Mexico City

Smuggling ring allegedly sent children to U.S.

Six Salvadoran infants victims of an alleged child-smuggling ring were found living in deplorable conditions at a house outside Mexico City, police said Wednesday. Six other children were found in Los Angeles, they said.

Police said they uncovered the suspected smuggling ring when officers grew suspicious of two women accompanying six children, ages 9 to 11, at Tijuana International Airport near the U.S. border Monday. The women turned the children over to a third person.

Under questioning, Estela Barajas Gonzalez, 27, admitted that her husband acquired the children in Mexico City from a Guatemalan woman, and that they were sent with another person to Los Angeles, police said.

Barajas and her aunt, Virginia Barajas Perez, 43, were taken into police custody. Police then went to Barajas’ home in Nacualpan, where they found the six infants. Her husband, Abel Bartolo Alanis, was arrested.

Russia

S. African space tourist to blast off April 27

The world’s second so-called space tourist will blast off to the International Space Station on April 27, Russia’s mission control center said.

The flight carrying South African Internet tycoon Mark Shuttleworth had been scheduled for April 22, but was pushed back for technical reasons, the Interfax news agency quoted the center as saying. No details were given.

The 28-year-old Shuttleworth, who is to travel to the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule for an eight-day stay in April, will be the second paying passenger to visit the station. Last year, California tycoon Dennis Tito reportedly paid $20 million for his trip.

Russian officials have indictated it will be in the neighborhood of what Tito paid.

Honduras

President sends troops to fight against crime

New President Ricardo Maduro put thousands of soldiers in the streets Wednesday to crack down on crime and 500 people were arrested by midday, police said.

Soldiers and police in camouflage uniforms set up field tents around the capital, Tegucigalpa, as well as in San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba and Choluteca. They were to take up positions in other cities later.

Russia

Documents preserved in sunken submarine

Investigators trying to figure out what sunk the Kursk nuclear submarine say they have been surprised to find many paper documents preserved by water and are hoping to locate the ship’s log. That could provide the key to what caused the disaster.

In an interview published Wednesday, Artur Yegiyev, who is leading the Kursk probe, said his men were cutting their way “inch by inch” through the wreck, unable to use any electrical equipment because of fear of setting off an explosion.

Investigators initially thought that all paper documents in the Kursk’s control room had vanished in a giant fireball and were stunned to find some of them virtually intact. Yegiyev said water instantly flooded the control room ripped open by the blast, putting out the blaze.