Dispatches

Feb. 11

Mexican officials arrested the superintendent, warden, and a guard at the Topo Chico prison near Monterrey after an early morning riot within its walls left 49 inmates dead and 12 persons injured. The riot revealed a fundamental problem within Mexico’s criminal justice system: Drug cartels rule not just neighborhoods, but prisons. The fight at Topo Chico occurred between rival factions of the Zetas cartel. Inmates were essentially running the prison themselves: Many ran food stalls, and more powerful inmates enjoyed “luxury cells” with digital TVs, minibars, aquariums, or portable saunas, local officials said. Prison guards apparently exercised minimal oversight over the prisoners, who fought one another with dozens of knives and hammers during the riot.

Rail line wreck

Feb. 9

Technical safety systems failed to prevent a deadly head-on collision between two passenger trains in Germany. The wreck occurred on a rural, wooded stretch about 40 miles southeast of Munich, leaving 11 persons dead, including the two drivers, and dozens injured. The trains had been carrying about 150 passengers at the time and may have been traveling 60 mph. A senior prosecutor said the wreck was likely the result of human error, due to a dispatcher who had not “complied with the rules” and was being investigated for involuntary manslaughter. German media reported the dispatcher may have disabled an automatic braking system in order to allow one of the trains to run off-schedule. German trains were fitted with automatic braking following a 2011 crash that killed 10.

Refugees attacked

Feb. 9

Two young women detonated explosive vests inside a refugee camp in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 58 men, women, and children—only the latest tragedy in a six-year insurgency waged by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. The bombers, possibly captives of the militants, had been ordered to carry out the attacks at a camp for internally displaced persons in the town of Dikwa, where 50,000 persons were taking refuge from the region’s ongoing violence. A third intended bomber—a teenage girl—tore off her suicide vest after getting out of sight of her captors, The Associated Press reported, because she knew her own father was living in the refugee camp. “She said she was scared because she knew she would kill people. But she was also frightened of going against the instructions of the men who brought her to the camp,” said a local self-defense fighter who helped to question her.

Temblor in Taiwan

Feb. 6

For most residents of Tainan, a city of 1.9 million in southern Taiwan, the magnitude-6.4 earthquake that struck on a Saturday morning was merely enough to sway homes and apartments and jolt families out of bed at 4 a.m. But the outcome was far grimmer at a 17-story apartment complex that collapsed, trapping hundreds inside. A week later, rescuers had pulled 175 alive from the rubble and counted 114 dead (two others died elsewhere in the city). With only a handful of buildings in Tainan badly damaged by the quake, including a bank and a seven-story building, attention turned to the construction quality of the high-rise: Paint cans, apparently used as filler, were found encased in the building’s concrete layers. Taiwanese officials arrested the builder and two architects on suspicion of professional negligence.