The news at a glance ... Americas

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

No one is safe: Sixteen young people were killed in Juárez this week when more than a dozen gunmen shot up a house where high school and college kids were having a party. Juárez, a key drug-trafficking point, is one of Mexico’s most violent border cities; thousands of people have been killed there in recent years in a brutal turf war among drug gangs. But this massacre was different. Mayor José Reyes Ferriz said the victims were honor students and athletes, with no ties to drug dealers. “This is something that worries us—gratuitous or random criminal acts,” Reyes said. “It goes way beyond what had been happening and puts Ciudad Juárez in even greater danger.” Some neighbors speculated that the shooters may have targeted the wrong house.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

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Hands off the kids: Ten American Baptists were arrested last week for allegedly kidnapping 33 Haitian children, in a case that has focused international attention on the fate of Haitian children. The members of Idaho-based New Life Children’s Refuge said they were rescuing the children, who they said were orphans. But Haitian authorities said the Americans had no permission to remove them from Haiti. “This is abduction, not adoption,” said Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin. In the wake of the devastating earthquake, thousands of children have been separated from their parents, but many of them may still have living relatives. Richard Danziger of the International Office of Migration said that even when charities have “good intentions,” whisking away undocumented kids amounts to “taking advantage of people in a lousy situation.” U.S. and Haitian officials are negotiating to transfer the Americans to U.S. custody.

Santiago, Chile

Metallica mayhem: A riot broke out at a Metallica concert in Chile last week, as hundreds of fans without tickets tried to storm the stadium. More than 55,000 people attended the sold-out show, the heavy-metal band’s first appearance in Chile in a decade. Outside, some 2,000 people tried to rush the gate and then trashed the streets. Riot police turned water cannons on them, arresting scores for offenses ranging from public drunkenness to drug possession. Earlier on its South American tour, Metallica forced the closing of a university in Peru, when authorities decided to cancel classes rather than risk riots while the band was in town.