AP Americas Digest

TOP STORIES:

ASYLUM REQUESTS

PHOENIX — Requests for asylum in the United States along the Southwest border with Mexico have more than doubled over the last three years as immigrants seek legal entry into the country by claiming fear of persecution back home, according to new figures from the federal government. By Brian Skoloff.

UNITED STATES-IRAQ

WASHINGTON — A resurgence of violence and a renewed threat from al-Qaida have recently revived flagging U.S. interest in Iraq, officials said as Baghdad asked for new help to fight extremists less than two years after it forced American troops to withdraw. By Lara Jakes.

AP Photos.

FORT HOOD SHOOTING

FORT HOOD, Texas — A police officer who responded to the 2009 Fort Hood shooting has testified that she remembers trying in vain to fire her weapon as she laying bleeding on the ground with the gunman standing over her. By Michael Graczyk and Nomaan Merchant.

AP Photo.

NSA SURVEILLANCE

WASHINGTON — New revelations from leaker Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency has overstepped its authority thousands of times since 2008 have undermined White House hopes that President Barack Obama had quieted the controversy with his assurances of oversight.

AP Photos.

MANNING-WIKILEAKS

FORT MEADE, Maryland — A military judge, in a document explaining why she found U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning guilty of 20 counts including six violations of the federal Espionage Act, said the enormous leak of classified information he engineered was “imminently dangerous to others.”

AP Photos, video.

MEXICO-OIL DEBATE

MEXICO CITY — The son of Mexico’s most revered modern president, known for nationalizing Mexico’s oil industry, says his dad is rolling in his grave. In fact, both sides in the heated debate over proposals to open Mexico’s oil industry to private companies are using the image of former president Lazaro Cardenas, roughly Mexico’s equivalent of Franklin D. Roosevelt. By Mark Stevenson.

AP Photos.

MEXICO-DRUG LORD-FORGOTTEN VICTIMS

MEXICO CITY — In months leading up to the death of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero tortured and killed six innocent Americans he mistakenly thought were undercover agents. For the families of the victims — four Jehovah’s Witnesses, a journalist on sabbatical and his dentistry student friend — Caro Quintero’s release has reopened bitter memories of the brutality that marked the dawn of the modern era of Mexican drug trafficking. By Michael Weissenstein.

AP photos.

BUSINESS:

CANADA-BLACKBERRY

TORONTO — BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins could receive almost $55.6 million if the company is sold and he is ousted from the top job. Heins would receive $48 million in equity awards, based on the company’s share price at the end of its latest fiscal year, according to a regulatory filing earlier this year. He would also get $7.5 million in compensation for his salary and bonus under the change of control provisions in his contract.

MEXICO-DISCRIMINATION

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Aeromexico airline and its ad agency have apologized for a producer’s casting call requesting that only light-skinned people apply as actors for a television commercial. By Adriana Gomez Licon.

ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT:

PEOPLE-CHRIS BROWN

LOS ANGELES — A judge has reinstated Chris Brown’s revoked probation and gave the singer a new sentence to perform 1,000 hours of community labour such as cleaning beaches or highways, removing graffiti or performing other chores assigned by the probation department. Brown’s current legal troubles are the latest repercussions of his arrest four years ago for assaulting his former girlfriend, Rihanna. By Linda Deutsch.