The week at a glance...Americas

Toronto

Ford takes heat: Crack-smoking Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is still refusing to take a leave of absence, after admitting to the City Council he’s bought illegal drugs more than once. Ford previously admitted to buying crack while mayor and smoking it while “in one of my drunken stupors.” But he said he’s not addicted to drugs or alcohol, and will not go to rehab. “It is very, very humiliating, embarrassing, and degrading to sit in front of the world and admit what I admitted,” he said. The City Council has asked the mayor to step down, but cannot compel him to do so, and some councilors said this week’s public questioning of Ford in council chambers was a waste of time. “You can yell and scream at him all you like,” said Councilor Giorgio Mammoliti. “The reality is, he’s the only who could get the help.”

Caracas, Venezuela

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Plasma TVs for all: The Venezuelan government seized a chain of electronics stores this week, saying it was overcharging customers. President Nicolás Maduro sent troops to Daka stores to oversee the repricing of their stock of plasma televisions, washing machines, and other goods. “Leave nothing on the shelves, leave nothing in the warehouses,” he said. “This robbery of the people has to stop.” Maduro also said that his government is preparing a “special operation to protect the right of our people to buy themselves a little car.” Socialist Venezuela faces high inflation and chronic shortages, and Maduro is trying to boost his party’s standing ahead of local elections next month.

Paramaribo, Suriname

The next terror base: The son of Suriname’s president has been charged in the U.S. with trying to set up a terrorist cell in his country. Federal prosecutors say Dino Bouterse, who held a top counterterrorism post in his father’s cabinet, met with men he thought were Hezbollah agents and agreed to an initial payment of $2 million. According to the indictment, he planned to provide the fighters with fake identities and arm them with surface-to-air missiles and other weapons to attack nationals of the U.S. and the Netherlands, Suriname’s former colonial ruler. Hezbollah, a Lebanese terrorist group funded by Iran, is believed to have several bases in South America and is blamed for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina. Surinamese President Desiré Bouterse has been dogged by allegations of drug trafficking.

Rio de Janeiro

Batista empire crumbles: Brazilian ex-billionaire Eike Batista saw another of his companies fail this week as shipbuilder OSX filed for bankruptcy. The brash and ambitious Batista was one of the 10 wealthiest people in the world just two years ago, with a $30 billion personal fortune, but he has since lost almost everything in an epic collapse. A prospective oil deposit that had been the main collateral for his heavily leveraged holdings turned out to be dry, and his oil company OGX filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago in a $5 billion case, the country’s largest default ever. Forbes said Batista’s fall wasn’t the fault of the Brazilian economy but was due to “mismanagement and over-optimism.”