CBS News
Woman suspected of kidnapping and killing girl is beaten to death by mob in Mexican tourist city
A mob in the Mexican tourist city of Taxco brutally beat a woman to death Thursday because she was suspected of kidnapping and killing a young girl, rampaging just hours before the city’s famous Holy Week procession.
The mob formed after an 8-year-old girl disappeared Wednesday. Her body was found on a road on the outskirts of the city early Thursday. Security camera footage appeared to show a woman and a man loading a bundle, which may have been the girl’s body, into a taxi.
The mob surrounded the woman’s house Thursday, threatening to drag her out. Police took the woman into the bed of a police pickup truck, but then stood by – apparently intimidated by the crowd – as members of the mob dragged her out of the truck and down onto the street where they stomped, kicked and pummeled her until she lay, partly stripped and motionless.
Fernando Llano / AP
Police then picked her up and took her away, leaving the pavement stained with blood. The Guerrero state prosecutors’ office later confirmed the woman died of her injuries.
“This is the result of the bad government we have,” said a member of the mob, who gave her name as Andrea but refused to give her last name. “This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened,” she said, referring to the murder of the girl, “but this is the first time the people have done something.”
“We are fed up,” she said. “This time it was an 8-year-old girl.”
The mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa, said he shared residents’ outrage over the killing. Figueroa said a total of three people beaten by the mob – the woman and two men – had been taken away by police. Video from the scene suggested they had also been beaten, though The Associated Press witnessed only the beating of the woman.
The state prosecutors’ office said the two men were hospitalized. There was no immediate information on their condition.
In a statement issued soon after the event, Figueroa complained he did not get any help from the state government for his small, outnumbered municipal police force.
“Unfortunately, up to now we have not received any help or answers,” Figueroa said.
The Good Friday eve religious procession, which dates back centuries in the old silver-mining town, went off as planned Thursday night.
People crowded Taxco’s colonial streets to watch hooded men walking while whipping themselves or carrying heavy bundles of thorns across their bare shoulders in penitence to emulate the suffering of Jesus Christ carrying the cross.
But the earlier flash of violence cast a pall over the already solemn procession, which draws thousands to the small town.
Many participants wore small white ribbons of mourning.
“I never thought that in a touristic place like Taxco we would experience a lynching,” said Felipa Lagunas, a local elementary school teacher. “I saw it as something distant, in places far from civilization … I never imagined that my community would experience this on such a special day.”
Mob attacks in rural Mexico are common. In 2018, two men were torched by an angry crowd in the central state of Puebla, and the next day a man and woman were dragged from their vehicle, beaten and set afire in the neighboring state of Hidalgo.
But Taxco and other cities in Guerrero state have been particularly prone to violence.
In late January, Taxco endured a days-long strike by private taxi and van drivers who suffered threats from one of several drug gangs fighting for control of the area. The situation was so bad that police had to give people rides in the back of their patrol vehicles.
Around the same time, the bullet-ridden bodies of two detectives were found on the outskirts of Taxco. Local media said their bodies showed signs of torture.
In February, Figueroa’s own bulletproof car was shot up by gunmen on motorcycles.
In Taxco and throughout Guerrero state, drug cartels and gangs routinely prey on the local population, demanding protection payments from store owners, taxi and bus drivers. They kill those who refuse to pay.
Cartel violence in Guerrero has continued unabated this year.
In February, investigators in Guerrero said they confirmed the contents of a grisly drug cartel video showing gunmen shooting, kicking and burning the corpses of their enemies. Prosecutors said they had reached the remote scene of the crime in the mountain township of Totolapan and found five charred bodies.
In January, an alleged cartel attack in Guerrero killed at least six people and injured 13 others.
The U.S. State Department urges Americans not to travel to Guerrero, citing widespread crime and violence. “Armed groups operate independently of the government in many areas of Guerrero,” the U.S. advisory says. “Members of these groups frequently maintain roadblocks and may use violence towards travelers.”
Residents said they have had enough, even though the violence may further affect tourism.
