■UNITED STATES
Sheriff hit by identity theft
“This goes to show that no one’s immune from identity theft,” said Sheriff Mark Pazin of Merced County, California. And he should know. On Thursday, while his deputies were searching the home of a woman accused of forging checks, they discovered on her computer the copied signature of their boss. Investigators said the woman, Christina Valenti, 34, lifted Pazin’s signature from a standard check given to departing inmates to reimburse them for pocket money confiscated during booking. She had uploaded the signature to a check-writing program, investigators said. For the sheriff, it was the second time in two years that his personal finances had been in danger. A year ago, someone charged about US$100 to his credit card. “I do take it personally and that’s why she’s in jail with US$300,000 bail,” Pazin said of Valenti.
■MEXICO
Soldier killed in accident
A soldier was killed and five others were injured in a car accident when returning from Ciudad Juarez, where the military has stepped up its counternarcotics operations, officials said on Sunday. The injured included a corporal in critical condition as well as a colonel, a sergeant and two soldiers in stable condition, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The soldiers’ van overturned in the northern-central state of Zacatecas “as they traveled from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua to Mexico City after having participated in operations in the state of Chihuahua,” the statement said. The soldiers were part of a detachment of 2,200 troops being replaced this weekend with a reinforcement of 5,000 troops.
■UNITED STATES
Ron Silver dies aged 62
Actor Ron Silver, who won a Tony Award as a take-no-prisoners Hollywood producer in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow and did a political about-face from loyal Democrat to Republican activist after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, died on Sunday at the age of 62. “Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him early Sunday morning” in New York City, said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped found. “He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years.”
■MEXICO
‘Emos’ suffer discrimination
The National Human Rights Commission said that followers of the youth music and fashion trend known as “emo” have suffered discrimination and violence, and recommended sensitivity training to prevent it. Emos wear long bangs and skinny pants and listen to angst-ridden music. The youths were heckled and harassed in a pair of incidents in the center of the country early last year, aggressions apparently fueled by an Internet hate campaign by other youths. The government rights commission says an investigation shows emos “have suffered violence and discrimination both by authorities and the public at large.”
■SUDAN
Aid groups thrown out
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said yesterday he had ordered that all international aid groups should stop distributing aid inside the country within a year. “We have ordered the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to completely Sudanize the voluntary work in Sudan within one year and after that no international organizations will distribute relief to Sudanese citizens,” Bashir told a rally of armed forces. “They can just leave their food aid at the airport and Sudanese NGOs [non-governmental organizations] can distribute the relief.”
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