U.S. warns about transport to dual some-more Mexican states

WASHINGTON Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:25am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department issued an updated travel alert for Mexico on Monday, adding Durango and Coahuila to a list of states with areas it urged U.S. citizens to avoid visiting due to rising violence.

U.S.&&&&Mexico

The decision followed the killing of four U.S. citizens in late 2009 and early 2010 in the city of Gomez Palacio in Durango state, the State Department said.

"The cities of Durango and Gomez Palacio in the state of Durango, and the area known as "La Laguna" in the state of Coahuila, which includes the city of Torreon, experienced sharp increases in violence," it said.

In addition to Durango and Coahuila, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to delay visits to areas of Chihuahua and Michoacan.

The new travel alert replaced one that expired on February 20. The State Department had urged Americans to delay travel to Chihuahua and Michoacan in the previous alert.

While not specifically advising U.S. citizens to delay travel to Durango in Coahuila in the previous alert, it advised that the U.S. mission in Mexico restricted travel within the two states.

Much of the increase in violence is related to drug trafficking. The advisory said Mexican cartels were engaged in a violent conflict for control of trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Clashes between the cartels and Mexican authorities sometimes resemble "small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades," the alert said.

It cited the Chihuahuan city of Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, as being of special concern because of the high murder rate. More than 2,600 people were killed there in 2009. The city also had 16,000 car thefts and 1,900 carjackings, the alert said.

The alert came ahead of the start Tuesday of a three-day U.S.-Mexico policy meeting to discuss ways of reducing drug demand as a means of curbing cross-border trafficking.

Assistant Secretary of State David Johnson, Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius and Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske were due to address the meeting on Tuesday along with Mexican officials.

Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala and Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan were scheduled to address the conference on Wednesday.

The United States committed to a three-year, $1.1 billion aid package in 2007 to help Mexico fight its war against the drug cartels.

But critics say the aid has been slow in arriving and large amounts are being used up in salaries, bureaucracy and payments to U.S. security firms providing the gear.

(Reporting by David Alexander, editing by Jackie Frank)

U.S. Mexico

Ministers demand cab-for-hire Byers had no influence

Jenny Booth & , : {}

The Government today dismissed calls for an inquiry into whether Stephen Byers and other former Cabinet ministers had unduly influenced government policy by lobbying on behalf of business.

Harriet Harman told the House of Commons that urgent internal inquiries at the departments of transport, trade and health had found no trace of the impropriety alleged by Mr Byers.

The former Transport Minister was secretly filmed boasting to undercover reporters that he was a political "cab for hire" who had secured secret deals with serving ministers, obtained confidential information from No 10 and helped firms to manoeuvre around price-fixing rules. Mr Byers, a Blairite, said that he charged up to 5,000 a day.

Among Mr Byerss boasts was that he had come to a secret deal with Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, over the termination of National Express"s rail franchise contract, and that Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, had got regulations on food labelling amended after he intervened on behalf of the Tesco supermarket firm.

Multimedia Video: Dispatches programme Politicians for Hire Related LinksComment: "Cab for hire" politicians fell in trapIm like a cab for hire at up to 5,000 a dayRevealed: Labours cash for influence scandal

Two other former Cabinet ministers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon, were also recorded by the undercover reporters from The Sunday Times and Channel 4 offering to undertake lobbying work, and Ms Hewitt was alleged to have influenced an appointment to an advisory group.

Ms Harman told the House of Commons that the Prime Minister had asked Sir Gus ODonnell, the Cabinet Secretary, today for assurance that the departments of business, transport and health had looked into the claims.

Ms Harman said: In each of the cases raised the departments have looked into these allegations and are satisfied that these decisions have been made without the impropriety alleged.

"They have assured the Cabinet Secretary that they are satisfied that there has been no improper influence on Government policy or ministerial decisions.

She added that the departments would publish statements detailing their findings today.

The revelations, in yesterday"s Sunday Times, have provoked reaction from all sides of the political divide, and have transferred the pressure over Westminster sleaze previously focused on Lord Ashcroft and the Tories onto the Government.

Lord Adonis issued a strongly worded statement to the House of Lords this afternoon, admitting that Mr Byers had tried to speak to him about the National Express franchise but categorically denying that he had been swayed by him.

Lord Adonis said: Stephen Byers had a brief conversation in the House of Commons with me last June about the East Coast Main Line. We discussed his experience in dealing with rail franchise difficulties when Transport Secretary.

