■MEXICO
Five dead in prison riot
A clash between armed rival gangs in a jail left five inmates dead and 14 injured on Tuesday, authorities in northern Chihuahua state said. About 300 soldiers and police took several hours to control the unrest in the Aquiles Serdan state prison, said Gustavo Zabre, the state head of public security.
■MEXICO
US man fights for drug lord
Authorities say a US-born hitman is fighting the brother of a deceased drug lord for control of the Beltran-Leyva cartel, marking what may be the first time an American has risen to the very top ranks of Mexican gangs. Ramon Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of the federal police, said on Tuesday that Texas-born Edgar Valdez Villarreal, nicknamed “La Barbie,” is battling Hector Beltran Leyva for control of the cartel. Pequeno said the battle was unleashed when cartel leader Arturo Beltran Leyva died in a shootout with marines in December.
■UNITED STATES
Papaya fights cancer: study
Researchers said on Tuesday that papaya leaf extract and its tea have dramatic cancer-fighting properties against a broad range of tumors, backing a belief held in a number of folk traditions. University of Florida researcher Nam Dang and colleagues in Japan, in a report published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology released on Tuesday by the university, documented papaya’s anticancer effect against tumors of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas.
■CANADA
Minorities rising rapidly
The nation’s ethnic makeup will greatly change in the next 20 years as the number of non-Europeans or “visible minorities” rises to nearly one-third of the population, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday. “Between now and 2031, the foreign-born population of Canada could increase approximately four times faster than the rest of the population,” reaching between 9.8 million and 12.5 million, it said. By 2031, nearly one-half, or 46 percent, of Canadians aged 15 and over would be foreign-born, or would have at least one foreign-born parent, it said.
■ARGENTINA
Bomb charges lies: suspect
An Iranian accused of masterminding the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center that killed 85 people dismissed the allegations as “lies” on Tuesday and said he would not appear before an Argentine court. Moshen Rabbani, Iran’s former cultural attache in Buenos Aires, was interviewed on Radio Cooperativa by Argentine protest leader Luis D’Elia during a trip to Tehran. That meeting has offended Argentine Jews and the prosecutor investigating the bombing. D’Elia and Rabbani dismissed them as “Zionists” in the radio interview. Rabbani is among six bombing suspects on Interpol’s most-wanted list.
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