Mexico City Mexico

Wednesday night's World Cup qualifying game was the 20th time the United States and Mexico have played in qualifying, with Mexico holding a 13-3-4 advantage. The results: *--* Date Site Result May 24, 1934 Rome USA 4, Mexico 2 Sept. 4, 1949 Mexico City Mexico 6, USA 0 Sept. 18, 1949 Mexico City Mexico 6, USA 2 Jan. 10, 1954 Mexico City Mexico 4, USA 0 Jan. 14, 1954 Mexico City Mexico 3, USA 1 April 7, 1957 Mexico City Mexico 6, USA 0 April 28, 1957 Long Beach Mexico 7, USA 2 Nov.

Wednesday night's World Cup qualifying game was the 20th time the United States and Mexico have played in qualifying, with Mexico holding a 13-3-4 advantage. The results: *--* Date Site Result May 24, 1934 Rome USA 4, Mexico 2 Sept. 4, 1949 Mexico City Mexico 6, USA 0 Sept. 18, 1949 Mexico City Mexico 6, USA 2 Jan. 10, 1954 Mexico City Mexico 4, USA 0 Jan. 14, 1954 Mexico City Mexico 3, USA 1 April 7, 1957 Mexico City Mexico 6, USA 0 April 28, 1957 Long Beach Mexico 7, USA 2 Nov.

When I want to imagine the way Mexico City used to be, I go to Coyoacan and stroll down Avenida Francisco Sosa, the first boulevard the Spaniards laid out in what would become the city's oldest neighborhood. Coyoacan's 400-year-old houses face the street with adobe and ceramic facades; its narrow alleys evoke Seville. I pass by ancient, well-trodden doorways with stone arches and Latin inscriptions and walk under the undulating roof line of the Casa Alvarado, which sags charmingly with age.

On a historic day of confetti and speeches, leftist icon Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was sworn in Friday as Mexico City's mayor, assuming the most powerful job ever held by an opposition figure in this nation's modern political system. Because of the importance of the teeming capital--the center of Mexico's political, economic and cultural life--Cardenas' rule is anticipated as a key test of whether the left will be able to govern the country.

Sharing a 2,000-mile border, it is only natural that the United States and Mexico also should share sporting rivalries. In soccer, that rivalry is in its 63rd year and has always been more than a little one-sided. Until 1990, and the rise of the current generation of American players, Mexico dominated. Now, although the United States has not moved ahead of Mexico, it at least has pulled somewhat even. And that has had the following impact: * U.S.

On a historic day of confetti and speeches, leftist icon Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was sworn in Friday as Mexico City's mayor, assuming the most powerful job ever held by an opposition figure in this nation's modern political system. Because of the importance of the teeming capital--the center of Mexico's political, economic and cultural life--Cardenas' rule is anticipated as a key test of whether the left will be able to govern the country.

It was a typical Saturday afternoon on the corner of Chalco and Garay in Mexico City's poorest district--until the ground opened up and swallowed Pati Ortiz. Ortiz was sitting at Hortencia Gener's quesadilla stand when they heard the earth crack. Gener felt Ortiz grab at her skirt. She heard her scream. And then, Ortiz was gone--sucked into a 20-foot-deep hole that ruptured without warning in the concrete patio where she sat.

Mexico is expected to receive $306 million in World Bank financing during the next four years to fight pollution, two-thirds of it in an unprecedented loan to combat smog from car and truck fumes. "Because vehicles are the major source of pollution in Mexico City, we are becoming involved for the first time in a transportation-related program," said Carl-Heinz Mumme, the World Bank senior economist in charge of the project.

An army general has taken charge of law enforcement in the Mexican capital, promising to use force only as a last resort to arrest soaring crime rates, public insecurity and police corruption in one of the largest cities on the globe. As he assumed Mexico City's top police job over the weekend, Gen. Enrique Tomas Salgado indicated that he will appoint military officers to key public security posts to professionalize Mexico City's police ranks.