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Samuel Etoo ensures that Chelsea sojourn condemned by Jose Mourinho Football

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent & , : {}

Of all the majority traits that Jos Mourinho instilled in his Chelsea teams, the usually one to behind the head last night was the harm complex.

Once again John Terry et al found themselves venting annoy at the compare officials as they over the Champions League stage, but this time any speak of a Uefa refereeing swindling should give approach to a small critical self-examination.

There will be recriminations over the red label shown to Didier Drogba, for an clever stamp on Thiago Motta with 3 mins remaining, and over a clever Chelsea chastisement interest that was deserted in possibly leg, but do not let Terry or any one else contend that they were attacked over dual fast and mad legs. Quite simply, they were knocked about by a improved team.

A improved group or simply a improved organised, improved drilled team? Either way, it reflects well on Mourinho and rather less so on Carlo Ancelotti, his ultimate inheritor in the Chelsea dugout. As Chelseas players looked to the touchline for impulse in the second half, they saw Mourinho gesticulating extravagantly and Ancelotti looking, well, a small forlorn. We contingency get afar from this diseased thought that touchline feeling is an indicator of managerial ability, but for as prolonged as Terry, Drogba, Frank Lampard and the rest sojourn in thrall to Mourinho, comparisons, whilst odious, are inevitable.

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Ancelotti could well lead Chelsea to the Barclays Premier League pretension and the FA Cup this season, but this was not a good night for him. Even if Inters supporters were roughly positively guilty of sad meditative as they serenaded the AC Milan fable with strong chants of Bye bye Carletto towards the finish of the diversion and steady that summary when Roman Abramovich done the long, waste travel opposite the representation towards the dressing-room area thereafter Ancelotti will simulate on this as the majority chastening night of his initial deteriorate at Stamford Bridge.

It was additionally a night when Inter gave a sign that there is still hold up in Serie A. Italian clubs have fared miserably opposite their Premier League counterparts in the Champions League over the past integrate of seasons majority not long ago AC Milans unlucky defeat at Old Trafford a week ago but Inter achieved here with silk as well as steel, the former supposing roughly to one side by Wesley Sneijder and the latter granted by resolute total such as Lúcio, Walter Samuel, Thiago Motta and Esteban Cambiasso, 4 players who heed to Mourinhos order for his teams to have a strong, intractable spine.

It was Sneijder, inevitably, who set up the usually idea of the night with eleven mins left as he constructed the third in a array of defence-splitting passes, to send Samuel Etoo transparent for an event that, after his progressing profligacy, he did not brave to miss. Chelseas players looked to the partner arbitrate for an offside flag, but Alex, who had a formidable dusk to one side Terry in executive defence, had obviously played Etoo onside.

Sneijder is a smashing bent but he could frequency have illusory that he would find as most space as this in the close proportions of Stamford Bridge. If Chelsea still had a player in the Claude Makelele cover to unit the area in front of their behind four, it would have been a opposite story, but John Obi Mikel has zero of the good Frenchmans fortify or tactical nous.

Mourinho done the rather tributary point thereafter that Branislav Ivanovic and Yuri Zhirkov dual of the 4 players in the Chelsea starting choice whom he had not paid for had been diseased links, but Ancelottis group were bad in each department. With the difference of Florent Malouda, they simply did not perform.

There was a five-minute spell possibly side of half-time when Chelsea banged on the doorway regularly but, with Inter fortifying resolutely, it was not enough. When Malouda danced inside dual hurdles in the chastisement area only prior to half-time, Samuel appeared from nowhere to take the round off his toe. When Drogba sent Nicolas Anelka by moments later, Samuel steady the trick. When Drogba eventually transient the attentions of Samuel with a rambling run early in the second half, Lúcio was there to tinge out the danger. And when Malouda fizzed a low shot by a crowd, Júlio Csar, Inters glorious but mostly untested goalkeeper, pushed the round around a post.

Ancelotti, his recklessness growing, sent on Joe Cole and Salomon Kalou as he looked for something different, but conjunction player done the smallest impact. If anything, the changes played in to Mourinhos hands as Sneijder found even some-more space in midfield.

The movement was resolutely with Inter and, after Sneijder set up Etoo and Diego Milito in discerning succession, with the foul maligned Zhirkov creation the liberation plunge into on each occasion, Milito struck an additional event wide, Mourinhos red blood vigour seemed to soar on the touchline.

He need not have worried. Sneijder separate the home counterclaim again and Etoo ran clear, this time eventually violence Ross Turnbull, Chelseas third-choice goalkeeper.

