The world at a glance . . . Americas

Chihuahua, Mexico

Governor escapes gunmen: Gunmen fired on the convoy of Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas this week, missing their target but killing one of his bodyguards. Chihuahua is home to Juarez, the Mexican city with the deadliest drug gang war. Last week, Juarez Police Chief Roberto Orduña Cruz bowed to cartel demands that he resign; the gangs had said they would kill one police officer every 48 hours until Cruz stepped down, and he did so after the first officer was killed. Drug dealers are now threatening to kill Juarez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz and his family, including relatives who live in the U.S., unless he fires other top police officers. Some 1,600 people died in Chihuahua last year in drug-related violence. More than 300 have been killed so far this year.

Kingston, Jamaica

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Ban on sexy lyrics: Jamaica’s Broadcasting Commission this week banned all explicit references to sex and violence in songs and videos aired on radio or television. The government last month banned “dancehall” music and videos that show “daggering,” the grinding, pelvic-thrusting dance that is popular with young Jamaicans. The edict this week effectively expands the ban to American hip-hop and Trinidadian soca music. The Jamaica Gleaner, the country’s main newspaper, denounced the ban, saying, “Dancehall is being used as a convenient scapegoat” for underage sex and juvenile delinquency.

Rio de Janeiro

Nude protest: A Brazilian beauty queen paraded at Carnival this week wearing little but the face of President Barack Obama painted on her right thigh. Viviane Castro’s costume also included the face of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on her left thigh, while the words “for sale” were scrawled on her stomach. She said the display was a protest against the sale of swaths of the Amazon rain forest to U.S. companies, reflecting a widespread concern in Brazil that the U.S. is trying to control Amazon resources. Castro was disqualified from costume prizes, however, because besides body paint, she wore only a 1½-inch piece of tape in her bikini area—not quite enough of a costume to get around the parade’s ban on nudity.

Buenos Aires

Holocaust denier deported: Argentina has deported the Holocaust-denying bishop whose excommunication by the Catholic Church was rescinded last month. For the past five years, Richard Williamson has run a seminary for the Society of St. Pius X, an ultraconservative Catholic sect that rejects the church’s modern reforms, including its reconciliation with Judaism. Now, Argentina has suddenly seized on a technicality in his immigration papers to deport him to Britain. The government made it clear that Williamson’s offensive views were the real reason for kicking him out. “Anti-Semitism is an ideological aberration which has cost millions of lives throughout history,” said Immigration Director Martin Arias Duval.