A man reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family by showing up alive at his funeral. Relatives of Ademir Jorge Goncalves, 59, had identified him as the victim of a Sunday night car crash in Parana state, police said. The funeral was held the following day. What family members didn’t know was that Goncalves had spent the night with friends, his niece Rosa Sampaio told the O Globo newspaper. He did not get word about his own funeral until it was already underway on Monday morning. A police spokesman said Goncalves rushed to the funeral to let family members know he was not dead. “The corpse was badly disfigured, but dressed in similar clothing,” the police spokesman said. “People are afraid to look for very long when they identify bodies, and I think that is what happened in this case.” Sampaio told O Globo that some family members were not sure the body was Goncalves. The police spokesman confirmed there were doubts. “His mom looked at the body in the casket and thought something was strange. She looked and looked and couldn’t believe it was her son,” Sampaio said.
■UNITED STATES
Drugs raids net 53 people
Federal prosecutors in New York City have charged 53 people with running open-air drug markets at two housing projects near Yankee Stadium. Authorities say the gang sold heroin and crack, and some of the heroin was sold under the brand name American Gangster — an apparent reference to the 2007 film starring Denzel Washington as a Harlem drug lord. Federal agents and police officers arrested 37 of the suspects during raids on Wednesday.
■MEXICO
US airman killed in strip bar
A US Air Force sergeant was among six people shot dead by masked men in a strip bar in Ciudad Juarez, local and US officials said on Wednesday. Three other US service members were also wounded in the attack, said an official from the state deputy attorney general’s office who declined to be named. A military spokesman confirmed the death of Air Force Staff Sergeant David Booher.
■UNITED STATES
Obama signs cheesehead hat
Mansfield Neblett just wanted to wear his big yellow triangular “cheesehead” hat to US President Barack Obama’s speech at a school in Wisconsin, the self-proclaimed “dairy state.” The first roadblock were Secret Service agents. They told him the bright yellow hat in the shape of a slice of cheese usually worn by fans at Green Bay Packers games was a security risk. Neblett told them he’d skip the Wednesday speech. The agents relented and Neblett took his place in the gymnasium. But before Obama took the stage, someone representing him approached Neblett and offered to get the hat signed by the president. Neblett gladly turned it over. “I’m going to sell it on eBay!” he said.
■COLOMBIA
Secret service seizes bills
The country’s secret service seized US$6.2 million in counterfeit US bills that were hidden in Bogota and were set to be distributed in the US, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The Administrative Department of Security (DAS), said on Wednesday that the fake money was found in a raid in Bogota. During the proceedings, agents seized diverse printing material, including some to reproduce the front and back of US$100 bills, the DAS said in a statement. “The bills seized were of excellent quality and were advanced in the production process,” the statement said.
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