“We know the town lives off of Holy Week (tourism) and that this is going to mess it up. There will be a lot of people who won’t want to come anymore,” said Andrea, the woman who was in the mob. “We make our living off tourism, but we cannot continue to allow them to do these things to us.”
CBS News
Monastery in Thailand under investigation after authorities find 41 bodies allegedly used for meditation
A Buddhist monastery in Thailand is under investigation after authorities discovered more than 40 bodies on site which were allegedly used for meditation practices, police said Sunday.
Forty-one cadavers were found at Pa Nakhon Chaibovorn monastery in Thailand’s Phichit province on Saturday, a senior police officer told AFP.
“The bodies were accompanied with death and body donation certificates,” he said, adding that so far no charges have been filed.
He said police were reaching out to relatives of the deceased to confirm that the bodies were donated willingly.
“We are trying to make sure that none of the dead bodies were stolen,” said the officer who requested anonymity.
The search came days after police discovered 12 bodies at another monastery in neighboring Kamphaeng Phet province on Wednesday, according to Thai local media.
The head of the Phichit province monastery, Phra Ajarn Saifon Phandito, told Thai PBS television channel that the use of corpses was part of a “meditation technique” he developed.
“Many of the people who come to learn are abbots and all these monks… pass on the knowledge,” he said. “I don’t know how many have adopted my technique.”
He also told another local TV station that “practitioners meditate in pavilions that hold coffins with the human remains.”
Kom Pattarakulprasert, director of the Phichit Office of Buddhism, told the Bangkok Post that the inclusion of bodies in meditation was unusual.
“I asked Phra Ajarn Saifon Phandito if there were any cadavers and was told that there were none,” Kom told the outlet. “But when journalists discovered the 41 bodies, I was taken aback by the conflicting stories. I will discuss whether this practice is appropriate with the local head of the clergy.”
Phichit police said they are working with authorities in other provinces to investigate how widespread this practice is.
Charlotte, N.C. — Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport have gone on strike during a busy week of Thanksgiving travel to protest what they say are unlivable wages.
Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage in North Carolina, which a spokesperson said began Monday morning.
Officials with Service Employees International Union announced the impending strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.”
Erik Verduzco / AP
ABM and Prospect Airport Services contract with American Airlines to provide services including cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.
Workers say they previously raised the alarm about their growing inability to afford basic necessities, including food and housing. They described living paycheck to paycheck, unable to cover expenses like car repairs while performing jobs that keep countless planes running on schedule.
“We’re on strike today because this is our last resort. We can’t keep living like this,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said in a statement. “We’re taking action because our families can’t survive.”
Several hundred workers were expected to walk off the job and continue the work stoppage throughout Monday.
Most of them earn between $12.50 and $19 an hour, which is well below the living wage for a single person with no children in the Charlotte area, union officials said.
Charlotte Douglas International Airport officials have said this holiday travel season is expected to be the busiest on record, with an estimated 1.02 million passengers departing the airport between last Thursday and the Monday after Thanksgiving.
In addition to walking off the job, striking workers plan to hold an 11 a.m. rally and a 1 p.m. “‘Strikesgiving’ lunch” in place of the Thanksgiving meal that many of the workers won’t be able to afford later this week, union officials said.
“Airport service workers make holiday travel possible by keeping airports safe, clean, and running,” the union said. “Despite their critical role in the profits that major corporations enjoy, many airport service workers must work two to three jobs to make ends meet.”
ABM said it would take steps to minimize disruptions from any demonstrations.
“At ABM, we appreciate the hard work our team members put in every day to support our clients and help keep spaces clean and people healthy,” the company said in a statement last week.
Prospect Airport Services said last week that the company recognizes the seriousness of the potential for a strike during the busy holiday travel season.
CBS News
DHL cargo plane crashes near airport in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius amid concern over alleged Russian sabotage
Vilnius, Lithuania — A DHL cargo plane crashed early Monday near the airport in Lithuania’s capital, killing one person, authorities said as they searched for clues to what caused the tragedy. Lithuanian officials, who in the past weeks have been investigating incendiary devices allegedly sent on Western-bound cargo planes, stopped short of linking the crash with that investigation.