Mourinho reacted by pumping his fist really discreetly, the Tim Henman of celebrations, and, being the timorous violet that he is, proceeded to watch the last mins of the diversion from the remoteness of the players tunnel, afar from the radio cameras.

And let us finish at the begin of the evening, when Mourinho appeared on the touchline pre-match to a soundtrack of the Rainbow classical Since Youve Been Gone. The subsequent line goes Im outta my head, cant take it, quickly followed by You expel the spell, so mangle it. The regard for everybody at Stamford Bridge is that Mourinhos spell, far from being broken, has been reinforced. And if you think that Terry and his team-mates will not be pining for Mourinho this morning, it is to blink the border to that he remains, in their eyes, the Special One.

Chelsea (4-3-3): R Turnbull B Ivanovic, Alex, J Terry, Y Zhirkov (sub: S Kalou, 73min) M Ballack (sub: J Cole, 63), J O Mikel, F Lampard N Anelka, D Drogba, F Malouda. Substitutes not used: R Taylor, R Carvalho, J Belletti, J Bruma, D Sturridge. Booked: Malouda, Drogba, Alex, Terry. Sent off: Drogba.

Inter Milan (4-2-1-3): Júlio Csar Maicon, Lúcio, W Samuel, J Zanetti E Cambiasso, T Motta (sub: M Materazzi, 90) W Sneijder (sub: M Mariga, 85) S Etoo, D Milito, G Pandev (sub: D Stankovic, 74). Substitutes not used: F Toldo, I Córdoba, D Santon, R Quaresma. Booked: Etoo, Motta, Lúcio, Júlio Csar.

Referee: W Stark (Germany).

Slaps in face of respect

Didier Drogba over the Champions League in indignity for the third unbroken deteriorate last night 2008 Final, Manchester United 1 Chelsea 1 (United win 6-5 on pens): Drogba is sent off in additional time for slapping Nemanja Vidic.

2009 Semi-final, Chelsea 1 Barcelona 1 (1-1 on agg; Barcelona win on afar goals rule): Refereeing decisions prompt striker to scream at a TV camera: Its a f***ing disgrace.

hair wig

We all watched Mandy brag on the theme of bullying

Ann Treneman & , : {}

To give Lord Mandelson credit, the fightback anti-bullying press discussion didnt go horribly wrong until the end. Oh, there were a couple of moments when he seemed a bit tetchy and defensive, but it began with one of his remarkably assembled put-downs.

I contingency say, he said, eyes flicking turn the room, I think this total event is starting to take a slight odour.

I sniffed but could acknowledge usually the gloomy aroma of coffee in Gallery 10 of the Saatchi Gallery in London, the host for yesterday mornings UK Trade and Investment Conference press conference, that had right away been hijacked by the bullying story. It was a surreal setting, dominated by a 4m-high (14ft) cut with a chisel of a child in Mumbai offered books. Mandy, hair greyer and fluffier than usual, was in a pet.

I insincere this was a charge in a teacup done by someone who longed for a little headlines for his book, he sniffed. It right away looks some-more similar to a domestic operation in a little ways destined at the Prime Minister personally.

Related LinksDowning Street staff urged to air problemsCharitys Brown bullying claims in disbelief

What was his evidence? Mandy had listened that Tory press officers had been running reporters towards Mrs Pratt (oh, the snarl in the approach he pronounced that name) of the National Bullying Hotline.

But what was his tangible evidence?

When I saw her being interviewed, he said, she referred to Mandelson in this rather derogatory way. You think, God, is this the head of a gift who is endangered about bullying or is she meddlesome in scoring points opposite the Government? The reporters done a gurgling noise, as if we were underneath water. Im only raising the question, protested Mandy. Im not asking you to come to conclusions.

Tom Bradby, of ITN, remarkable that the PM was being indicted of being a aroused overly suspicious bully. Not true, pronounced Mandy, though Gordon Brown did caring passionately.

Sometimes in frustration, you throw your writings down on the desk, remarkable Mandy, prior to rallying: Golly, if the Prime Minister wasnt undone about these things, frankly, I would have some-more to be concerned about.

But why, asked the man from the Metro newspaper, was No 10 so discerning to repudiate it all? Why hadnt it investigated first?

Investigation of what? asked Mandy. Metro man stammered: Of allegations of bullying.

Which allegations? demanded Mandy not once but thrice.

