Banda singer 'Tito Torbellino' shot dead in Mexico

MEXICO CITY: A US-born singer of northern Mexican "banda" music has been shot to death at a restaurant in the border state of Sonora.

State police in Sonora said Tomas Tovar Rascon was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and was shot several times at the restaurant in Ciudad Obregon.

Tovar Rascon, 33, was better known by his stage name, "Tito Torbellino."

His Facebook page said he was scheduled to perform at a concert in Ciudad Obregon on Friday. A US booking agent listed for Torbellino confirmed his death.

Police said two gunmen entered the restaurant Thursday and shot Tovar Rascon at close range. He died on the way to a local hospital.

Members of other musical groups have been murdered in Mexico in recent years, usually groups that perform "narcocorridos" that celebrate the exploits of drug traffickers.

But while some guns appear in Torbellino's music videos, his songs mainly focused on unrequited love, not drug gangs.

Experts say drug capos sometimes target musicians because of their ties to rival groups, or sentimental involvements.

In 2013, South Texas singer Jesus "Chuy" Quintanilla was found shot in the head near Mission, Texas. Quintanilla was well known for his ballads, including some about the exploits of Mexican drug cartels.

Elijah Wald, author of the book, "Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns and Guerrillas," noted previous victims have included singers of a number of genres, not only narcocorridos. Getting entangled with the girlfriend of a criminal, for example, could be dangerous.

"In that world, it's probably more dangerous to be singing romantic songs than narcocorridos because it increases the chances that somebody's girlfriend will suddenly decide that you're the cutest thing ever," he said.

Wald said he didn't have any information on the motive in the Torbellino's killing, but noted that the singer appears only recently to have become successful.

"It's often just a matter of somebody sponsoring someone who isn't paying them back or isn't being properly respectful once they make it," Wald.

"You're in a world where's it's very, very easy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or have the wrong friends or look sideway at the wrong girl. The list of things you can do wrong once you're in that world gets very large."

Thousands bid Garcia Marquez farewell in Mexico

MEXICO CITY: Mexico bid farewell Monday to its beloved adopted son, Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, with thousands of fans filing past his ashes in a music-filled tribute to the Nobel laureate.

A coffee-colored urn containing his ashes was placed on a pedestal, surrounded by yellow roses -- his favorite flowers -- in Mexico City´s domed Fine Arts Palace.

Fans streamed to pay their last respects to the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude," taking pictures as a string quartet played classical music.

Guests applauded when his widow, Mercedes Barcha, and sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, stood as honor guards at the ornate cultural center, where Mexico pays tribute to its late artistic icons.

The presidents of Mexico and Colombia delivered speeches to honor the giant of Latin American literature, who influenced generations of Spanish-language writers.

"We join together to pay tribute to the one who, from icy Stockholm in December 1982, touched the world by speaking about solitude in Latin America," said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, referring to the day the author received his Nobel prize.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto called him "the greatest Latin American novelist of all time."

"We, Mexicans, love him and will always love him," he said.

Known affectionately as "Gabo," Garcia Marquez died Thursday in the Mexico City house where he lived for decades with his wife and two sons. He was 87.

At least 25 dead in Mexico bus crash: official

XALAPA: A bus burst into flames after slamming into the back of a parked trailer-truck in southeastern Mexico, killing at least 25 people and injuring four others, an official said Sunday.

The death toll could rise to 33 but the fire made it difficult to identify all the bodies, Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte told Milenio television.

"The trailer-truck was on the shoulder of the highway at kilometer 135 (mile 84) ... when the bus hit the back of the trailer, which caused this regrettable accident," he said.

"In addition to crashing, the bus caught fire, which makes the investigative work to identify bodies more difficult."

The accident took place between 0630 GMT and 0700 GMT as the bus took passengers from the southeastern Tabasco state city of Villahermosa to Mexico City.

The tragedy occurred as Mexicans are set to begin Holy Week in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

Mexico Files Gun Charge Against 'El Chapo's Aide

The self-described "assistant" to drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was charged Wednesday with possessing illegal weapons when he was captured this weekend with the Sinaloa cartel boss, the Attorney General's Office said.

U.S. officials have said that intelligence about the suspect, Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramirez, was key in leading Mexican marines to a condominium in the Pacific Coast city of Mazatlan where Guzman's years as fugitive came to an end Saturday.

Hoo Ramirez appeared before a federal judge in the western Sinaloa state to face the charges, but the judge has yet to decide whether to try him.

Authorities have said that the marines who raided the condo caught Hoo Ramirez, also known as "Condor," with two rifles, two handguns, ammunition and a grenade launcher.

Hoo Ramirez told authorities he had been working as an assistant to Guzman for three years, said an official, who agreed to discuss the suspect's status only if not quoted by name because he was not authorized to speak to the press. U.S. law enforcement has said he was Guzman's chief of communications.

Officials in the U.S. say a cellphone found Feb. 16 at a house Guzman had been using in the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan belonged to Hoo Ramirez. Other arrests followed the phone discovery, and those detentions provided clues to the whereabouts of Guzman in Mazatlan.

Guzman, 56, was also with his 20-something former beauty queen wife and their twin toddlers. She was let go because there were no charges pending against her.

"El Chapo" is widely considered the world's most powerful drug lord. In rulings Tuesday, two federal judges said Guzman will have to stand trial on separate drug-trafficking and organized-crime charges in Mexico. The Attorney General's Office said Wednesday he also faces organized-crime charges in six other cases in four Mexican states and in Mexico City.

Guzman, who escaped from a western Mexico prison in 2001, is to remain in Mexico's highest-security prison while the criminal cases against him in the country are pending. The Mexican government has said he would not be extradited to the U.S. soon, despite several indictments against him stemming from California to New York.