SEVEN dismembered bodies found in Mexico: Discovered with message accusing authorities of working with country's most dangerous drugs lord

Mexican drugs war: Authorities found the dismembered bodies of seven men in the western city of Culiacan in the early hours of Tuesday

Mexican police have found seven dismembered bodies in a Pacific coast state where the country's most-wanted man is battling its most aggressive drug cartel.

The Attorney General's Office says the bodies were found early Tuesday in Sinaloa along with a message accusing authorities of cooperating with drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Guzman is head of the Sinaloa cartel, and the letter's wording suggests it may have been written by the Zetas cartel.

The bodies were discovered stuffed into 13 black garbage bags and dumped on a footpath in a residential area, authorities said.

The Zetas have launched tit-for-tat attacks on Sinaloa strongholds since Sinaloa cartel gunmen and their allies moved in on Zetas turf in the Gulf coast states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas.

Last week, suspected Zetas took the unusual step of using an airplane to drop thousands of leaflets accusing Sinaloa's governor of taking orders from Guzman.

Guzman, who has long been recognized as Mexico's most powerful drug capo, was included this year on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, with an estimated fortune of $1 billion.

He escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001 in a laundry truck and has a $7 million bounty on his head.

Authorities say his Sinaloa cartel has recently been expanding his drug business abroad, building international operations in Central and South America and the Pacific.

The Zetas were founded by former soldiers who defected from the Mexican military in 1998 to work as hired killers for drug traffickers.

They have since carved out their own smuggling empire, expanded massively across Mexico and diversified into kidnapping, extortion and theft of crude oil.

Last month, violence between the Zetas and their rivals intensified in several parts of Mexico.

Among the worst incidents saw 18 people were decapitated near the city of Guadalajara and nine victims hanged from a bridge in the city of Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.

In total, around 55,000 people have died in drug related violence and more than 5,000 have disappeared in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.


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Jennifer Nicole Love Hewitt admits she draws the line at nudity as she steps out in flirty Easter dress

Jennifer Nicole Lee

She is plastered on billboards across Los Angeles wearing just her lingerie, showing off her ample curves in a bid to promote her new TV show The Client List, in which she plays a call girl.

Not to mention the fact that she is a men’s magazine favourite, has a wardrobe full of skin-tight bandage dresses and regularly speaks about her love of ‘vajazzling’.

But despite being so comfortable with her sexuality, Jennifer Love Hewitt has admitted that she draws the line when it comes to nudity.

Her scenes in the Lifetime TV show require her to regularly be scantily clad in an array of lingerie, but the 33-year-old says she wouldn’t have taken on the role if it required her to bare all.

The actress was asked during a press conference if she would have agreed to play the part had it been for a racier network such as HBO or Showtime.

She replied: ‘I wouldn't have done nudity, no. That's not something that I feel particularly comfortable with.’

Jennifer added: ‘I also think that it's sexier not to show everything. I feel like imaginations can do way more.’

She stepped out today in Los Angeles and seemed to be feeling in the Easter spirit when it came to her wardrobe.

The actress teamed a pretty pink asymmetric dress, which perfectly showed off her deep tan, with some beige peep toe pumps.

While the star has said she won’t be revealing too much any time soon, her promotional posters for The Client List recently came under controversy for that very reason.

It appears Jennifer’s curves were too much of an eyeful for some after two different adverts for the new series were released.

While the Hollywood Reporter and billboards across LA went for Jennifer's natural bosom, which is a double D cup size, Entertainment Weekly decided their delicate readers should only see a smaller, digitally reduced cup size.

Jennifer has said of her ample breasts: 'I just accepted them as a great accessory to every outfit.'

The actress plays a single-mother-of-two who finds extra work with a high-end prostitution service in Texas in the show.

And the unlucky in love star has also admitted that she is single just like her character.

The told People: ‘The men in my life are the crew members [on the show] ... and my one male dog, who gets very jealous because I'm gone a lot.’

But she gushed of her delight at working on the show, which airs tonight, saying: ‘I love it. It's a lot of fun.’

