Gunmen kill police chief's daughter

Gunmen opened fire on a police chief's house in southern Mexico, killing his 23-year-old daughter and a bodyguard and wounding three others.

Anacleto Flores Valle, the chief of police in the Pacific coast town of Petatlan, was uninjured when heavily armed men in two trucks opened fire on his home on Sunday. The gunmen fled and were not identified.

Petatlan is near the Pacific coast resorts of Ixtapa and Zihuatenejo. It has seen recent violence associated with drug trafficking, including several attacks on police.

Elsewhere, federal police said on Monday that they detained two American women who were travelling in a Texas-plated pickup truck that had a petrol tank loaded with marijuana.

Police said the two women were speeding on a highway in the northern state of San Luis Potosi when a patrol car pulled them over. Officers noticed that bolts around the gas tank had been manipulated and took the vehicle in for inspection.

Police found 91kg of marijuana inside a sealed metal container hidden in the gas tank.

US consular officials were not immediately available to confirm the women's nationality, names or hometowns.

Also on Monday, police in the northern border state of Sonora said two men were shot to death with assault rifles in the city of Navajoa. There was no immediate information on a motive in the attacks.

- AP