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Las Vegas

Nationwide hunt for pedophile: Police and the FBI this week launched a nationwide manhunt for a violent criminal suspected of raping a 3-year-old girl and videotaping the crime. The suspect, Chester Stiles, 37, was identified as the assailant in a 4-year-old videotape turned in last month to Las Vegas police. Stiles, who claims to be a former Navy Seal, has a long record of assaults, car thefts, and other crimes, and police called him a “survivalist type” who is likely armed and would resist arrest. Police identified his alleged victim, now 7 years old, via the tape and found her in Las Vegas. She is said to be in good health.

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Coronado, Calif.

Costly renovations: The U.S. Navy will spend $682,000 to camouflage a California barracks after aerial photos revealed that it’s shaped like a swastika. Navy officials had long known about the shape of the building, completed in 1967, but figured few people would notice, because civilian planes are barred from flying directly over the base. But the building is now visible to anyone with a computer, thanks to Web sites such as Google Earth, which features aerial photographs of large segments of the globe. “You have to realize, back in the ’60s we did not have the Internet,” said Navy spokeswoman Angelic Dolan. The Navy says it will alter the building’s roof and landscaping to disguise its shape.

Phoenix

Death in custody: A 45-year-old mother of three died last week after being detained for disorderly conduct in the Phoenix airport, and police say she may have suffocated herself while struggling with her handcuffs. Carol Ann Gotbaum, a member of a prominent New York City family, was attempting to board a flight to Tucson, where she planned to check into an alcohol treatment center. She became distraught when she was barred from boarding, running through the terminal and screaming, “I am not a terrorist! I’m a sick mom!” Unable to calm her, airport police handcuffed her and placed her alone in a holding cell. About 15 minutes later, an officer entered the cell and found her dead, with her cuffed hands near her neck. Police theorize she suffocated while attempting to shift her hands from behind her back. Her stepmother-in-law, New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, has demanded an investigation.

Quito, Ecuador

President dissolves Congress: Ecuador’s president, elected in April after campaigning against government corruption, said this week he would dissolve the national Congress. Rafael Correa made the announcement after his Alianza País party won a sweeping victory in elections for delegates to the country’s constitutional convention. “The Ecuadorian people’s statement was resounding,” Correa said. “Congress must go.” The constitutional assembly will start drafting a new constitution at the end of October. Political analysts expect it will concentrate more power in the executive branch. Ecuador has had eight presidents in 11 years, in part because under the present constitution, Congress can remove the president with relative ease.

Ottawa

Acquittal in tainted-blood case: A Canadian judge this week acquitted four physicians and a U.S. company of charges related to a long-running scandal over tainted blood transfusions. After an 18-month trial, Judge Mary Lou Benotto said that prosecutors had failed to prove that the four doctors and Armour Pharmaceutical had been criminally negligent when they administered blood products tainted with HIV to Canadian patients in the 1980s and ’90s. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. “To assign blame where none exists would only compound the tragedy,” Benotto said. A second trial will determine whether Armour and the physicians were criminally responsible for infecting thousands of Canadian patients with hepatitis C.

Washington, D.C.

McCain gets religion: Republican presidential contender John McCain stirred controversy this week by telling an interviewer that he would probably not vote for a Muslim candidate for president because “this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles.” McCain also told Beliefnet.com, a Web site that covers religion, that he would prefer a president “with a grounding in my faith.” Trailing badly in the polls, McCain has been seeking support from Christian conservatives, whom he alienated during the 2000 presidential campaign by dismissing them as “agents of intolerance.” McCain, who has identified himself as an Episcopalian throughout his political career, recently announced that he was an “active member” of a Baptist congregation in Phoenix. South Carolina, an early primary state, has a large Baptist population.