ONE NEWS

Monday, October 19, 2009 MEXICO CITY - Hurricane Rick, the strongest eastern North Pacific storm in more than a decade, raged across open seas yesterday, but forecasters said it could veer into resorts at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula by midweek.The track of the Category 5 hurricane threatened to disrupt a major sport fishing tournament scheduled to start Wednesday in Los Cabos, where hundreds of fishermen - mainly Americans - were gathering.The hurricane’s winds were still a howling 175 miles per hour yesterday, down slightly from a peak of 180 miles per hour, according to the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami. But it was projected to move over cooler waters and weaken to about Category 2 status, with winds of around 98 miles per hour before hitting land.The eye was cantered about 500 miles south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas yesterday. Rick was moving toward the west-northwest at about 14 miles per hour, and it was expected to begin turning toward the northwest before cu...

Tuesday, September 01, 2009 LOS CABOS: Hurricane Jimena grew into a highly dangerous storm as it raced toward Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Monday, scaring tourists, prompting residents to sandbag homes and disrupting a top-level finance conference. Jimena's winds strengthened to nearly 155 mph (250 kph), almost reaching the threshold of a deadly Category 5 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Category 5 hurricanes are the top of the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale and can be devastating if they hit land. Caterina Acevedo in Los Cabos, a lively resort area at the tip of the peninsula. "This one is really scary but when I tried to leave there were no seats on the planes," she added. Much of Baja California is sparsely populated desert and mountains that are popular with nature lovers, surfers, sport fishermen and retirees. Los Cabos, which is more built up,attracts tourists to its golf courses, resorts and beaches.

Monday, August 31, 2009 MEXICO CITY: A gang of armed commandos gunned down five adults and three children in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa, authorities said. Gunmen packing assault rifles opened fire on the group in an outdoor meeting place popular with young people in the city of Navolato, Sinaloa state, a state prosecutor's spokesman told foreign news agency. There was no immediate motive for the grisly attack late Saturday, the spokesman said.The dead include an underage girl, two boys, a young woman and four young men, who were just before midnight when gunmen arrived in pickups, jumped out and executed them in a hail of gunfire, the spokesman said.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 MEXICO CITY: A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Monday off the coast of Mexico near Santa Isabel in Baja California, experts from the US Geological Survey said.USGS said the quake struck at 11:00 am (1800 GMT) and was preceded about five minutes earlier by one registering a 5.8 magnitude. There appeared to be no imminent threat of tidal waves from the quakes, USGS said, although individual governments were advised to make their own decisions on whether to issue a tsunami warning. "Earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a few hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," it added."Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action."

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 MEXICO CITY: The bodies of 12 people found along a road in the Mexican state of Michoacan were federal police undertaking investigative work, said on Tuesday spokesman for Mexico's public security ministry. The bodies of 11 men and one woman were founded stacked together, and bore signs of having been tortured, said police spokesman Monte Alejandro Rubido. Officials have attributed the killings to the powerful "La Familia" drug cartel that operates in the region and is considered one of the most violent criminal gangs in Mexico. Last weekend, "La Familia" launched a series of attacks against police posts in Michoacan that left four people dead, including three members of the security forces and one suspected cartel hit man. The attacks were "desperate and violent reactions" to the government's crackdown against the cartels, President Felipe Calderon said on Monday. Authorities said the cartel attacks came in retaliation fo...