Eight people including a town mayor died in northeastern Mexico when the small plane they were travelling in to oversee flood damage plunged to the ground, officials said on Thursday.

The Cessna plane had been carrying the mayor of Piedras Negras, as well as a regional secretary of public works, a civil protection officer, two other employees, a photographer and two crew when it crashed Wednesday, the local government said.

The cause of the crash remained unknown.

Areas around Piedras Negras, across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, have been hard-hit by floods caused by torrential rains from Hurricane Alex which lashed the region last week, and another storm is on its way.

Relentless rains have raised reservoirs along the US-Mexico border, forcing officials to release water into flooded rivers and evacuate tens of thousands of people.

Authorities evacuated some 18 000 people from the town of Anahuac, in Nuevo Leon state, on Tuesday, for fear that water would overflow from a nearby dam.

Hurricane Alex unleashed heavy rains on the region last week, causing flooding that killed at least 12 people in Nuevo Leon and left widespread devastation in the city of Monterrey.

The US National Hurricane Centre said a new depression producing heavy rainfall in the Gulf of Mexico could strengthen into a tropical storm and reach the US and Mexican coastlines by late Thursday. - Sapa-AFP

Published on the Web by IOL on 2010-07-08 13:05:06 

Source:http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=122&art_id=nw20100708130506827C808933

(AFP) 

MONTERREY, Mexico — Torrential rain has pounded northern Mexico, triggering floods that closed a US-Mexico border bridge and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

The heaviest rain for several decades has topped off reservoirs in the border states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, across from Texas, with officials diverting water into swollen rivers to avert major damage.

After Hurricane Alex soaked the region last week with floods that killed at least 15 people in Nuevo Leon, a new storm dumped still more rain on waterlogged terrain.

Some 40,000 homes have already been damaged in Coahuila, said state communications coordinator David Aguillon.

The "Gateway to the Americas" international bridge, one of the busiest border crossings between Texas and Tamaulipas, was closed on Wednesday after the Rio Grande river rose more than 10 meters (yards).

Two other international bridges remained open but under surveillance.

Some 3,500 people were evacuated from their homes in Tamaulipas as several reservoirs spilled over, threatening rural communities with floods.

Authorities have now evacuated some 22,000 people from the town of Anahuac, in Nuevo Leon, for fear that a nearby dam will overflow.

In the town of Linares, Nuevo Leon, the town hall collapsed, in dramatic footage shown on television, as its foundations weakened under the persistent rain, said Mayor Francisco Medina.

More than 100,000 people remained without drinking water around the state following last week's storms, which caused flooding and chaos in the capital Monterrey, said Javier Trevino, a state government official.

Alex also left a trail of overturned cars and mud-covered roads in its wake and caused an estimated 800 million dollars in property damage, said Nuevo Leon state Governor Rodrigo Medina.

The US National Weather Service has forecast heavy rains over southern Texas and northeast Mexico in the coming days.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iEKVLMPuuS_IaH2mwNBPyjy-uPiw

At least nine shootouts have erupted in school zones since mid-October, three of them in the past month. On June 15, soldiers and gunmen battled for an hour 60 feet from a preschool in the central town of Taxco.

Several Mexican states require "shootout drills" and incorporate them into summer teacher-training courses, which will begin next week. School ends Friday in most of Mexico.

"We're in a situation like nothing we've ever lived through before, and we need to make sure the children are safe," says Juan Gallardo, director of school safety in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

Drug-related violence has reached record levels in Mexico since President Felipe Calderón launched a military crackdown on the cartels in late 2006. As of Monday, there had been 5,775 drug-related killings in 2010, up from 2,275 in all of 2007, according to an unofficial tally by the Reformanewspaper.

Shootouts have become common as drug gangs ambush government forces and each other in an attempt to control smuggling routes and drug sales. Last week, 21 gunmen died in a shootout between gangs in a rural area near the Arizona border.

Most attacks have not targeted schools, but students can be caught in the crossfire. On March 19, two college students were killed by stray bullets as they left a study session in the prestigious Tec de Monterrey university in the northern city of Monterrey.

Gunbattles erupted near public schools on June 18 in the western town of Bellavista and on June 24 in the northern city of Apodaca. In Apodaca, police evacuated two elementary schools and a preschool.

After the battle June 15 near the preschool in Taxco, the southern state of Guerrero held shootout drills in several schools and ordered training for all 52,400 teachers in the state.

New guidelines instruct teachers to take all students indoors, lock classroom doors and keep the children away from windows. Children should lie on the floor and cover their heads with their hands to protect themselves from flying glass or chips of concrete. Above all, children should not take pictures or video of the shootout.

"The first thing the kids want to do is take pictures to post on their social networks," says Erika Arciniega, director of crime prevention for the Guerrero state police. "We don't want them to become targets."

In Nuevo León state, where college students were killed in a crossfire in March, education officials are preparing a video teaching children how to protect themselves in shootouts, state Education Secretary José González said. Officials distribute manuals with instructions for surviving a shootout.

"Upon hearing gunshots near the school zone, the teacher will immediately order all students to lie with their chests to the floor," the guide says. "Avoid visual contact with the aggressors."

Some of the students' parents don't think such training is a good idea, says Angel Carrillo, principal of the Rafael Briceño Elementary School in the western city of Colima.

"Some of the parents think it scares the kids too much," he says.

Source:http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-07-07-mexico-schools_N.htm

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO CITY — Mexico City has seen 271 gay and lesbian couples get married since the capital enacted the first law in Latin America explicitly allowing same-sex marriages.

