Detainees suing U.S. over alleged sedation settle
The foreign nationals say they were drugged while in custody at Terminal Island detention facility.
By Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 30, 2008

Two foreign nationals who said they were forcibly drugged by U.S. immigration officials during failed efforts to deport them have agreed to a settlement in the case, their attorney said Tuesday.

In exchange for dropping the lawsuit, Amadou Diouf, a native of Senegal, will get $50,000, and Raymond Soeoth of Indonesia will receive $5,000 and be allowed to stay in the United States for at least two years, said Ahilan Arulanantham, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

The ACLU filed the case jointly with the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson.

Soeoth, who was appealing his case for political asylum, alleged in the lawsuit that he had been sedated with anti-psychotic drugs in December 2004 at a San Pedro detention facility. Diouf, who also was pursuing an appeal for permanent legal status, said he was medicated in February 2006 while on a commercial plane at Los Angeles International Airport.

Soeoth and Diouf became friends while being held for nearly two years at the Terminal Island detention facility in San Pedro. They reluctantly accepted the settlement when Soeoth and his wife lost their immigration appeal and were threatened with deportation, Diouf said.

Soeoth, a Christian, fled his predominantly Muslim country in 1999 to escape religious persecution and "greatly feared returning to Indonesia," Arulanantham said.

Earlier this month, immigration officials said they would no longer forcibly sedate foreign nationals without a federal court order.

At the time, ACLU lawyers promised to move forward with the lawsuit to gain compensation for Soeoth and Diouf.

The settlement could make it more difficult to force the government to release details about its sedation policy, Arulanantham said.

The settlement reached Monday "does not constitute admission of wrongdoing by the government," but it does "reflect the fact that ICE has changed its policy regarding medical escorts for detainees," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

paloma.esquivel@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drugged30jan30,...y?ctrack=1&cset=true
_________________

Flight to London Makes Emergency Landing After Co-Pilot Has Nervous Breakdown

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

An Air Canada flight en route from Toronto to London had to make an emergency landing after its co-pilot apparently suffered a nervous breakdown, according to the Daily Mail.

The Boeing 767 was flying at 37,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean when the unidentified co-pilot began shouting and "invoking God" and had to be restrained, the Daily Mail reported.

Crew members and a passenger, who happened to be in the armed forces, held down the man, shackling his wrists and ankles and tying him to a seat.

The flight made an emergency landing in Shannon, Ireland, and the co-pilot was taken off the plane crying and yelling, according to the Daily Mail.

He was being treated at a psychiatric ward for what was believed to be a nervous breakdown.

BBC world news
January 30th 2008

Australia apology to Aborigines

An Aborigine teenager in Alice Springs (file image)
The apology represents a break from previous policies

Aboriginal people
The Australian government has announced it will issue its first formal apology to Aboriginal people when parliament resumes next month.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the apology would be the first item of business when the new legislature convened on 13 February.

It is aimed at the "Stolen Generations" - Aboriginal children taken from their parents to be raised by white families.

It was the "first, necessary step to move forward from the past", she said.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced plans to apologise after his victory in last year's general elections.

The move is a highly symbolic one marking a definitive break from policies of previous administrations, correspondents say.

'Respect

Ms Macklin said that the content of the apology had been determined after wide consultation with Aboriginal leaders.

It would be made "on behalf of the Australian government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people", she said in a statement.

"Once we establish this respect, the government can work with indigenous communities to improve services aimed at closing the 17-year life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians," she said.

Thousands of Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents and given to white families or institutions to raise between 1915 and 1969.

The policy was aimed at forcing assimilation between Aboriginal and white communities.

Indigenous campaigners have been seeking a billion-dollar nationwide compensation package for the policy.

But the government has ruled this out, instead promising to fund improved education and health care facilities for Aboriginal communities.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - A county judge was reprimanded for calling three black female lawyers "the Supremes" in court and advising the defendant to get "an experienced male attorney."

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Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone has acknowledged that his comments suggested racial and sexual bias. In his written response to a complaint, Boone said he was trying to protect the three public defenders from representing a difficult defendant.

The Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities concluded the comments Boone made during a court hearing last April were "undignified and disparaging." The notice of reprimand was published Jan. 18 in the Maryland Register.

A stipulation by Boone and the Commission said that in June the judge offered to recuse himself from other cases the three attorneys handled.

Offering to recuse himself was the right thing to do, said Maryland Public Defender Nancy Forster, who filed the complaint in her official capacity.

