The world at a glance . . . Americas

Ottawa

Investigating a dark past: A government Truth and Reconciliation Commission was convened this week to investigate the treatment of indigenous Canadian children who were removed from their homes as part of a decades-long policy of forced assimilation. Historians say that from the late 19th century until the 1970s, about 150,000 children from native tribes were required to attend Christian schools, where they were severely punished if they spoke their own languages or kept their customs. The commission will spend five years traveling across the country to hear stories from former students, teachers, and others involved in the so-called residential schools. “It’s about writing the missing chapter in Canadian history,” said Phil Fontaine, a leader of a national coalition of native tribes.

Matamoros, Mexico

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Driver crashes bike race: A drunken driver on a closed road plowed headlong into a pack of bicycle racers, killing one and injuring 14, police reported. The accident occurred 15 minutes and seven miles into the 21-mile race along the Mexico-U.S. border. The driver, 28-year-old Juan Campos of Brownsville, Texas, had apparently fallen asleep at the wheel. A woman in the car with him said the two had been partying. Campos was arrested on the spot by Mexican police, as angry cyclists and spectators set upon him. “In reality, I don’t remember much,” he said. “I woke up with a crash and a bang.”

Somewhere in the Amazon, Brazil

Primitive tribe found: Brazil this week released aerial photographs of a remote Indian tribe that has never had contact with the modern world. Anthropologists have known about the tribe for about 20 years, but released the images now because the tribe and several others like it are threatened by development and logging. “The way things are going, these people are going to disappear,” said Jose Carlos Meirelles, from the Brazilian National Indian Foundation, who was hit by an arrow while documenting the tribe in 2004. Researchers say the 68 “uncontacted” tribes in the Amazon are aware of the outside world through trading with other tribes, and may have some modern clothing and artifacts.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Murderous cops: Brazilian police are responsible for thousands of “extrajudicial” killings in the country’s anarchic urban slums, a U.N. report charged this week. The victims are usually members of the drug gangs that control most of Rio’s 600 shantytowns. The murders go unpunished, said U.N. envoy Philip Alston, because they are “popular among those who want rapid results and shows of force.” Separately, two Brazilian journalists said they were kidnapped and tortured by police officers for eight hours. The reporters had been investigating paramilitary groups, often comprised of active and former police, that have been battling the drug gangs for control of the slums.