The World Cup soccer games started today in South Africa and the whole world (minus America) is all excited. We've already looked at the sexy players, but what about those crazy football fans? They sure are... something!

A new report called the Global Peace Index says that America is one big, violent place. So what exactly is taken into account when deciding which countries are the most peaceful, and where does America stand? Let's take a look.

US Border Patrol says the 15-year-old Mexican boy they killed has ties to a human trafficking ring.

On Monday, a US Border Patrol agent on a bike shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican boy for allegedly throwing rocks at him. When FBI agents arrived, Mexican authorities drew their weapons. Updated: Univision has video of the shooting.

A US border agent "performing bike patrol duties" shot and killed a 14-year-old Mexican boy for throwing rocks at him on a bridge between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez on Monday. The boy's parents say he was in Mexico.

Police in Texas have arrested two men with a truck carrying 147 assault rifles, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and 53 bayonets (what?!) bound for Mexico. Over 23,000 people have died in Mexico's drug war since 2006. [BBC, pic]

Cancun Mayor Gregorio Sanchez was forced to withdraw his candidacy for governor of the state of Quintana Roo after being arrested on organized crime charges and accused of protecting drug gangs. Bloomberg doesn't seem so bad now, does he? [AP]

Bruce Beresford-Redman, a former producer of Survivor and Pimp My Ride, has left Mexico for his home in California while his wife's murder investigation continues in Cancun. He is still considered to be a suspect in her death. [AP, pic]

According to local news reports members of the Zeta drug cartel patrol the Mexican half of Lake Falcon, a lake that crosses the border between Texas and Mexico, in boats. They wield assault weapons and steal money and electronics.

Visiting Washington, Mexican President Felipe Calderon called Arizona's immigration proposal "discrimination," arguing for "a border that will unite us instead of dividing us." Then he shouted, "Yes we can!" throwing Arizona's rednecks into conniptions for a totally different reason. [Sun-Times]

Almost 24,000 people have died in Mexico's drug war since 2006, nearly five times the number of US troop deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. An NPR investigation suggests that the Mexican government is helping one cartel rule Ciudad Juarez.

The state already hates Mexicans and teachers with accents. But to really clean things up, yesterday a law was passed that bans schools from teaching "ethnic studies" and classes that encourage the overthrow of the US government. Really.

Could there be a more perfect fusion of violence and capitalism than the bejeweled, gold-encrusted, 31-weapon arsenal uncovered by the Mexican Attorney General's office in a raid this week? Also, could there be anything more tacky? Click for more pictures.

Oh, Arizona. First this, then this, and now this: The state is cracking down on school teachers with accents in an effort to secure Anglo dominance in the southwest, because Arizona is a state where we speak English, okay?

The state's racist immigration bill has pissed off a lot of people, and some, like Al Sharpton, are calling for an economic boycott. But will it succeed in changing state law? It has before.

[A concerned Arizona citizen has a helpful message for police trying to deal with the state's controversial new law giving police sweeping powers to detain anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. Image via early-onset-of-night]

Eleven workers are missing after an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico

According to a new BBC poll, the entire world does not hate America anymore. We're still not back to the 1980s "I'll trade you my Yugo for a pair of American blue jeans" level, but it's still nice!

The Way We Live Now: Eating good in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is poor and strewn with corpses, and the eating is our final few precious cans of sardines. Still, it sure is good, relatively speaking!

When we were young, our parents only let us watch one hour of TV a day. We complained and complained. But compared to the technological limits the Obamas put on their daughters, we were living in a crazy futureworld.