Teachers' exam: Only one-third of aspiring teachers passed Mexico's teaching placement exam, the Education Ministry said. About 71,000 took the exam. Cox News Service reported that “it was the first time teachers were given tests to determine their positions in schools – for decades, teaching jobs and advancement in Mexico has been firmly rooted in cronyism.”
Interest rates rise: Mexico's central bank lifted interest rates for the third straight month Friday to tackle the worst inflation in more than three years. The central bank raised its key rate by 25 basis points to 8.25 percent. High food and transport costs have pushed annual inflation to 5.39 percent.
Gun crackdown sought: The rising tide of guns flowing into Mexico from the United States can be stopped only by cracking down on smugglers the way that federal authorities hobbled the Mafia, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told The New York Times at a conference of governors from U.S. and Mexican border states in Los Angeles.
39-mile tunnel: Mexico said it will build a $1.27 billion tunnel that will be almost 39 miles long and 7 yards in diameter to help solve the centuries-old drainage problem of the nation's capital, Mexico City.
Anti-kidnapping centers: Authorities said they were establishing five national anti-kidnapping centers and pushing for a cleanup of police forces after police were implicated in the deadly abduction of a prominent businessman's son in Mexico City.
Migrant aid: Renato Sandoval Franco, the Baja California state labor minister, told the Grupo 21 in Tijuana on Monday that his agency has started a program to help Mexicans repatriated from the United States. He said it is concentrating on aiding deported women and their children. He said his agency is helping deported people who want to gain employment in Baja California obtain the documents from their state of origin that they need to be hired. He said the program is giving 3,000 pesos, or about $300, in aid to repatriated Mexicans who need it.
Bears in Monterrey: A housing boom in Monterrey is threatening bear habitats in the surrounding forested mountains, environmentalists told Reuters. More than 30 black bears have been sighted in and around Monterrey since April, some trying to drink from swimming pools and others in schools and on building sites as they seek food and water.
Compiled from news reports by Foreign Editor David Gaddis Smith: (619) 293-2211; david.smith@uniontrib.com
