Mexico City - The category two hurricane Norbert lashed the west coast of Mexico Saturday, causing considerable damage along the Baja California peninsula.

The roofs of houses were blown off and electricity pylons ripped out in wind speeds of more than 200 kilometres per hour, the national weather service said.

Around 1,000 people have sought refuge in shelters as heavy rain flooded roads and houses.

Mexico City - The Bank of Mexico sold 6.4 billion dollars in the currency markets Friday, in an ongoing effort to prevent the local peso from depreciating too far, Mexico's central bank said.

On Wednesday, the Bank of Mexico sold 2.5 billion dollars, and promised to keep intervening in the currency markets with some 400 million dollars per day for as long as it took to protect the peso. However, their efforts have so far not had the desired effect, and the Mexican currency continued to slide.

Mexico City - The Bank of Mexico said Wednesday it would intervene in the foreign currency market to stabilize the peso-dollar relationship, following a 30 per cent depreciation of the national currency in recent days.

Mexico's central bank said in a statement that it planned to sell 2.5 billion dollars on Wednesday "in the face of conditions of uncertainty and lack of liquidity in the currency market."

The intervention will be not be confined to just one day.

Mexico City - Seven out of 10 Mexicans believe their country has already fallen victim to the global economic crisis, although Mexican authorities insist that the country is in a position to face the storm.

According to an opinion poll published in the daily El Universal on Wednesday, 91 per cent of Mexicans think the US crisis will impact their country, and 77 per cent believe that the crisis in Mexico itself has already started.

Of 500 people interviewed in the telephone survey, however, 51 per cent still claim that they do not personally feel the impact of the crisis.

Washington - Part of Mexico's eastern coast was under a hurric

Caracas - Venezuelan troops seized a cement plant owned by Mexico's Cemex SAB after a deal to nationalize the firm failed.

Troops occupied the Maracaibo Cemex plant in the western state of Zulia Monday night but plan to take control of all four Cemex plants in Venezuela Tuesday.

"At midnight, we are going to take operational control of Cemex's installations, and from that moment, the expropriation decree takes effect," Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Monday night in Caracas.

President Hugo Chavez announced in April that he would nationalize the cement industry after nationalizing power, telecommunication, oil and steel companies since last year.