■ UNITED STATES
School accused of fights
The Dallas school system was rocked by allegations on Thursday that staff members at an inner-city high school made students settle their differences by fighting bare-knuckle brawls inside a steel cage. The principal and other employees at South Oak Cliff High knew about the cage fights and allowed the practice to continue, according to a report last year by school system investigators. The report, first obtained by the Dallas Morning News, describes two instances of fighting in an equipment cage in a boys’ locker room between 2003 and 2005. It was not clear from the report whether there were other fights. No criminal charges were ever filed, and there was no mention in the report of whether anyone required medical attention or whether any employees were disciplined.
■ BRAZIL
Amazon Indians win case
The Supreme Court sided on Thursday with Amazonian Indians in a land dispute that some have called critical for determining the future of the rainforest that sprawls the size of Western Europe. The court ruling upholds the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation for 18,000 Indians who lay claim to their ancestral land, despite a handful of large-scale farmers who also occupy the territory in the northernmost reaches of Amazon jungle bordering Venezuela. The dispute over the 1.7 million hectare reservation turned violent last year when authorities tried to evict the farmers. The Supreme Court president said it was a precedent-setting ruling for Indian land rights.
■ VENEZUELA
Chavez opponent wanted
A prosecutor on Thursday called for the arrest of a prominent political opponent of President Hugo Chavez on a corruption charge. Manuel Rosales has been accused of illegal enrichment while he was Zulia state governor between 2002 and 2004, prosecutor Katiuska Plaza said. Rosales, currently the mayor of Maracaibo, maintains he is innocent and says the accusations are politically motivated. His attorney, Alvaro Castillo, said his client is accused of embezzling public funds, but he did not offer details.
■ UNITED STATES
Suspects dump cash
San Diego police say some narcotics suspects led officers on a wild chase, throwing cash out of their truck’s windows as passers-by ran onto the roadways to grab the bills. Police say the pursuit began on Thursday on southbound State Route 15. The driver took officers on a circuitous route over several streets and freeways, eventually getting onto Interstate 5. At several points during the pursuit, the suspects flung cash out of the truck’s windows, prompting passers-by to run onto the roadways to grab the money. The driver finally stopped in the middle of the highway and the suspects were arrested.
■ UNITED STATES
Cookie caper crumbles
A plan to stash more than 100kg of marijuana in a shipment of cookies has led to federal drug charges. Acting US Attorney Marietta Parker announced on Thursday that a federal grand jury meeting in Topeka had returned an indictment against three men accused of possessing the pot. Prosecutors allege that agents watched last month as the men picked up a shipment of cookies in Kansas City, Missouri, and took it to the garage of a residence that Morales was renting in Kansas City, Kansas. A search of the cookies uncovered 104kg of pot packaged in 221 bundles.
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