Mexico

Vigilante groups have taken over eight towns in southern Mexico, in an attempt to provide citizens with protection from organised crime.

About 500 armed men spread out in the state of Guerrero on Friday, setting up check points along the Mexico-Acapulco highway where they stopped drivers.

The men are members of a vigilante "self-defence" group and believe the Mexican government has failed to provide adequate protection for its people.

Convicted killer Edgar Tamayo, a Mexican national condemned for the 1994 murder of a Houston police officer, has been put to death by lethal injection in Texas despite diplomatic pressure from Mexico, which denounced his execution as a violation of international law.

Tamayo, 46, who was denied an 11th-hour stay of execution by the U.S. Supreme Court, was pronounced dead at 9:32 p.m. local time at a state prison in Huntsville, Texas, according to officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Mexico has strongly objected to the scheduled execution in Texas on Wednesday of a Mexican convicted of killing a U.S. police officer, arguing that by executing him, the United States would be in "clear violation" of international treaties.

Edgar Tamayo was convicted of shooting dead a Houston police officer in 1994 when he was in the United States illegally. But Tamayo was not informed of his right, enshrined in an international treaty known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to diplomatic assistance.

In 2004, the United Nations' International Court of Justice ordered the United States to reconsider the convictions of 51 Mexicans, including Tamayo, who had been sent to death row without being informed of their consular rights.

Rare conjoined grey whale twins have been found dead, washed ashore in a Mexican lagoon.

In video footage released by the Mexican Natural Protected Areas Commission, the twins - conjoined at the stomach - are seen in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon in the north-western state of Baja California Sur, which opens out into the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists from the commission told local media they believe the dead calves could have died as a result of a miscarriage. The commission say this could be the first recorded case of conjoined whale twins.

Mexico has issued a public alert after a truck carrying potentially "extremely dangerous" radioactive material was stolen on Monday, according to Mexican authorities.

The vehicle was carrying cobalt-60 from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a waste storage site.

A statement from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said:

Hundreds of clowns have gathered in Mexico City for a "laugh-a-thon" to protest against gang violence in the country.

Around 500 entertainers from across Latin America laughed and played an assortment of comedy instruments for 15 minutes.

They were also protesting against reports that a gunman had disguised himself as a clown to kill a drug lord last week.

"We want a little bit of peace. We spread happiness, laughter, smiles. That's why we're clowns," said clown Esteban Garcia.

The rally took place on the penultimate day of the Latin American clown convention.

Soldiers dug through tons of mud and dirt in search of victims of a massive landslide, as Mexican authorities looked for a police helicopter that went missing while carrying out relief operations on the flood-stricken Pacific coast.

The helicopter with three crew members on board was returning from the remote mountain village of La Pintada, where the mudslide occurred, when it went missing on Thursday. There is still no sign of it, said Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong.

Late last night, President Enrique Pena Nieto announced that the confirmed death toll from the flooding and landslides brought by the twin weekend storms of Manuel and Ingrid had risen to 101 from 97. The figure does not include the 68 missing.

Read more: '58 missing' after landslide near Mexican village

Read more: Flooding strands Mexico tourists

Thousands of tourists are still stranded in Mexico's Acapulco after torrential rain from two thunderstorms caused widespread devastation in the area.

Local authorities say that 80 people died in the weather tragedy and there are no flights out of the city from Acapulco airport.

New pictures show the scale of the devastation:

Read: Crocodile roams the streets of Acapulco after floods

A crocodile was roaming the streets of Acapulco after floods hit Mexico.

Residents watched the reptile as it crawled along the road and eventually captured the crocodile, managing to shut its jaws with black tape.

Heavy rain from two storms has caused widespread devastation in the South American country, with the death toll now standing at 80, according to authorities.

In Acapulco, shops were looted and thousands of stranded tourists waited to leave the country by air.

Read: Advice for stranded holidaymakers in Mexico's Acapulco

At least 58 people are missing after a landslide near a mountain village in Mexico, the country's interior minister said.

Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said rescue crews evacuated 344 people from La Pintada and said many of them were hurt.

He said there was a risk of further landslides in the village, which has been pounded by rain from hurricane Manuel.