Mexico City - Mexican police found five human heads Tuesday in portable coolers on a road in Ixtlahuacan del Rio, some 600 kilometres northwest of Mexico City.

On the inside of the coolers' lids, two messages had been written in black ink, with threats addressed to someone that was only identified as "Goyo," a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in the state of Jalisco told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The authorities said the heads of the five men had been severed just hours before they were found.

Mexico City  - A picture is worth a thousand words and although French President Nicolas Sarkozy delivered several speeches during his visit to Mexico, it was his wife, former top model Carla Bruni, who monopolized the front pages of the Mexican press Tuesday.

Several newspapers did not even publish photos of Sarkozy with the information on his official visit. Bruni, with her pink blouse and dress, was featured in all the dailies.

Mexico City  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon Monday, to discuss the global financial crisis and several bilateral issues, including a French citizen imprisoned in Mexico for kidnapping.

On Monday, the two leaders discussed the case of Florence Cassez, a French citizen who has been condemned to a 60-year prison term in Mexico for her role in a triple kidnapping.

Mexico City - Nineteen inmates died and three others were injured Wednesday in a prison riot in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state police confirmed.

The trouble first started with rival gangs of inmates fighting for control of the prison. Anti-riot police were brought in as the situation spiralled out of control.

There was additional monitoring support from military helicopters that circled the jail, which is about 30 kilometres south of Ciudad Juarez.

Mexico City  - Armed groups carried out two simultaneous attacks Monday and injured four police officers in the Mexican town of Uruapan, in the northwestern state of Michoacan.

Michoacan authorities said hundreds of bullet holes were found in the home of Uruapan police boss Adolfo Medina Olivos, which was attacked with very powerful weapons. Two of the police officers guarding the site were injured, although their wounds were not life threatening.

Two other local police officers were injured in an attack on the Uruapan police headquarters.

Mexico City  - At least seven dogs that lived in a flat in a central Mexican town were killed by six masked attackers using a machete, the owner said Wednesday.

Neighbours who witnessed the attack said seven animals had been killed, but animal rights organization Pro Perro gave a much larger figure of 37 killed animals - including both cats and dogs, the Mexican daily El Universal reported.

"They were killed with blows of machetes and pipes," said Javier Cervantes, an animal-rights activist who kept the animals in his flat. He had rescued 52 dogs and 20 cats from the streets and ran a sort of informal shelter in a rented 60-square-metre flat in Jaltenco, in the state of Mexico adjoining the capital.