NEWS BRIEFS
TIJUANA, Mexico
Prosecutors charge 10 police, free 32 more after arrests near Tijuana
Associated Press
Prosecutors freed 32 officials and brought charges against 10 others arrested in northern Baja, Calif., for presumed ties to the Arellano Felix drug gang, Mexico's attorney general said yesterday.
The Baja state and local police were detained Wednesday during a surprise raid at the police academy in the border city of Tecate, about 65 miles (100 kms) east of Tijuana. They were then flown to Mexico City.
However, prosecutors freed 32 of the 42 officials arrested this weekend, including assistant state prosecutor Rogelio Delgado Neri; Tijuana's top police administrator, Carlos Edmundo Otal Namur; state police commander in charge of Tijuana, Sergio Riedel; and a Tijuana precinct chief, Jesus Jacobo Aguirre.
A statement released by the federal attorney general's office said prosecutors would continue investigating the freed officers and charges could be brought later. State and Tijuana city officials said those released would remain suspended from work until the investigations had been completed.
NEW YORK
New York Times finds two errors in probe of free-lance author's stories
Associated Press
Two factual errors were found during an investigation into articles written for The New York Times Magazine by a free-lance author who previously acknowledged creating a composite character in a story last year.
An editors' note in Sunday's magazine said the Times re-reported by telephone and made several site visits to probe six of Michael Finkel's articles published during the past two years.
The inquiry found that in a Dec. 16 piece called "Naji's Taliban Phase," about two Afghan men who communicated across partisan lines, the number of letters the men exchanged was incorrect. The article said there were 20; the men say the number was seven.
In a Dec. 24, 2000, article about Palestinian youths called "Playing War," the town Hamama was referred to as Hamman.
Finkel, 33, who has been banned from writing for the Times, said yesterday he cooperated with the inquiry and felt "fully vindicated."
"I was 100 percent sure the stories were clean, but it's never comfortable to have someone picking through your work," Finkel said from his home in Bozeman, Mont.
Times spokesman Toby Usnik said yesterday the newspaper has no plans to publish any of Finkel's stories.
KINGMAN, Ariz.
Rapper Nate Dogg arrested in Arizona
Associated Press
Rapper Nate Dogg was arrested after his tour bus was stopped for speeding and a search turned up a loaded, stolen gun and marijuana, an Arizona Department of Public Safety official said.
The rapper, whose real name is Nathaniel Dawayne Hale, was booked Friday into the Mohave County Jail on felony charges of possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and a stolen firearm. He also was charged with misconduct involving weapons while committing a felony, said Officer John Ortolano, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Hale was released Saturday on $3,500 bail, said Jarrod Lyman, spokesman for the Mohave County Sheriff's Office. He could not confirm if a court appearance had been scheduled.
A call to Hale's lawyer, Mark Geragos, was not immediately returned yesterday.
The tour bus was stopped because it was going 85 mph in a 75 mph zone about 8 miles west of here, Ortolano said.
"When the driver opened the bus door, there was a strong odor of marijuana," he said.
Authorities searched the bus and found about three ounces of marijuana and drug paraphernalia where Hale was sitting, Ortolano said.
