The week at a glance...Americas

Toronto

Unmasked man robs banks: A bank robber who doesn’t bother with disguises has been hitting Toronto banks for months. The mystery man has robbed banks at all hours, some crowded, some nearly empty. Sometimes he wears sunglasses, other times just a baseball cap, and most recently a white do-rag that makes him look like an Arab sheikh. His image is clear on numerous surveillance cameras, but nobody has identified him. “This guy, I tell you, he is all over the map,” said Detective Constable Terry Kelly. “He has done 15 banks since May 15.” Yet for all his larcenous activity, he has only netted a paltry total of $10,000.

Monterrey, Mexico

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Confessions in casino fire: Five men accused of setting a Monterrey casino on fire last week, killing 52 people, said they’d just wanted to “scare” the casino owner. The five, members of the Los Zetas drug cartel, confessed after they were caught on video at a gas station filling the canisters they used to torch Casino Royale. The suspects said their bosses “scolded” them for killing so many people at the casino, whose owners had failed to pay off the cartel. Casino Royale owner Raúl Rocha Cantú is believed to have fled the country shortly after the blaze. Monterrey—the site of a war between Los Zetas and an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa, and La Familia cartels—has seen more than 1,100 murders this year. The government has stationed 1,500 army troops there in the wake of the casino attack.

Acapulco, Mexico

Teachers terrified: Just one week into the school year, one in 10 elementary schools in Acapulco closed this week because the teachers refused to show up. Teachers said at least four of their peers had been kidnapped in the city in the past week, while many others received extortion threats demanding they give half their salaries to drug gangs. About 600 teachers in the slums on Acapulco’s mountainsides said they had been intimidated, said Julio Bernal, schools delegate for the state of Guerrero. He said 140 of about 1,400 schools in Acapulco have had to close.