Boone told the Herald-Mail of Hagerstown that he apologized to the three attorneys, and that even though he offered to recuse himself, each has appeared in his court since the April case.

"I appreciate their acceptance of my apology," he told the newspaper Tuesday. He also said he had never before had a sanctionable complaint filed against him.

The defendant in the case pleaded guilty in June to assault and cocaine possession and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Indian police bust illegal kidney transplant ring

People from 5 countries, including U.S., on waiting list for organs from poor
updated 10:27 a.m. CT, Mon., Jan. 28, 2008

NEW DELHI - Police said they were raiding hospitals and guest houses Monday as part of their investigation into an illegal transplant racket that removed kidneys from up to 500 poor laborers and sold their organs to wealthy clients.

Police suspect that dozens of doctors were involved in the kidney racket, which had a waiting list of some 40 people hailing from at least five countries.

The scam, centered in Gurgaon — a posh suburb of New Delhi — used luxury cars outfitted with blood-testing machines to test donors on the fly as well as sophisticated surgical equipment hidden inside a residential neighborhood.

The sprawling investigation is ongoing and police are raiding hospitals' offices and guest houses, Gurgaon Police Commissioner Mohinder Lal told reporters in Gurgaon on Monday.

The primary suspects, who police said have been tied to organ transplant rackets in the past, have apparently fled the country, Lal said.

"We suspect around 400 or 500 kidney transplants were done by these doctors over the last nine years," Lal told reporters last week.

There long have been reports of poor Indians illegally selling their kidneys, but the transplant racket in Gurgaon, which was busted Thursday following a tip from a victim, is one of the most extensive to come to light.

Accounts varied on whether the laborers were aware they were selling their kidneys or whether doctors removed them without their consent. Under Indian law, the sale of human organs is illegal under any circumstances, though organ donations are allowed.

Mohd Salim, a man who lost his kidney, said the scam began when a stranger approached him to offer him work.

"I was taken to a room with gunmen," Salim told the NDTV television news channel. "They tested my blood, gave me an injection, and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I had pain in my lower abdomen and I was told that my kidney had been removed."

He didn't say if he was paid, but the Hindustan Times newspaper reported that those who were paid for their organs earned 50,000-100,000 rupees (between $1,250 and $2,500).

The kidney ring had a waiting list of dozens of people from India, the United States and Greece, according to the Hindustan Times. Several patients waiting for a transplant were at the facilities when police raided them Friday, but they were allowed to return to their countries without being held for questioning.

The case has sparked outraged headlines — and ignited a national discussion of organ transplant law, with the Indian Medical Association on Monday calling for legislation to make organ transplants easier.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22881119?GT1=10755

From CNN's Elham Nakhlawai and Mustafa Al Arab


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN)

-- Large swathes of Asia, the Middle East and north Africa had their high-technology services crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.


Hi-tech Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut undersea cable.

One major telecommunications provider blamed the outage, which started Wednesday, on a major undersea cable failure in the Mediterranean.

India's Internet bandwidth has been sliced in half, The Associated Press reported, leaving its lucrative outsourcing industry trying to reroute traffic to satellites and other cables through Asia.

Reports say that Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain are also experiencing severe problems.

Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose traffic uses a different route -- and Lebanon and Iraq. Many Middle East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure.

There were contradictory reports on the real cause behind the disruption, but Du, a state-owned Dubai telecom provider, attributed it to an undersea cable cut between Alexandria, Egypt and Palermo, Italy.

An official at Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed that a boat's anchor may have caused the problems, although this was unconfirmed, AP reported. He added that it might take up to a week to repair the fault.

Kuwait's Ministry of Communications said the problem could take two weeks to solve, according to a statement carried by the state news agency, KUNA.

There were concerns in India that an Internet slowdown could affect trading patterns at the country's two major exchanges, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Delhi and the SENSEX exchange in Bombay.

Rajesh Chharia, president of India's Internet Service Providers' Association, explained that some firms were trying to reroute via Pacific cables and that companies serving the eastern US and the UK were worst affected, AP added.

Besides the Internet, the outage caused major disruption to television and phone services, creating chaos for the UAE's public and private sectors.

The Du internal memo, obtained by CNN, called the situation in Dubai "critical" and stated that the cable's operators did not know when services would be restored.

"This will have a major impact on our voice and Internet service for all the customers," the memo stated. "The network operation team are working with our suppliers overseas to resolve this as soon as possible."

The outage led to a rapid collapse of a wide range of public services in a country which proudly promotes itself as technological pioneer.

Sources from Emirates Airlines confirmed to CNN Arabic that the outage did not affect its flight schedules -- a statement which assured hundreds of travelers worried after rumors about the possibility of rescheduled flights due to the faults.

However, Dnata, a government group in charge of providing air travel services in the Middle East and ground handling services at Dubai International Airport, acknowledged facing problems because of the outage, sources from its technical department confirmed to CNN Arabic.

The outage heavily crippled Dubai's business section, which is heavily reliant on electronic means for billions of dollars' worth of transactions daily.
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Wadah Tahah, the business strategies and development manager for state-owned construction company EMAAR, told CNN Arabic that it was fortunate the outage started Wednesday, when there had been only moderate activity in the UAE markets. He said that softened the blow to business interests.

But Tahah warned that if the outage continued, "such a situation could create problems between brokers, companies, and investors due to loss of control."

Timesonline Feb 1 2008

Obama bagman is sent to jail over $3.5m payment by British tycoon


An undeclared $3.5 million (£1.8 million) payment from a corrupt Iraqi-British businessman has landed Barack Obama’s former fundraiser behind bars.

The payment, disclosed in court papers, is the first time that Mr Obama’s long-serving bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a Syrian immigrant to the United States, has been linked to Nadhmi Auchi, the Iraqi-born billionaire who is one of Britain’s richest men. The relationship is a potential embarrassment for Mr Obama, who has made his opposition to the Iraq war a central plank of his campaign.


Court papers describe Mr Rezko as a close friend of Mr Auchi. The two are involved in a large Chicago land development together. But it is unclear how long the two men have known each other or whether they were linked before the 2003 Iraq war. Neither side would discuss their relationship.

The Times has, however, discovered state documents in Illinois recording that Fintrade Services, a Panamanian company, lent money to Mr Obama’s fundraiser in May 2005.

Fintrade’s directors include Ibtisam Auchi, the name of Mr Auchi’s wife. Mr Auchi’s spokespeople declined to respond to a question about whether he was linked to this business.

Mr Rezko, to be tried for corruption this month, had his bail revoked on Monday after he disobeyed a court’s instructions to keep it informed of changes to his finances. Prosecutors feared that he could try to flee abroad.

The property developer has been condemned by Hillary Clinton as a “slum landlord”.

According to prosecution documents Mr Rezko tried to persuade unnamed Illinois officials to help Mr Auchi to get a US visa after he was convicted of fraud in France. Mr Obama’s aides deny that he was approached.

Mr Rezko has been indicted for pressuring companies seeking state business for kickbacks and campaign contributions, although none for Mr Obama. He was granted bail in October 2006. He told a judge that he had no access to overseas money. But in April 2007 Mr Auchi’s business, General Mediterranean Holding (GMH), wired $3.5 million to Mr Rezko from a bank account in Beirut via a law firm.

The Chicago businessman has already been an embarrassment to Mr Obama’s campaign. The presidential challenger has tried to dampen criticism by paying $150,000 to charity to make up for donations from Mr Rezko. The Illinois senator has said that he made a “bone-headed mistake” to get involved in a property deal with Mr Rezko at a time when he was known to be under investigation.

Mr Auchi has attracted attention at Westminster because of his closeness to politicians and the Establishment. He says that his brother was executed by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

His business partners in Britain have included Lord Steel of Aikwood, the former Liberal leader, and Keith Vaz, the Labour MP and Home Affairs Committee chairman.

On the 20th anniversary of his business in 1999, Mr Auchi received a greeting card signed by 130 politicians, including Tony Blair, William Hague and Charles Kennedy, who were then leaders of their respective parties.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP, went on to table parliamentary questions asking why the Blair Government appeared slow to respond to a French extradition request.

Mr Lamb said last night: “It’s a matter of public interest to understand why the payments were made. This deserves thorough investigation.”

Mr Auchi founded GMH in 1979, a year before he left Iraq. He says that he did business with his native country when it was considered a friend of the West but ceased to trade with Saddam’s regime once sanctions were imposed after the invasion of Kuwait.

US prosecution documents recall Mr Auchi’s suspended jail sentence and €2 million fine for corruption in France five years ago.

Defence lawyers said that Mr Auchi lent the $3.5 million for legal and family expenses. Most of the money had gone directly to law firms and there had been no attempt to flee. “While the Government attempts to besmirch Mr Auchi’s character,” they said, “he is one of Britain’s wealthiest men, has been a guest at the White House and met with two of the last three presidents, was Co-Chair of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, is President of the

Anglo-Arab Organisation, and has received numerous awards and honorary positions from heads of state, including Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, and King Abdullah II of Jordan.”

Mr Auchi’s lawyers added: “Mr Auchi flatly and categorically denies any wrongdoing in relation to the matters that led to his conviction in France and he is pursuing an appeal against it.” Mr Auchi is also suing the oil company Elf in France for dragging him unwittingly into the scandal.

CARACAS (AFP) - Colombia's top cocaine lord Wilber Varela, who ran the notorious Norte Valle Cartel and had a five million dollar bounty on his head, was found shot dead in Venezuela, Caracas' narcotics chief said Friday.

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The bullet-riddled body of Varela, known by the nicknames "Jabon" (soap) and "Detergente" (detergent), was discovered Wednesday along with that of another man in a tourist cabin in northwestern Venezuela, authorities said.

"It has been conclusively proven that this is drug trafficker Wilber Varela," said Nestor Luis Reverol, head of Venezuela's National Anti-drug Agency.

"Thirty-two matching characteristics have been verified" identifying the suspect, Reverol told reporters.

The US Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield said that while he could not rejoice in the death of the drug lord, he did welcome it as "good news" that the world was rid of somebody who brought misery to millions of people.

The two bodies were discovered in the cabin in Loma de Los Angeles, Merida state -- close to Venezuela's border with Colombia -- by the owner of the establishment who entered the cabin because no one had come out, according to Reverol.

Varela's body had been dead less than 48 hours, he said. The two bodies had "more than seven bullet wounds" in them, he added.

Varela, a former policeman aged in his 50s, launched his drug operations in the 1980s as a member of a group of hit men working for the Cali drug cartel.

The Norte Valle Cartel grew strong after the dismantling of the Cali and Medellin cartels in the mid-1990s left a power vacuum. The new group was credited with handling some 60 percent of the cocaine flowing out of Colombia.

Varela was put on the US Drug Enforcement Administration's list of most wanted fugitives, with a five-million-dollar reward for his arrest.

He was indicted by the US Justice Department on May 6, 2004, which called him the head of Colombia's most powerful cocaine cartel, allegedly responsible at the time for exporting 500 tonnes of cocaine worth 10 billion dollars to the United States.

The indictment said the cartel used the paramilitary forces Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia to protect its drug routes and laboratories.

The cartel collected its drugs in the Valle del Cauca region and then shipped them to the Pacific port of Buenaventura, where they were transferred to Mexican drug transporters for shipping via boats and aircraft to the United States, according to the indictment.

Varela's death brings to an end the era of the three big Colombian cartels, with their once huge presence filled by numerous harder-to-detect small trafficking organizations, according to Colombian experts.

Since 2004 a number of top Norte Valle Cartel figures have been arrested or killed. Last year Diego Montoya and Juan Carlos Ramirez were nabbed in Colombia and Brazil, respectively.

"No clear deputy exists" who could replace Varela to run the cartel now, Gustavo Alvarez, a Colombian expert on narcotics trafficking, said Friday.

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Germany insists it will not send more troops to Afghanistan and it will not move them to the restive south, despite a reported request from the United States.
art.jung.ap.jpg

German Minister of Defense Franz Josef Jung is refusing to bow to extra war demands from the U.S.

Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said Friday that the 3,200 German troops already in Afghanistan fulfilled Germany's mandate, and that he felt the country was doing enough to support the NATO mission.

Jung spoke at a news conference after German news outlets reported U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had sent a letter in which he "demanded" greater participation in southern Afghanistan.

Jung did not speak about the letter's contents, but the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported the it was "formal and direct" and written in an "unusually sharp tone."

Gates' letter requested a contribution to a reinforcement of 3,200 troops for the NATO mission in southern Afghanistan, the newspaper reported, especially with the helicopter units and paratroopers in the south.

Gates' letter "complained about the split in NATO with nations that deny military operations, and nations that don't take part in the military combat against the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters," according to the paper.

"Gates speaks of a threatening division in the alliance and warns of a loss of reliability," the paper reported. "He describes the overstretching of U.S. armed forces."

Jung said he would not move or increase the number of German troops, who are currently based in the north.

"We've agreed to a clear division of the regions we will cover," Jung said.

He said Germany was already assisting the NATO mission in the south by flying Tornado reconnaissance planes over the area.

"Our emphasis will remain on the north, especially in light of an increased threat level there in the northwestern regions where, when international aid organizations and the army move out, the Taliban have been moving in," Jung said.

Pentagon spokesman Brian Whitman said Gates had sent letters to several defense ministers asking them to provide troops to replace the 3,200 U.S. Marines being sent to Afghanistan.

"He has reached out to many allies who have capabilities that could backfill" the U.S. Marines, Whitman said.

Whitman said Gates was being "frank and direct" in his communications with allies.

The issue of burden-sharing in Afghanistan among NATO countries is becoming a key issue, according to a report this week from the Afghanistan Study Group, co-chaired by retired Marine Corps Gen. James Jones and former U.N. Ambassador Thomas Pickering.

The report said some nations were contributing more to the fighting than others, and that public opposition to the Afghan effort was growing in some nations.

Earlier this week, Canada's prime minister said his country's troops would leave Afghanistan in a year unless another NATO nation sent an additional 1,000 combat troops to the southern province of Kandahar, where Canadian troops are based.

The Canadian presence in Afghanistan has sparked controversy in Canada, with some political parties calling for the troops to come home.

Canada, the United States, Britain, Netherlands and Australia are among the countries doing much of the fighting in Afghanistan.

Child asylum-seekers to be forcibly deported


Independent.co.uk Web

By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
Friday, 1 February 2008

The Home Office provoked fury after it announced that teenage asylum-seekers who arrive alone in Britain could for the first time be forcibly deported.

Refugee groups and children's charities protested that the threatened removals would endanger and distress vulnerable young people fleeing nations in turmoil.

Some 3,000 unaccompanied youngsters claim asylum every year, with the largest numbers coming from Afghanistan, Iran, eastern Africa and China.

Children are allowed to remain in the country until they reach 18, when their cases for asylum are considered alongside adult applicants.

Liam Byrne, the Immigration minister, said that the policy was a "green light" to people-traffickers who could promise teenagers they would not be sent home once they reached Britain.

In a consultation document, the Home Office said under-18s would be offered help to go home voluntarily when it was safe to do so, but added that it could not be right for them to remain in this country when they had turned down the chance.

It added: "We will therefore consider, on a case by case basis, enforcing the removal of those who have not reached 18 and who do not accept the offer of an assisted voluntary return where it is clear that the consequences of their actions have been explained and understood by them."

But Lisa Nandy, policy adviser for the Children's Society, warned: "This will cause great distress and suffering to many who have fled torture, war and poverty and runs contrary to the Government's aspiration to keep these children safe."

Dame Mary Marsh, chief executive of the children's charity, the NSPCC, said: "The Government appears to be turning its back on children who have been separated from their families and who may have suffered trauma or persecution."

She added: "The majority of these children will be alone, frightened and unable to speak English and therefore powerless to explain why their safety depends on remaining in the UK. Donna Covey, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: "The Government should not try to force any child to return against their wishes where their safety and welfare cannot be guaranteed. These are not children who come here seeking a better life, with their families waiting for them in peaceful homes. Many of them are children from war zones."

Mr Byrne also announced that regional centres will be set up to specialise in assessing the age of applicants who claim to be children, to stop over-18s claiming they are still minors. Plans to use X-rays to help determine age will be considered by a working group after the idea was opposed by campaigners on human rights and health grounds.

Plans to find alternatives to detention for asylum-seeking families were also announced by the Home Office.

Nudists rush to book as first clothes-free flight puts bottoms on seats
Roger Boyes

Nudists from around the world jammed the internet site of an east German travel company yesterday to secure a seat on the maiden flight of the first no-clothes-please-we’re-German airline.

If air travel was not already uncomfortable enough, from July 5 passengers with OssiUrlaub, a tour operator based in Erfurt, will be able to check in their clothes as well as their baggage as they head for the naturist beaches on the Baltic island of Usedom.

During the flight the naked tourists will sit on a special cloth to prevent them sticking to the leather seats of the Saab 2000 aircraft and to avoid hygiene problems. To spare male passengers unnecessary pain, hot drinks will not be served. Despite such drawbacks, bookings came in from Japan, France and New Zealand.

The chartered plane takes 50 passengers, but OssiUrlaub’s managing director, Enrico Hess, is now considering chartering larger planes to meet the demand. “There is a genuine market for nudist-related leisure activities,” said Mr Hess. “We will soon be offering all-inclusive nudist vacations, including a flight and all-naked hotel for a week, and return in the buff.”

Despite the passengers being naked, the pilot and crew would conform to IATA regulations and fly fully clothed, Mr Hess said. Standard security measures would also apply – although the chances of a shoe bomber sidling on-board unnoticed have been reduced.

The flights will cost €499 (£370) for a return ticket to Heringsdorf airport on Usedom. Mr Garz stressed that there would be no sexual impropriety on board. “We’re not starting up a mid-air wife-swapping or swingers’ club,” he said. Instead he suggested that it made commercial sense to exploit the German craze for nudity, or Free Body Culture as it is known. In crude business jargon, it was simply a matter of “putting ***s on seats”.

East Germans were Europe’s most enthusiastic early naturists, stripping off on Baltic beaches in the 1950s to show their contempt for the Communists. When the Stasi secret police tried to stop the movement, they pretended to stage so-called “Cameroon Friendship events” – and danced naked on the sand. Later the regime came, grudgingly, to accept nudity but still regarded it as politically suspect.

Moreover there is nothing in German law against travelling naked. It is, however, illegal to enter or disembark from a plane without clothes. For those thinking of flying naked with OssiUrlaub, there are clearly some advantages. Besides clothes not getting creased, it will enable travellers to avoid fellow passengers who insist on taking out their wallets and showing pictures of their children. One significant disadvantage is the care male passengers will have to exercise when they fasten their safety belts.

LMAO..whatever next?!

I reckon SOM needs to read this, he will be in line to buy one of those tickets LOL

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - It was fear of the hefty bill as much as fear of the drill that kept American musician Don Clay away from U.S. dental clinics for 30 years.

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When a sorely infected tooth eventually drove him to the dentist last month, it was to a clinic in a Mexican border city better known for violent crime and drug cartels.

Shrugging off concerns about hygiene and Mexico's brutal drug war, thousands of Americans are heading to Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican border cities for cheap dental treatment.

"I had to get my teeth fixed. I need a perfect smile to make a successful career in music. Treatment in the United States is so pricey," said Clay, a Texan trying to get a record deal as a hip-hop artist.

U.S. dental treatment costs up to four times as much as in Mexico, making it tough for uninsured Americans to treat common problems such as abscessed teeth or pay for dentures.

A dental crown in the United States costs upward of $600 per tooth, compared to $190 or less in Mexico.

Aspiring Mexican dentists are moving to border cities in droves and are luring American patients away from ****her flung discount destinations such as Hungary and Thailand.

Americans have long crossed the border for cheap medicines, flu vaccines, eye surgery or specialist doctors, but dentists are now in highest demand.

Dental clinics are on almost every block in central Ciudad Juarez, ranging from dingy dives to clinics that look more like posh hair salons. Getting there involves dodging prostitutes, drug pushers and cowboy-boot sellers.

BARGAIN-HUNTING

"We've gone from a handful of patients when we started 2-1/2 years ago to 150 new patients a month," said Joe Andel, an American who owns the Rio Dental clinic in Ciudad Juarez with his Mexican dentist wife, Jessica.

Rio Dental, which uses U.S. labs to make its crowns, picks patients up at the airport in El Paso, Texas, across the border and has treated people from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii.

"The Internet makes this possible. It allows patients to find us and research us and shows we can do dental work of equal or superior quality to the United States," Andel said.

Internet bloggers swap stories and compare notes about Mexican dentists, but it always comes down to money.

Dentistry in the United States has become prohibitively expensive for some patients, with bills that can run to tens of thousands of dollars. Malpractice insurance premiums, operating costs that are much higher than in Mexico and dentists seeking to claw back the rising cost of their tuition all weigh.

Even among Americans who have medical insurance, many find they are not covered for treatment other than the basics, and paying on credit means high interest payments.

"I did $4,000 of dental work in the United States and put it on my credit card. Because of the interest, I only paid off $400 in three years," said a U.S. teacher from New Mexico getting treatment in Ciudad Juarez who gave his name as Bill.

Cosmetic dentistry, which insurers do not cover and which can be paid in dollars in many Mexican border clinics, is also popular, Ciudad Juarez dentist Luis Garza said.

"If you want a perfect smile, you have to pay for it, and we can do it cheaper, that's all," he grinned.