MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City authorities say they have arrested a police officer and another man in the abduction and killing of 12 young people who were taken in May from a bar near the U.S. Embassy.
Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Rios says the two suspects helped kidnap the group, whose decomposing bodies were found last month buried in a ranch near the capital.
Rios says the police officer worked in the Zona Rosa, a touristy area of bars and restaurants where the 12 were kidnapped.
He said Thursday the latest arrests bring to 15 the number of suspects in custody.
Prosecutors have said they believe the killings were in revenge for the slaying of a drug dealer in the trendy Condesa neighborhood.
CHICAGO ? DePaul golf coach Betty Kaufmann has been named the Midwest Section Coach of the Year by the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Teaching and Club Professional membership. Kaufmann, who begins her 16th season at the helm of the Blue Demon golf program in 2013-14, is one of four section winners while the national winner will be announced in the coming weeks.
Last season, Kaufmann?s Blue Demon program took sixth place at the BIG EAST Championship, while three players - John Pavelko, Moritz Ackerhans and Adrian Halimi all placed in the top 25. Pavelko became just the second golfer to earn All-Conference honors after placing seventh at the league championship. As a team, the Blue Demons finished off their season strong, placing in the top 10 in their last three tournaments and placed second at their own John Dallio Memorial in the fall.
Away from the course, Kaufmann?s team distinguished itself in the classroom by earning the 2012-13 Golf Coaches Association of America President's Special Recognition for having a cumulative team GPA above a 3.5.?? The Blue Demons were also awarded the BIG EAST Team Academic Award for having the highest cumulative GPA among their league counterparts while all 10 DePaul golfers were named to BIG EAST All-Academic team.
The 2013-14 golf season gets underway, Sept. 22-23 at the Windon Memorial Classic in Lake Forest, Ill.? The two-day, 16-team tournament is hosted by Northwestern and will be played at the Knollwood Club.
About the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Membership: The LPGA Teaching and Club Professional (T&CP) membership, founded in 1959 has enjoyed an unprecedented rate of growth in recent years and boasts the largest membership of women golf professionals in the world. With over 1,500 members, the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals are dedicated to the advancement of golf through teaching, coaching and managing golf facilities. Its national member programs including teaching, coaching, business management and leadership skills training programs and conferences, tournaments, employment services, online education and junior golf programs.
LPGA T&CP members also teach and support the LPGA's various grassroots programs that are working to increase the involvement of women and youth in golf, as well as contribute to the growth of the sport overall, including LPGA-USGA Girls Golf, LPGA Tour Junior Clinics and the LPGA Golf Clinics for Women. The LPGA is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Engineering officials in Italy say they have succeeded in lifting the cruise ship Costa Concordia free of rocks, 20 months after it ran aground.
Efforts to right the ship, one of the largest and most daunting salvage operations ever undertaken, are continuing through the night.
The vessel has been detached from rocks and moved on to a platform constructed on the sea bed, officials said.
Thirty-two people died when the ship ran aground off the Tuscan coast.
The bodies of two of those killed in the January 2012 disaster, by the island of Giglio, have never been found. There are hopes that they may be located during the operation, although officials said on Monday there was no sign of them so far.
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At the scene
Essentially this is simple physics. It's a little like a challenge you might set a classroom of school children. There's a capsized ship on the rocks. You can't cut it up as you might harm the waters it is lying in. How do you raise it?
As one engineer put it to me - stick some boxes on the side; rotate the vessel until the boxes are in the water; put some more on the other side and float the whole thing. So, simple physics.
But that makes this no less of an agonising 24 hours for the salvage team. You could see that in the way they gave one of their later updates on the operation. They had to shut the whole rotation down for an hour after a problem with the cables.
Beforehand they had said they would not do that, for any reason. With an operation like this, there will be unforeseen problems, and delays. And they're giving no time frame for this to be finished.
Engineers have never tried to lift such a huge ship - over 951 feet long (290m) - so close to land.
By Monday evening, the vessel had rotated by 20-21 degrees, the officials said.
This means that there is another 44-45 degrees to go before it is upright. However, the officials hope that once it has risen by 24 degrees, the ship will begin righting itself thanks to gravity and to metal boxes attached to the side and filled with water.
The start of this huge operation was potentially the most problematic phase, and the stage that worried the engineers the most, says the BBC's Alan Johnston at the scene.
But now the ship has been broken away from the reef on which she has been lying, the hope is that it will now be possible to rotate the wreck more easily, he adds.
The Italian Civil Protection Authority said the sea and weather conditions had mostly been right for the attempt, but the operation had to be delayed by three hours because of an overnight storm.
