RTFA: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/02/04/m…

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) — A recently retired Mexican army general whose bullet-riddled body was found Tuesday near Cancun had taken over as the area’s top antidrug official less than 24 hours earlier, officials said.

Retired Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñonez, his aide and a driver were tortured before being killed, said Quintana Roo state prosecutor Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo. He said there was no doubt Tello and the others were victims of organized crime.

“The general was the most mistreated,” Rodriguez said at a Tuesday night news conference monitored by El Universal newspaper. “He had burns on his skin and bones in his hands and wrists were broken.”

An autopsy revealed Tello also suffered broken knees and was shot 11 times, Mexico City’s Excelsior newspaper said.

Damn, Mexico has some serious problems.

RTFA: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-…

The government of Iceland today became the first to be effectively brought down by the credit crunch.

After several nights of rioting over the financial crisis, Prime Minister Geir Haarde, surrendered to increasing pressure and called a general election for May.

A poll would not normally be held until 2011.

Haarde also revealed that he had been diagnosed with a malignant tumour of the oesophagus and would not seek re-election.

‘I have decided not to seek re-election as leader of the Independence Party at its upcoming national congress,’ he told a news conference.

The global financial crisis hit Iceland, which has a population 320,000, in October, triggering a collapse in its currency and financial system under the weight of billions of dollars of foreign debts incurred by its banks

I love the sound of “first to be brought down…” That sort of anthropomorphic language nearly establishes the “credit crunch” as a sovereign and sentient being, just as much as it suggests that other governments might be toppled by risky financial practices. Fortunately, in a country so small, it should be a relatively simple task to audit the financial transactions and speculation that led up to this situation, right? After all, this “credit crunch” is as much the actions of people as it is the current willingness of people to lend to one another. In other words, it’s all people doing these things, not some strange non-human third-party.