Document says informant had part in cartel slayings

Document says informanthad part in cartel slayings
EL PASO, Texas -- A paid informant for the federal government played an active role in a Mexican drug cartel, according to a document accusing him of arranging executions, paying the killers and acting as a go-between for the cartel and intended targets.
An internal document of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency cited by The Dallas Morning News in today's editions describes the informant's activities from August 2003 to January 2004.
The information could hamper the agency's case against Heriberto Santill & aacute;n Tabares, allegedly a high-ranking Ju & aacute;rez cartel member who faces charges in a January trial in which the informant is a key witness, officials say.
The informant, according to the Jan. 29 draft document, was involved in the slaying and burial of 12 suspected drug traffickers in Ju & aacute;rez.
Law enforcement officials said the informant helped U.S. authorities confiscate tons of marijuana and cocaine, led law officers to drug traffickers' graves and turned in Santill & aacute;n.
Most Alaska residentsto get nearly $920 for oil
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Nearly every Alaska resident will receive a $919.84 check this year as their share of the state's oil riches -- a $187.72 drop from last year's payout.
The dividend checks are distributed every year from an oil royalty account called the Alaska Permanent Fund, created in 1976 after oil was discovered on the North Slope. Some 600,760 Alaskans are expected to receive dividends this year.
The payouts are calculated based on a five-year average of investment income derived from bonds, stock dividends and sales and other investments. Anyone who has lived in the state for more than a year is eligible.
Alaska's residents pay no state income tax and no state sales tax, and in the state's two largest cities, Anchorage and Fairbanks, not even a municipal sales tax. Dividends, paid since 1982, have ranged from $331.29 to a high of $1,963.86 in 2000.
Police seek suspectin Capitol guard's death
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Police scoured the city for a 24-year-old man accused of marching into the state Capitol, gunning down an unarmed security guard and fleeing.
Police identified the suspect as Derek W. Potts and the Sangamon County state's attorney's office obtained an arrest warrant Monday night accusing Potts of murder, burglary and more.
Police said they know of no connection between Potts and the victim, 51-year-old William Wozniak. Wozniak, who had worked at the Capitol for 18 years, died in a hospital operating room shortly after the 1:38 p.m. shooting, Schmidt said.
Hamas vows retaliationover killing of 2 militants
GAZA CITY, Gaza City -- Hamas threatened to attack Israel with a suicide bombing in retaliation for Israel's latest airstrike in Gaza, which killed two militants from the violent Islamic group.
An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a vehicle in Gaza City at nightfall Monday, incinerating the car and killing the two Hamas men instantly. Israel charged that they were going to fire rockets at Israeli targets.
Israel is planning to withdraw its soldiers and dismantle all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza next year, and analysts predict escalating violence as the pullout approaches.
A day earlier, another Hamas militant was killed in a similar airstrike.
Cuban detainees starthunger strike in protest
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A group of Cubans who tried to make it to Florida aboard a boat made from a 1959 Buick have started a hunger strike to protest the limbo they've fallen into since being sent to Guantanamo Bay where they are waiting on their asylum claims.
Similar hunger strikes were launched in the past by some 550 terror suspects being held at the U.S. outpost in Cuba. Many have been held for nearly three years without charge.
The Cubans -- 13 of the some 38 -- began the hunger strike Saturday after being held at the U.S. outpost in eastern Cuba for months, according to William Sanchez, a Miami attorney for Luis Grass Rodriguez, one of the Cubans who made the trip in the makeshift boat in February.
Ruling party claimsvictory in Kazakhstan
ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Kazakhstan's ruling party claimed victory today in parliamentary elections, but the official results were yet to be announced and foreign observers said the ballot fell short of international standards.
Otan Party's deputy chairman Amangeldy Yermegiyayev said that according to the Central Election Commission, the party had won 30 of 67 directly elected seats up for grabs in the Sunday ballot.
He claimed it had also won 60 percent of party-list votes, therefore guaranteeing it a majority of the remaining 10 seats in the 77-seat legislature. Those seats are divided between all parties that win more than 7 percent of the vote.
"Otan will have a majority in the future Parliament," Yermegiyayev told reporters. "Our election victory was expected and we said repeatedly that our aims were high."
Petr Svoik, a senior official with the opposition Democratic Choice party, said Otan gained its "false" victory through "blatant and illegal use of administrative resources and open falsification of votes."
Associated Press