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Tornadoes rip through Dallas-Fort Worth area

Semi-tractor trailers lay in debris left by a tornado at southern area of Dallas

(Reuters) - At least two tornadoes tore through the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area in Texas on Tuesday, ripping apart buildings, tossing tractor trailer trucks into the air and grounding planes in the region.

There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries, according to police, although the storm was still active.

One tornado tossed around trucks like toys in the Flying J Truck Plaza in Dallas, said truck driver Michael Glennon, who caught the destruction on his video camera as debris swirled through the air.

"The second trailer is ripped to pieces and thrown 50 to 100 feet into the air," he told Reuters.

National Weather Service meteorologist Amber Elliott confirmed that two separate tornadoes had touched down, one in Arlington, Texas and another in Dallas. Nine separate tornado warnings have been issued by the weather service for the Dallas area so far on Tuesday, she said.

Hail ranging from pea-sized to as large as baseballs pounded Dallas and Fort Worth, the nation's fourth-most-populous metropolitan area with 6.3 million people.

"A house completely demolished. Gas leak in the area," said one comment broadcast on the suburban Arlington, Texas, police scanner, passed along by weather forecaster AccuWeather.

"Motor home blown sideways blocking the street. There is a person stuck inside," another scanner broadcast said.

During the storm all planes were grounded at Dallas-Fort Worth International airport, the eighth busiest in the world, because of reports of storms and tornadoes, American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said. The airport had reopened by late afternoon.

American canceled all 230 departures from its hub there on Tuesday, and a like number of inbound flights.

Dallas-Fort Worth airport spokesman David Magana said officials ordered passengers away from windows and directed them into stairwells and restrooms.

More than 110 aircraft sustained damage from hail, 400 departures were canceled and 40 incoming flights were diverted, the airport said in a statement.

HOMES DAMAGED, NO ONE HURT

Amethyst Cirmo, a spokeswoman for the city of Kennedale, west of Arlington, Texas said there was at least moderate damage to 40-50 homes there and some businesses were damaged as well. She said a tornado hit the city of 7,000 people, some power lines were down and a water main had broken, but was repaired.

"We have had some pretty severe damage, but we're doing OK," she said.

WFAA television in Dallas aired footage showing residents in one hard-hit neighborhood frantically directing a policeman, who appeared to be searching for people trapped by the storm.

The surrounding streets were littered with fallen trees and other storm-generated debris.

Video of a parking lot of a trucking company showed large trucks piled on top of one another, and some had their roofs ripped off.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez told CNN that there had been no serious injuries so far, but officers had not investigated all of the damaged neighborhoods. Officers also had been dispatched to damaged areas to prevent looting, she said.

The U.S. tornado season has started early this year. Tornadoes have been blamed for 57 deaths so far in 2012 in the Midwest and South, raising concerns that this year would be a repeat of 2011, the deadliest year in nearly a century for the unpredictable storms.

In 2011, there were 550 tornado deaths with 316 lives lost on April 27 in five southern states, and a massive tornado that killed 161 people in Joplin, Missouri on May 22.

Tuesday's tornadoes in Texas could prove more costly than a hailstorm nearly a year ago in the Dallas area that caused more than $100 million in insured losses. That April 15, 2011, storm was less damaging in terms of hail and winds.

Insurers have already lost as much as $2 billion during the 2012 tornado season, mostly from a record March 2 outbreak. That follows record-breaking losses of $26 billion during the 2011 tornado season.

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America's Most Overpriced Cities, 2012

The Lone Star state has gotten a lot of good press lately for coming through the economic downturn relatively unscathed. Thanks to that strong state economy, housing in Texas’ biggest cities, including Houston, San Antonio and Austin, never suffered from the plunge in property values that struck the rest of the United States in the last few years.

So it wouldn’t surprise you to see them top a list of the nation’s most overpriced cities, places where the cost of living–especially housing prices–are the highest compared with median income. 

Yet none of them make our list. They didn’t even come close. But we were surprised when we ran the numbers and found another Texas town within the top five: McAllen. Known for its hardscrabble economy and high unemployment, the City of Palms suffers from an 11.7% jobless rate–and the lucky folks who do find work don’t tend get a fat paycheck. The U.S. Census Bureau crowned McAllen America’s urban poverty capital for 2010 with a 33.4% rate.

