■ Brazil
US nun's killers go to prison
Two Brazilian ranch hands began long prison sentences on Sunday after they were convicted of murdering US nun and rainforest activist Dorothy Stang in a trial seen as a test of Brazil's will to combat land-battle killings on its Amazon frontier. But Stang's supporters said they were now ready to go after ranchers accused of offering the two men 50,000 reais (US$22,000) to kill the activist, who blocked their advance on valuable, hardwood-rich rain forest. "This is just the beginning, we'll be back" said Stang's sister Margaret, as land activists wept and hugged one another after the two-day trial in the Amazon city of Belem, the capital of Para state.
■ Mexico
Official's mob links denied
The attorney-general's office on Sunday announced that Mexico's top former law-enforcement official was not under investigation in Mexico or the US for protecting drug trafficking suspects. There is "absolutely no evidence" linking former attorney-general Rafael Macedo de la Concha to a group of army deserters turned drug hit men known as the Zetas, the attorney-general's office said in a written statement. The statement came in response to a story published on Sunday in Mexico City's respected Reforma newspaper, which stated that a July 15 FBI report said Macedo de la Concha had given his "blessing" to Zeta assassins, allowing them to operate freely in Piedras Negras, across the US border from Eagle Pass, Texas.
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