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/ 7 September 2006
Four prisoners in an El Salvador jail hid cellphones, a phone charger and spare chips in their bowels so they could coordinate crimes from their cells, prison officials said on Wednesday. The four men, all gang members, wrapped their phones and accessories in plastic and inserted them into their rectums "far enough to reach their intestines".
Hurricane Stan knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in south-eastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were far more destructive, killing at least 82 people in Central America. The hurricane had weakened to a depression by Wednesday.
Heavy rains and floods from Tropical Storm Stan hit Central America over the weekend, killing 15 in El Salvador, four in Guatemala and four in Honduras, authorities said on Monday. In El Salvador, the driving rain sparked a number of mudslides that led the government to declare a national ”red alert”.
El Salvador’s largest volcano, dormant for more than a century, shook the ground as it woke up on Saturday, hurling out hot lava rocks and forcing more than 2 000 people to flee. Military emergency sirens blasted, calling for an immediate area evacuation of the hamlets in the coffee-growing area.
Western El Salvador’s Ilamatepec volcano shot burning rock, gases and ash high into the air on Saturday, sending frightened residents scurrying from surrounding areas. Authorities ordered the evacuation of three communities in the shadow of the volcano, located near Santa Ana, the country’s second-largest city.
Hurricane Adrian was downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall on Friday in El Salvador, quickly losing wind speed but still packing torrential rains and flash-flood danger, as thousands of evacuees await news they can go home. Hurricane wind speeds at one point reached 140kph when Adrian was over the Pacific Ocean.