A shootout in the northern city of Monterrey killed two suspected drug cartel gunmen and wounded a soldier Friday. Suspected gang members also blocked roads in the city for the second day, in a bold attempt to impede security patrols.

Not far from Yosemite's waterfalls and in the middle of California's redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering US public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and using smuggled immigrants to cultivate them.

Relatives of youths killed in a recent massacre interrupted and jeered President Felipe Calderon, as he pledged on Thursday night to spend more on social programs to curb runaway drug gang violence in this border city.

Mexican police have captured alleged drug lord Carlos Beltran Leyva, just two weeks after his even more powerful brother was killed in a shootout with troops - back-to-back victories in President Felipe Calderon's drug war.

President Felipe Calderon is proposing runoff elections in future presidential contests and re-election for many officials in Mexico's most dramatic political reform attempt in decades.