The Week in Mexico

2:00 a.m. June 28, 2009 (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Frenchwoman's sentence: France expressed disappointment at Mexico's refusal to let a Frenchwoman serve out a 60-year sentence for kidnapping in her native country, while her lawyer said she will keep appealing until the case reaches an international court. Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced Monday that his government decided against returning Florence Cassez because France would not guarantee that she would serve the full sentence.

Calderon attacks crime: President Felipe Calderón said Wednesday that the future of Mexican democracy is at stake in the government's fight against official corruption and organized crime. He criticized politicians who he said want to return to the era when gangs were tolerated. Calderón also called for making legislators more accountable to the public, including reducing the number of Congress members while allowing them to serve more than one term and face voters' judgment in re-election bids. Mexico holds midterm elections July 5.

Day-care-center fire: The federal government on Wednesday took over the investigation into a fire at a day-care center that killed 47 children, citing squabbling between state and federal officials over the probe. The June 5 blaze in Hermosillo began in a Sonora state government warehouse and spread to an adjacent, federally funded day-care center. Nine of the burned children were being treated at a pediatric burn center in Sacramento.

Storm kills fisherman: Andrés weakened from a tropical storm to a depression Wednesday as it headed out to sea after flooding homes and killing a fisherman in a lagoon in Tecpan de Galeana, between Acapulco and Zihuatanejo.

Population report: A report from the U.S. Census Bureau said the world's 65-and-older population will triple by 2050. It said that in Latin America, youths 19 and younger outpace the 65-and-older group by more than 5-to-1. But by 2050, led by a drop-off in births in countries such as Mexico and Brazil, senior citizens will jump to 18 percent of the population, compared with 25 percent for youths.