Team of Mexican senators arrives in Oaxaca to look at government

Mexican senators considering whether to remove the Oaxaca governor in the face of protests accusing him of vote-rigging and using armed gangs against his opponents arrived in the region Thursday to determine firsthand whether the government had ceased to function.

Striking teachers and leftist activists have been camped out in the city since May, building barricades, burning buses and taking over radio stations. The protesters are demanding the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

On Wednesday, protesters refused to allow police to take control of the center they have occupied for five months, saying they first wanted a Senate ruling on Ruiz's future.

Sen. Alejandro Gonzalez, of the ruling National Action Party, said the violence would not intimidate legislators. He said their mission was necessary for the "benefit of the people of Oaxaca."

Nairobi, Kenya

Mountains at risk of losing ice cover

Africa's two highest mountains — Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya — will lose their ice cover within 25 to 50 years if deforestation and industrial pollution aren't stopped, environmentalists warned Thursday.

Kilimanjaro has already lost 82 percent of its ice cover over 80 years, said Fredrick Njau of the Kenyan Green Belt Movement. Mount Kenya, one of the few places near the equator with permanent glaciers, has lost 92 percent over 100 years.

"This is a major issue because declining ice caps mean the water tap is effectively going to be turned off, and that is a major concern," said Nick Nuttall from the U.N.'s Environment Program.

Hanoi, Vietnam

Inmate's pregnancy may spare her life

Police in northern Vietnam are investigating how a woman on death row for drug trafficking got pregnant, a condition that could spare her from facing the firing squad, police and lawyers said Thursday.

Nguyen Thi Oanh, 39, was sentenced to death last year for drug trafficking, and an appeals court upheld the sentence in April, said her defense attorney, Le Van Kien.

But Vietnamese law prohibits pregnant women or women with children younger than 3 from being sentenced to death. The most severe sentence they can face is life in prison.

Panama City

Cough-syrup deaths investigated

Panama launched a criminal investigation Thursday after health officials announced that the mysterious deaths of 21 people were likely caused by the intentional contamination of government-made cough syrup with a coolant used in brake fluid.

The deaths had set off a panic as doctors struggled for weeks to figure out why a disturbing number of men in their 60s were showing up at clinics suffering from severe disorientation and kidney failure. In addition to those who died, at least 38 people fell ill with the same symptoms. Panama's health minister initially suspected a high-blood pressure medicine called lisinopril and recalled 2 million tablets of the drug manufactured in Spain.

But later, with the help of investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the Pan American Health Organization, researchers determined that sugar-free cough syrups made by Panama's social-security system were laced with diethylene glycol.

Compiled from The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times