MEXICO CITY
Mexican president breaks tradition, fails to praise oil expropriation
Associated Press
Mexico announced a major new natural gas find yesterday, but President Vicente Fox broke with tradition by declining to praise the March 18, 1938, expropriation of the nation's oil industry.
The discovery of three new gas fields in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz could boost Mexico's current reserves by 25 percent, said Raul Munoz Leos, director of the state-run Petroleos Mexicanos oil monopoly.
Such discoveries "happen once every 15 to 20 years," Munoz Leos said at a ceremony commemorating the 64th anniversary of the expropriation of foreign-owned oil companies.
Fox has placed a priority on increasing Mexico's natural gas supplies, and has invited private companies to play greater role in that effort. Critics claim that is an attempt to re-privatize the industry, despite Fox's repeated assurances that he will not do so.
Those differences - and tension caused by the Fox administration's probe into alleged corruption at Pemex - were in the air at the ceremony yesterday.
For decades, the March 18 ceremony has been used by Mexican presidents to praise the expropriation and to reaffirm their commitment to continued state control over the oil industry.
Instead, Fox declined to speak, but sat and listened to veiled threats of labor unrest from oil union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps.
Romero Deschamps has been linked to allegations that dlrs 120 million were laundered from Pemex to the former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, in 2000.
The federal Justice Department is studying a report from the national comptroller's office which documented misuse of funds but stopped short of alleging outright crimes.
"It has not been easy for the union leadership to keep labor peace in the workplace," Romero Deschamps said. "We have had to use an extra dose of equanimity to convince the worker to postpone his just demands."
He laid out a list of demands - housing, benefits, training and better equipment - but noted, "the last thing anyone wants is for Pemex to be divided by confrontations."
While Mexico is a major exporter of crude oil, it is a net importer of natural gas.
Pemex currently produces around 4.5 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas, of which less than a third is the kind of dry gas - the type not produced as a byproduct of crude oil pumping - found at the new fields.
WASHINGTON
Attorney General Ashcroft announces arrests in computer pornography sting
Associated Press
Federal law enforcement authorities have broken up a computer-based pornography ring that targeted children, Attorney General John Ashcroft said.
Announcing "Operation Candyman," Ashcroft said yesterday that over 80 people have been arrested in the operation and said more are coming.
"As its name implies, the 'Operation Candyman' e-group had a single purpose in mind as well: to exploit and degrade children," Ashcroft told a news conference at FBI headquarters.
"It is clear that a new marketplace for child poronography has emerged from the dark corners of cyberspace," he said. "Innocent boys and girls have been targeted by offenders who view them as sexual objects."
Holding a news conference with FBI officials, Ashcroft revealed that the sting operation had begun in January 2001 and that it continues.
"In the past 14 months," he said, "all 56 national FBI field offices investigated hundreds of individuals who were subscibers to the 'Candyman' email group." Ashcroft said that among those caught in the sting were police officers, members of the clergy and - in one case - a bus driver.
He said that prior to yesterday's announcement, the FBI had arrested 86 people "on child pornography grounds" and that 27 members of the "Candyman" e-mail group have been arrested and admitted to molesting 36 children.
DES MOINES, Iowa
Flight attendant says man who died was alive when he boarded plane
Associated Press
A flight attendant says an 80-year-old passenger who was pronounced dead after arriving in Iowa from Phoenix was breathing when she lifted him from his wheelchair and placed him in his seat on the airplane.
A medical examiner says there is no way to determine the exact time that James Mark Walsh died. Walsh was found dead Saturday after arriving at the Des Moines International Airport on the America West Express. He had a history of heart and kidney-related problems.
According to a medical examiner's report, when Walsh, his son Mark Walsh of Green Valley and another family member arrived at the ticket counter in Phoenix at 8:15 a.m. Saturday, a ticket agent noticed Walsh was "a bit loud."
According to the report, the son said prior to boarding the plane at about 11 a.m., Walsh slumped over in his wheel chair and became quiet.
The report said a flight attendant noticed saliva dripping from Walsh's mouth and he wasn't moving before the airplane left the runway at 11:21 a.m.
Walsh was seated next to his son and another family member on the Boeing 737 with about 100 passengers on board, said Patty Nowack, America West Express spokeswoman.
"One of our employees assisted in boarding him on the aircraft. She lifted him out of his wheelchair and felt him breathing," Nowack said.
She said she had not heard any passenger complaints about the flight and that airline attendants checked on his condition several times during the flight and were reassured by the family members that Walsh was OK.
