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US surveillance program casts shadow over Kerry Latin America trip
• BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's attempts to build warmer relations with two U.S. allies in Latin America may be hindered by resentment after reports about an American spy program that widely targeted data in emails and telephone calls across the region.
• Kerry is visiting Brazil and Colombia this week, his first trip to South America as the Obama administration's chief diplomat. It comes at a time that disclosures by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden could chill talks on several fronts.
• Those include trade and energy, and even discussions about the Oct. 23 state dinner that President Barack Obama is hosting for Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff.
• Kerry arrived late Sunday in Bogota, the Colombian capital. The country is holding peace talks to end a half century-old conflict with the Western Hemisphere's most potent rebel army, a rebel force diminished in strength thanks in considerable measure to U.S. military and intelligence support.
• Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, said Thursday that he wanted clarification from Washington on whether U.S. intelligence-gathering in Colombia had overstepped the countries' joint operations against drug traffickers and illegal armed groups. The U.S. has supplied Colombia with eavesdropping equipment, technicians and aerial surveillance.
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Ex-sheriff and friends tell of odd encounter with Calif. teen, abductor in Idaho wilderness
• BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- The highly publicized multistate search for a Southern California teenage girl probably would have taken longer if she and her abductor hadn't encountered a sharp-eyed retired sheriff and three others riding horseback in Idaho's rugged backcountry, authorities said.
• The girl, 16-year-old Hannah Anderson, was rescued Saturday afternoon after the former sheriff passed along his suspicions, allowing investigators to focus efforts on a southwest corner of wilderness in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, a 3,600-square-mile roadless preserve in the heart of Idaho.
• At a news conference Sunday in Boise, 71-year-old Mark John and his three riding mates shared the details of their meeting with Anderson and James Lee Di (Continued on page 22)
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