Reuters - A Mexican judge ordered Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez, believed to be one of the country's top drug bosses, held for 40 more days of investigation, the federal prosecutor's office said on Saturday.

AP - A judge has ordered a U.S.-born suspected drug lord known as "La Barbie" held for 40 days pending an investigation into organized crime and other possible charges, authorities announced Saturday.

AFP - A faster drilling machine was being assembled Saturday to enlarge an existing supply shaft to 33 Chilean trapped miners, as work on the main shaft continued and a special rescue cage was being built by the Navy.

AP - Mexican police have arrested six suspects in a bar fire that killed eight in the resort city of Cancun.

AP - A Honduran who survived the massacre of 72 migrants in Mexico helped untie the only other survivor — a wounded Ecuadorean — and the two fled together, an official said Friday.

Reuters - Two members of Mexico's Congress were among six people killed on Friday when their private plane crashed near a popular Mexican Pacific beach resort, officials said.

AP - Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.

AFP - At least four people died in a clash between soldiers and suspected drug gang members in northeastern Mexico, a day after 25 outlaws died in a shootout with soldiers nearby, police said Friday.

AP - Mexican soldiers killed at least 30 suspected cartel members in two shootouts near the U.S. border in a region that has become one of biggest battlegrounds in the country's drug war, authorities said Friday.

Reuters - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, wearing his green military cap and clothing like the commandant of old, made his first speech before the Cuban public Friday since falling ill in 2006, warning of the threat of nuclear war.

Reuters - More women are working and dying for powerful drug cartels in Mexico's most violent city as high unemployment along the U.S. border sucks desperate families into the lethal trade.

AFP - A clash between the army and gang members at a ranch near Mexico's northern city of Monterrey left at least 25 gang members dead, the military unit involved in the firefight said.

AP - An electoral official accused President Hugo Chavez and his allies of breaking campaign laws by using state-run media to berate rivals and praise friends ahead of this month's legislative elections.

Reuters - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defended his socialist government's security record on Thursday, rejecting pre-election claims by the opposition that crime had risen sharply during his 11 years in power.

AFP - Mexican President Felipe Calderon admitted drug violence was worsening in Mexico but said the cartels had been weakened by the toppling of several major drug bosses, in his annual address Thursday.