So while the cost of groceries, clothing and gas—and even housing, with a median price of 107,000–are low compared with a lot of other cities in America, this border city of 741,000 is still comparatively one of the toughest places to make ends meet anywhere. “It’s still hard to buy a house even if it’s cheap because there are low incomes,” says David Crowe, chief economist of economics and housing policy for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). 

Behind the Numbers

To find the most overpriced cities, we started with America’s 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and Metropolitan Divisions (MSADs), all with populations of more than 600,000 residents or more. We then ranked these places based on four metrics, placing an equal weight on each metric.

First we looked at housing affordability, using the Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) compiled by the NAHB and Wells Fargo. The quarterly index weighs median prices for homes sold against median income levels to determine the percentage of local residents who could afford to buy a home.

Next we assessed the cost-of-living index created by Sperling’s Best Places to gauge the cost of food, utilities, gas and a variety of other everyday expenses in each area. Cities that clock a cost-of-living rank above 100 represent places where these goods cost more than the national average. Since some expensive cities are balanced out with high incomes, we factored in the median salaries for residents with a BA degree or higher to see just how far a paycheck actually stretches in each of these cities, using data from Payscale.com. Last, we included local unemployment rates collected from Moody’s Economy.com and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here are the top 10 most overpriced cities in America:

8 (tie). San Jose, Calif.
MSA: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Housing Affordability: 51.5%
Unemployment rate: 9.8%
Median Salary (for college grads): $92,100
Cost-of-Living: 175

San Jose, Calif. Photo: Bernd Geh/Getty Images

8 (tie). Bradenton, Fla.
MSA: North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL
Housing Affordability: 72.6%
Unemployment rate: 10.4%
Median Salary (for college grads): $52,000
Cost-of-Living: 100

Bradenton, Fla. Photo: Forbes.com

7 (tie). Honolulu, Hawaii
Housing Affordability: 40%
Unemployment rate: 5.7%
Median Salary (for college grads): $53,900
Cost-of-Living: 180

Honolulu, Hawaii Photo: Peter Photo/iStockphoto

7 (tie). El Paso, Texas
Housing Affordability: 55.5%
Unemployment rate: 10.2%
Median Salary (for college grads): $47,700
Cost-of-Living: 82

El Paso, Texas Photo: Denis Jr. Tangney/istockphoto

6. West Palm Beach, Fla.
MSAD: West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach, FL
Housing Affordability: 74%
Unemployment rate: 10.4%
Median Salary (for college grads): $54,700
Cost-of-Living: 112

West Palm Beach, Fla. Photo: Thinkstock

5. Providence, R.I.
MSA: Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA
Housing Affordability: 75.9%
Unemployment rate: 10.2%
Median Salary (for college grads): $55,000
Cost-of-Living: 129

Providence, R.I. Photo: Thinkstock

4. McAllen, Texas
MSA: McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
Housing Affordability: 53.4%
Unemployment rate: 11.7%
Median Salary (for college grads): $44,900
Cost-of-Living: 75

McAllen, Texas Photo: City Data Via Wikipedia

3. Miami, Fla.
MSAD: Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL
Housing Affordability: 61.3%
Unemployment rate: 10.2%
Median Salary (for college grads): $55,700
Cost-of-Living: 112

Miami, Fla. Photo: Thinkstock

2. Fresno, Calif.
Housing Affordability: 77.4%
Unemployment rate: 15.8%
Median Salary (for college grads): $50,600
Cost-of-Living: 109

Fresno, Calif. Photo: ZUMA Press/Newscom

1. Los Angeles, Calif.
MSAD: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA
Housing Affordability: 45.1%
Unemployment rate: 11.9%
Median Salary (for college grads): $62,900
Cost-of-Living: 144

Los Angeles, Calif. Photo: iStock

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48 hours in Dallas/Fort Worth

Dallas-Fort Worth

(Reuters) - Got 48 hours to spend in Dallas-Fort Worth? There is plenty to see and do in this metropolitan area featuring two cities with distinctly different vibes.

