WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to shut down the federal government in September if Congress did not provide more funding to build a wall on the border with Mexico. “That wall has started, we have 1.6 billion (dollars),” Trump said at a campaign rally in Washington, Michigan. “We come up again on September 28th…

Ten cities across the world are facing ‘Day Zeroes’ or severe water shortage in the near future unless they do something—and Karachi is one of them. “The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board barely meets 50 percent of the city’s total water requirement,” says the India-based Centre for Science and Environment. “The city’s population is growing…

A Mexican court has barred sales of a controversial Frida Kahlo Barbie doll in the painter’s home country, ruling her family owned the sole rights to her image, lawyers said Thursday, reported AFP. The Frida Kahlo doll, launched in March by US toy giant Mattel, has drawn criticism for putting a painter known for defying…

SANTIAGO JAMILTEPEC, Mexico: At least 13 people on the ground, including three children, were killed when a Mexican military helicopter carrying top officials surveying damage from an earthquake crashed in a small town in the southern state of Oaxaca, authorities said on Saturday, reported Reuters. The helicopter, which was carrying Mexico’s interior minister and the…

MEXICO CITY: A powerful earthquake shook Mexico City on Friday, triggering the capital’s quake alarm system and causing buildings to sway. Mexico’s National Seismological Service put the magnitude of the quake at 7.0, and seismic monitor network Sky Alert said the quake was felt across the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Puebla. The US Geological…

Mexico City: Mexico is studying a request by the United States to put armed US air marshals on cross-border flights, the head of Mexico’s National Security Commission said on Tuesday. “No decision has yet been taken on the matter,” Renato Sales told the Televisa network. But the proposal was for US federal marshals to be…

MEXICO CITY: Mexican officials said on Sunday the government was set to unleash a new wave of troops to crack down on criminal groups in regions where a surge in violence led to more than 25,000 murders last year, reported Reuters. National Security Commissioner Renato Sales said federal police troops will work with local officials…

MONTERREY: Authorities investigating the slaying of nine men at a house in Monterrey, Mexico said Sunday small local drug-trafficking groups appeared to be involved but not major drug cartels. The men were watching a football match on television on Saturday when armed attackers burst into the house, herded women into the bathroom and then opened…

Mexico City:Tourist hotspots in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula were shaken Friday by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake -but no injuries or damage were reported, authorities said. The epicenter was located in the Gulf of California, 76 kilometers northeast of Loreto, a small city in the state of Baja California Sur, the National Seismological Service said. “There…

MEXICO CITY: Police have discovered at least 33 human skulls buried in western Mexico, authorities said on Tuesday, the latest grisly find in a region that has suffered from increasing violence between warring drug cartels, reported Reuters. “So far 33 skulls have been found. All discovered in the same area,” said a government official in…

MEXICO CITY: A journalist was killed on Saturday in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, adding to a wave of violence in one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media workers, reported Reuters. Carlos Dominguez was murdered Saturday afternoon in the city of Nuevo Laredo, state officials said in a statement. The attorney general’s…

MEXICO CITY: Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing has advertised online for a range of jobs in Mexico as it prepares to break into the country, one of rival Uber’s regional strongholds, reported Reuters. Didi Chuxing plans this year to launch a smartphone app in Mexico and to recruit drivers to the platform, Reuters reported last…

MEXICO CITY: A journalist was shot dead on Tuesday in the Mexican state of Veracruz as he attended a Christmas celebration at his son’s school, the latest murder in the country’s deadliest year on record for media workers, reported Reuters. Gumaro Perez, 35, who regularly wrote about security and drug trafficking, was shot at four…

  MEXICO CITY: Mexican soldiers arbitrarily executed two people after an illegal raid last year, a national rights body said on Tuesday, releasing its findings as protests disrupted a debate in the Senate over a contentious bill to give the military more powers, reported Reuters. The military, deployed in Mexico’s war on drug gangs for…

MONTERREY, Mexico: At least 13 people were killed when a fight broke out in a prison in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon and security troops were sent in to quell the violence, a state security official said on Tuesday, reported Reuters. The battle inside the Cadereyta prison outside the city of Monterrey began…

NEWS DESK: This week, Mexico’s biggest university began advertising a conference on feminism. There would be two panels, exploring big issues such as law and economics. The organisers had thought of everything, right down to the cheerful pink fliers used to alert students. They’d thought of everything, it seems, except including a woman. The fact…

MEXICO CITY: Mexican officials warned on Thursday that U.S. proposals in ongoing NAFTA negotiations would result in protectionism and higher prices rather than free trade, as concerns about the future of the deal helped drag the peso to four-month lows, reported Reuters. Negotiators from Canada, Mexico and the United States are due to begin a…

MEXICO CITY: Trapped under tons of rubble and in complete darkness, Diana Pacheco’s hopes were fading fast for making it out alive from a collapsed office building after a huge earthquake in Mexico City, despite rescuers’ frantic attempts to reach her. Then the trapped woman had a great stroke of luck: a series of short…

NEWS DESK: California is suing the Trump administration over its planned border wall with Mexico, the latest salvo in the state’s ongoing battle with the federal government, reported The Independent. The lawsuit takes aim at one of Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises, a proposal that galvanized conservative voters angry about illegal immigration and rallied fierce…

MEXICO CITY: The death toll from a powerful earthquake that rocked Mexico on Tuesday has surged to 248 people, the head of the national disaster response agency, Luis Felipe Puente, said on Twitter. The dead included at least 21 children crushed beneath a primary school that collapsed on Mexico City’s south side during the 7.1-magnitude…

MEXICO CITY: The bullet-riddled body of a Mexican filmmaker has been found in a central region of the violence-plagued country, where he was scouting locations for the hit Netflix show “Narcos.” Carlos Munoz Portal, whose scouting credits include the James Bond film “Spectre” as well as “Fast & Furious” and “Sicario” was killed Monday in…