Ten children, youths and young adults between the ages of 8 and 21 were gunned down, presumably by drug traffickers, in the northern Mexican state of Durango, the state's attorney general said Monday.
The incident happened Sunday on a road near the town of Pueblo Nuevo in southern Durango.
Attorney General Daniel Garcia Leal said that unknown gunmen who had set up a fake checkpoint on the road shot and even threw grenades at the victims, the state-run Notimex news agency reported.
The victims were in a pickup truck, returning to their homes after having traveled to pick up money to support their school as part of a government social program, Garcia Leal said.
The gunmen motioned the truck to stop but the victims, out of fear of being robbed or assaulted, did not comply, the attorney general said.
No arrests had been made in the incident, which is the latest in which children have found themselves caught in the middle of the country's violent drug wars.
In January, in a case of mistaken identity, 15 people, mostly teenagers, were killed when gunmen attacked a house party in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
High winds have ripped a cruise ship from its dock, breaking the vessel's gangway as passengers were disembarking and tipping an elderly man into the sea.
The Italian-owned MSC Fantasia drifted away from the port wall in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in gusts of up to 110km per hour.
Passengers were making their way off the liner when a strong blast caused her to break her moorings.
The boat then moved far enough away from the quay to cause the gangway to collapse, around 15m above the sea.
One passenger fell into the water and had to be rescued by four members of the ship's crew.
The man, an 80-year-old Egyptian, is believed to have hit his head on the side of the ship and was in a serious condition in hospital, according to thinkspain.com.
Inside the cruise liner
The crew members were also taken to hospital and have now been discharged.
Palma's local port authority closed the port to traffic as a safety measure.
The 333-metre MSC Fantasia can accommodate 4,000 passengers and 1,325 crew members.
It is advertised by its owners MSC Italian Cruises as "the world's most beautiful cruise ship".
All on-board entertainment was cancelled for the night as result of the incident on Thursday.
At least 39 people have been killed after suicide bombers attacked in the Pakistani city of Lahore, police have said.
The blasts ripped through the RA Bazaar, which lies in a neighbourhood where several security agencies have facilities. More than 100 others were wounded, officials said.
Sky's South Asia correspondent Alex Crawford said police in Lahore told her: "There were two suicide bombers who both arrived on foot at a bus stop, which was situated in a market area inside the army residential area of Lahore.
"The first one saw an army patrol van coming along the road and he stepped out in front of it and blew himself up.
It was a big blast. I saw smoke rising everywhere. A lot of people were crying.
Eyewitness Afzal Awan
"Then, a few minutes later, the second bomber blew himself up."
Crawford added that large crowds were gathering for Friday prayers at the time and "that is why the casualties are rising".
Six security personnel were among the dead, police official Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq said.
Pakistani TV channels showed security forces swarming the area, as bystanders rushed the injured into ambulances.
Eyewitness Afzal Awan said he saw several people, some missing limbs, lying in pools of blood.
1) Carlos Slim Helu Net Worth: $53.5 billion Source: Telecom Residence: Mexico
• Telecom tycoon who pounced on privatization of Mexico's national telephone company in the 1990s becomes world's richest person for first time after coming in third place last year. Net worth up $18.5 billion in a year.
• Recently received regulatory approval to merge his fixed-line assets into American Movil, Latin America's biggest mobile phone company.
• His construction conglomerate, Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo, builds roads and energy infrastructure.
• Son of a Lebanese immigrant also owns stakes in financial group Inbursa, Bronco Drilling, Independent News & Media, Saks and New York Times Co.
• Newspaper outfit's stock popped in early March on talk he might buy a controlling stake; he denies the rumor.
• Donating $65 million to fund a research project in genomic medicine with American billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad.
AP Photo
2) Bill Gates Net Worth: $53 billion Source: Microsoft Residence: U.S.
• Software visionary is now the world's second-richest man. Net worth still up $13 billion in a year as Microsoft shares rose 50% in 12 months, value of investment vehicle Cascade swelled.
• More than 60% of fortune held outside Microsoft; investments include Four Seasons hotels, Televisa, Auto Nation.
• Stepped down from day-to-day duties at Microsoft in 2008 to focus on philanthropy.
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation dedicated to fighting hunger, improving education in America's high schools, developing vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
Carlos Slim Helu takes No. 1 spot on Forbes World's Billionaires list as a record 164 10-figure titans return to the ranking amid the global economic recovery.
For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.
Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil (AMX), Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.
Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.
That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft (MSFT) cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world's richest 14 of the past 15 years.
Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world. He is up $13 billion from a year ago as shares of Microsoft rose 50% in 12 months. Gates' holdings in his personal investment vehicle Cascade (CAE) also soared with the rest of the markets.
Buffett's fortune jumped $10 billion to $47 billion on rising shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK). He ranks third.
The Oracle of Omaha shrewdly invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs (GS) and $3 billion in General Electric (GE) amid the 2008 market collapse. He also recently acquired railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) for $26 billion.
In his annual shareholder letter Buffett wrote, "We've put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble."
