Eight people kidnapped by armed group in Mexico
Eight people, including a five-member family, were kidnapped Friday by an armed group in the city of Nuevo Laredo, in northeastern Mexico where drug-trafficking-related violence has been increasing.
According to the police, the 25-to-30-member-strong armed group moving in a five-pick-up-truck convoy kidnapped the family in a violent way.
The attackers, armed with assault rifles and wearing ski-masks,also abducted three other people named Roberto Guerrero Salas, Alejandro Jaime Trejo and Jose Antonio Vara.
The kidnap took place against the backdrop of heightened security measures taken by the government. On June 11, Mexican President Vicente Fox launched a plan known as “Safe Mexico” in the northern states of Sinaloa, Baja California and Tamaulipas to tackle increased crimes in the region.
Nuevo Laredo has been one of the battle fields between drug lords disputing each other on drug-trafficking routes towards the United States.
More: news.xinhuanet.com
Cruz Azul's Technical Director Abducted in Mexico
Omar Romano, the technical director of the Mexican football team Cruz Azul has been abducted by a well organized group of kidnappers.
According to the police, armed people in a car kidnapped the 47-year-old Argentinean technical director Thursday. The incident took place near a training field in Mexico City, renowned for its worst abduction statistics in the world. Investigations are underway it was reported.
More: zaman.com
Mexico holds ex-army Guatemalans
A group of armed Guatemalan men held in Mexico on suspicion of aiding drug gangs had been trained by an elite soldiers' unit, officials say.
At least four in the group of seven men detained had been in the Guatemalan army, Mexico's attorney general said.
Mexican authorities are investigating whether the heavily-armed group had entered the country to fight alongside a local gang of drug smugglers.
Mexico is battling a surge in violence blamed on competing drug gangs.
The seven men were arrested by Mexican authorities near the Guatemalan border on 10 September.
They were carrying six
Mexico better armed for disaster after 1985 quake
The devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has stirred up memories of the earthquake that reduced parts of Mexico City to rubble 20 years ago, but the capital has armed itself for the next time disaster hits.
The Sept. 19, 1985 earthquake, measuring a giddy 8.1 on the Richter scale, caught Mexico off guard, killing thousands as it toppled housing blocks and office buildings in a city built on the soft mud left by a dried-up pre-Hispanic lake.
"It was pure panic. People were running about, getting hit by cars. There were gas leaks, water leaks.
Kidnap fear stalks Mexico as soccer coach snatched
Heavily armed kidnappers snatched the Argentine coach of one of Mexico's biggest soccer teams in broad daylight, a brash crime that put fresh pressure on authorities to contain growing violent crime.
Police admitted on Wednesday they had few clues about who abducted Ruben Omar Romano, trainer of first division Cruz Azul, by blocking a road and grabbing him from his car Tuesday after a training session in the south of Mexico City.
"Whoever did this kidnapping is a perfectly well organized group that had enough vehicles and armed elements to carry out an exact
Turkey ends first in Group B after defeating Mexico
Turkey defeated Mexico 2-1 and ended first in Group B of the under-17 World Cup soccer tournament at Miguel Grau Stadium of the northwestern Peruvian city of Piura.
Eleven minutes into the game Mexican Guzman scored, but the Turkey sorted things out to win through the goals scored by Yilmez (min. 27) and Erkin in the last minute.
It was a balanced match, although in general terms, the Europeans controlled the pitch and the ball and were more precise in their attack.
The Mexicans were affected in the collective structure because of
MEXICO CITY – Federal agents have rescued an American woman kidnapped in Texas and held in northern Mexico, the Attorney General's office said Friday.
Police arrested the woman's captor, Simon Andres Garcia, during the rescue operation late Thursday in the parking lot of a Church's Chicken in Monclova, officials said in a statement. Garcia's nationality was unclear.
The woman, who was in a car with Garcia at the time of the arrest, was able to get the attention of federal authorities, the statement said. She told them she was kidnapped on Aug. 16 in San Antonio, Texas.
Source: Signonsandeigo.com
Mexico charges seven cops with kidnapping
Mexican prosecutors announced Thursday they have filed kidnapping and organize crime charges against seven police officers accused of protecting hit men working for the feared Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel.
The men served in the police department in Ensenada, a tourist town 75 kilometers (45 miles) south of the California border, and they allegedly kidnapped people involved in the drug trade and held them for ransom, the Attorney General's Office said in a press statement.
They also protected members of the "Black Commando," a group of hit men working for the Arellano Felix cartel, authorities said.
They are
Mexico targets loggers in battle over butterflies
With assault rifles over their shoulders and body armor strapped to their chests, Roberto Paleo and his 17 officers are among the world's most heavily armed park rangers. Yet they guard one of nature's most delicate creatures -- the monarch butterfly.
The rangers say they need the weapons to protect the winter nesting grounds of millions of orange and black winged butterflies from armed gangs of illegal loggers in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
The monarchs are not listed as endangered, but scientists say deforestation could threaten their existence.
Although a single butterfly can spend its
Lightning Kills Five Children Decorating Metal Cross in Mexico
Five children were killed and nine people were injured in central Mexico when lightning bolts struck a metal cross on a hillside as people decorated the cross in preparation for a May 3 religious holiday, authorities reported on Monday.
The accident occurred late Sunday at a rural site near the town of Santa Maria del Rio, in the state of San Luis Potosi, about 180 miles north of Mexico City.
The children were part of a group cleaning and decorating the approximately 10-meter (yard) tall cross in preparation for the May 3 Catholic
Mexicos Borgetti to miss rest of group matches
Mexican striker Jared Borgetti will miss the rest of his countrys World Cup Group D matches, the teams doctor said.
Borgetti, who had to be replaced with a leg injury in Monday mornings (AEST) 3-1 World Cup victory over Iran, will certainly be out of action for eight to 10 days, team doctor Jose Luis Serrano told reporters.
After evaluation this morning, he will not play any of the group games, but hopefully he will be back after then, he said.
We have to evaluate the healing process closely because theres the risk
