Hospital Infections Kill 18 Babies in Jamaica

SAN JUAN – Outbreaks of bacterial infection at two Jamaican hospitals have claimed the lives of 18 babies since June, the government said Wednesday.

“I want to start by expressing my support to the families involved. As a father myself, I know what it is like to have a sick child, but I cannot begin to imagine what a parent goes through when they lose a child no matter the reason,” Health Minister Fenton Ferguson said in a statement.

Ferguson said the ministry has already sent teams to the University Hospital of the West Indies and the Cornwall Regional Hospital, where a total of 42 newborns were infected and 18 died.

The infections were caused by klebsiella and serratia, two common bacteria.

Most of the fatalities were premature babies.

The Health Ministry said it has taken steps to increase monitoring of sanitation practices, improve training of hospital staff and restrict items allowed into nurseries, among other measures.

Man Gunned Down in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY – Police found the body of a 45-year-old man in a Mexico City street near the bridge where a body was found hanging earlier this week, the Federal District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

The body was discovered Tuesday night in Iztapalapa, a borough in eastern Mexico City, with “gunshot wounds,” a DA’s office spokesman told EFE.

The killers left a message for Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera with the body.

Police also found a message near the body hanging off a bridge on Monday.

The two killings appear to be related to a dispute between rival gangs operating out of the Reclusorio Oriente prison, and the DA’s office is investigating the homicides.

Mexico’s drug cartels frequently hanged the bodies of rivals, often accompanied by messages, off bridges during President Felipe Calderon’s 2006-2012 administration.

The practice was especially common in northern states like Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, but it has been rare in Mexico City.

Iztapalapa has been considered one of the most dangerous areas in Mexico City for years.

Government Undersecretary for Law Enforcement and Citizens Participation Arturo Escobar acknowledged in an interview published on Wednesdy by the daily El Universal that Iztapalapa, Gustavo A. Madero and Cuauhtemoc were the Mexico City boroughs that the federal government was most concerned about.

Mexico City officials say that drug cartels do not operate in the capital, where retail drug sales are dominated by small gangs.

Robbers Carrying Baby Hold up Store at Gunpoint in Argentina

Man Gunned Down Near Restaurant Where Mexican Governor Was Dining

MEXICO CITY – Investigators are looking into the murder of a hotel worker who was gunned down at a club located next to a restaurant in the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco where Guerrero Gov. Hector Astudillo was dining, the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office said Sunday.

Gunmen riding in a vehicle opened fire on the man outside a club in Acapulco’s waterfront district around 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, the AG’s office said in a statement.

“The Attorney General’s Office is conducting all the necessary investigations to clear up this regrettable incident,” the AG’s office said.

The statement did not mention the fact that the governor was eating at the restaurant, but media reports said Astudillo was at the establishment next to the disco.

“What happened in Acapulco is sad; there was an incident at a place near where we were dining. We are fine,” the governor said in a Twitter post.

Media reports said members of the governor’s security team were wounded when they repelled the attack.

Astudillo plans to hold a press conference to discuss the shooting.

Acapulco, one of Mexico’s leading tourist destinations, has been plagued by a wave of drug-related violence that has claimed the lives of dozens of people.

Body found hanging from bridge in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The body of a man wrapped from ankles to neck in white bandages was found Monday hanging from a bridge in Mexico City.

The city prosecutor's office said in a statement that the man was approximately 25 years old and had had two bullet wounds to the head.

The body was found hanging from the Concordia bridge in the Acatitla neighborhood around 5 a.m. A black cloth appeared to cover his head like a hood, but his face was exposed and the rope was tied around his chest. He was not wearing shoes.

A sign with a warning was found below the bridge, about 100 yards away. Officials did not reveal what the warning was.

Reporter shot in the middle of story "city of Ramallah", See video

Hamas News - Rumor of suicide attacks in the "West Bank ", ( This would be a terrorist act in nature ) ?

Israeli officials on Monday said they've learned that the senior Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip has instructed its operatives in the West Bank to carry out suicide attacks against Jewish targets, a number of media outlets reported on Monday.



The focal points of Hamas activity in the Palestinian territories are Nablus and Hebron, Israeli officials said.

As authorities struggle to grapple with the wave of Palestinian acts of violence in recent weeks, Israeli officials are convinced that Hamas will make every effort to execute a large-scale attack by using whatever means are available to its men in the field.

A Palestinian source told Israel Radio that the Palestinian Authority's security forces apprehended a group of Hamas men in Hebron who were planning a number of attacks. 

According to the PA, the Hamas operatives were found to have in their possession large sums of money as well as explosives.

While it was unclear exactly how the men planned to carry out the attack, the Palestinian security forces said they had expressed their desire to die.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior figure in Hamas' political bureau, told an Islamist-affiliated web site in Gaza that he was hopeful the current violence would escalate into "an armed intifada."

The Hamas leader said that it was incumbent on the Palestinians to use firearms and more deadly means "since this is what the Israeli side is doing."

"Those who are coming out against an armed intifada are doing so out of personal interest and VIP status," he said, taking a veiled verbal swipe at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.