Mexico

NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hushed up a vast bribery campaign that top executives of its Mexican subsidiary carried out to build stores across that country, according to a published report.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world. If any of the nation's 112 million citizens want to buy firearms, there's only one store where they can do it legally. It's on a sprawling military base and run by the army.

That, however, hasn't stopped Mexicans from acquiring firearms. The country is awash in illegal guns, many of them assault weapons in the hands of merciless criminal gangs. President Felipe Calderon says authorities have seized more than 140,000 weapons since he came to office in late 2006. Many of them, Mexican officials assert, were purchased in the United States.

MEXICO CITY -- A strong 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Mexico on Tuesday, shaking central and southern parts of the country, collapsing a pedestrian bridge and swaying buildings in Mexico City. Plaster fell from ceilings and windows broke in the center of the capital, but the president said there were no immediate reports of major damage.

CASAS GRANDES, Chihuahua -- About 200 miles southwest of El Paso lies a piece of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's personal history.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- Mexican troops have made a historic seizure of 15 tons of pure methamphetamine in the western state of Jalisco, an amount equivalent to half of all meth seizures worldwide in 2009.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Mexican Consulate has presented grants to several schools and organizations to provide educational scholarships.

The Institute for Mexicans Abroad provided the $80,760 in grants to help students of Mexican citizenship or children whose parents were born in Mexico through the Mexican Government Scholarships Program known as BECAS IME.