■MEXICO
Sinaloa not spared: Calderon
President Felipe Calderon on Wednesday defended his military crackdown on the country’s powerful drug gangs and denied accusations that some criminals were being spared. Critics have accused Calderon, who deployed tens of thousands of soldiers to take on drug gangs after he took office in late 2006, of protecting the Sinaloa gang, based on the Pacific coast, run by the country’s most notorious fugitive Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. “That false, bad faith accusation, which is made to do I don’t know what to the government, doesn’t stand up,” Calderon told a news conference. “We have equally hit cartels linked to the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mexican Pacific,” the Mexican leader said, referring to umbrella groups of drug gangs on both coasts. Analysts, opposition politicians and other drug gangs have accused Calderon of arresting fewer leaders of the Sinaloa gang than their rivals.
■UNITED STATES
Killing suspect ‘competent’
A man charged with killing the operator of a speed-camera van along a freeway has been found competent to stand trial and will not face the death penalty, a judge said on Wednesday. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp said in court that Thomas Patrick Destories, 69, was found competent to stand trial by two psychologists and set his trial for July 12. Destories’ attorney, Vanessa Smith, had written in court documents that her client has a history of mental illness dating back to 1970, that their conversations have been disjointed and that he has showed paranoia. Destories, a Jeep tour operator, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, drive-by shooting and firing a gun at a structure in the death of Doug Georgianni, 51.
■UNITED STATES
Madoff kin to change name
One of Bernard Madoff’s daughters-in-law says she and her children shouldn’t have to bear the burden of his name. Stephanie Madoff filed court papers in Manhattan on Wednesday asking to change her last name to Morgan. She made the same request for her two children. She is married to the jailed financier’s son, Mark. She says her family has gotten threats, and she wants to drop the Madoff name to avoid “additional humiliation” and harassment. Her lawyer declined to comment. Mark Madoff says in court papers he doesn’t object. Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after admitting he cheated investors out of billions of dollars through an investment Ponzi scheme.
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