At least 14 people were killed in a clash between the gunmen and members of a small farming community in central Mexico, an episode that the state authorities cast as a gang extortion attempt that backfired.
A federal judge said that Joran van der Sloot confessed to killing Ms. Holloway in a hearing in which he was given a 20-year sentence on extortion and wire fraud charges, The Associated Press reported.
A lawyer for Beth Holloway, the mother of the Alabama teenager whose 2005 disappearance remains unsolved, said the suspect, Joran van der Sloot, had accepted a plea deal.
Roger Ng is most likely the only person who will face trial in the United States in connection with a $4 billion scheme to fleece the people of Malaysia.