If people have been telling you that Xochimilco, the floating gardens on the south side of Mexico City, are too seedy to warrant a trip, don't believe them. I'd heard the same thing for years--all from people who hadn't actually been there. Bad word-of-mouth on the place. But no longer accurate. Xochimilco (so-chee-MEAL-co) has recently been renovated to quintessential Mexican splendor and Mexicophiles will feel like they've died and gone to heaven.

Sharing a 2,000-mile border, it is only natural that the United States and Mexico also should share sporting rivalries. In soccer, that rivalry is in its 63rd year and has always been more than a little one-sided. Until 1990, and the rise of the current generation of American players, Mexico dominated. Now, although the United States has not moved ahead of Mexico, it at least has pulled somewhat even. And that has had the following impact: * U.S.

It was a typical Saturday afternoon on the corner of Chalco and Garay in Mexico City's poorest district--until the ground opened up and swallowed Pati Ortiz. Ortiz was sitting at Hortencia Gener's quesadilla stand when they heard the earth crack. Gener felt Ortiz grab at her skirt. She heard her scream. And then, Ortiz was gone--sucked into a 20-foot-deep hole that ruptured without warning in the concrete patio where she sat.

An army general has taken charge of law enforcement in the Mexican capital, promising to use force only as a last resort to arrest soaring crime rates, public insecurity and police corruption in one of the largest cities on the globe. As he assumed Mexico City's top police job over the weekend, Gen. Enrique Tomas Salgado indicated that he will appoint military officers to key public security posts to professionalize Mexico City's police ranks.

When I want to imagine the way Mexico City used to be, I go to Coyoacan and stroll down Avenida Francisco Sosa, the first boulevard the Spaniards laid out in what would become the city's oldest neighborhood. Coyoacan's 400-year-old houses face the street with adobe and ceramic facades; its narrow alleys evoke Seville. I pass by ancient, well-trodden doorways with stone arches and Latin inscriptions and walk under the undulating roof line of the Casa Alvarado, which sags charmingly with age.

If people have been telling you that Xochimilco, the floating gardens on the south side of Mexico City, are too seedy to warrant a trip, don't believe them. I'd heard the same thing for years--all from people who hadn't actually been there. Bad word-of-mouth on the place. But no longer accurate. Xochimilco (so-chee-MEAL-co) has recently been renovated to quintessential Mexican splendor and Mexicophiles will feel like they've died and gone to heaven.

Mexico is expected to receive $306 million in World Bank financing during the next four years to fight pollution, two-thirds of it in an unprecedented loan to combat smog from car and truck fumes. "Because vehicles are the major source of pollution in Mexico City, we are becoming involved for the first time in a transportation-related program," said Carl-Heinz Mumme, the World Bank senior economist in charge of the project.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's giant Popocatepetl volcano may generate lava flows, explosions of "growing intensity" and ash that could reach miles away, the National Center for Disaster Prevention said Monday. Officials were preparing evacuation routes and shelters for thousands of people who live in the shadow of Popocatepetl, located 40 miles southeast of Mexico City. Officials have created a 7.5-mile restricted zone around the cone of the volcano. Popo, as the volcano is known, has displayed a "notable increase in activity levels" in the last few days, including tremors and explosive eruptions, according to a statement from the federal government.

If Carlos Fuentes could have invented the perfect character to star in one of his novels, he might have come up with a protagonist named Carlos Fuentes. That character would be a glamorous global citizen who was born in Panama as a diplomat's son, then hopscotched to Washington, D.C., London, Paris and other glittering power centers. A dapper ladies' man who married an actress and claimed to have had affairs with screen sirens Jeanne Moreau and Jean Seberg. A lifelong adventurer, like the tragedy-haunted journalist hero of Fuentes' novel "The Old Gringo," played by Gregory Peck in the 1989 film version . A man who, like many of Fuentes' characters, overcomes personal tragedy of near-mythic proportions partly through the sheer power of his own relentless drive and productivity.