■MEXICO
Police detained after kidnap
Soldiers detained the head of traffic police and 48 officers suspected of taking part in the kidnap of a customs worker in Veracruz, officials said on Wednesday. Soldiers in Veracruz rounded up scores of police on Tuesday after a review of the city’s security cameras during a kidnap investigation, said state prosecutor Salvador Mikel Rivera at a news conference. Federal maritime customs administrator Francisco Serrano was kidnapped on Monday at a fake police road block and his van later appeared at Veracruz traffic management offices, said Pedro Canabal, a state official.
■UNITED STATES
Shell trial stalls again
Another delay was announced on Wednesday in the potentially landmark trial of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell over allegations of complicity in Nigeria’s human rights abuses. A pre-trial conference scheduled to take place in federal court in New York was canceled at short notice and the trial has been put off indefinitely. The conference, already delayed once, was ordered after the judge last week decided to delay the scheduled start to the trial itself. Nigerian plaintiffs are suing Shell for alleged complicity in the 1995 executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a renowned writer and activist, and other leaders of a movement protesting alleged environmental destruction and abuses against the Ogoni people. The corporation is also accused of complicity in the torture, detention and exile of Saro-Wiwa’s brother and other violent attacks. Shell denies all the charges.
■UNITED STATES
Reagan statue unveiled
A teary-eyed Nancy Reagan watched with delight as a bronze statue of her late husband Ronald Reagan was unveiled in the US Capitol building on Wednesday. Mrs Reagan, 87, and a crowd packed with Reagan era policymakers, looked on in the Capitol’s Rotunda. Ronald Reagan lay in state there after his death in 2004.
■UNITED STATES
Uighur leader rejects report
The leader of Uighurs in exile on Wednesday voiced “utmost” skepticism after China said it smashed “terror cells” in their predominantly Muslim region. Chinese state media said police have dismantled seven cells of extremists so far this year in Kashgar, a key center of Uighur culture. Rebiya Kadeer, the Washington-based leader of the world’s Uighurs in exile, said China made the allegations “without producing the slighest piece of evidence. I stress that the international community should view these claims with the utmost of skepticism,” Kadeer said in a statement. “These allegations are being made in such a way so as to associate peaceful Uighurs with the scourge of terrorism,” she said.
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