Huge challenge
The storm delayed the positioning of a barge carrying a remote control room close to the shipwreck, from where engineers were using pulleys and counterweights to move the Concordia from the steep underwater incline it is resting on.
Sergio Girotto, an engineer working on the project, told reporters on Monday the operation was going smoothly.
"Everything is going according to plan, we are following the plan to sequence. There is no problem whatsoever."
The ship could be seen emerging from the water as operators worked to hoist it upright.
Footage from the scene of the salvage operation clearly shows the watermark on the part of the ship that has been submerged for the past 20 months.
Our correspondent says that everything about the project is on a colossal scale.
Salvage workers have attached giant metal chains and cables to the 114,000-gross tonnage ship, which is roughly the length of three football fields.
More than 50 enormous chains and winches are being used to break the ship - twice as heavy as the Titanic - away from the reef on which it has been lying and roll her up onto her keel.
Engineers will try to roll the ship up using the cables and the weight of water contained in huge metal boxes welded to the ship's sides - a process called parbuckling.
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Concordia's dead and missing
Dead: 12 Germans; six Italians (including Dayana Arlotti, 5, and father William Arlotti); six French people; two Peruvians; two Americans (Barbara and Gerald Heil, passengers); one Hungarian (Sandor Feher, crew); one Spaniard (Guillermo Gual, passenger)
Missing: one Italian (Maria Grazia Trecarichi, passenger); one Indian (Russel Rebello, crew)
This procedure must be carried out very slowly to prevent further damage to the hull, which has spent more than 18 months partially submerged in 15 metres (50ft) of water and fully exposed to the elements.
Only after the ship is back up on her keel will it be possible to inspect it fully and begin to plan the next stage - the effort to repair and re-float it and eventually tow it away to be destroyed.
The head of the operation, Nick Sloane, told the AFP news agency that it was now or never for the Costa Concordia, because the hull was gradually weakening and might not survive another winter.
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?Start Quote
Islanders can't wait to see the back of it?
End QuoteSergio OrtelliGiglio mayor
If the operation goes wrong, environmentalists warn that toxic substances could leak out into the sea.
There are also concerns that filthy water trapped in the rotting, rusting wreck will pour out as the ship rises.
But booms and nets have been put in place to try to combat any pollution threat in what is a marine national park.
Five people have been convicted of manslaughter over the disaster, and the captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship.
Giglio mayor Sergio Ortelli said that the removal of the Costa Concordia would bring an end to "a huge problem that we have in our port and that we want to solve as soon as we can".
"Islanders can't wait to see the back of it," he said.
Alan Johnston gives a 360 degree tour of the salvage site
On Sunday, prayers for the operation were said during Sunday Mass on the island.
The small island's economy depends hugely on tourism and the presence of the wreck has discouraged visitors.
The salvage project has so far cost more than 600m euros ($800m; ?500m) and is expected to cost much more before the operation is complete.
Stocks eased off their best levels on Monday but still finished sharply higher, boosted by news that Larry Summers had pulled out of the race to be the next head of the Federal Reserve. The Nasdaq finished lower, dragged by sharp losses in Apple.
(Read more:?Summers out, can emerging currencies now catch a break?)
The?Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up more than 100 points, led by?Boeing and?General Electric. The Dow is on track for its best monthly gain since January.
Meanwhile, tech companies?Hewlett-Packard,?Microsoft?and?Intel put a damper on the Dow's gains.
The?S&P 500 finished off its best level after earlier crossing above 1,700. The?Nasdaq reversed its initial gains after rallying to a fresh 13-year high. The?Russell 2000 index hit an all-time high.
Meanwhile, trading was?temporarily halted across options markets around 1:40 pm ET due to system issues at Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA), which disseminates quotes to vendors. Trading in options was restored at major exchanges almost an hour later.
The options halt is the second major glitch effecting securities prices in the last month.
Most key S&P sectors closed in positive territory, led by?industrials?and?financials, while?techs ended in the red.
"The market's excited about more stimulus, or at least less aggressive tightening, and that's provided spark for the equity markets," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial Group. "But while today's rally is encouraging, it will be interesting to see if we can hold onto all of this morning's gains."?
Summers' surprise decision bolstered risk appetite as investors had expected him to take a more hawkish course regarding stimulus than other candidates if appointed. This leaves?Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen as the front runner for the job. A well-known policy dove, Yellen would be expected to continue Bernanke's easy money policies.
