Three American children and mother slain in Mexico after returning from beach

Associate Press

MEXICO CITY - Authorities were investigating yesterday the shooting deaths of three American children and their mother, who were gunned down in a car and dragged into a cornfield after returning from a beach in western Mexico.

The bodies were found with gunshot wounds to the head and chest early Wednesday outside Guadalajara. Authorities found dozens of 9 mm shell casings lying next to towels, empty soft-drink bottles and pairs of flip-flops. All were wearing swimsuits.

It was not immediately clear why the family had been in Mexico, and police did not give a motive.

The children were identified yesterday as Sharon Denise Mar, 13; Kelsey Idette Mar, 10; and Nerissa Aileen Mar, 9, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Josie Shumake. All three girls were U.S. citizens from Texas, while the mother, identified as Maria A. Caraveo, was a permanent legal resident of the United States, Shumake said.

The Embassy did not have hometowns of the victims or an age for Caraveo. Guadalajaran police officials said Caraveo was 36, and from the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

The victims were found near a gray Honda sedan that had been reported stolen from an upscale parking garage in downtown Guadalajara just moments before police discovered the bodies. Authorities were not sure if the car was registered to the slain family.

Police said they believe the victims were shot hours before their bodies were discovered and that those responsible for the killings reported the car stolen.

WASHINGTON

U.S. says Colombian rebels misuse demilitarized zone

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The State Department yesterday accused Colombia's leading leftist guerrilla group of using a government-authorized demilitarized zone to abuse prisoners, hold kidnap victims and engage in narcotics trafficking.

Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the guerrilla group, known by its Spanish initials as FARC, also reportedly received training in the zone from members of the Irish Republican Army.

Reeker praised the efforts of President Andres Pastrana to achieve peace but said the FARC rebels "have not made reciprocal efforts to further peace and are misusing the demilitarized zone."

A high-level U.S. delegation is expected to raise American concerns about the issue with Pastrana during talks Aug. 29-31 in Bogota. It will be the first such U.S. mission to Colombia since the Bush administration took office.

A senior U.S. official said there will be no effort to urge Pastrana to take back the zone.

Colombian police say three IRA members who were arrested in Colombia on Aug. 11 had spent six weeks training rebel combatants in the demilitarized zone. Another official said Secretary of State Colin Powell may stop in Colombia after attending an Organization of American States foreign ministers meeting in Peru on Sept. 10-11.

Shortly after taking office in 1998, Pastrana ceded the Switzerland-sized, southern Colombian territory to the FARC, hoping the gesture would lead to a serious effort to end long decades of civil war.

But there has been virtually no progress in talks neither with the FARC nor with a smaller leftist guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). Talks with the ELN broke off earlier this month.

The United States has steered clear of involvement in the counterinsurgency in Colombia but is playing a significant role in helping Colombian counter narcotics efforts.

STATES

Major record levels are developing copy-proof music CDs to stop song piracy

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Hoping to crack down on music piracy, five major record labels have quietly begun selling CDs containing technology that foils attempts by customers to copy the songs onto blank discs or computer hard drives.

The new strategy is not widespread yet and most of the CDs out so far are being sold in Europe. The labels will not say which artists' works have been digitally padlocked.

The so-called stealth CDs play fine in stereos. But if someone tries to turn the music into MP3 files or copy it onto a blank CD, the copied version will not work or the result will sound so bad it's not worth sharing.

Most movie DVDs and videocassettes already use anti-copying technology.

Music fans have long made personal copies of purchased music - an activity legally sanctioned as ''fair use.'' But the music industry contends that giving consumers the ability to make perfect digital copies that can be shared online goes far beyond fair use.

Daniela Mohor, a 26-year-old University of California-Berkeley graduate student who often makes copies of CDs for friends, thinks the new strategy is ridiculous.

"With tapes it was the same thing; you could record them and the industry didn't fall apart," she said. "I understand the industry is trying to protect its profits, but they should find a solution that will benefit both sides."

LOCAL

Tucson International Airport looking for more direct flights

Associated Press

TUCSON, Ariz. - Tucson International Airport is trying to persuade airlines that connections to Atlanta, Memphis, St. Louis, Oakland, Portland and Kansas City are the best targets for adding nonstop service.

Those were the cities that popped up most often when TIA officials surveyed ZIP code data derived from flight reservations out of Phoenix to pinpoint the cities Tucson residents most frequently fly to out of Sky Harbor.

The Phoenix airport offers many more nonstop destinations and flight options and often cheaper flights than Tucson's.

Estimates show that each year between 500,000 and 1 million air passengers living in Tucson bypass TIA, which serves 3.5 million passengers a year.

"Take a look at this map," Scott Brockman, the Tucson Airport Authority's vice president of finance and administration, told the Tucson Citizen as he circled the Eastern seaboard. "We don't serve anything. Eastbound service is not as strong as it should be to meet demand."

Tucson's only daily eastern destination is Cincinnati. Brockman said statistics show TIA needs to serve New York and Washington, D.C., to be more attractive for companies already here and those considering locating in Tucson.

The Airport Authority, which owns and operates the airport, wants to add six cities to its list of 16 nonstop cities in the next 11/2 years.