Troops, traffickers exchange gunfire

MEXICO CITY - Several people were killed in a shootout between soldiers and suspected drug smugglers in northern Mexico yesterday, a government official said, and national media reported a massive seizure of cocaine. The shootout happened during an antidrug operation in the port city of Tampico, in Tamaulipas state, territory of the Gulf Cartel, one of the two most powerful Mexican drug gangs. Mexican newspapers reported on their websites that up to 15 people were killed in the fighting. Radio and online reports said the army seized up to 20 tons of cocaine after the battle. (Reuters)

LIMA - The United States is moving cautiously to find a new air base for antidrug surveillance in South America in the face of vocal opposition to the idea in Peru and Colombia. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met yesterday with Peruvian Defense Minister Allan Wagner, who told reporters a day before Gates arrived here that the topic would not come up in their meetings. Both Peru and Colombia have offered to talk to the Pentagon about a new base location, a senior US defense official said earlier this week, but he also noted that it was not on Gates' agenda yesterday. (AP)

NAIROBI - A waste facility outside Kenya's capital city is seriously harming the health of children who live nearby and is polluting all of Nairobi, a United Nations study said yesterday. The study said asthma, anemia, and skin infections are endemic among the children in slums around the Dondora waste site. The report was the latest in a series of studies highlighting problems in the poor nations of Africa and other continents, where a lack of zoning and inadequate policing of the rules that exist lead to unhealthy situations like that of Dandora. (AP)