Mexican Independence Day

September 16, 1810 was the day when father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Roman Catholic priest from the town of Dolores, near Guanajuato, Mexico rang the bell of his church and gathered his congregation together. Flanked by Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and others, he called on all Mexicans to stand up and fight for the liberation of Mexico from Spain.

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His speech known as the Grito de Delores (the cry from Delores) was the beginning of a war that would last for 11 years and 11 days. Spain finally recognized an independent Mexico on September 27, 1821 by signing the Treaty of Cordoba.

Click the following links for details on the Mexican War of Independence and Independence Celebrations

Mexico celebrates its independence in September as do many other countries.

Country	Date	Holiday
Andorra	September 8 (1278)	Our Lady of Meritxell Day
Armenia	September 21 (1991)	Independence Day
Belize	September 21 (1981)	Independence Day
Botswana	September 30 (1966)	Independence Day (Botswana Day)
Brazil	September 7 (1822)	Independence Day
Chile	September 18 (1810)	Independence Day
Costa Rica	September 15 (1821)	Independence Day
El Salvador	September 15 (1821)	Independence Day
Gibraltar	September 10 (1967)	National Day15
Guatemala	September 15 (1821)	Independence Day
Guinea-Bissau	September 24 (1973)	Independence Day
Honduras	September 15 (1821)	Independence Day
Korea (North)	September 9 (1948)	Founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Libya	September 1 (1969)	Revolution Day
Mali	September 22 (1960)	Independence Day
Malta	September 21 (1964)	Independence Day
Mexico	September 16 (1810)	Independence Day
Nicaragua	September 15 (1821)	Independence Day
Papua New Guinea	September 16 (1975)	Independence Day
Qatar	September 3 (1971)	Independence Day
St. Kitts and Nevis	September 19 (1983)	Independence Day
San Marino	September 3 (A.D. 301)	Founding of the Republic
Saudi Arabia	September 23 (1932)	Unification of the Kingdom
Slovakia	September 1 (1992)	Constitution Day
Swaziland	September 6 (1968)	Independence Day
Tajikistan	September 9 (1991)	Independence Day (or National Day)
Uzbekistan	September 1 (1991)	Independence Day
Vietnam	September 2 (1945)	Independence Day

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Manuel Uribe and His Struggle to Walk Again

Manuel Uribe, 43, of Monterrey, Mexico was awarded the title "The Heaviest Man in the World" in Jan. 2006 by Guinness World Records. At that time he weighed 1,235 lbs. He has since lost over 500 lbs and now weighs about 700 lbs thanks to the Zone diet. He had been bed-ridden since 2001 and has one goal in mind - to be able to walk again.

Manuel Uribe is beyond the kind of overweight that comes from fast food and lack of exercise. Doctors call it morbid obesity. According to the National Institutes of Health, obesity means weighing 20 percent or more than your ideal body weight, and it's a health risk. Morbid obesity is altogether different. Sometimes called "clinically severe obesity," it means you're 100 pounds or more over ideal body weight, with a body mass index of 40 or higher.

Uribe doesn't gain weight like the rest of us. Brain chemistry, genetic mutation, addiction, psychological pain -- or an unhappy combination of all of them -- makes morbid obesity one of the biggest mysteries of medicine.

An operation in 2001 - to remove 180 lbs of growth tissue from his thighs and pelvic areas - proved unsuccessful and Manuel feared that he would not be able to walk again. In addition to his weight problems, his wife of 14 years left him. He continued to over-eat and became depressed and at one point contemplated suicide.

Things began to change after he was noticed by a local journalist, Jose Luis Garcia, who interviewed him and told his story to the world. In the interview Manuel asked for someone to help him lose weight. Doctors and dietitians visited him. After much consultation Manuel decided to go on a diet, the Zone diet, rather than undergo more surgery which came with significant risks to his health.

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Manuel not only started losing weight on his new diet but he also found love again. He met Claudia Solis and they both decided to get married. The following video chronicles Manuel's transformation from depression to romance.

