Mexico City, A major earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale jolted offshore Mexican state of Chiapas, Tuesday, according to a local radio station. There was no immediate report of any casualty or damage to property. According to Chiapas Civil Protection Direction sources, the temblor occurred at 5.43 p.m., reported Xinhua citing the local radio station. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the quake's epicentre, with a depth of 44 km, was initially determined to be at 14.42 degrees north latitude and 92.96 degrees west ...
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Mexico City, Eighty-one people have so far died of swine flu in Mexico this year, while at least 3,522 have been infected with the virus, health officials said. From Jan 1 till Feb 9, there have been 3,882 confirmed flu cases, the health secretariat said in a statement. Three seasonal viruses are currently active in Mexico -- AH1N1, AH3N2 and influenza B. The AH1N1 -- or swine flu -- has been the predominant one, with 91 percent of the infections. The AH1N1 virus broke out in Mexico in March-April 2009. By June 2010, around 1,300 deaths had occurred and more than 70,000 people had contracted the disease. ...
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Mexico City, A total of 58 people have died of flu in Mexico so far this year. The deaths were caused by different strains of flu virus, the predominant one being swine flu. As many as 2,815 alive patients have been confirmed to have the infection, the health secretariat said. From Jan 1 to Feb 2, 93 percent of the deaths were caused by the AH1N1 swine flu, it said. Of the current cases of infection, 90 percent have been due to the AH1N1 virus. Two other flu viruses are currently active in Mexico -- AH3N2 and influenza B. Swine flu broke out in Mexico in March-April 2009. Till June 2010, there had been around 1,300 deaths and more than 70,000 cases of the ...
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Mexico City, Mexico set a new auto production record of 2.55 million cars and light trucks in 2011, a 13.1 percent increase compared to the previous year, an auto industry association said Wednesday. The previous record of 2.26 million units had been set in 2010. Last year's auto exports came in at 2.14 million cars and light trucks, up 15.3 percent from 2010, while exports to Latin America grew a whopping 55.9 percent. Exports to Europe, meanwhile, climbed 23.9 percent, the second-largest increase. Exports to the US and Canada also were higher but grew just 6.7 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively. Domestic auto sales totaled 905,886 units last year, 10.4 percent higher than in 2010 but 17.6 percent lower than in 2007, the year prior to the onset of the global recession. The biggest-selling compact car last year in the Mexican market was the Ford Fusion, followed by Volkswagen's New Jetta and Nissan's Sentra 2.0, while among the light trucks the top sellers were the Silverado 2500, the Journey and the GMC Sierra. ...
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Mexico City, Bodies of 20 people, including that of three children, were found with torture marks in central Mexico, Xinhua reported. Bodies of 10 adults and three minors were found outside a gas station in Zitacuaro town in Michoacan state. Seven more bodies were found in the state's municipalities. Police said the bodies were disposed of early Monday. ...
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Mexico City, A fight involving several groups of inmates at a prison in Mexico has left at least 31 dead, officials said. The incident took place in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Officials said inmates from one wing of the prison entered another section, sparking the brawl in which 22 inmates serving sentences for state crimes and nine for federal offences were killed Wednesday. Another 13 people were wounded in the fight, in which the inmates wielded knives and other tools as weapons. A special police unit was dispatched to the prison to help restore order. The prison, located near Altamira city, is being guarded by marines and federal police. The prison fight was the deadliest since a brawl at a penitentiary in Tamaulipas city in October led to the death of 20 inmates and wounded 12. Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, has long been the scene of a brutal turf war between drug ...
