MEXICO
Five suspects detained in casino attack
MONTERREY — Nuevo Leon state Gov. Rodrigo Medina said Monday that police have arrested five alleged members of the Zetas drug cartel suspected in an arson attack on a casino that killed 52 people in northern Mexico.
Mr. Medina said police are looking for two other suspects.
He said that police are investigating whether the attack in the city of Monterrey was in retaliation for not paying extortion money.
The Thursday attack at the Casino Royale in Monterrey was one of the deadliest on an entertainment center in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.
VENEZUELA
Court lifts order, allows newspaper to publish
CARACAS — A lawyer for a Venezuelan newspaper said Monday that a court has lifted an order that barred the weekly from being published.
A judge had ordered the newspaper to temporarily cease publishing after it ran a front-page photomontage ridiculing six high-ranking female officials and depicting them as cabaret dancers.
Lawyer Pedro Aranguren said the court lifted the order on Monday.
He told the Venezuela TV channel Globovision that the court also ordered the newspaper not to publish text or images that offend or insult women or impugn the reputation of public officials.
Venezuela prosecutors and court officials did not immediately comment on the decision to allow the newspaper to resume publishing.
CHILE
Dictator’s collaborators get victims’ compensation
SANTIAGO — Some Chileans are upset that two people who collaborated with Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and an alleged leftist assassin can now get $256 a month in compensation as victims of torture.
Human rights leader Lorena Pizarro wants Luz Arce and Miguel Estay Reyno removed from the list for collaborating with Gen. Pinochet after being tortured.
Chile’s Independent Democratic Union is upset that former guerrilla leader Galvarino Apablaza Guerra can get compensation. He was tortured in 1973 and is now wanted in Chile on charges of ordering the 1991 assassination of right-wing party founder Sen. Jaime Guzman.
Commission President Maria Luisa Sepulveda said anything a torture survivor may have done later is beyond the scope of her commission.
ECUADOR
Journalist flees after clash with president
QUITO — An Ecuadorean journalist accused of libeling President Rafael Correa has fled the country.
Emilio Palacios issued a letter from Miami over the weekend, saying he feared for his safety because of new pressures from what he called “the dictatorship.”
The alleged pressures include a new criminal charge for referring to a state television journalist as a fascist. Mr. Palacios said that “one would have to be blind not to understand that they want me behind bars.”
In July, a court sentenced Mr. Palacios and three executives of the newspaper Universal to three years in prison and $42 million in fines for libeling the president. They are appealing.
Mr. Correa denies trying to quash freedom of the press, saying he is only demanding fair reporting.
HAITI
American kidnapped from home in capital
PORT-AU-PRINCE — The head of Haiti’s anti-kidnapping unit said Monday that an American has been kidnapped from his home in the capital.
Francois Dossous said the U.S. citizen was seized by men posing as employees of a package delivery service. The victim was identified as Frank Jean-Baptiste. He is married to the director of a prestigious private school for the children of diplomats and wealthy Haitians.
Mr. Dossous said that authorities are working to secure the man’s release. Police and U.N. peacekeepers have increased checkpoints throughout Port-au-Prince in recent days.
The U.S. Embassy has warned Americans working in Haiti to remain alert and has provided tips on what to do if kidnapped.
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