Mexico City  - Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held power for more than seven decades in Mexico, but its 80th anniversary falls Wednesday with the party out of power, albeit with promising opinion polls.

In the wake of the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution, the winning factions resorted to violent power struggles. The PRI was founded on March 4, 1929, to institute peaceful transitions to power among the revolutionary elements.

The PRI is a member of the Socialist International, but its policies are difficult to classify.

Saltillo, Mexico  - Daimler AG opened a new truck plant in the northern Mexican city of Saltillo on Friday, which will manufacture about 30,000 heavy-duty Freightliner trucks for the United States, Mexican and Canadian markets.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon attended the ceremony at Daimler Trucks North America's second plant in Mexico, which was built with an investment of 300 million dollars. The company said it expected the plant to generate 1,400 direct jobs and 200 indirect jobs, as well as an additional 1,100 jobs in the local autoparts industry.

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Mexico City - A criminal commando killed 12 people in the south-western Mexican Tabasco province in an act of revenge against a police officer and his family for arresting a gang of murder suspects, officials confirmed Sunday.

The extraordinary gruesome attack on Saturday evening took the lives of six children in Monte Largo, 50 kilometres south of the Tabasco capital Villahermosa.

Officials believed the motive was revenge against a police officer who helped arrest four suspected killers on Tuesday who were members of a criminal gang.

Mexico City  - It started with small groups of students demonstrating against the Mexican Army. A few days later the protestors were 200-strong and growing increasingly aggressive.

Officials in Mexico claim that powerful drug cartels are paying protestors to block streets in protest and disrupt life in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

In exchange for demonstrating against the military presence, recruiters are apparently handing out school backpacks and 500 pesos (about 35 dollars) in cash per person, the Mexican daily Reforma reported.

Geneva  - Mexican Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont said Tuesday that while his country had progressed in terms of democracy and human rights in recent years it still had to strengthen the rule of law and overcome the challenges of poverty.

Specifically, the country needed to better combat human trafficking, prevent torture, protect indigenous peoples and end forced disappearances, said Gomez Mont said during his country's periodic review at the United Nations' Human Rights Council.