In brief: Aid workers freed after months of Syria captivity

PARIS – Five aid workers held captive in Syria since January have been freed, Doctors Without Borders said late Thursday.

Two of the captive aid workers were freed Wednesday and three were liberated on April 4, the group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, said. The men and women included nationals from Belgium, Denmark, Peru, Sweden and Switzerland, MSF said.

The abduction in January prompted the aid group to close a hospital and two medical centers, according to the statement, which released few details about the release of the aid workers seized in January in northern Syria.

Man arrested for migrant smuggling

MEXICO CITY – Authorities in Mexico have arrested a man suspected of being the main migrant smuggler for the Zetas drug cartel, an official said Thursday.

Fernando Martinez Magana, 42, is accused of coordinating the smuggling of Mexican and Central American migrants into the United States from his base in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Texas, said federal police chief Monte Alejandro Rubido.

Martinez Magana was arrested in the northern city of Monterrey, where he had fled to as authorities closed in, said Rubido.

The Nuevo Laredo native is also wanted in the United States, where investigators say his criminal cell kept dozens of migrants in stash houses or apartments across San Antonio.

Martinez Magana had replaced a Zetas leader who was arrested in December 2011 and took over his nickname of “Z16,” Rubido said.

World Cup protests flare up in Brazil

SAO PAULO – Protesters and police clashed in Sao Paulo on Thursday, as demonstrations against the World Cup and rallies calling for improved public services erupted in several Brazilian cities.

Officers in Brazil’s largest city fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who set piles of trash alight to barricade a central avenue. Demonstrators blasted the billions spent to host next month’s soccer tournament and said they wanted to draw attention to what they called a lack of investment to improve poor public services.

Rio de Janeiro is slated to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.