Shootout kills 16 gunmen, 2 soldiers in Acapulco

Shootout kills 16 gunmen, 2 soldiers in Acapulco

ACAPULCO, Mexico — It was a shootout straight from Hollywood in the former playground of its biggest stars: Outlaws holed up in a hillside mansion fought heavily armed Mexican soldiers with a rain of gunfire and grenades that had tourists cowering in hotels nearby.

Roughly 3,000 shots and 50 explosions marked the four-hour battle late Saturday that left 16 gunmen and two soldiers dead. Nine other people were wounded, including three bystanders.

More than a dozen Mexican tourists were evacuated from a neighboring hotel strip frozen in the 1950s, when Elizabeth Taylor held one of her many weddings in Acapulco and John Wayne and “Tarzan” star Johnny Weissmuller threw lavish parties at Los Flamingos Hotel less than 100 yards (meters) from where gunfire broke out.

In photo above, Police officials hold a position during a gunfight in Acapulco

Mexican day care deaths stir anger at safety rules

HERMOSILLO, Mexico — As the day care swiftly filled with smoke, caretakers, neighbors and parents fought to evacuate 142 children — many of them babies and toddlers — through a single working exit until rescue crews arrived.

No fire alarm or sprinkler system had gone off, and one mother said a second door to the day care was bolted shut and nobody could find the key.

Forty children were killed in the devastating fire, which raised doubts about safety standards at more than 1,500 centers where Mexico’s government provides low-cost care for at least 200,000 children.

Two of the most seriously injured children, a 3-year-old boy and girl, were sent to Shriners Hospitals for Children in Northern California.

Airline industry to lose $9 billion in 2009

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The International Air Transport Association says the airline industry is expected to lose $9 billion in 2009.

IATA says the figure is nearly double the association’s March estimate of $4.7 billion. The group has also revised its loss estimate for 2008 to $10.4 billion from $8.5 billion.

IATA represents 230 airline companies worldwide.

2 Pa. state troopers shot, wounded; suspect dead

TOBYHANNA, Pa. — Two Pennsylvania state police troopers have been shot and seriously wounded following a car chase in the Pocono Mountains.

Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Harry Lewis says the suspect was shot and killed.

He says the chase began outside Easton and ended in Coolbaugh Township, Monroe County, when the suspect crashed his car. He says the suspect and police traded gunfire.

Lewis says there was a 10-year-old boy in the car with the suspect. The boy was not shot.

Lewis says the chase may have stemmed from a custody dispute.

Lenders ask high court to review Chrysler’s sale

WASHINGTON — A small but persistent group of lenders has turned to the U.S. Supreme Court in its last attempt to challenge the government-backed sale of Chrysler’s assets to a company run by Italian automaker Fiat.

Three Indiana state pension and construction funds late Saturday filed documents requesting that the sale be delayed so that the Supreme Court can hear their appeal. Two lower courts have already rejected the lenders’ objections. On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled the sale could go forward after 4 p.m. today or earlier if the Supreme Court declines to take up the case.

Combined dispatches