CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – A drug gang that carried out the first successful car bombing against Mexican security forces likely used an industrial explosive that organized crime gangs in the past have stolen from private companies, a U.S. official said Monday.

The assailants apparently used Tovex, a water gel explosive commonly used as a replacement for dynamite in mining and other industrial activities, said the U.S. official, who is familiar with the investigation but spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the Mexican-led investigation.

The U.S. official had no other details on how the bomb was constructed, and Mexican officials declined to comment.

The car bomb killed three people — including a federal police officer — Thursday in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, and introduced a new threat in Mexico’s drug war. Mexican authorities say the assailants lured police and paramedics to the scene through an elaborate ruse seemingly taken out of an Al-Qaida playbook.

A street gang tied to the Juarez cartel dressed a bound, wounded man in a police uniform, then called in a false report of an officer shot at an intersection. They waited until the authorities were in place to detonate the bomb.

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HELSINKI (AFP) – Nokia Siemens Networks is to buy most of the wireless network infrastructure assets from US firm Motorola for 1.2 billion dollars (926 million euros) to bolster its rank as number two in the sector, it said on Monday.

The German-Finnish telecom equipment company said the move would strengthen its position as world number two in the telecom infrastructure segment.

“Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola today jointly announced that the companies have entered into an agreement under which Nokia Siemens Networks will acquire the majority of Motorola’s wireless network infrastructure assets for 1.2 billion US dollars in cash,” it said in a statement.

It added both firms expected to complete the deal, which still needs to obtain regulatory approvals, by the end of 2010.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) said it expected the transaction “to significantly strengthen (its) presence globally, particularly in the United States and Japan.”

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PARIS (Reuters) – Leading media buyer ZenithOptimedia raised its 2010 global advertising growth forecast for the third time following a faster-than-expected recovery in the United States and Western Europe.

The agency, which is part of France’s Publicis, now sees the market growing 3.5 percent, more than the 2.2 percent it predicted in April, with all regions expected to show at least some growth.

“Most of the upgrade is in North America and in Western Europe (…) but these regions are still growing much more slowly than most developing markets,” ZenithOptimedia said in a statement.

Developing markets are expected to drive most of the growth in global ad expenditure over the next few years, it added.

Developed markets would grow by 2.4 percent in 2011 and 2.9 percent in 2012, while developing markets were expected to grow by 9.1 percent and 9.8 percent respectively, propelled by the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions.

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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – The first successful car bombing by a drug cartel brings a new dimension of terror to a Mexican border region already shocked by random street battles, bodies dangling from bridges and highway checkpoints mounted by heavily armed criminals.

The attack, seemingly lifted from an al-Qaida playbook, demonstrated once again that the cartels are a step ahead of both an already guarded public and federal police, who have recently taken over command from the military of the battle against traffickers in Ciudad Juarez, a city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

“It’s a lot like Iraq,” said Claudio Arjon, who owns a restaurant near the scene of the attack and was surveying the damage from behind police lines Saturday morning. “Now, things are very different. It’s very different. It’s very ugly.”

People in Ciudad Juarez already live under siege. Like many restaurant owners, Arjon closes his business long before dark every day to avoid criminal gangs that threaten him and his clientele. Parents take separate cars to the same place so one can warn the other of dangers up ahead. Ambulance drivers and emergency room doctors come under fire from gang members trying to finish off wounded rivals.

The car bomb, which killed at least three people Thursday, was the one thing nobody was expecting. It was a carefully planned attack designed to catch the extremely wary population and security forces off guard.

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Overseas Taiwanese who frequently return to the island might recommend savoring succulent street food or exploring Taipei’s boisterous night markets. Or they may pass along the business card of a favorite plastic surgeon or dermatologist.

And why not? Taiwan has long been popular with its expatriate population as a medical-travel destination. At Taipei’s abundant health care facilities, the equipment is modern and sophisticated, and most importantly, prices are considered a steal. Some of the biggest savings are in liver-transplant surgery, which runs to around $91,000, compared with some $300,000 in the U.S. (Read about medical tourism in Latvia.)

Price tags like that have built a small but devoted following for Taiwan’s niche medical-tourism market, and it’s about to get a lot more customers. Taiwan’s neighbors across the strait have been making their way to the island for a nip or a tuck since travel restrictions for Chinese tourists were lifted in mid-2008. Now, in the latest of a series of agreements and concessions between China and Taiwan, Taipei announced last week that Chinese tourists will soon be allowed to travel individually to the island – a development that many medical-tourism proponents are hoping will be a boon to their industry.

Taiwan’s current policy only permits controlled tour groups from the mainland, which limits options for Chinese who seek varied medical services. “Under group-travel restrictions, tourists are told where they can go and when. They can’t deviate from the set itinerary,” says David Wang, a plastic surgeon and chairman of the Taiwan Medical Tourism Development Association. “I’ve heard of a few people who will secretly come [for plastic surgery], perhaps under a fake name or by claiming they are here on business.” Now, Chinese patients seeking operations can plan ahead and book Botox treatments and eye-bag or double-eyelid surgery at Wang’s offices on their own schedule. (See the top 10 unusual medical treatments.)

Compared to those of its regional neighbors, Taiwan’s medical-tourism industry is only in its infancy. Its output last year narrowly missed the $20 million mark, whereas revenue in more established Asian medical-travel industries, Singapore and Thailand, reached billions of dollars. Still, many enterprising people in Taiwan believe it has room to grow. “The dollar return per patient is the highest of any other business in the service industry,” says Sammy Yen, general manager of Lion Travel’s medical-tourism branch. Lion Travel, Taiwan’s biggest travel agency, has spent the past year and a half building its medical-tourism services center. The company partnered with Chung Gung Medical Foundation, the largest private hospital chain on the island, and touts its newest business venture as the total package that caters to all hua ren, or members of the global Chinese community.

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