American pilot wanted on smuggling charges

Venezuela (AP):

Venezuela's top security official says an American pilot wanted in the United States on cocaine-smuggling charges has been turned over to representatives of the US State Department to be taken home.

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami says 37-year-old Julio Mendez has been sought by US authorities since 2007.

Federal police arrested Mendez last week in the central industrial city of Valencia. El Aissami said yesterday that Venezuelan authorities are investigating possible ties between Mendez and drug cartels in Colombia and the United States.

The justice minister held up the arrest as proof of Venezuela's determination to combat drug trafficking. US officials have been critical of the country's anti-drug efforts.

Bones on Garrido property may be animal

California (AP):

Investigators probing two old kidnapping cases say bone fragments found on the property of a man charged in a separate abduction are likely from animals.

Police Lt Chris Orrey said yesterday that preliminary test results from the fragments collected from Phillip Garrido's property in Hayward, California, show they are likely not human.Hayward police searched the Garrido property last month for any links to the kidnapping of Michaela Garecht in 1988. Authorities also combed for evidence as part of their probe into the 1989 disappearance of Ilene Misheloff.

Garrido has been charged for allegedly kidnapping Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and holding her captive in his backyard for 18 years. He and his wife, Nancy, have pleaded not guilty.

New Mexico couple jailed for child abuse

New Mexico (AP):

An eastern New Mexico couple has been jailed after a 10-year-old girl told police her father and stepmother used a timer to limit her meals, then locked her inside her bedroom to keep her from getting up to eat.

The child told police in Portales, about 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Texas border, that she often wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom at home and was forced to wear pull-up diapers, and her head was shaved as punishment.

Elementary school teachers called authorities on September 18, concerned she appeared malnourished. The child was turned over to the state child protection authorities the same day.