A US anti-kidnapping expert who has negotiated the release of dozens of hostages in Latin America has been abducted by gunmen in Mexico. Felix Batista, a Cuban-American from Miami, was kidnapped as he stepped outside a restaurant to answer a phone call in the northern city of Saltillo. Drug gangs are blamed for hundreds of kidnappings in Mexico each year. More than 5,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence between rival cartels this year.
