■ Mexico
Indian groups clash
Two people were killed in a clash between two Indian groups, one of them backed by the Zapatista rebels, in a land dispute in the Lacandon jungle in the southern part of the country, police said. The groups fought with firearms, sticks and machetes in the village of Viejo Velasco, 400km north of the state capital of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas state police said in a statement on Monday. Lacandon Indians, who have lived for centuries in the jungle near the Guatemalan border, are opposed to the encroachment of Zapatista-backed tribes from the nearby highlands into the jungle to farm.
■ United States
DEA agent's killer gets life
An Arizona court on Monday sentenced a Mexican who was once on the FBI's most-wanted list to life in prison for his part in killing a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent more than a decade ago. Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix sentenced Agustin Vasquez Mendoza to life with the possibility of parole after 25 years for masterminding the murder of DEA special agent Richard Fass in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, in 1994. Vasquez, 37, was also sentenced to several terms of between seven-and-a-half and 20 years to run consecutively, on charges ranging from aggravated assault to kidnapping and attempted armed robbery.
■ United States
Gunman dies in standoff
A man being sought for shooting at police officers over the weekend barricaded himself in a Homestead, Florida, home, firing a high-powered weapon at officers in a nearly nine-hour standoff before he was found dead. Police would not say how the suspect died or confirm his identity. They said officers did not fire any shots into the home. The incident prompted a lockdown at nearby Homestead Middle School and children at two other elementary schools were not allowed to leave unless their bus route was out of the standoff area or their parents picked them up. Police said another man who had been in the home with the suspect left through a back door several hours before the standoff ended.
■ United States
Man charged over letters
A California man was charged with mailing more than a dozen threatening letters containing white powder to Representative Nancy Pelosi, TV talk show host Jon Stewart and other high-profile figures. Chad Conrad Castagana, 39, appeared in US District Court in Los Angeles to face a two-count complaint of sending threats and sending hoaxes by mail, but he did not enter a plea. The judge ordered Castagana held without bail pending a continuation of the hearing tomorrow. Preliminary tests showed the white powder contained in the letters was not hazardous, officials said.
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