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Mexico City, Mexican authorities recorded a total of 42.2 million Olive Ridley, Leatherback and Kemp's Ridley sea turtle births during the 2010-11 nesting season, authorities said. Efforts to secure the protection of female turtles and their nests and safeguard hatchlings' journey to the ocean are led by the National Commission on Natural Protected Areas, or Conanp, at 33 nesting beaches, the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat said in a statement Tuesday. Ten of those beaches are natural protected areas, three are located inside biosphere reserves, 15 are internationally designated wetlands sites and the remainder are located in areas without special protection mechanisms, the secretariat said. Approximately 1.2 million Olive Ridley turtle nests were laid and 23.3 million offspring made their way to the ocean at the Playa de Escobilla sanctuary and Morro Ayuta beach, both located in the southern state of Oaxaca. A total of 20,574 Kemp's Ridley turtle nests were laid in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas and 534 in the eastern state of Veracruz and an estimated 18.9 million hatchlings reached the sea in those two regions. "The nesting figure for the ...
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Mexico City, State-owned oil giant Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said it planned to spend 329.8 million pesos (about USD 24 million) to repair a pipeline damaged in an explosion last year that killed 30 people in Puebla state. The funds cover infrastructure work, environmental clean-up, compensation and support in San Martin Texmelucan, a city in central Mexico, Pemex said. The Pemex pipeline exploded Dec 19, 2010, after it was tapped illegally. More than 50 other people were injured in the explosion, which completely destroyed 32 houses and damaged 83 others. Investigators suspect that thieves triggered the blast as they illegally extracted fuel from the conduit at pumping station No. 7 in San Martin Texmelucan. Some 103.4 million pesos ($7.4 million) will be provided as compensation to the families of victims and those who were injured in the blast. A total of 206.3 million pesos ($14.8 million) will be used to clean up the Atoyac river and nearby canals, as well as for "reforestation and cleaning of soil and land", and repair of highways, Pemex said. The city of San Martin Texmelucan received 20 million pesos ($1.4 million) for expansion of a bridge and ...
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Mexico City, Mexico's Coca-Cola Femsa, the world's largest bottler of Coca-Cola Co. products, said it broke ground on a USD 140 million plant in Brazil's Minas Gerais state. The company, a unit of conglomerate Fomento Economico Mexicano, or FEMSA, said in a filing with securities regulators that 800 direct and indirect jobs would be created during the 18-month construction phase. The 300,000 sq. meter bottling plant will have the capacity to produce 2.1 million liters annually of soft drinks. The plant will incorporate "the highest environmental standards" both in construction and operations, Coca-Cola Femsa said. All production will be concentrated at the new bottling plant, with the existing facility in Belo Horizonte being converted into the company's biggest distribution facility in Minas Gerais, Coca-Cola Femsa Brasil chief Ricardo Botelho said. Coca-Cola Femsa has 34 bottling plants across Latin America and provides its products to 1.6 million retailers in the ...
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MEXICO CITY : The leaders of Mexico and five Central American governments signed a free trade agreement on Monday to boost the regional economy, officials said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom Caballeros and Honduran President Porfirio Lobo to sign the Mexico and Central America Free Trade Agreement, which also involves the countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The agreement is still awaiting final approval from the Mexican Senate. The agreement is expected to push Mexico's economy to expand into the Central American region, which has a population of approximately 150 million people. Calderon described the agreement as a 'good decision' which marks an 'essential step to strengthen the region.' He also said the commercial benefits of the pact represents a door to prosperity. "It's a powerful region," President Colom stated. "It is a vigorous region and what we need is to join them and our differences will be placed aside," he continued, adding that the factors that bring together the region are more than those that separate them. Over the past 10 years, bilateral commerce between Mexico and the five Central ...
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Mexico City, US pop star Britney Spears will perform in a free concert Sunday here, an official said. The concert, which will start at 7 p.m., will mark the start of the Christmas celebrations in Mexico City, Federal District Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said on social-networking sites. Talks with Spears's representatives were given a push a few days ago by the Federal District's coordinator of Christmas events, Mario Carrillo, to get the pop star to perform in the capital. Spears will perform Dec 1 in Guadalajara, the capital of the western state of Jalisco, Dec 3 in Mexico City and Dec 6 in Monterrey, the capital of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, on her "Femme Fatale" world tour. Spears's seventh album, "Femme Fatale", has sold more than 40,000 copies in Mexico, pushing it beyond Gold Record status. Officials are looking to draw about 3 million domestic and foreign tourists to Mexico City this Christmas season. Mexico City is offering visitors a wide range of events and activities, including a parade featuring different kinds of floats, ice skating on the Zocalo, the city's main plaza, and a 50-meter Christmas ...
