Mexico wants to duplicate its trade with the United Kingdom, President Enrique Peña Nieto declared this week after visiting Northern Ireland and London in conjunction with the G8 meeting.

The owners of more than 250 Chinese restaurants in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon closed their doors Monday afternoon in protest at being the targets of extortionists and kidnappers.

The latest embarrassment for the “reformed” Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is a scandal surrounding Andres Granier, the former governor of Tabasco, who faces allegations that he misused public funds during his 2007-2012 administration.

Tijuana has become the first Mexican city to switch from analog to digital television broadcasts. Guadalajara and most of central Mexico are scheduled to make the changeover in November 2014.  

Mexican director Amat Escalante did not believe he had any chance of winning the Cannes Film Festival Best Director prize for his movie “Heli,” a raw take on Mexico’s drug trafficking conundrum.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto wants a far reaching debate on the issue of the legalization of drugs, although he says he is personally opposed to any immediate reforms.