TV station hit by car bomb in drug war

A CAR bomb exploded outside the studios of a Mexican television broadcaster early yesterday, days after marines found the bodies of 72 people gunned down in the country's escalating war with powerful drug cartels.

The bomb, the second planted in a vehicle this month in the city of Ciudad Victoria near the Gulf of Mexico and the third in Mexico since late July, caused no casualties but damaged buildings.

It came the same day as authorities discovered the body of a police officer who was investigating the immigrant massacre, which has been linked to Mexico's drug war.

Friday's explosion, apparently part of a growing campaign of intimidation against the media in Mexico, left little more than the car's engine and front chassis near the studio of broadcaster Televisa in the capital of Tamaulipas state, about 220 miles south of the Texas border.