“It is premature to associate it with anything or to make any attributions,” State Security Department chief Darius Jauniskis told reporters.
Images from the crash site in the capital Vilnius showed debris from the plane and packages on fire scattered across the residential area, which had been cordoned off by the emergency services.
Lithuania Fire and Rescue Service/Anadolu/Getty
“We cannot rule out the case of terrorism. We have warned that such things are possible, we see an increasingly aggressive Russia… but we cannot make any attributions or point fingers yet,” Jauniskis said.
U.S. and European law enforcement agencies have been working together for weeks to investigate whether incendiary devices that detonated in July at DHL logistics hubs in Germany and Britain were part of a larger operation directed by Russian military intelligence agencies, the highest level of the Russian government, or by outside individuals acting in the interests of Russia, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News in early November.
According to the Lithuanian police, the plane, flying from the eastern German city of Leipzig, skidded several hundred yards before hitting the residential house that was set on fire, along with smaller buildings and a car.
Renatas Pozela, head of the firefighting and rescue department, said one person from the plane’s four-member crew died in the crash that happened as the plane came in to land in Vilnius.
Andrius Sytas/REUTERS
Head of National Crisis Management Centre Vilmantas Vitkauskas said the residential building was successfully evacuated, with its 12 residents moved to safety.
German logistics company DHL said the cargo aircraft was operated by its partner SwiftAir and had made an “emergency landing” in Lithuania.
“We can confirm that today, at approximately 4:30 am CET, a Swiftair aircraft, operated by a service partner on behalf of DHL, performed an emergency landing about one kilometer [about half a mile] from VNO Airport [Vilnius, Lithuania] while en route from LEJ Airport [Leipzig, Germany] to VNO Airport,” it said in a statement.
Lithuanian police Chief Arunas Paulauskas said investigators had gone to the hospital to talk to the pilots.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
Earlier this month Lithuania said it had carried out arrests as part of a criminal probe into the sending of incendiary devices on Western-bound planes.
Polish and Lithuanian media said the devices, including electric massagers implanted with a flammable substance, were sent from Lithuania to the U.K. in July and could be behind a lorry fire outside Warsaw.
U.K. anti-terrorism police said last month that they were investigating how a parcel burst into flames at a depot earlier this year, after a similar case in Germany that officials blamed on Russia. The Lithuanian president’s chief security advisor said this month that Moscow had been behind the incidents.
“We know who the source of these operations is. It is Russian military intelligence,” Kestutis Budrys told Ziniu radio. “We cannot let this go unanswered as it will only escalate into the new kinds of actions.”
Poland and Lithuania, both NATO members bordering Russia who have been major allies of Ukraine amid that country’s efforts to fend off Russia’s full-scale invasion, have frequently warned about Russian-inspired sabotage on EU soil.
The 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment published at the end of October said the U.S. continues to be concerned about threats to aviation and air cargo systems, including the “potential use of the air cargo supply chain to ship concealed dangerous and potentially deadly items.”
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said in a statement in October that it was continually adjusting its security posture as necessary and would “promptly share any and all relevant information with our industry partners, to include requirements and recommendations that help them reduce risk.”
“Over the past several months, as part of a multi-layered security approach, TSA worked with industry partners to put additional security measures for U.S. aircraft operators and foreign air carriers regarding certain cargo shipments bound for the United States, in line with the 2021 TSA Air Cargo Security Roadmap,” the TSA’s statement noted at the time.
Monastery in Thailand under investigation after authorities find 41 bodies allegedly used for meditation
Sherburne County’s partial recount of 14B House race begins Monday
Charlotte airport workers walk off job at start of busy Thanksgiving travel week
Monastery in Thailand under investigation after authorities find 41 bodies allegedly used for meditation
Sherburne County’s partial recount of 14B House race begins Monday