The city government says there have been 142 marriages between men and 129 between women in the four months since the law went took effect March 4.

The government said Tuesday that 18 foreigners were among those married, and the rest were Mexican citizens. The largest number of marriages occurred in the first month after the law took effect.

Mexico's Supreme Court is considering challenges to the law, which applies only to the capital, but the measure will remain in effect while the review is under way. A decision is expected sometime around August.

Source:http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jul/06/mexico-city-sees-271-gay-weddings-in-4-months/

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2010 AT 9:01 A.M.

MEXICO CITY — Tens of thousands of people remain without running water more than a week after Hurricane Alex unleashed severe flooding in northeastern Mexico, the Nuevo Leon state governor said Tuesday.

Gov. Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz told the Televisa television network that 12 people are confirmed dead and three others are missing. He said 130,000 people are known to be without water, and that does not count some communities in mountainous regions that were cut off.

Medina de la Cruz appealed for helicopters to help reach isolated communities with water and other supplies.

"The situation is grave," he said.

Alex slammed into Mexico's northern Gulf coast as a Category 2 hurricane last week. It caused the most damage in Nuevo Leon, though it was down to tropical storm force by the time it hit the inland state.

The key business city of Monterrey saw major streets turned to rampaging rivers that gashed ravines through the pavement down to sewage lines and buried vehicles window deep in rocks and sand.

The storm also damaged rail lines. The state's website says officials hope to have trains running again by Friday through one of Mexico's most important industrial centers.

Medina said damages amounted to 10 billion pesos ($765 million), according preliminary calculations.

Source:http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jul/07/mexico-leftist-presidential-candidate-to-run-again/

Reviewed by Rita Pomade

The New World Mexican Women is a different kind of book. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to make beautiful earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings in high quality Mexican silver, pewter, and copper. But it is also a collection of letters and soliloquys. And it is a catalogue for those interested in purchasing, rather than making, jewelry.New World Women is a native women artisan group in Tecalpulco, Guerrero who decided to form a production cooperative. These skilled artisans are the original designers and producers, creating beautiful jewelry. Theirs is a cottage industry with a goal of perpetuating the region's craft tradition and creating a source of work that can keep their people at home — an alternative to migrating to urban centers or to the U.S. These enterprising women utilize modern means of communication. They communicate through their web page and via romantic novelasserialized on blogs.  They write e-mail, post videos on YouTube, and have published an unusual book: The New World Mexican Women Workbook: How to Make Your Own Traditional Mexican Jewelry

Apart from a craftsperson's handbook, this is a touching and deeply personal sociological study on loneliness, longing, and sacrifice. The women who have participated in the making of this book have a parent, aunt, uncle or father who has jumped the border in search of opportunity and a better quality of life for themselves and for the families they've left behind. Many never return. The families never know who may or may not come back. But they are sustained by hope and the sense of community that this cooperative has forged. If the co-op brings jobs and financial opportunity to the area, perhaps the exiles will return.

The material has been assembled in a way that makes it accessible to anyone. Good-sized photographs with clear instructions accompany each piece of jewelry. What is needed in each kit is clearly labeled with its accompanying photograph. It's impossible to get lost in placing an order. Yet, within this well defined parameter, there is room for more creative expression. Tools are minimal and some items require no tools. With a round-nosed pliers, cutter pliers, flux, a small head hammer, and a small anvil, anything in the catalogue can be made. For the novice there are excellent photographs identifying these objects.

The metals available are in .925 (sterling) silver, fine pewter, copper, and liquid silver. No nickel, lead, cadmium, or zinc is used. You can order natural stones such as turquoise, jasper, and opal as well as composite stones made from resin and pigments. And of course, all the findings and wire are available, many included in the kits. In accessories there are fine pewter charms, chaquira beads in many hues, stone mosaic beads in a variety of shapes and colors, and much more. For the more adventurous, you can put together your own kits.

These pre-cut pieces and kits are assembled by the Rural Women's Artisans Cooperative of Tecalpulco. They are women who live in or near Taxco in the state of Guerrero, an area known world-wide for its high quality silver and fine craftsmanship in jewelry making. In recent years, this tradition of fine craftsmanship has been dying out due to artisans being forced to work at unsustainable wages. Don Marcial Chavez Embria, the master original-model maker for William Spratling, the father of the world-famous modern silver jewelry industry of Taxco, has been training these women in order to keep this tradition alive.

The mines from which the silver is taken are located in the area, and mining is done on a small scale. The miners use environmentally responsible technologies and measures are taken to protect their health. Because this is Fair Trade Silver, ordering from the cooperative helps to provide a dignified standard of living for these woman and children, one that may eventually stem the flow of migration to the United States by improving the quality of life at home.

This is the dream of the women in this cooperative. They miss their loved ones terribly. Many of the children have rarely seen their fathers and pray for their safe return. There are letters that are interwoven into this catalogue. They are translated from the original letters that these women have sent to the loved ones in their lives. They are poignant and bring home viscerally the heartbreak that this separation brings.

The New World Mexican Women Workbook can be ordered online. You can learn more about the cooperative on their website — it's packed with information. Should you not want to make your own jewelry, take the time to order one of the exquisite pieces made by one of the women in the cooperative. In exchange for a beautifully hand-crafted work of art, you will enable a community to move one step closer to the fulfilling of a dream.

Source:http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/3569-the-new-world-mexican-women-of-tecalpulco-mexico