Mexico
Drug-war monument comes under criticism
MEXICO CITY - Mexico, a country suffering the turmoil of a drug war, can't agree on how to honor the victims of a six-year assault on organized crime that has taken as many as 70,000 lives.
The government's official monument was dedicated Friday, four months after its completion, in a public event where relatives of the missing chased after the dignitaries in tears, pleading for help in finding their loved ones.
Only some victims' rights groups recognize the monument, while others picked an entirely different monument to place handkerchiefs painted with names and personal messages in protest of the official site, which does not bear a single victim's name.
The memorial dispute arises from the fact that the Mexican government has yet to fully document cases of drug war dead and missing, despite constant pleas from rights groups, the public and orders from Mexico's own transparency agency.
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Haiti
Most quake aid went to groups in US
PORT-AU-PRINCE - A new report on American aid to Haiti in the wake of that country's devastating earthquake finds much of the money went to U.S.-based firms and organizations.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research analyzed the $1.15 billion pledged after the January 2010 quake and found that the "vast majority" of the money it could follow went straight to U.S. companies or organizations, more than half in the Washington area alone. Just 1 percent went directly to Haitian companies.
Italy
US officer pardoned in CIA abduction case
ROME - Italy's president on Friday pardoned a U.S. Air Force colonel convicted in absentia by Italian courts in the CIA-conducted abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street in a move he hoped would keep American-Italian relations strong, especially on security matters.
President Giorgio Napolitano's office said the head of state granted the pardon "in hopes of giving a solution to a situation to an affair considered by the United States to be without precedent because of the aspect of convicting a U.S. military officer of NATO for deeds committed on Italian soil."
Joseph Romano was security chief of northern Italy's Aviano air base where the abducted Egyptian Muslim cleric was taken before being flown out of the country and eventually to Egypt.
Vatican
Pope seeks decisive action on sex abuse
VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis directed the Vatican on Friday to act decisively on clergy sex abuse cases and punish pedophile priests, saying the Catholic Church's credibility was on the line.
The announcement was quickly dismissed by some victims' advocates as just more talk, while others lobbying for reform in the church held out hope the new pontiff might challenge the Vatican's bureaucratic culture seen as fostering a cover-up mentality.
The Vatican's brief announcement about Francis' meeting Friday with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith depicted Francis as urging assertive action to protect minors.
Argentina
Rival leader's insults are caught on tape
BUENOS AIRES - Argentines and Uruguayans had a great time joking about their leaders on Friday after Uruguayan President Jose Mujica was caught making insulting comments about his supposedly close friend and ally, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez.
Speaking in the riverside slang that citizens of both countries love to share, Mujica apparently didn't realize a microphone was on when he basically called Fernandez an "old shrew" who is "worse than her one-eyed" late husband, Nestor Kirchner. "The one-eyed guy had more political sense. This one is just stubborn as a mule."
Wire reports