(Read more:?Wall Street wanted Yellen anyway: CNBC survey)
"The market will, at the margin, see his withdrawal as one which prolongs unorthodox policy for longer ? partly because it moves the more dovish Yellen up the favorites list for the new job," said Deutsche Bank's Gael Gunubu in a research note.
Yields on U.S. government debt fell to their?lowest levels so far in Septemberfollowing the news. Benchmark 10-year bond yields declined 8 basis points to 2.805 percent, near its session low and the lowest in two weeks.
Shares of homebuilders including?Pulte and?DR Horton spiked following the announcement. Summers was expected to rein in the government's stimulus program, which could have pushed interest rates higher, including rates for mortgages.
(Developing:?12 confirmed dead in DC Navy Yard shooting rampage)
Investors will be closely watching the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which ends on Wednesday. The central bank is expected to announce the start of the tapering in its monetary stimulus program. The latest Reuters poll showed economists expect the central bank cut its bond purchases by $10 billion, from the current $85 billion per month.
(Read more:?Here it comes: Are you ready for the Fed to taper?)
JPMorgan gained after the banking giant agreed to pay at least $700 million in London Whale-related fines, according to a report from Dow Jones.
Facebook ticked higher after Goldman Sachs raised its price target on the social-networking giant to $52 from $46. Facebook shares have rallied nearly 8 percent just this month alone.?
Packaging Corp. of America surged after the company said it would acquire smaller rival?Boise for?about $1.28 billion to increase its container board capacity.
Meanwhile,?Apple was among the few companies trading in the red following a report that a major Chinese carrier is offering a smaller subsidy for the new iPhones than in the past.
On the economic front, the pace of growth in New York state's manufacturing sector?unexpectedly slowed in September, according to a report from the New York Federal Reserve. The New York Fed's "Empire State" general business conditions index slipped to 6.29 from 8.24 in August, shy of economists' forecast of 9.20.
Meanwhile, industrial production?rose 0.4 percent in August after being flat in July, according to the Federal Reserve. The gain was in line with expectations.
?By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter:@JeeYeonParkCNBC)
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There are now more college-level courses and degree programs dedicated to the study of video games than ever before, according to a new report from the Entertainment Software Association.
If you imagine the average video gamer as a teenage boy sinking hours of his life into "Call of Duty" or "World of Warcraft" instead of doing his homework, you can see why most people think that video games and school work mix about as well as oil and water. But the two might work well together ? at least if diehard gamers find a way to turn their passion into a project outside their parent's basement.
According to a new report?from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), U.S. colleges and universities have taken to games a big way, now offering more coursework and degrees dedicated to the study of video games than ever before.
The report ? largely a compilation of all things video game-related in the world of American academia ? says that 385 higher education institutions now offer either individual courses or full degrees in game design. Of the 385, 226 offer bachelor's degrees, 55 offer associate's degrees, and 46 offer master's degrees.
So far, only four universities offer full-blown Ph.D. programs: University of California in Santa Cruz, Chicago's DePaul University, Northeastern University in Boston, and Adelphi University in Garden City.
Regionally, California has the greatest number of academic programs dedicated to gaming with 72 schools in the state. New York and Texas make a distant second and third with 26 and 24 schools respectively, with Florida (23), Illinois (23), Pennsylvania (19), Minnesota (17), and Massachusetts (14) filling out the lower part of the list.
Michael Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, described the growth in educational opportunities as an important way to increase professional literacy for young Americans seeking work in the tech and entertainment industry. Calling video games "the fastest growing, most dynamic form of entertainment in the world today," he said that increasing professional training and education helps push students into "an industry that creates interactive software, innovative hardware, and ecosystems that spawn new business models and online communities, transforming consumer experiences, spurring technological advancements, and impacting important areas including education, healthcare, and business."
That all sounds well and good, no doubt. But why is the ESA so keen on celebrating the proliferation of college courses? These are programs that teach students how to use game-making software and design programs, after all, not necessarily the kind of learning-for-learning's-sake we usually think of when we speak about humanities courses in film, television, or literature.
Well, the ESA also happens to be the largest force for D.C. lobbying ? outspending tech giants like Facebook and Google and even politically charged organizations like the National Rifle Association. The game industry, like the rest of the tech industry, would love to position itself as the kind of economic growth engine that has different states jockeying for a chance to attract developers to set up their headquarters in one town or another, so you can expect a lot more political activity from the ESA and large video game companies once executives start talking about job creation.?
Yannick LeJacq is a contributing writer for NBC News who has also covered technology and games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter at?@YannickLeJacq and reach him by email at: Yannick.LeJacq@nbcuni.com.
