■BRAZIL
Drum king dead at 54
Hundreds of people in Salvador de Bahia turned out on Monday for the funeral of Antonio Alves de Souza, Brazil’s king of drums and Olodum group leader, who accompanied Michael Jackson in a 1996 video filmed by Spike Lee. Alves, 54, died from a heart attack on Saturday and was to be buried yesterday, local media reported. Alves’ funeral in Bahia’s colonial neighborhood of Pelourinho, where part of Jackson’s They Don’t Care About Us music video was shot, was attended by authorities, musicians, friends and admirers of the famous Neguinho do Samba. Under Alves’ direction, Olodum perfected its distinctive samba-reggae blend of Brazilian and African rhythms that fired Jackson’s video.
■MEXICO
Armed men steal bicycles
About 20 armed attackers stole 5,000 children’s bicycles from a manufacturing company in Mexico City after threatening and locking up company workers. The National Association of Bicycle Manufacturers told the daily Reform in a report published on Monday that the attack happened two weeks ago. Attackers reportedly stormed the premises of the firm Grupo Oriental and within two-and-a-half hours took the bikes, which had been set for distribution for the Christmas season.
■UNITED STATES
Ring lost on Halloween
A Halloween trick-or-treater in Terrace Park, Ohio, may have gotten a bigger treat than expected — a diamond ring. Elizabeth Olson told WXIX-TV she thinks she may have lost her wedding ring when she was tossing candy into trick-or-treaters’ bags on Halloween. She said she had the ring enlarged and thinks it may have slipped off her finger when she was throwing candy into the bags, buckets and pillowcases. Olson asked people to keep an eye out for the ring and to return it to her if they find it.
■UNITED STATES
Mexican drug kingpin jailed
The leader of a Mexican drug trafficking ring, Aaron Quintero-Soto, was on Monday sentenced to 21 years in prison in the US, the US Justice Department said. Quintero-Soto, a 41-year-old native of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine in the US, a department statement said. His organization brought drugs into the US from Mexico through Phoenix, Arizona, from which they were distributed around the US. Four other members of the same group were sentenced to between one and eight years in jail, the statement added.
RSS