■ Mexico
Watchdog pans government
The National Human Rights Commission blasted the federal government for failing to stop the killing of 20 people, including a US activist-journalist, during a six-month long conflict in the southern city of Oaxaca last year. The human rights watchdog, a publicly funded organization, on Thursday handed a report to the Senate demanding the killings and other human-rights abuses are punished. "There were threats, persecution, physical aggression and acts of intimidation," the report said. "They should be cleared up and those responsible presented to the courts."
■ United States
`Black Widows' on trial
Two elderly women dubbed the "Black Widows" were ordered to stand trial on Thursday on charges of befriending two homeless men and murdering them in hit-and-run crashes to collect US$2.8 million in life insurance. Helen Golay, 76, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 74, are accused of making friends with the men, paying their rent and claiming to be a fiancee or cousin in order to take out life insurance premiums. Prosecutors told a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles that after waiting for two years, the women drugged the men, ran them over with their cars in dark alleys and collected US$2.8 million in the life insurance and accidental death policies they had taken out.
■ Ecuador
Seven injured in protest
At least seven people were injured when protesters attacked lawmakers as they tried to block a court ruling that ousted more than half of the politically unstable nation's legislature, police said. The electoral tribunal fired 57 of the 100 members of Congress last week, accusing them of interfering in a nationwide referendum to redraw the constitution. The ruling came after the lawmakers ordered impeachment proceedings against the court's majority. Police fired tear gas on Thursday to break up the crowd as legislators sought a legal injunction against that decision.
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