Note: 10 photos of the Bloomfield-Campbell baseball game are available in a photo gallery at this link: View Photos Here
BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - The Bloomfield Wildcats baseball team collected its third straight come-from-behind win Monday afternoon when it rallied to beat the Campbell Camels 9-6 to extend its winning streak to four games.
"I thought we came up with clutch hits with two outs and runners in scoring position," Bloomfield coach Tyler Trover said. "That's a big deal when you can string together hits with two outs. We had a couple of rallies with two outs with nobody on and scored some runs. Campbell is a good baseball team that has a good record and is well-coached so we feel good about this win today."
The first five runs the Wildcats scored were plated with two outs in an inning.
An RBI single by Tristan Mitchell in the bottom of the first inning gave Bloomfield a brief 1-0 lead.
The first three hitters collected hits for Campbell to start the top of the second inning. An RBI single by Matt Goodnight tied the game at 1-1 and an RBI single by Camden Bryant gave Campbell a 2-1 lead in top of the second inning.
The Wildcats moved back on top 3-2 in the bottom of the third inning when Tyler Battles collected a game-tying RBI single and an additional run scored following a Campbell error.
An RBI double by Noah Vandiver in the fourth and an RBI double by Jacob Hector in the fifth increased the Wildcats lead to 5-2.
Bloomfield starting pitcher Kaleb Thomley retired seven straight hitters and did not allow a hit in the fourth or fifth inning.
"We had a lack of focus a couple innings where we didn't have a good game plan," Campbell coach Jeff Boner said. "We went up there swinging at the first pitch. I think in one inning their pitcher got three outs with six pitches. You just cannot do that. You are going to have to make him work a little bit and go up with a little better approach."
The Camels offense caught fire late. Six of Campbell's 11 hits were in the final two innings.
A 2-RBI single by Bryant trimmed the Wildcats' lead to 5-4 with two outs in the top of the sixth inning. Campbell missed a chance to tie the game when Garret Riley hit a ball down the right field line that likely would have scored a runner from first base if the ball did not skip out of play and toward a bus. Riley's hit was ruled a ground ruled double, which put runners on second and third with two outs.
Wildcats' reliever Tim Fox struck out the next hitter - Bryant - to escape the jam.
Campbell lifted its starting pitcher Riley at the start of the bottom of the sixth inning. Matt Goodnight pitched the remainder of the game for the Camels.
Bloomfield tacked on four insurance runs in its half of the sixth inning.
Vandiver, who finished 3 for 4 with two doubles and four RBIs, hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth.
"He's been hitting the ball well, especially the last three or four games," Trover said of Vandiver. "We made a small lineup adjustment and moved him up one just for that reason. He's been hot. Like anybody else he can go on a cold streak too, but we definitely want to ride the hot one right now."
The first three Campbell hitters reached base in the top of the seventh inning. Austin Wethington and Goodnight collected RBI singles in the seventh to cut the deficit to 9-6. Fox struck out Bryant with two runners on to secure a four-out save.
Thomley, who pitched the first 5 2/3 innings, was credited with a victory.
Campbell (5-2) returns to action when it hosts Bernie Tuesday. Bernie (7-1) beat Twin Rivers 12-3 Monday.
"I like the way we are going here," Boner said of the hot start. "We've got a lot of young kids. We keep telling them 'fall is training ground for spring.' Hopefully, the fall will payoff."
Bloomfield (5-2) will host Twin Rivers Tuesday, travel to Senath-Hornersville Thursday and host Cobden, Ill., and Campbell Saturday.
"We don't look at it as we've got a winning streak," Trover said of trying to extend the winning streak Tuesday against traditional baseball powerhouse Twin Rivers. "We just try to take it day-by-day. I tell the kids 'win the day.' That's what we are focussed on. We are trying to forget about Campbell now and think about Twin Rivers because we've got a tough week. We are 1-0 right now, but could very well finish 1-4 at the end of the week just based on the talent we are playing so we want to take it one day at a time. As long as we keep that approach I think we will be OK."
Bloomfield 9, Campbell 6
CHS 020 002 2 - 6 11 2
BHS 102 114 x - 9 10 2
WP - Kaleb Thomley. LP - Garret Riley. SV - Tim Fox. HR - Noah Vandiver (B). 2B - Vandiver 2 (B), Jacob Hector (B), Christian Dean (C), Riley (C). Multiple hits - Bloomfield: Vandiver 3-4, Donnie Gibbs 2-4, Jacob Hector 2-3; Campbell: Austin Wethington 2-3, Matt Goodnight 2-4, Camden Bryant 2-4.
