Headless bodies in Mexican resort city

Headless bodies in Mexican resort city

ACAPULCO, Mexico

The bodies of 15 men, all but one of them headless, were found on a street outside a shopping center in Acapulco on Saturday as police reported 27 people slain in the Pacific resort in less than a day.

The decapitated victims, all of whom appeared to be in their 20s, were discovered in an area not frequented by tourists.

Effort to resolve Ivory Coast crisis

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made an unannounced visit to Ivory Coast late Saturday in an effort to help resolve the country’s deepening political crisis after several other West African leaders have failed to persuade the incumbent to cede power.

An Associated Press reporter saw Obasanjo arrive at a luxury Abidjan hotel surrounded by bodyguards, but he declined to comment further on his plans. The top U.N. envoy in Ivory Coast, Choi Young-jin, said Obasanjo was there to “discuss the post-electoral crisis.”

The international community has said that Alassane Ouattara won the country’s election, but the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, has refused for more than a month to concede defeat and step down.

Portuguese TV star slain, castrated

NEW YORK

A celebrity Portuguese television journalist was found castrated and bludgeoned to death in a New York City hotel, and his companion, a male model who recently had been a contestant on a Portuguese reality TV show, was in police custody Saturday.

The journalist, 65-year-old Carlos Castro, had arrived in the U.S. in late December in the company of his young boyfriend, the model Renato Seabra, to see some Broadway shows and spend New Year’s Eve in Times Square, according to a family friend.

Iraqi cleric blasts US

NAJAF, Iraq

Muqtada al-Sadr lambasted the American “enemy” in Iraq during his first speech in the country since returning from exile, fiery rhetoric from a new powerbroker in the government that will make it difficult to extend the U.S. military deployment beyond the end of this year.

The young Shiite cleric once blamed for some of the country’s worst sectarian violence also appealed to his followers to show unity in the face of the country’s many problems.

Overfishing has ended, scientist says

BOSTON

For the first time in at least a century, U.S. fishermen won’t take too much of any species from the sea, one of the nation’s top fishery scientists says.

Steve Murawski said that for the first time in written fishing history, which goes back to 1900, “As far as we know, we’ve hit the right levels, which is a milestone.”

Associated Press