Northern State

Flooding in the northern state of Chihuahua has isolated 115 villages and claimed 14 lives, the newspaper El Universal said Friday.

NEW DELHI - Politics, an official's controversial comments about rape, and an upcoming election. This may sound like a senatorial race in Missouri, but it's all part of a scandal that's unfolded in India over the last week. The anger, introspection and frustration among women's groups and social critics, however, have echoed American reaction to recent suggestions by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) that women's bodies are able to prevent pregnancy in the event of "legitimate rape. " The issue hit the headlines here when a 16-year-old girl committed suicide in the northern state of Haryana this month after being raped.

A bus rolled down a ravine Sunday in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, killing at least 20 people, the Press Trust of India said. Officials feared the death toll could reach 30.

Three California State Parks of the 70 slated to be closed next year because of the state's budget crisis have been given a reprieve for at least a year. The National Park Service has agreed to step in and operate these state parklands that fall within national boundaries: --Tomales Bay State Park in Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area; --Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Golden Gate National Recreation Area; --Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park within Redwood National Park, near Crescent City.

At least 180 people became seriously ill after eating beef barbecue and pork during a fiesta in this small town in the northern state of Durango, the official Notimex news agency reported Monday. Notimex quoted local officials as saying that 36 children were among those who got food poisoning during the weekend celebration.

A bomb exploded aboard a train in the northern state of Punjab, killing at least three passengers and injuring more than 20 others, the Press Trust of India news agency said Saturday. Railway officials said the bomb went off late Friday night in a compartment in the last coach of the train.

Mexico's opposition National Action Party will stage a large demonstration today in the northern state of Sonora to protest what it considers to be fraud in last week's elections, a party spokesman said. All of the party's candidates in Sonora, and their supporters, will converge on city hall in Hermosillo to demand the annulment of all the Sonora elections, he said.

Two Mexican highway patrolmen died from gas poisoning while searching for marijuana hidden in a tank truck carrying butane gas, the state news agency Notimex reported Friday. It said the two police agents intercepted the stolen truck Thursday on the Guayamas-Ciudad Obregon highway in the northern state of Sonora.

An outbreak of encephalitis has claimed 79 lives in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous, the Indian Express newspaper reported. Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. For many forms, there is no treatment.

India and Canada signed a treaty Friday that will make it easier for India to extradite Canadian-based Sikh extremists. Canadian External Affairs Minister Joe Clark signed the treaty--the first of its kind between Ottawa and New Delhi--with his Indian counterpart, Narain Dutt Tiwari. A ministry news release said the accord could "serve as a precedent for future agreements" with other countries.

Four journalists with Mexican news organizations remained missing Wednesday, two days after they were kidnapped in northern Mexico after covering disturbances at a troubled prison. The seizure of the journalists, representing two broadcasters and a newspaper, appeared to have been aimed at manipulating media coverage of drug gangs that are battling in the violence-plagued states of Durango and Coahuila. It was not immediately clear who carried out the kidnappings, though journalists said it probably was a trafficking group based in the state of Sinaloa that is said to hold sway at the Durango prison.

Forensic workers have recovered 51 bodies, some burned and mutilated, from a mass grave believed linked to Mexico's raging drug war, authorities said Saturday. The site near a trash dump in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon is the second-largest clandestine grave found in recent weeks. Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina said most of the dead were probably drug traffickers killed in fighting with rivals. But he acknowledged that the bodies had yet to be identified. "They could have been people linked to organized crime, [killed in]

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a preliminary investigation into brake failure in 6 million older-model Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickup trucks. The agency is looking at whether corrosion caused by the use of salt in snowy and icy conditions in Northern states is damaging brake controls. GM said it is cooperating in the investigation. The probe is in response to a motorist complaint of sudden loss of brake power and a longer-than-expected stopping distance after a corroded brake line burst.

Drug traffickers fighting to control northern Mexico have turned their guns and grenades on the Mexican army, authorities said, in an apparent escalation of warfare that played out across multiple cities in two border states. In coordinated attacks, gunmen in armored cars and equipped with grenade launchers fought army troops this week and attempted to trap some of them in two military bases by cutting off access and blocking highways, a new tactic by Mexico's organized criminals.

The governor of Mexico's most violent state said he was not the target of gunmen who opened fire on his convoy late Sunday night. Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas, governor of the northern state of Chihuahua, was uninjured when gunmen in a car fired at guards who were trailing him at some distance. A bodyguard died in the shootout, which occurred after Baeza's three-car convoy stopped at a signal in the state capital, also called Chihuahua. Two other bodyguards and an assailant were wounded.

Gunmen seized and killed six people, then got into a rolling shootout with Mexican soldiers Tuesday in a burst of violence that left at least 21 dead in the northern state of Chihuahua, officials said. The scale of bloodletting was remarkable even for Chihuahua, the deadliest spot in Mexico as a year-old turf war has raged in the state between rival drug-trafficking groups.

Kidnapers of an Indian Cabinet minister's daughter threatened to kill her after negotiations for her release broke down. Rubaiya Sayeed, 22, daughter of Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was kidnaped Friday. The separatist Kashmir Liberation Front took responsibility and demanded the release of five to seven militants. The front wants India's northern state of Jammu and Kashmir either to become independent or a part of Islamic Pakistan.

Avalanches caused by heavy rain and snow buried homes and blocked roads in the northern state of Kashmir, killing 66 people in six villages, news reports said Tuesday. The United News of India quoted official reports as saying that 49 people died Monday in two villages in Kargil district, about 90 miles northeast of the state capital of Srinagar. Snowstorms and heavy rain hit the mountain states last Thursday, triggering landslides that blocked highways.

John McCain's victory in South Carolina puts the Arizona senator in a strong position to win the Republican presidential nomination -- but only if he can follow up with another win in Florida nine days from now. "This is a huge win for McCain," said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican campaign manager who is not affiliated with a candidate. "He has the most momentum going into Florida next week."

More than 150 shouting leftist legislators stormed the dais at a joint session of Congress on Friday to prevent President Vicente Fox from delivering his final State of the Nation speech, a bold protest that heightened the crisis surrounding Mexico's disputed presidential election.