Friday, March 26, 2004

Spotted this on the Google news page. Mexico is pissed that a handful of active-duty British military personnel were found trapped in a Mexican cave complex, and is complaining about unauthorized "foreign military exercises" on its soil. The soldiers were apparently caving enthusiasts, and there's no indication that they were up to anything more than your average "extreme" vacationing. Just a little reminder that Mexico, despite its recent "North American" pretensions, is a very young democracy, and still retains a number of the traits of your average single-party state - such as hypernationalistic paranoia about foreign intervention.

Here's a better-written BBC account. Meryl Yourish whales on Reuters an awful lot for their pro-Palestinian bias, but I sometimes think that their greater sin is a collective inability to write gripping news copy. Just compare the two articles. The Reuters piece has about as much juice as an office-supply inventory list. The BBC story isn't great, but it at least puts a face on the situation.

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