Mexico City - Mexico's central bank cut the leading interest rate by 25 basic points Friday to leave it at 7.5 per cent.

This was the second interest rate cut in Mexico in little over a month.

The Bank of Mexico said the global financial crisis continued to get tougher, and said that, although inflation has shown a downward trend since January, "the strong financial turbulence that was observed recently represents a risk."

Mexico City  - An estimated 500,000 truck and bus drivers in Mexico were on a 24-hour strike starting Monday, demanding the government freeze diesel prices.

Regional authorities in the states most affected by the strike tried to maintain a skeletal bus service so as not to inconvenience commuters. Private buses were allowed to operate as public transport vehicles.

The strike wreaked havoc in many Mexican cities, although it did not affect the bus and truck traffic in the capital, Mexico City.

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  - The police chief in the Mexican resort city of Cancun was removed from his position on Monday and taken to Mexico City for questioning, following the murder of a general who had been designated to combat the drug trade in the area.

Cancun Mayor Gregorio Sanchez said the city's top official for public safety and traffic, Francisco Velasco Delgado, was taken to an office in the capital that specializes in organized crime issues.

Mexico City  - Five people were found dead Thursday in the northern Mexican village of El Millon, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, the Chihuahua state attorney general's office said.

The bodies bore gunshot wounds and were lying on the road from Ciudad Juarez to Porvenir.

Last week, three human heads were found in El Millon, placed on a cooler in the middle of a public square.

Mexico City - Mexican authorities arrested the main link between the Sinaloa Drug Cartel and its suppliers in Colombia, along with eight other alleged drug traffickers, police said Wednesday.

Geronimo Gamez Garcia allegedly travelled often to Panama and Colombia to negotiate drug prices and organize deliveries. Cocaine was then taken to Mexico through the country's border with Guatemala.