MrBillM - 9-5-2005 at 06:07 PM
From the San Diego Union-Tribune, Sunday, 05 Sep 2005.
Fireworks blast kills seven in Mexican Town
Acapulco, Mexico
Fireworks stored a building that also illicitly sold gasoline exploded yesterday, killing seven people and injuring four, officials said. The
building also housed video game machines, and five of the dead were children who frequented the video parlor on weekends. Initial estimates by civil
defense officals citing reports by townspeople had placed the death toll as high as 15, but an official statement issued later by the civil defense
agency of the southern state of Guerrero gave the lower number.
The blast occurred in the tiny hamlet of Tlacotepec, high in the mountains of southern Guerrero state, about 75 miles north of Acapulco,said Roel
Ayala Mata, Guerrero state assistant civil defense director.
The blast collapsed the brick-and-concrete building and damaged nearby houses.
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Passports to be needed:
The Bush administration announced Thursday that it is sticking with the controversial plan to require Americans to show their passports when entering
the United States from Canada and Mexico. Officials announced the requirement after a five-month review ordered by President Bush, after he had
learned about the plan from reading a newspaper story. The plan would not begin to take effect until the end of next year.
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Stop Signs:
New diamond-shaped Yellow warning signs opposing racism and the Minuteman Project have been bolted onto stop signs on the Mexican side of the San
Ysidro Port of Entry. The signs read "Stop Racism" y "Stop Minutemen".
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Border Deaths:
A record 415 people have died trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico in the past 11 months-far higher than last year's total of 330 and
surpassing the previous mark of 383 set in 2000, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington said.
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Unmanned Spy Plane:
The Border Patrol said it has acquired an unmanned aerial vehicle to spot human and drug smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The agency will
pay $14.1 Million for a Predator B plane, including one year of maintenance,
spokesman Mario Villarreal said.
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Nuevo Laredo Bus Tours
A Mexican city at the heart of a raging Drug war is trying to woo back jittery Texan Day-Trippers by offering free bus tours with an armed police
escort. "The aim is to shakeoff the bad image we have and give a boost to the craft markets and restaurants in the center, where business is almost
nil", Nuevo Laredo's tourism director, Ramon Garza, told Reuters. The service began in mid-August and comes after more than 115 people have been
gunned down in the Nuevo Laredo area this year.
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rpleger - 9-5-2005 at 07:10 PM
Thank you for the news and info........