Forty-nine bodies with their heads, hands and feet hacked off were found dumped on a northern Mexico highway in what appeared to be the latest carnage in the escalating war between Mexico’s two dominant drug cartels.

A 17,886ft volcano outside Mexico City exhaled dozens of towering plumes of ash and shot fragments of glowing rock down its slopes this morning, frightening the residents of surrounding villages with hours of low-pitched roaring not heard in a decade.

Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, who led Mexico from 1982 to 1988 during economic crisis and a devastating earthquake, died today at age 77, President Felipe Calderon announced on his Twitter account.

Guatemala's leader says America's inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves his country with no option but to consider legalising their use and transport.

MEXICAN drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is “the world’s most powerful drug trafficker”, according to the US Treasury Department.

SEIZE the day.

A 6.7-MAGNITUDE earthquake struck Mexico’s western Guerrero state yesterday, shaking buildings and causing panic just over 100 miles away in the capital.

A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico’s western Guerrero state today, shaking buildings and causing panic just over 100 miles away in the nation’s capital.

MEXICAN human rights activists want the International Criminal Court to investigate President Felipe Calderon, top officials and the country’s most wanted drug trafficker, accusing them of allowing subordinates to kill, torture and kidnap civilians.

MEXICAN President Felipe Calderon declared three days of mourning yesterday and demanded a crackdown on drugs in the US after armed men torched a casino in northern Mexico, killing at least 52 people.

Workers were today continuing to pull bodies out of a burned casino in northern Mexico, where gunmen spread petrol and ignited a fire which trapped and killed at least 53 patrons and employees.

A SCREAMING teenager with a gunshot wound has been found dangling from a rope over a busy highway in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

A screaming teenager with a gunshot wound has been found dangling from a rope over a busy highway in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

An anti-violence march that began in a central Mexico state with a few hundred people and gathered thousands over a four-day trek has reached Mexico’s capital.

A gas explosion in a coal mine in northern Mexico killed three miners, injured one and left 11 others trapped deep underground.

THE reputed leader of one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels was extradited to the US yesterday to face drug- trafficking charges, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.

THE number of murder victims unearthed in mass graves in northern Mexico this month has risen to 279, making it easily the worst discovery of its kind since the government began a campaign against drug cartels.

MEXICAN investigators have found a total of 116 bodies in pits near the US border, 28 more than previously reported, Attorney General Marisela Morales revealed.

AT least 59 bodies have been found on a ranch in Mexico’s northern state of Tamaulipas on the US border, coinciding with massive protests against drug violence the government has failed to stem.

The US ambassador to Mexico resigned amid a furore over a leaked diplomatic cable in which he complained about inefficiency and in-fighting among Mexican security forces in the campaign against drug cartels.

The image of the beach resort of Acapulco has taken a new hit from Mexico’s drug violence, with 27 people killed in less than a day, including 14 men whose bodies were found with their heads chopped off at a shopping centre.

Police in Mexico today found the headless bodies of 14 men outside a shopping centre in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

A letter purportedly signed by La Familia drug cartel announcing a one-month truce circulated in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan.

The embattled Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez had its bloodiest year ever with 3,111 people killed in drug violence, an official said.

THE Mexican army have discovered several clandestine graves holding at least 20 bodies near a ranch in the northern border state of Chihuahua.

Gunmen killed 15 people at a car wash in a Pacific coast state where drug-gang violence has risen this year – the third massacre in Mexico in less than a week.

At least 13 people were killed today after gunmen opened fire at a car wash in western Mexico, officials said.

MEXICAN soldiers seized 105 tonnes of marijuana with a US street value of more than $340 million (€246m) on Monday in Mexico’s biggest-ever pot haul, the army said.

A huge mudslide first thought to have buried hundreds of people has left only 11 missing with no confirmed dead, authorities said today.

A NEWSPAPER’S stunning, front-page editorial of seeming surrender to drug capos has set off a national debate from the presidential palace to Mexico’s equivalent of the water cooler – its ubiquitous town squares.

A gunbattle between Mexican soldiers and suspected drug cartel members left 22 dead at ranch near the US border, officials said.

Mexico looked beyond its drug war and looming Atlantic storms today to throw a 200th birthday bash celebrating a proud history, whimsical culture and resilience embodied in the traditional independence cry: “Viva Mexico!”

Mexican marines captured Sergio Villarreal Barragan, a presumed leader of the embattled Beltran Leyva cartel who appears on a list of the country’s most-wanted fugitives, in a raid in the central state of Puebla, the government said.

Hooded gunmen killed the mayor of a small town in the northern Mexico state of San Luis Potosi, and prosecutors announced the arrest of seven suspects in the massacre of 72 migrants in August.

A judge has ordered a US-born suspected drug lord known as “La Barbie” to be held for 40 days pending an investigation into organised crime, Mexican authorities said today.

Soldiers killed 25 suspected cartel members in a raid and gun battle near the US border that has seen a surge in drug gang violence.

Police have captured a drug kingpin blamed for a vicious turf war that has included bodies hung from bridges and shootouts in central Mexico.

The mass grave of 72 victims in Mexico’s increasingly violent drug wars has been unearthed by government troops.

THE decapitated bodies of four men were hung from a bridge in a Mexican city ravaged by fighting between two drug lords.

AN anonymous, twenty-something blogger is giving Mexicans what they can’t get elsewhere – an inside view of their country’s raging drug war.

PRESIDENT Felipe Calderon said he is willing to change Mexico’s drug war strategy and promised a new offensive against money laundering after hearing blistering criticism from opposition leaders.

SOLDIERS killed a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel in a raid on his posh hideout, dealing the biggest blow yet to Mexico’s most powerful drug gang since President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against organised crime in 2006.

One of the top three leaders of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel died in a gunfight with soldiers, ending the long run of a mysterious capo considered a founder of the country’s massive methamphetamine trade.