Manuel and Claudia

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Manuel Gets Married

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Even though Manuel is still not able to walk, he has plans to be mobile. He is now having a 1989 Chevrolet Astrovan outfitted specially for him. The minivan is being converted into an open-air, flatbed pickup. Manuel says he will put a bed on the back of the van to drive around town, with his new wife at the wheel.

With his new found lease on life, Manuel now wants to open an auto parts store. He is also making plans to visit the beach soon with his wife. He plans to continue with his diet and exercise and maybe someday he will be able to walk again. Below is a clip with Dr. Barry Sears, the creator of the Zone diet.

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Manuel Uribe sums it up like this:

"I love life , I love God and I have someone to love, Thank God!!"

Baby Flushed Down the Toilet

This is the story of how 27-year-old Rita María Peña with the help of her 67-year-old mother, Elodia Núñez, flushed Rita's newborn baby boy down a toilet.

This is one of those stories that make you wonder just how cold-hearted and ruthless some people can be. In fact after reading this story for the first time I thought these people can not be human, they are devoid of the emotions and intellect that separate us from animals. And to call them animals is an insult to the creatures that belong in that class; because, come to think of it, even animals care for their young. The only redeeming grace that I could find here was, that when confronted, they did not try to deny the heinous act perpetrated on a young, innocent, defenseless life. Below is the story of how an innocent soul was deprived of life almost before his first breath was drawn.

Police in Guadalajara, Mexico arrested Rita María Peña, 27, for allegedly flushing her newborn baby down the toilet, killing the boy. Rita's mother Elodia Núñez, 67 was also arrested as an accomplice. The police say they found the baby's body in a sewage pumping station. Suspicion fell on Rita after local residents reported that her pregnancy had ended, but she appeared not to have the child.

When questioned by the police, Rita told them that she went to live with her mother after she became pregnant and was having problems with her boyfriend, the baby's father. On July 29, 2008 she began feeling labor pains and went to the bathroom where her son was born. However she was still angry at being separated from her boyfriend and threw the baby down the toilet. It was at that very moment that her mother, Elodia Núñez, came in. Elodia then proceeded to help her daughter fill the toilet with water in order to flush away the baby.

Elodia Núñez, also said that just days before the baby was born, she caught her daughter with a knife, unsuccessfully trying to cut herself in the stomach.

An autopsy perform on the baby showed that he died of a contusion of the skull, he also had bruises and cuts on his arms and ears.

Sex Tourist John Armstrong Sentenced

John Dickens Armstrong, 51, a registered sex offender, found out the hard way that certain crimes perpetrated in foreign countries can and will be prosecuted in the U.S.

Armstrong was living in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico when the Mexican police found him in the company of a 15-year-old El Paso girl. The teenager, a U.S. citizen, lived in Juarez with her grandmother at the time. She told the police that she had sex with Armstrong for money and crack cocaine. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Armstrong had solicited under-aged girls in a bar. He offered them $40 to have sex with him. He was also reported to have provided them with crack cocaine. Ciudad Juarez police officers arrested him for engaging in sexual conduct with underage girls.

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) learned of Armstrong's arrest they conducted their own investigation and obtained an arrest warrant for him. When Mexico deported him, I.C.E. was waiting for him at the border. He was taken into custody and charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, a federal offense.

A federal judge sentenced the 51-year-old man to more than nine years in prison (110 months) after he pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity with teenage girls in Juarez. In addition, Armstrong also received 10 years of supervised release after he's released from prison. He must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). He was already a registered sex offender in Arizona for a 1978 rape conviction.

"So-called sex tourists such as Armstrong are in for a rude awakening," said Roberto G. Medina, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso. "ICE and its law enforcement partners on both sides of the border are vigilant to this crime. Although we cannot restore innocence to those who sexual predators have exploited and abused, we make sure that justice is served on their behalf."