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Kidnapped girl home after Amazon ordeal

The nine-year-old girl who was held captive for seven months in the depths of the Amazon rainforest has been taken back to her home town in Catalonia, but not yet to her parents.

Kidnapped girl home after Amazon ordeal
Photo of the kidnapped girl after she was freed from her captor by Spanish and Bolivian police. Photo: YouTube

The child — a Moroccan national who moved to the Catalan city of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat with her mother and father in 2008 — was freed from her captor on March 8th.

Since then, she has been kept in a children’s shelter in Cochabamba, central Bolivia, while she underwent medical and psychological tests to determine the consequences of her ordeal.

Spanish and Bolivian authorities also wanted the young girl to testify to what had happened to her before leaving the Latin American country, Catalan daily El Periódico reported.

For seven months, her kidnapper forced her to work long hours in cocoa plantations, walk for days through dense rainforest and sleep on the ground in remote Amazon villages.

Grover Morales, the 35-year-old who had permission from her parents to take her to Bolivia on what was meant to be a short holiday, has a history of unresolved rape charges against him involving two sisters.

Civil Guard Police told Spain’s press on Monday they are yet to decide whether she should be handed over to her parents or to the city’s social services.

After his arrest, Morales told Bolivian TV he had struck a deal with the girl’s father by which she would be used as a ‘mule’ to take back a large amount of gold and jewellery purchased in Bolivia.

Police inspector Jordi Domènech, who headed the missing person investigation from Spain's Catalonia region, has provided proof that the girl’s parents had indeed legally allowed her to travel with Morales.

The court in L’Hospitalet handling the case is working with Bolivian authorities to decide whether Morales should be extradited to Spain for the hearing.

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AMAZON

Germany opens ‘anti-competition’ probe into Amazon with tougher law

Germany's competition authority said Tuesday it had opened an inquiry into online retail giant Amazon over potential "anti-competitive practices", using a new law giving regulators more power to rein in big tech companies.

Germany opens 'anti-competition' probe into Amazon with tougher law
An Amazon warehouse in Brandenburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Patrick Pleul

Federal Cartel Office head Andreas Mundt said his office is examining whether Amazon has “an almost unchallengeable position of economic power” and whether it “operates across various markets”.

If so, it would be deemed of “paramount significance”, said Mundt, adding that the regulator could “take early action against and prohibit possible anti-competitive practices by Amazon”.

“This could apply to Amazon with its online marketplaces and many other, above all digital offers,” he added.

Under the amendment to Germany’s competition law passed in January, the watchdog said it now has more power to “intervene earlier and more effectively” against big tech companies, rather than simply punishing them for abuses of their dominant market position.

READ ALSO: ‘I want to know origin of my grapes’: Amazon loses fruit and veg ruling in German court

The German reform coincided with new EU draft legislation unveiled in December aimed at curbing the power of the internet behemoths that could shake up the way Silicon Valley can operate in the 27-nation bloc.

The push to tighten legislation comes as big tech companies are facing increasing scrutiny around the globe, including in the United States, where Google and Facebook are facing antitrust suits.

The Amazon probe is only the second time that Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has made use of its new powers, after first employing them to widen the scope of an investigation into Facebook over its integration of virtual reality headsets.

The watchdog already has two traditional abuse control proceedings open against Amazon.

One involves the company’s use of algorithms to influence the pricing of third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace, while another is probing the extent to which Amazon and major producers such as Apple exclude third parties from
selling brand products.

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