Newspaper offices attacked in Mexico

Another attack targeting the Mexican media was carried out on 29 July. The Monterrey-based offices of the regional daily El Norte, a newspaper owned by the Reforma publishing group, were set on fire by armed men late on Sunday. It was the third attack on one of the daily’s offices in the past month. The office attacked Sunday covers the weddings and community events of the elite living in the upper-class enclave of Monterrey’s San Pedro Garza Garcia.

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Veracruz: reporter missing in Mexico’s most dangerous state

A reporter and photographer from the south-eastern Mexican state of Veracruz is missing.

Miguel Morales Estrada has not been seen for a week in the embattled city of Poza Rica, a town largely controlled by the Zetas drug cartel. Estrada was a freelancer for three different news outlets in the southern city. He is the third journalist reported missing in the last few months in areas that have seen confrontation between the Zetas and other drug cartels. The other two, Federico Manuel Garcia Contreras and Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales, both disappeared in June in the cities of San Luis Potosi and Taumalipas, also cities where the Zetas are battling for control with other cartels.

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Russia: Pussy Riot detention extended

Three members of Russian punk group Pussy Riot have had their detention extended by a further six months by a Moscow court, reports say [ru]. Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Semutsevic will remain in jail until at least January 2013, with their detention already being extended from 24 June to late July. The trio were arrested in March and face charges of hooliganism for allegedly staging an anti-Putin performance in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February. If convicted they face up to seven years in prison.

Pussy Riot spoke to us exclusively in May, read the interview here.