The room was still right away as we watched Mandy brag on the theme of bullying. Well, pronounced Metro man, the ones about the PM attack out at staff, pulling them out of chairs . . .

Do you call them allegations or do you call that an writer with a book to sell? snapped Mandy.

Metro man attempted to criticism but Mandy shot back: Do you unequivocally not think that we have got improved things to do than follow up each Rag, Tag and Bobtail play on words and smear?

Mandy paused prior to exploding. Weve got a nation to run!

The room was pin-drop quiet. Now I pronounced to you prior to that nobody bullies! Nobody tolerates bullying in this Government. Period. Zero. And thats it. OK?

Silence. But, similar to Vesuvius, Mandy could not stop. He was not going to follow each claim done by a journal or writer who longed for publicity. Nor could he follow after smears from each Tom, Dick and Harry.

I wondered if Tom, Dick and Harry knew Rag, Tag and Bobtail. And how was it that the immorality Tories managed to have them all fit in to a charge in a teacup?

Weve got improved things to do with the lives! Mandy cried prior to striding out.

Everyone only looked at each other. Scary or what?

Huge asteroid stroke did spell the finish for dinosaurs experts say

Mark Henderson, Science Editor & , : {}

The passing of the dinosaurs was caused by a outrageous asteroid colliding with Earth and not by volcanic activity, an lawful examination by 41 scientists of the justification has concluded.

The thought that an asteroid stroke triggered the mass annihilation eventuality 65 million years ago, wiping out some-more than half the class on the planet, has not prolonged ago been challenged by a little researchers. Critics of the asteroid supposition have claimed that a immeasurable void at Chicxulub in Mexico, gouged by an asteroid as far-reaching as the city of Bristol, is 300,000 years as well old to have been obliged for the mass extinction. They have instead due that heated volcanic eruptions in the Deccan Traps, in what is right afar India, were the cause.

The new review, published in the biography Science, seeks to transparent up this strong anomaly, indicating resolutely towards the Chicxulub stroke as the main eventuality in the KT annihilation that distant the Cretaceous (K) and Tertiary (T), or Palaeogene, periods.

Glass-like deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, that appeared to show the stroke happened prolonged prior to the mass extinction, were as well vigourously topsy-turvy up by the incident to yield a arguable date, the consultant row has found. Debris over afar from the stroke site shows obviously that it occurred at the right time to have proposed the die-off.

Related LinksDinosaurs swallowed food in one gulpOldest leafy dinosaurs lived 160 million years ago

Other justification shows that the Deccan Traps eruptions could not be the means of the annihilation as they were widespread over 1.5 million years. During the initial 500,000 years of this volcanic activity, ecosystems did not shift appreciably, prior to unexpected collapsing at the time of the Chicxulub event.

Joanna Morgan, of Imperial College London, an writer of the report, said: We right afar have good certainty that an asteroid was the means of the KT extinction. This triggered large-scale fires, earthquakes measuring some-more than 10 on the Richter scale, and continental landslides, that combined tsunamis.

However, the last spike in the coffin for the dinosaurs happened when bloody element was ejected in to the atmosphere. This hidden the universe in dark and caused a tellurian winter, murdering off majority class that couldnt conform to this horrible environment.

The scientists said: If we are to uncover the method of events ... maybe the last place in the universe we should see is close to the Chicxulub stroke site, where the sedimentary deposits will be majority disturbed. Peter Schulte, of the University of Erlangen in Germany, who led the review, said: Combining all accessible interpretation from opposite scholarship disciplines led us to interpretation that a large asteroid stroke 65 million years ago in modern-day Mexico was the vital means of the mass extinctions.

Gareth Collins, an additional co-author from Imperial, said: The asteroid strike Earth twenty times faster than a speeding bullet. The blast of prohibited stone and gas would have looked identical to a outrageous round of glow on the horizon, barbecuing any vital quadruped in the evident closeness that couldnt find shelter. While this signalled the finish of the 160-million-year power of the dinosaurs, it incited out to be a good day for mammals. The KT annihilation was a main impulse in Earths history, that in conclusion paved the approach for humans to turn the widespread class on Earth.

Asteroid impact

7.5 miles (12km) estimated diameter, identical to Bristols

1bn appetite expelled about a billion times some-more than that of Hiroshima chief explosve

60 miles (100km) breadth of strange stroke void

18 miles (30km) low

44,640 mph estimated speed as it strike Earth (20 times faster than purloin bullet)

Source: University of Texas