Mexico City  - The sixth World Meeting of Families started Wednesday in Mexico City, in the presence of Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Some 7,500 pilgrims from 98 countries attended the opening ceremony alongside Calderon and high officials of the Roman Catholic Church.

For five days, families from around the world, 22 Roman Catholic cardinals and over 60 bishops and archbishops are set to take part in a Theological-Pastoral Congress.

Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday named lawyer Fernando Francisco Gomez Mont as his new interior minister to succeed Juan Camilo Mourino, killed in a plane crash six days earlier.

Gomez Mont, like Calderon, belongs to the National Action Party, in which he has served in a number of posts.

Under the Mexican constitution, the interior minister is Mexico's second-highest government official after the president.

Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday attended the funeral of some of the victims of Tuesday's airplane crash that killed 14 people, and promised a thorough investigation into the accident.

Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, 37, died in the crash, along with 13 others.

Calderon - a close friend of Mourino's - and his entire cabinet attended the burial ceremony in the Campo Marte military facility in Mexico City, not far from the site where the Lear Jet 45 crashed.

Mexico City - Was it an accident or was it an attack? Mexican authorities were beginning to investigate the cause of the plane crash that claimed the life of Mexican Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino and at least seven other people.

However, it was clear to observers that the death Tuesday night of the man who came second in Mexico's government hierarchy was the hardest blow that President Felipe Calderon has suffered since winning the presidency in late 2006.

Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon expressed "enormous sorrow" over the death of his interior minister and close friend Juan Camilo Mourino in a plane crash late Tuesday in Mexico City.

With his voice breaking, Calderon recalled that Mourino had been his companion in politics for several years and that they dreamed together of "a new homeland."

New York  - Major US stock indices were recovering Tuesday after turmoil in the financial sector on Monday led to the worst day on Wall Street since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 40 points early Tuesday afternoon, despite opening the trading day down about 150 points. The Dow plunged more than 500 points, or 4.4 per cent, on Monday.