Many plutocrats did just that. Indeed, last year's wealth wasteland has become a billionaire bonanza. Most of the richest people on the planet have seen their fortunes soar in the past year.
This year the World's Billionaires have an average net worth of $3.5 billion, up $500 million in 12 months. The world has 1,011 10-figure titans, up from 793 a year ago but still shy of the record 1,125 in 2008. Of those billionaires on last year's list, only 12% saw their fortunes decline.
U.S. billionaires still dominate the ranks — but their grip is slipping. Americans account for 40% of the world's billionaires, down from 45% a year ago.
The U.S. commands 38% of the collective $3.6 trillion net worth of the world's richest, down from 44% a year ago.
Of the 97 new members of the list, only 16% are from the U.S. By contrast, Asia made big gains. The region added 104 moguls and now has just 14 fewer than Europe, thanks to several large public offerings and swelling stock markets.
The new billionaires include American Isaac Perlmutter, who flipped Marvel Entertainment (MVL) to Disney (DIS) for $4 billion last December. The Spider-Man mogul netted nearly $900 million in cash and 20 million shares of Disney in the transaction.
Also new to the ranking: 27 billionaires from China, including Li Shufu, whose automaker, Geely, announced plans to buy Swedish brand Volvo from Ford in December. The deal is expected to close in March 2010.
Finland and Pakistan both welcomed their first billionaires.
For the first time China (including Hong Kong) has the most billionaires outside the U.S. with 89.
Russia has 62 billionaires, 28 of them returnees who had fallen off last year's list amid a meltdown in commodities. Total returnees to the list this year: 164.
Eleven countries have at least double the number of billionaires they had a year ago, including China, India, Turkey and South Korea.
Thirty members of last year's list fell out of the billionaire's club. Moguls who couldn't make the cut: Iceland's Thor Bjorgolfsson, Russia's Boris Berezovsky and Saudi Arabia's Maan Al-Sanea.
Another 13 members of last year's list died. Among the deceased: real estate developer Melvin Simon and glass tycoon William Davidson. The Top 20 Billionaires in the World
AP Photo
1) Carlos Slim Helu Net Worth: $53.5 billion Source: Telecom Residence: Mexico
• Telecom tycoon who pounced on privatization of Mexico's national telephone company in the 1990s becomes world's richest person for first time after coming in third place last year. Net worth up $18.5 billion in a year.
• Recently received regulatory approval to merge his fixed-line assets into American Movil, Latin America's biggest mobile phone company.
• His construction conglomerate, Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo, builds roads and energy infrastructure.
• Son of a Lebanese immigrant also owns stakes in financial group Inbursa, Bronco Drilling, Independent News & Media, Saks and New York Times Co.
• Newspaper outfit's stock popped in early March on talk he might buy a controlling stake; he denies the rumor.
• Donating $65 million to fund a research project in genomic medicine with American billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad.
AP Photo
2) Bill Gates Net Worth: $53 billion Source: Microsoft Residence: U.S.
• Software visionary is now the world's second-richest man. Net worth still up $13 billion in a year as Microsoft shares rose 50% in 12 months, value of investment vehicle Cascade swelled.
• More than 60% of fortune held outside Microsoft; investments include Four Seasons hotels, Televisa, Auto Nation.
• Stepped down from day-to-day duties at Microsoft in 2008 to focus on philanthropy.
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation dedicated to fighting hunger, improving education in America's high schools, developing vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.
Thousands have already seen the return of the Lord with his Kingdom - see Biblical proofs that it is a personal experience for believers who have prepared the way of the Lord.
Police have arrested a South Korean couple whose toddler starved to death while they were raising a virtual child online, authorities said.
The couple fed their 3-month-old daughter once a day between marathon stretches in a local Internet cafe, where they were raising a virtual child in the fantasy role-playing game Prius Online, police told local reporters Friday.
Prius Online is a 3-D game in which players nurture an online companion, Anima, a young girl with mysterious powers who grows and increases her skills as the game progresses.
Police have not identified the 41-year-old father and 25-year-old mother, who lived in Suwon, a suburb south of Seoul. But the father apologized, speaking to reporters.
"I wish that she hadn't got sick and that she will live well in heaven forever. And as the father, I am sorry," he said.
The baby reportedly died five months ago. South Korea has one of the world's fastest broadband networks. Seoul has won international awards for e-governance. Online gaming teams are sponsored by major conglomerates and 24-hour, high-speed Internet cafes, known as PC Bangs, dot every urban neighborhood.
Police said the couple had lost their jobs and used the game as an escape from reality, especially after the birth of their premature baby.
"They instead played an online game in which they raised a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby," Chung Jin-won, a police officer in Suwon, told Yonhap News Agency.
"South Korea remains a very conservative society so people who fall outside the norm can come under severe stress and pressure," said Michael Breen, the Seoul-based author of "The Koreans."
"The Internet has provided such people with a paradise to escape to and simply get lost in."
A 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey early Monday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, deaths or damage.
The earthquake's epicenter was in eastern Turkey, 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of the town of Bingol, and 625 kilometers (388 miles) east of Ankara, the country's capital.
The earthquake struck at 4:32 a.m. at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the USGS said.
