The week at a glance...Americas

Toronto

Conspiracy conference: A Canadian university is hosting a three-day conference of the world’s top 9/11 conspiracy theorists this week to explore “alternative explanations” for the events of that day and their consequences. Theories to be discussed include that no plane actually hit the Pentagon, that the twin towers were destroyed by controlled demolition rather than by the impact of hijacked airplanes, and that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were planned in advance of the attacks. These theories have been repeatedly debunked. James Gourley, a U.S. lawyer and founder of the International Center for 9/11 Studies, which is sponsoring the conference, said the Toronto venue was chosen because Canadians seem “a bit more open to skepticism of 9/11 than people in America.”

Veracruz, Mexico

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‘Twitter terror’: A man and a woman are facing 30-year prison terms in Mexico for using the Twitter social-networking site to spread false stories that children were being abducted. Gilberto Martinez Vera, 48, tweeted that an armed gang had taken children from one school, while Maria de Jesús Bravo Pagola tweeted that a helicopter was firing on another school. Neither event was true, but the resulting panic caused dozens of car crashes as parents raced to collect their children, and emergency response lines were overwhelmed. The two have been charged with “terrorism and sabotage.” Lawyers say both defendants were simply repeating rumors they had heard. Human-rights advocates are calling for the charges to be dropped.

Port-Salut, Haiti

U.N. accused: Haitians protested this week in support of a young man allegedly raped by U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay. The attack, said to have occurred in July, was apparently filmed by one of the accused soldiers using a cell-phone camera. As that film made its way onto YouTube last week, the soldiers implicated were confined to barracks pending a full investigation. A doctor who examined the 18-year-old victim said he found trauma consistent with sexual abuse. Hundreds of protesters demonstrating in Port-Salut this week called for reparations. The U.N. mission has a terrible reputation in Haiti, particularly since a cholera epidemic last year that was likely caused by U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal.