MEXICO CITY, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Mexico will auction off three packages of roads in 2008 alongside contracts for a major port and an airport to serve the booming Riviera Maya beach resort area, the government said on Thursday.

Communication and Transport Minister Luis Tellez also said that his ministry, a priority in the government of President Felipe Calderon, will have 40 billion pesos ($3.69 billion) to spend on constructing and modernizing roads next year.

Looking for a romantic resort that’s, well, original? Check out Mexico’s Original Resorts, a diversified collection of hotels. Touting on its originality, the name encompasses a group of hotels that root the simplicities of life while igniting extraordinary and memorable guest experiences for all types of travelers.

Headquartered in Cancun, Original Resorts embraces hotels designed for a particular yet distinguished guest including the sophisticated traveler and couples with stylish and comfortable amenities, sensual and sexy packages for couples, and understated elegance.

Mandarin OrientalÂ’s new ultra-luxury Riviera Maya resort on the Yucatan peninsula is a secluded hideaway of individual villas and bungalows set in a private, 10ha (26acre) enclave tangled with mangroves and streams. Near by are numerous freshwater sinkholes and caverns offering swimming and snorkelling through underground rivers; and the astonishing Mayan ruins of Tulum. Although only half an hour from brash Cancun, this resort feels about as far away from the noisy, Texan-dominated holiday city as it is possible to get. Fly to Cancun on a cheap Â’nÂ’ cheerful direct charter, or on scheduled flights via the US.

Details: Seasons in Style (01244 202000, www.seasonsinstyle.com). A weekÂ’s stay costs {pound}2,490, including flights on American Airlines via Miami and private transfers.

Edwin Valero stopped Zaid Zavaleta in the third round in Cancun, Mexico, on Saturday night to record his 23rd short-cut victory in 23 professional fights.

The WBA super featherweight champion retained his title and once again showed why he is regarded as the hardest puncher in boxing.

Then heed the findings of CheapTickets.com’s “Cheapometer,” which offers month-by-month projections for when hotel rates will be cheapest in 2008 in popular destinations around the world.
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And if you’re looking for cheap in Miami, Jamaica or Cancun, try September, when prices are around 50 percent what you might pay otherwise. The tradeoff: You’ll have to deal with hot weather and take a chance on a stay at the height of hurricane season.

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — American Airlines has extended through July 31, 2008, several special offers that are available exclusively for active-duty members of the U.S. military. These offers include discounted airfares, relaxed advance purchase requirements, and preferred boarding privileges.

City Pair Fare Each Way*
St. Louis - Cancun, Mexico $226
Fort Lauderdale - San Juan, Puerto Rico $262
Los Angeles - San Jose del Cabo, Mexico $276
Boston - London Heathrow $291
New York Kennedy - St. Maarten, Neth. Ant. $300
Miami - Madrid, Spain $305
Chicago O’Hare - Frankfurt, Germany $335
Dallas/Fort Worth - Belize City, Belize $348
Los Angeles - Tokyo Narita $365
Miami - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil $367

The Oasis Hotels & Resorts group have announced that they have everything from boutique style hotels to large hotels with grand scale meeting rooms, Oasis Hotels & Resorts has a property to suit every need and budget in the Dominican Republic and Cancun and the Riviera Maya, Mexico.

The Grand Oasis Cancun is the hotel groupÂ’s flagship property with an ideal mix of meeting environments for groups ranging from 25 to 2,500 people. The Grand Salon is the showcase facility with more than 6,408 square feet of space, ideal for everything from a black-tie affair to a musical extravaganza or award presentation.

The Yucatan Junior Salon has been specially constructed to incorporate the most advanced AV presentation equipment with a retractable screen for when film, slide, and multimedia shows must be prominently featured. Quietly set apart from the other meeting facilities, its cinema-like ambiance features 3,418 square feet of space. Additionally, the Grand Oasis Cancun features four breakout rooms, as well as an executive conference room to seat up to 15.

Ice storm The misery goes on for parts of the Plains and into the Midwest today. Significant accumulations of freezing rain are expected from western Oklahoma through northern Indiana into southern Michigan. Ice accumulation greater than .25 is likely from Topeka, Kan., through Rockford, Ill. In the colder air to the north and west, accumulating snow is expected, with winter storm warnings in effect from the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles through southern Wisconsin. Parts of the southern Plains and middle Mississippi Valley that had seen heavy icing will be slightly warmer today and will wind up with moderate to heavy rainfall. Parts of the Northeast from northern New York through Maine could see light accumulations of snow through Wednesday morning.

Subtropical Storm Olga is expected to weaken as it passes westward through Puerto Rico this morning. The storm should weaken further as it moves toward Hispaniola today. If the storm can continue to survive as a tropical depression, it could transition into a tropical (rather than subtropical) cyclone and could restrengthen over the western Caribbean as it heads for the Yucatan Peninsula.

Cut into a feature-length narrative instead of 15 grueling weeks of must-avoid TV, the resulting movie took advantage of that medium’s uncensored format. Although “Cancun” didn’t achieve any artistic milestones, it did set a record for turnaround time. Shot over 10 days in March 2003, “Cancun” was in theaters just five weeks later, on April 25.

As an extra bonus — and here was the real payoff — it required no pesky writers (unless you count the savvy editors who fashioned a geek-triumphant narrative out of all the tawdry off-the-cuff footage). With TV and film writers now in their sixth week of striking, this type of material would suddenly seem much more viable again as a cheap and quick way to fill in a hole or two on a studio slate.

The monopoly of political power exercised in Mexico for most of the last century by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was accompanied by - indeed many would say based on - monopolies in the economy, both private and public.

The 2000 election of Vicente Fox as president swept away the PRI’s political monopoly but huge swathes of the economy - beer, oil, soft drinks, cement, television, electricity and tele-phony to name a few - are still dominated by one or at most two big companies.
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There have been other successes. In 2005, the two state airlines - Mexicana and Aeroméxico - were hived off for privatisation and permits were granted for five new low-cost carriers. The following year, the number of air passengers grew by almost 12 per cent, more than in all the previous five years combined.

Flights from Mexico City to Cancún now can be had for less than $100. Previously it had been cheaper to fly to Cancún from New York.