Briefly: Chavez faces cancer battle, another operation

MEXICO

Mutilated bodies found in vehicles near border

MEXICO CITY — Police have found the mutilated bodies of 13 people inside two vehicles abandoned in separate towns of the northern border state of Tamaulipas.

Authorities first found the cut-up bodies of two women and three men late Thursday in a potato chip delivery truck abandoned in the parking lot of a supermarket in the town of El Mante, a Tamaulipas state official said.

The official said police also found a threatening message signed by the Gulf drug cartel.

An hour later, police found eight bodies in the town of Soto la Marina along with a message claiming the victims were members of the Gulf cartel.

Northeastern Mexico along the border with Texas has been a war zone of shootouts and gruesome mass killings, as the Zetas and Gulf drug cartels battle each other in the states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

The region is home to cattle ranches, sorghum fields and the industrial city of Monterrey. The Zetas were hit men for the Gulf cartel until they split in 2010, unleashing their bloody war.

CANADA

Smugglers bring Gypsies through U.S. and Mexico

STANSTEAD, Quebec — Canadian immigration officials believe a Romanian smuggling ring has been bringing Gypsies into the United States through Mexico to eventually try for asylum in Canada.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says that 85 people who arrived in Canada over the past few months have now been classified as “irregular arrivals” and says 40 of them have been arrested under new immigration laws that allow for the mandatory detention of those suspected to have arrived in Canada via smugglers.

Irregular arrival means they cannot apply for permanent residence status for at least five years.

In recent months, cars loaded with ethnic Gypsy asylum seekers have run the border between Vermont and Quebec.

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

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