14 killed across bloodstained Mexico

Three brutal killings on Wednesday claimed at least 14 lives across Mexico, in the latest bloodshed of a years-long crime wave fueled by warring drug cartels. Just outside Mexico City, armed gunmen burst into a bar in the early morning hours and opened fire on the crowd, shooting dead four men and two women, police said. Two other people were wounded in the incident. In the Pacific beach resort city of Acapulco, authorities said they found five people slain inside a house, including a boy and a pregnant woman. A little girl was also wounded. Neighbors said they heard shots overnight but did nothing until hours later, in the daylight, out of fear. Authorities said no one has been arrested in connection to the killings. Meanwhile the bodies of four women were found Wednesday apparently strangled to death near a baseball field in northern Mexico, police said. Authorities in Torreon described the cadavers as "four females, yet to be identified, with tourniquets around their necks made of plastic cord and a piece of wood." The bodies showed signs of torture, according to a police source who asked to remain anonymous. Forensic tests will determine whether the victims suffered sexual abuse. Police will also try to determine whether the deaths are related to organized crime in Torreon, where there is a strong gang presence. Juarez, a city in the neighboring northern state of Chihuahua, experienced a wave of "femicides" -- the term used in Mexico to refer to the murder of women -- from 1993-2003. Some 400 women were found dead during that time. More recent monthly counts conducted by some Mexican newspapers put the number of drug violence-related fatalities since 2006 at more than 50,000, and some NGOs say the number has already topped 60,000.