Indonesia: U.S. man admits killing
BALI, Indonesia -- An American man has confessed that he killed his girlfriend's mother in a luxury hotel on Indonesia's Bali island, and the girlfriend acknowledged helping him stuff the body into a suitcase, police said Friday.
Heather Mack, 19, and her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, both from Chicago, were arrested in Bali on Aug. 13, a day after the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack was found in a suitcase inside the trunk of a taxi at the St. Regis Bali Resort.
"Schaefer confessed to killing von Wiese-Mack during police interrogation," police chief Col. Djoko Heru Utomo said. "He was hurt and offended by the victim's words in an argument with him. That is the motive for the murder."
He said Mack, who is three months pregnant, admitted in a separate interrogation that she helped Schaefer stuff her mother's body into the suitcase.
Utomo said Schaefer and Mack were accompanied by their Indonesian and U.S. lawyers during the interrogations. Attempts to reach the lawyers were not immediately successful.
The couple has yet to be formally charged. Utomo said officers hope to complete their investigation and file their case with prosecutors before the couple's detention period ends in mid-October.
Mexican gang takes credit for 6 bodies
MORELIA, Mexico -- The bound bodies of six men were found dumped on a street Friday in the western Mexico state of Michoacan, where authorities have claimed to be making headway against drug gang violence.
The bodies were found next to a hand-lettered sign in which a drug cartel claimed responsibility for the killings.
The Michoacan state prosecutors' office said in a statement that the bodies found in the city of Uruapan had bullet wounds. Photos showed the men's heads had been wrapped in what appeared to be packing tape, and their hands were bound behind their backs.
A sign left next to the bodies said: "We are here now, and we are here to save you, Respectfully, the Michoacan New Generation Cartel."
New Generation is based in the neighboring state of Jalisco, and had been battling the Michoacan-based Knights Templar cartel, which was partly expelled from Michoacan by an armed vigilante movement.
Prosecutors also reported finding the body of Aquiles Gomez, believed to be the brother of the Knights Templar's top remaining leader, Servando Gomez, who is believed to be hiding in the mountains of Michoacan.
The body was found with a bullet wound in the Pacific coast port city of Lazaro Cardenas.
Church blocked rescue, Nigerians say
JOHANNESBURG -- Church officials prevented rescuers from freeing victims at the site of a six-story building collapse, causing a loss of lives, Nigeria's emergency agency said Friday.
The South African government said at least 67 South Africans died and 17 appeared to be missing in the rubble of the Lagos building that had a shopping mall on the ground floor and guest rooms above.
The building at televangelist T.B. Joshua's Synagogue, Church of All Nations, collapsed at 12:44 p.m. on Sept. 12, but rescuers did not get full access until Sunday after 5 p.m., Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman for the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency said.
He said rescue workers were on the scene by 1:50 p.m. on Sept. 12, and they saved three people. But church officials prevented rescuers from getting further access, he said.
Rescue workers were only allowed to get to work after Lagos state Gov. Babatunde Fashola met Sunday at the disaster site with Joshua and threatened to take over the site if rescuers were not allowed to do their job, Farinloye said.
Buffer zone in deal on Ukraine truce
MINSK, Belarus -- Negotiators in Ukrainian peace talks agreed early today to create a buffer zone to separate government troops and pro-Russia militants and withdraw heavy weapons and foreign fighters to ensure a stable truce in eastern Ukraine.
The deal reached by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the Moscow-backed rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe marks an effort to add substance to a cease-fire agreement that was signed Sept. 5 but has been frequently broken by clashes.
Under the terms of the deal, reached in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, each party must pull its artillery at least 9 miles back, setting up a buffer zone that would be about 19 miles wide. Longer-range artillery systems are to be pulled back even farther to make sure the parties can't reach one another.
The deal also bans flights by combat aircraft over the area of conflict and setting up new minefields.
Leonid Kuchma, a former Ukrainian president who represented the Kiev government in the talks, said the memorandum would be implemented within a day.
A Section on 09/20/2014