Rich in Texas heritage, the DFW area is the place to sample the full gamut of distinctively Texas cuisine, from chicken-fried steak, barbecue and Tex-Mex to high-end fusions like lobster or sea bass tacos.

When it comes to entertainment, there is plenty to appeal to either urban sophisticates or wannabe cowboys. The possibilities range from pro sports to cultural arts to world-class shopping to the world's largest honky tonk.

Reuter correspondent with local knowledge help visitor make the most out of short visit.

FRIDAY

4 p.m. - Rent a car at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and make the trip to downtown Dallas.

5:30 p.m. - Have a cocktail and early dinner at Nosh, celebrated chef Avner Samuel's restaurant and bar, noted for European and Mediterranean food such as crispy duck confit or pan-roasted Alaskan halibut served with Spanish chorizo, spicy peppers and black olives.

7:30 p.m. - Love sports? Dallas has you covered. Head to the American Airlines Center (www.americanairlinescenter.com) to watch the world-champion Dallas Mavericks on the basketball court. If the Mavs are away, watch the Dallas Stars hockey team on the ice.

If sports aren't your thing, the nearby arts district has many cultural offerings. The AT&T Performing Arts Center (www.attpac.org) has multiple venues, including the sleek new Winspear Opera House, so there is almost always a concert, play or dance performance to see. Or, cross the street to the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center to see the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in concert.

11 p.m. - Take the elevator to the 33rd floor of the W Hotel in Victory Park, across the street from the American Airlines Center, for a night cap and the best view of Dallas.

SATURDAY

9 a.m. - Dream Café in the trendy Uptown area north of downtown is a Dallas institution known for its eclectic mix of down-home and Tex-Mex breakfast selections. There are also lots of meatless options, including vegetarian sausage.

10 a.m. - The Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza(www.jfk.org) pay tribute to Dallas' most tragic event: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Examine the life and legacy of JFK at the museum and spot where the presidential motorcade passed when the shooting occurred at Dealey Plaza.

Noon - Head back to the arts district and tour the Nasher Sculpture Center (www.nashersculpturecenter.org), an architectural gem in the downtown arts district. The center houses the extensive collection of Dallas developer Raymond Nasher and his wife, Patsy. Works by artists such as Matisse, Calder and Rodin are displayed in indoor galleries and the outdoor garden.

1 p.m. - Drive a few miles north to Rafa's, an authentic Tex-Mex eatery with lots of lunch specials featuring tacos, enchiladas and fajitas. This popular local spot draws the occasional celebrity, including former President George W. Bush, a Dallas resident.

3 p.m. - Dallas is known for shopping and there is no shortage of places to explore across the city, from funky vintage shops to high-end boutiques. Highland Park Village (www.hpvillage.com) boasts stores of premiere designers such as Stella McCartney, Hermes and Dallas native Lela Rose. Be sure to stop by the flagship Neiman-Marcus store downtown at least to grab a signature chocolate-chip cookie.

8 p.m. - Get dressed up and splurge on dinner at the Mansion Restaurant in the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek ( www.rosewoodhotels.com) in Oak Lawn, north of downtown. Chef Bruno Davaillon's creations such as seared snapper and rack of lamb, have kept this Dallas institution at the top of fine dining lists for more than 30 years.

11 p.m. - On the east end of downtown is Deep Ellum, Dallas' hippest nightlife area, with dozens of clubs for listening to music and dancing. Local favorites include the Lizard Lounge and House of Blues. Or, check out PM Nightlife in the downtown Joule hotel. This artistic, underground club is the place for celebrity sightings.

SUNDAY

10 a.m. - Check out of the hotel, load the car and head over to the Dallas Farmers Market (www.dallasfarmersmarket.org) for a light breakfast of fresh-picked fruit or a homemade pastry from one of the many stalls.

11 a.m. - Head west on Interstate 30 for a 30-minute ride to downtown Fort Worth. About halfway there, you can catch of glimpse of the new Cowboys Stadium and nearby Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Noon - Lunch at Reata Restaurant in downtown Fort Worth's Sundance Square (www.sundancesquare.com). This is a true Cowtown experience, featuring tenderloin tamales, chicken-fried steak and pan-seared, pepper-crusted tenderloin.

