Mexico City - Pilgrims from across Mexico arrived Friday at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in a northern district of the Mexican capital, to celebrate the feast of the so-called Virgin Morena, Mexico's popular patron.

Every year, more than 5 million faithful take part in the pilgrimage to the Guadalupe sanctuary on December 9-12. There, they sing to the images of the Virgin in the early hours of December 12 to celebrate her apparition to an indigenous man named Juan Diego in 1531, according to popular belief.

Tijuana, Mexico  - Tijuana, in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California and just across the border from the US city of San Diego, is suffering a dramatic escalation of gruesome violence.

Last weekend, police found nine decapitated bodies in one incident and nine other murders perpetrated separately from that.

This is nothing out of the ordinary in the troubled border city of 1.6 million residents, where some 600 people are believed to have been killed so far this year.

And it is also only a fraction of the drug-related killings that have soared to more than 5,000 across Mexico since January, mainly in its northern states. On Thursday alone,

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 3  -- The U. S. government has provided Mexico nearly half of a $400 million aid package for its southern neighbor's ongoing battle against drug traffickers.

The $197 million giving to Mexico was released Wednesday at a ceremony in the Mexican capital led by U. S. Ambassador Tony Garza, El Universal reported online.

The release of the funds came at a time when drug violence has been on the rise in Mexican towns along the U. S. border.

The funding also follows last month's arrest of a top law officer working with Interpol after an investigation into alleged ties to Mexican officials and drug trafficking. Ricardo Gutierrez was placed under house arrest while investigators search for evidence of the alleged ties.

Mexico City  - Mexico and the United States signed an agreement Wednesday on combatting narcotics trafficking and organized crime.

Tijuana  - The double fence that separates Mexico from the United States near Tijuana is just a few hundred metres away from the Casa del Migrante - the migrant's house.

The white church of Father Luis Kendzierski, which sits on a hill and is visible from the city centre, is always surrounded by scores of people.

The men who approach the church have often lived and worked in the United States for up to 25 years before being picked up by police, taken before US immigration authorities and deported to Tijuana.

FEATURE: US border fence has many loopholes, some them deadly By Franz Smets, dpa Eds: First of two stories on illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States, second in series to move early Saturday; epa photo 00000400854516 available =

Nogales, Mexico (dpa) - The United States has stepped up efforts over the last two years to contain the inflow of illegal immigrants across its southern border from Mexico and Central America.