In the World

JAMAICA

Noxious smoke still billows from dump

A growing chorus of Jamaicans said Monday that they are exasperated with the government's failure to stop noxious, sooty smoke from billowing out of a sprawling waste dump that has been burning for a week and a half.

Residents near the capital, Kingston, say they are concerned about the health effects of breathing in acrid smoke and microscopic pollutants put in the air by the latest blaze at the Riverton City dump, apparently started by an arsonist. A fire there in March sent plumes of gray smoke over densely populated sections of southern Jamaica.

Two years ago, a government study found alarming levels of volatile organic compounds were released by a fire at the same dump. The cancer-causing chemical benzene was detected at three times the World Health Organization's air standard. - AP
MEXICO

Vigilantes kill five

Five suspected drug cartel supporters were killed in a shootout with vigilantes fighting the Knights Templar cartel in western Mexico, authorities reported Monday, the same day the federal government announced the beginning of "demobilization" for the "self-defense" movement. Federal police said the shootings occurred Sunday on the outskirts of Lazaro Cardenas as vigilantes tried to push farther into the city. - AP
C. AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Hospital attacked

Dozens of Muslim rebels opened fire in a hospital in Central African Republic, killing at least 16 people, including three local health workers for Doctors Without Borders, officials said Monday. In further violence, a convoy transporting more than 1,300 Muslims to safety came under attack, leaving at least two people dead, according to a spokesman with the African peacekeeping mission. - AP