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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Olympics security executive apologizes

From Wire Reports

LONDON – The boss of British security group G4S said Saturday he was sorry that his company had bungled the contract to help protect the 2012 Olympic Games, a humbling televised apology that followed days of ugly news about his firm’s failures.

Nick Buckles spoke to the BBC as British newspapers were filled with accounts of chaotic recruitment, sloppy security, and even an allegation that some G4S staffers weren’t fluent in English. The firm has not been able to provide enough guards, and some 3,500 British troops are being called in to help fill the gap in security and police have been put on notice that they may need to help fill the breach.

“We’re deeply disappointed and we certainly are very sorry for what’s happened over the last week or two,” Buckles said. “It’s a very complex process. No one’s ever undertaken to recruit 10,000 fully-trained security staff for such a lengthy period of time.”

Most-wanted fugitive captured in Mexico

CANCUN, Mexico – Mexican police arrested one of the U.S. Marshals Service’s most-wanted fugitives in the resort city of Cancun, after 24 years on the run.

Suspect Vincent Legrend Walters is wanted in San Diego, Calif., on murder charges in the 1988 killing of a woman kidnapped as part of a drug deal. He also faces weapons and drug charges and is on the service’s list of 15 most wanted fugitives.

The Marshals Service said Walters had been living in Cancun under the assumed name of Oscar Rivera and was working at the Cancun international airport. The service said he was arrested Friday and had been taken to Mexico City to await extradition procedures.

An official at Cancun’s airport who was not authorized to be quoted by name said Walters was not an airport employee but rather had worked for a resort selling time-share vacation packages.

While Walters was using an assumed name, the Marshals Service said he “had boasted to people that he was a fugitive from San Diego and wanted by the U.S. Marshals Service.”