By Guy Taylor / The Washington Times
The Slim fortune was made in telephony. After growing moderately rich from property, mining and other businesses, Slim, the son of a Lebanese immigrant named Salim, bought Telmex, Mexico’s state-run telephone monopoly, in 1990.
Sentido Comun - Consumer confidence in Mexico rose 2.6 percent, seasonally adjusted, in January against December, the first rise in the last three months. In annual terms, consumer confidence improved 3.4 percent up against January 2010.
Milenio - The Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT) reported that the meeting was canceled between members of Med Atlantic and Judge Philip Consuelo Soto, which was intended to discuss the issue of the capitalization of Mexicana Airlines.
Milenio - Cold temperatures and strong winds are expected over the weekend from northeastern Chihuahua to the middle of the Peninsula of Baja California and rain is expected in most parts of the country.
www.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/be7341d7057366fefd84c4f28f9489cb
Fox News Latino - In January, Mexico recorded 1,623 cases of the flu, including 1,456 H1N1 cases. There were 1,000 flu cases in Mexico last year. Since the year’s start, 29 people have died of H1N1. Only 35 people died from various flu strains all last year.
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Voice of America - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder faced a new round of Republican criticism in Congress over a controversial program in which the U.S. allowed guns into Mexico. Holder testified that "Operation Fast and Furious" was flawed.
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Dow Jones - Mexican stocks were marginally higher Thursday as U.S. unemployment claims fell but comments from the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve were cautious. The IPC index rose 2 points to 37,711 points on strong volume.
Dow Jones - Mexican financial-services company Grupo Financiero Inbursa said Thursday that its net profit shrank in 2011 to 6.03 billion pesos ($471 million) from 8.01 billion pesos in 2010 due to volatile markets and investment losses.
health24 - Seizures of precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs and raids on drug labs have multiplied in Mexico and Guatemala in recent months, as experts say traffickers are increasingly turning to production.
Dow Jones - Mexican airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, Asur, said it has made a joint bid with private equity firm Advent International for concessions to run three Brazilian airports.
Times of India - Spanish film star Antonio Banderas said in Cancun that Mexico has a "very special" place in his heart. Banderas was invited to the resort city as guest of honor at the inauguration of a new hotel belonging to Spain's Iberostar chain.
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BNO NEWS - Four people have been arrested after 21 patients at a Mexico City rehab center in the Azcapotzalco section were rescued after being tortured and constrained to forced labor, local authorities said on Thursday.
Associated Press - The Mexican government is sending thousands of additional troops to the violence-stricken western state of Michoacan for an offensive in a mountainous western section of the state known as Tierra-Caliente.
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Fox - The Mexican unit of Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) said its deposits grew 10 percent on the year to 381.4 billion pesos ($29.3 billion), while its credit portfolio expanded 9 percent.
www.foxbusiness.com/news/2012/02/02/mexicos-bbva-bancomer-...
Dow Jones - Highly leveraged Mexican cement and building materials company Cemex said today, Thursday, it is confident it will be able to meet its financial obligations this year with the aid of asset sales and free cash flow from improving operations.
Bloomberg - Billionaire Carlos Slim was out of context and off the mark in his criticism of a study finding a lack of competition in Mexico’s phone industry, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.
AP - John and Wanda Casias , a couple from Texas who moved to a remote and violence-plagued area of northern Mexico to run a Baptist church, were found slain at their ransacked home, their children said.
www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57370155/u.s-missionary-couple-slain-in...
Fox News - There were two plots to sneak the son of late dictator Moammar Qaddafi out of Libya, involving piles of stolen passports, white-knuckle flights with pilots who refused to land in war-torn Libya and luxury homes bought under false names in Mexico.
NYT - An army general and soldiers under his command sent to fight drug cartels in a border town have been charged in military court with carrying out killings, torture, drug dealing and other crimes, government officials confirmed this week.
LAT - Mexico saw remittances from abroad rise last year by nearly 7 percent, the biggest annual increase in money transfers by migrants in five years, the central bank reported Wednesday. The country took in $22.7 billion.
McClatchy Newspapers - Organizers in the verdant hill town of Espinal in Veracruz state have coaxed a tiny economic experiment on the citizenry: They created an alternative local currency, called the "tumin," which means "money" in the Totonac language.