2 p.m. - If you visit in late January or early February, hit the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo (www.fwssr.com) and catch a rodeo matinee in the Will Rogers Memorial Center. Check out the exhibit halls to pick up a cowboy hat, a pair of boots or a western belt buckle.

If you can't make the stock show, head to the Fort Worth Stockyards for a taste of the Old West. Catch a rodeo at the Cowtown Coliseum or learn about Fort Worth's storied history at the Stockyards Museum. Try on a pair of handmade boots at M.L. Leddy's or head to Billy Bob's, the world's largest honky-tonk, for a longneck, a little two-stepping and some live professional bull-riding action.

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Man with explosives stopped at Texas airport

Exclusive stopped in Texas

SAN ANTONIO Dec 31 (Reuters) - A man found to be carrying explosives in "military grade wrapping" was detained at a western Texas airport on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of the area, officials said.

The explosives were found during a routine inspection at a security checkpoint inside Midland International Airport, Midland city spokeswoman Tasa Watts said. The Transportation Security Administration evacuated the terminal and conducted a security sweep, she said.

The incident at the airport in Midland, which is about 280 miles northwest of San Antonio, came as many Americans set out on airplane trips for the New Year's Day holiday.

No details were immediately available about the man or why he had the explosives, which Watts said were "wrapped in military grade wrapping."

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said the "suspicious item" was found in a carry-on bag.

"The checkpoint was closed for approximately one hour while officials investigated and removed the item from the checkpoint area," Farbstein said.

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7 People Shot Dead In Texas Home, Motive Unclear

                                       7 People Shot Dead In Texas

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- Investigators believe that seven people who were found dead Christmas Day were cleaning up holiday wrapping paper when they were shot inside a suburban Fort Worth apartment, but a motive remains unclear.

All of the victims appeared to be related, and Grapevine police said they believe the shooter was among the dead. Investigators were meticulously searching the apartment, along with three vehicles parked outside, and didn't expect to finish until dawn on Monday.

"It appears they had just celebrated Christmas. They had opened their gifts," Grapevine Police Sgt. Robert Eberling said, adding that the apartment was decorated for the holiday, including a tree.

The four women and three men, aged 18 to 60, were found dead in an adjoining kitchen and living room area when police arrived midday Sunday, shortly after receiving a 911 call in which no one was on the other line, Eberling said. Two handguns were found near the bodies, he said.

None of the victims has been identified, but Eberling said it appears they all died of gunshot wounds. He said authorities still don't know what sparked the incident.

Grapevine Police Lt. Todd Dearing said investigators believe that the victims were related, though some were visiting and didn't live in the apartment. He said police are looking for other relatives to inform of the deaths.

"Seven people in one setting in Grapevine, that's never happened before. Ever," Dearing said.

Police and firefighters first rushed to the Lincoln Vineyards complex after receiving the open-ended 911 call at about 11:30 a.m., Eberling said.

"There was an open line. No one was saying anything," he explained.

So police went into the apartment, located in the middle-class neighborhood of Grapevine, not far from the upscale Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville. The apartment was at the back of the complex, overlooking the athletic fields of Colleyville Heritage High School.

But many of the nearby apartments are vacant, and police said no neighbors reported hearing anything on a quiet Christmas morning when many people were not around.

Jose Fernandez, a 35-year-old heavy equipment mechanic who moved to the complex with his family about six months ago, said he always felt safe in the area, but is now afraid to let his 10-year-old son play freely outside.

"This is really outrageous especially on Christmas," said Fernandez, who was visiting family for the holiday and returned to find several police cars parked outside his home.

"This has shocked everybody. It has scared everybody. I guess something like this can happen anywhere, but seven people dead. It's just very scary," he added.

Eberling agreed the area is fairly quiet, noting this would be the first homicide in Grapevine since 2010.

Christy Posch, a flight attendant who moved to the complex about six months ago so her son could attend the high school, said she lives a few buildings away and did not hear any gunshots.

"It's all families. That's why I moved here. No burglaries, no nothing," Posch said.

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