Monterrey, Mexico, Apr 18 (EFE).- Gunmen killed three women and a man in Monterrey, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, in incidents likely linked to drug trafficking, officials said Thursday. The women were gunned down Wednesday night outside a house in the San Bernabe section of Monterrey, a Nuevo Leon Attorney General's Office spokesman told Efe. The gunmen arrived at the house in a rented vehicle and opened fire on the victims, who ranged in age from 22 to 38, the AG's office spokesman said.

Monterrey, Mexico, Apr 17 (EFE).- Nine bullet-riddled bodies were found on the banks of the La Silla River in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, state prosecutors said. The bodies were discovered Monday afternoon in the Reforma district of the city of Juarez, Nuevo Leon Attorney General's Office spokesmen said. The bodies were taken to the coroner's officer, where specialists will try to identify the victims, the AG's office said. Nuevo Leon, one of Mexico's most violent states, is the scene of a turf war between the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas.

Italian prosecutors on Tuesday charged eight new people over the 1992 mafia bombing assassination of judge Giovanni Falcone -- an attack that profoundly shocked the country. The eight are all already in prison for other crimes and include Cosimo D'Amato, a fisherman accused of providing the explosives which he recovered from unexploded Second World War ordinance off the coast of Sicily. Another person accused is mafia boss Salvo Madonia.

Organised crime groups dealing in fake goods, drugs, human trafficking and illicit wildlife trade earn nearly $90 billion annually in East Asia and the Pacific, a UN report showed Tuesday. "Transnational Organised Crime in East Asia and the Pacific: A Threat Assessment" is the most comprehensive study of the subject, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. It estimates that the top money-makers for crime groups are the trade in counterfeit goods ($24.4 billion), illegal wood products ($17 billion), heroin ($16.3 billion) and methamphetamines ($15 billion).