Mexico City - US President Barack Obama is set to visit Mexico on April 16-17, the Mexican government said Wednesday.

Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are set to discuss "several matters in the hemispheric and global agenda that are of interest to both nations, particularly taking into account the active participation of both countries in several regional and global forums," said Max Cortazar, spokesman for the Mexican Presidency.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to visit Mexico on March 25-26 for meeting with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Mexico March 25 and 26 amid increasing drug-related violence along the US border.

The State Department said Friday Clinton will meet with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa for talks on a host of issues that focus on cooperation between the two countries in fighting narcotics.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on drug cartels has resulted in a jump in violence near the US border among trafficking gangs and retributions against police.

Mexico City  -

Teopisca, Mexico  - Before the financial and economic crisis broke out, Abelardo Lopez, a peasant from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, worked as a gardener at a golf course in Phoenix, Arizona.

He earned 10 dollars an hour for mowing and watering the lawn, and for assisting people who took part in golf tournaments. In the middle of the ongoing global recession, however, he was handed over to the authorities for deportation alongside 70 other Mexicans.

Mexic

Mexico City  - The dreaded Los Aztecas gang demonstrated this week that it can operate with impunity and kill at will, even within prison walls.

The gang was responsible for the deaths of 20 inmates in a prison in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a city that has become a bloody battleground for powerful drug cartels that fight each other and the authorities.