Mexico City  - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Federal Police command centre in the second day of her visit to Mexico.

In the morning hours, Clinton went to the religious building, where she heard an explanation of the importance that this statue of the Virgin Mary has for the Mexican people.

Madrid  - A court in the northern Spanish city of Santander said Thursday it would seek the extradition of suspected swindler Jose Perez Diaz who has been arrested in Mexico after being on the run for 18 years.

Perez Diaz, known as Pepe el del Popular, 57, was one of Spain's most wanted fugitives, with media referring to him as an "early Madoff" - after confessed US financial fraudster Robert Madoff.

Mexico City  - On the day of Hillary Clinton's first visit to Mexico as US secretary of state, drug violence - which was sure to dominate her discussions - continued to affect life in Mexico Wednesday.

An alleged drug trafficker whose extradition had been requested by the United States was boldly abducted from a hospital by an armed gang. And officials identified a man arrested Tuesday as one of the country's most wanted drug bosses.

Mexico City - More than a dozen armed men entered a hospital in the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua on Wednesday and abducted an alleged drug trafficker whose extradition had been requested by the United States, the authorities confirmed.

The group - made up of 12-20 men, according to the authorities - entered the hospital around 4 am and took the weapons and cellphones off seven bodyguards assigned to protect the man, Chihuahua public prosecutor's office spokesman Eduardo Esparza told German Press Agency dpa.

Mexico City  - Mexican President Felipe Calderon is to meet with Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and several British politicians and legislators during a state visit to Britain prior to the G20 summit next week in London.

"President Calderon will have an intense work agenda which includes meetings with the most relevant actors in political life of the United Kingdom," the Mexican president's office said Wednesday in a statement.

Mexico City  - On her first visit to Mexico, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Wednesday emphasized that Washington was prepared to help shoulder the responsibility alongside Mexico for fighting the increasingly violent drug cartels south of the US border.

Before her meeting with President Felipe Calderon, Clinton remarked to reporters that the "insatiable demand" for illegal drugs in the US feeds the drug violence and trade. Mexico's Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa joined the talks.