border barrier and deport undocumented migrants “no matter the cost.”

Watching her grandchildren play outside a church in Arica, Maria Peña Gonzalez, 70, said Kast had her vote.

“You can’t walk at night like you could before,” she said. “Chile has changed since different types of people started arriving.”