Nuevo Laredo cops charged in connection with violence
Monterrey, Mexico – Mexican authorities have filed criminal charges against 11 Nuevo Laredo police officers arrested after a shootout with federal agents in this violent city on the U.S.-Mexico border, officials announced Tuesday.
The officers are accused of attempted homicide and abuse of authority.
A total of 20 Nuevo Laredo city officers have been charged with crimes ranging from attempted homicide to organized crime.
Last week, federal officials said some of the officers arrested were working for the Gulf Cartel, one of two drug organizations fighting for control of the city across the border from Laredo, Texas. The officers allegedly kidnapped members of a rival gang and turned them over to the cartel’s hit men, federal officials said.
In June, 41 Nuevo Laredo police officers were arrested and taken to Mexico City after the group fired on a convoy of federal agents, seriously injuring one. The 21 other officers have been released.
That clash came days after the city’s police chief was gunned down within hours of taking office, prompting President Vicente Fox to send hundreds of soldiers and federal agents to Nuevo Laredo to restore order.
Since January, more than 120 people have been slain in Nuevo Laredo.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.
Growing storm spurs Atlantic-coast alert
A 120-mile stretch of Florida’s Atlantic coast was under a tropical storm warning Tuesday as a new system formed just offshore and threatened to dump up to 15 inches of rain in parts of the state.
The tropical depression could strengthen into Tropical Storm Ophelia by Wednesday, which prompted the warning from north of Jupiter to Titusville. Five to 10 inches of rain was expected over the next few days.
At 3 p.m. MDT, the storm had top sustained winds of about 30 mph and was centered about 175 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral. The storm wasn’t moving but was expected to start drifting north-northwest later Tuesday.
Two other storms were out in the open ocean Tuesday as the busy hurricane season continued. Tropical Storm Nate was expected to strengthen south of Bermuda, while Hurricane Maria weakened on its way to the colder waters of the north Atlantic.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Motel owner banned over racial bias
A motel owner will give up his lodging business in a settlement over charges he gave black customers inferior rooms and kept them from using the pool, officials said Tuesday.
Raj Patel, owner of the Southern Inn, won’t own or operate any motel or other form of lodging anywhere in the United States as part of the agreement. Attorney General Charlie Crist’s office will distribute $40,000 in settlement money among the victims.
CHICAGO
Monitor: Patronage thrives despite ban
Chicago officials have been basing hiring decisions on political clout and not merits, defying a court-ordered ban on patronage employment, a federal monitor said Tuesday.
Court-appointed monitor Noelle Brennan urged sweeping changes at City Hall, including requiring top officials to swear under penalty of perjury that hirings aren’t based on politics.
Brennan made the recommendations in an 11-page report to U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen on how to enforce the decades-old Shakman Decree that bans the use of patronage in Chicago.
MEXICO CITY
Supreme Court allows life terms for murder
Mexico’s Supreme Court approved a state law Tuesday allowing virtually lifetime imprisonment for some murders, a ruling that a justice said might ease limits on extradition that have infuriated U.S. law-enforcement officials.
A majority of the court voted to uphold a Chihuahua state law that allows consecutive prison terms for murders involving children, women or kidnap victims, even if the total surpasses 100 years.
In previous years, the court has rejected extraditions to the United States if defendants could face life terms, ruling they amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Laws in most Mexican states limit total prison terms to 40 or 50 years.
BEIJING
Group: Yahoo helped China convict critic
A French media watchdog said Tuesday that information provided by Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. helped Chinese authorities convict and jail a writer who had penned an e-mail about press restrictions.
The harsh criticism from Reporters Without Borders marks the latest instance in which a prominent high-tech company has faced accusations of cooperating with authorities to gain favor in China, which is expected to be an Internet gold mine.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo and two of its biggest rivals, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, previously have come under attack for censoring online news sites and Web logs, often called blogs, that include content that China’s communist government wants to suppress.
ROME
Italy expels imam for his radical positions
Italy expelled on Tuesday a Moroccan-born imam known for radical positions, saying he was a danger to public security.
Bourki Bouchta was picked up from his home in the northern city of Turin and put on a plane to Morocco, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The statement said authorities were considering taking similar steps against other foreigners in Italy.
The ministry said Bouchta was expelled after anti-terrorism officials verified he was responsible for “a serious disturbance of public order.”
