■ARGENTINA
Suspect shoots self on TV
A former police chief charged with abuses during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship shot himself in the head on Thursday during a television interview on the roof of his home, as police were closing in for an arrest. Mario Ferreyra, 63, died on his way to hospital in northern Tucuman province, where he was charged with human rights violations when he worked at a secret weapons-depot-turned-detention center in the same region during the dictatorship. His house was surrounded by police on Thursday, but Ferreyra clambered atop a water tower in his building where he was interviewed on Friday by a reporter and camera crew of Cronica TV. After denying taking part in any prisoner abuse and claiming he was the target of persecution by the government, Ferreyra unexpectedly drew a gun from his pocket, put it to his head and fired. The shocked camera crew kept rolling as the man lay bleeding on the water tower.
■MEXICO
Probe finds flaw in training
Investigators said on Friday they had found evidence of irregularities in the training records of at least one of the pilots handling a jet that crashed earlier this month, killing the interior secretary. Investigators had previously pointed to instability caused by the wake turbulence of a larger plane as the likely cause of the Nov. 4 crash of the Learjet 45. However, they also say the pilots appeared unfamiliar with flight controls or procedures, and on Friday officials filed an administrative complaint with the federal office overseeing public servants. Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said the training records showed the lack of a qualified instructor and improperly registered qualifying hours of flight. Tellez did not say who was named in the complaint, but he said the probe would focus on government officials who are supposed to oversee compliance with pilot flight-training and certification.
■UNITED STATES
Kentucky executes inmate
An inmate who resisted all appeals to stop his execution was put to death for murdering two young children. Marco Allen Chapman was given a lethal injection in Kentucky’s first execution in nine years. The 37-year-old pleaded guilty in 2004 to killing seven-year-old Chelbi Sharon and six-year-old Cody Sharon in their home in an attack that wounded their mother and another child. Chapman asked to be executed and fought for the right to fire his attorneys to clear the way. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Chapman said to witnesses before his execution. Carolyn Marksberry, who survived Chapman’s attack in 2002 along with her daughter Courtney, said in a statement that the execution may allow her two slain children to “truly rest in peace.”
■UNITED STATES
Autumn babies at risk
Babies born four months before the peak cold and flu season have a 30 percent higher risk of developing asthma, researchers said on Friday, suggesting that these common infections may trigger asthma. “All infants are exposed to this and it is potentially preventable,” said Tina Hartert, director of the center for Asthma Research at Vanderbilt University, whose study appears in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. She said it has been known for some time that infants in the Northern Hemisphere born in the fall are at higher risk of developing asthma, but the study is the first to tie this trend to peak viral activity in winter. Hartert and colleagues studied the medical records of 95,000 infants and their mothers in Tennessee.
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