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Mexico City, Mexico attracted USD 13.4 billion in foreign direct investment during the first nine months of 2011, down 6.5 percent from the same period of last year, the Economy Secretariat said. In the third quarter (July-September), FDI flows came in at just under USD 2.6 billion. The FDI figure for all of 2010 was revised upward to USD 19.8 billion, an 11.6 percent increase over the previously reported figure, the secretariat said. All of the data released Wednesday is preliminary and subject to later revision by the companies responsible for the FDI, the secretariat said. The investment received from January to September 2011 came from 3,558 companies with foreign capital. The FDI flows were concentrated in the manufacturing sector and the financial services and insurance sector, which accounted for 41.5 percent and 18.3 percent of the total, respectively, while the rest went to retail and wholesale, mass media, construction, mining and other sectors. By country, the main sources of FDI were the US, with 65.5 percent of the total, followed by Spain (13.2 percent), Switzerland (9.4 percent), Japan (2.6 percent) and Canada (1.4 ...
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Mexico City, The bodies of 26 men were found inside two SUVs and an automobile abandoned on a busy avenue in Guadalajara, one of Mexico's largest cities, prosecutors said Thursday. The vehicles, which had Mexico City tags, were left at an intersection in the Vallarta San Jorge section of Guadalajara, the capital of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, the state Attorney General's office said. Investigators initially said 23 bodies were at the crime scene, but they later found three more inside the vehicles, Jalisco Attorney General Tomas Coronado said. The crime scene is near a supermarket and the convention center where the Guadalajara International Book Fair is scheduled to begin Saturday. Police received a call in the early morning hours about the bodies, all of which were "bound and gagged", Jalisco Public Safety Secretary Luis Carlos Najera told Televisa. The killers left a message inside one of the vehicles, the public safety secretary said, without revealing the contents. Municipal security cameras are scattered around the area where the bodies were dumped and it is presumed that they captured images of the killers. Guadalajara hosted the 16th Pan ...
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Mexico City, About two million Mexicans are employed as domestic workers, with women accounting for about 90 percent of such employees, and the majority lack employment contracts and are not registered in the social security system, said the National Council to Prevent Discrimination, or Conapred. They are subjected to discrimination, long work days, poor pay and other forms of abuse. The figures come from a survey of domestic workers that was conducted in association with UN Women and the International Labor Organization, or ILO, Conapred said in a report presented to the Senate. The 2010 National Survey on Discrimination in Mexico found that 38 percent of domestic workers consider excessive work and low pay the main problems facing them, while 19.3 percent complained of mistreatment and discrimination, among other abuses, as well as the lack of labour rights. Just 1.5 million of Mexico's 26 million households, according to National Institute of Statistics and Geography figures, have domestic workers. Although the households that hire domestic workers tend to have higher incomes, they pay among the lowest wages. Pay for domestic workers tends to be among the ...
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Culiacan (Mexico), Nine charred bodies were discovered Wednesday inside two vehicles abandoned at separate locations in this western Mexican city, police said. The first gruesome find took place in the center of Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state, when authorities noticed a Nissan pickup truck on fire. After putting out the flames, firefighters and police found five bodies. Authorities said they think the bodies were burned earlier and that the vehicle was set ablaze simply to draw the attention of the cops. An anonymous telephone tip led police to the second vehicle, a Ford Ranger abandoned near a shopping center on the main northbound road out of the city. The vehicle contained four more charred bodies. Police have yet to identify the victims, though they suspect the bodies may be those of nine people who were abducted in Angostura, a town north of Culiacan. Sinaloa is the bastion of the drug cartel led by the fugitive Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman, said by Forbes magazine to be worth at least $1 billion. Despite its dominant position, Chapo's mob faces challenges in Sinaloa from other groups, such as the gang formed by the Beltran Leyva ...
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