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ByChristopherSherman and Katherine Corcoran AssociatedPress MEXICOCITY Thenormally bucolic, vacationer-crowded state at the tip of Mexico's Baja peninsula has become a battleground, with doz- ens of killings in a power struggle following the cap- ture of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman nearly a year ago. The bloodshed has been concentrated in La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur state. In the latest killings, two men bound, gagged and showing signs of torture were dumped onto streets in exclusive neighborhoods Sunday and another person was found shot to death Tuesday. The local newspaper El Sudcaliforniano, which puts the mounting death toll in each headline on stories about violence, has reported 46 homicides in and around the city so far this year. That doesn't include the apparent shooting victim on a La Paz sidewalk Tuesday. Federal statistics through October counted 48 killings for the entire state. Baja California Sur is bet- ter known for its beaches and Los Cabos resorts that draw thousands of Ameri- can tourists. But since last year it has experienced a level of drug violence it had previously been spared. Many of the cases have been gangland style killings, victims bound, shot, stran- gled or burned inside a car. Mexican authorities say it is the result of a battle for con- trol of the drug trade since Guzman's February arrest and several other high-pro- file takedowns in the past year of leadership in Mexi- co's powerful Sinaloa Cartel. A law enforcement of- ficial, who could not be quoted by name because of security reasons, told The Associated Press in October that criminal factions were competing for power. "It ap- pears they're still working out how all this is going to fit together," he said. It is not clear why the war among factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, named for the Pacific coast state where it was founded, had jumped the Gulf of California to Baja California Sur. But the cartel long battled the once-power- ful Arellano Felix gang for control of drug routes on the Baja peninsula into the U.S. and is largely considered to have taken over the terri- tory. Some of Sinaloa's big- gest marijuana growing and warehousingoperationshave been found in Baja Califor- nia Norte state close to the U.S. border, under which the cartel has built elaborate un- derground tunnels for smug- gling. The law enforcement of- ficial said a new generation was stepping forward that included the sons of Guz- man and Sinaloa boss Is- mael "El Mayo" Zambada. Earlier this month, Mexi- can authorities arrested one of Zambada's sons, Ismael Zambada Imperial, alias "El Mayito Gordo," in Sinaloa state. Jose Rodrigo Arech- iga Gamboa, a top enforcer for the Sinaloa cartel nick- named "El Chino Antrax," was arrested in the Nether- lands in December and ex- tradited to the U.S. Just days earlier, Mex- ican security forces may have killed another top Sinaloa cartel lieutenant, Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza, alias "Macho Prieto," dur- ing a gunbattle. Inzun- za's body was not found at the scene, but federal offi- cials said they believed he had been shot and carried by fleeing gunmen, as car- tel gunmen sometimes do with fallen gang members or leaders. The surge in killings from the drug infighting has been surprising for a state that is still managing to attract for- eign tourists. Its past tran- quility even drew drug capos themselves. In 2012, federal police just missed nabbing Guzman in a coastal man- sion in Los Cabos. In 2010, federal police ar- rested Teodoro Garcia Si- mental, a high-ranking member of the Tijuana car- tel known as "El Teo," in his home in La Paz. Last year, Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, the eldest brother of the that drug clan, was shot to death in Los Ca- bos by a gunman dressed as a clown and in 2006, an- other brother, Francisco Ja- vier, was captured by the U.S. Coast Guard in a fish- ing boat in international wa- ters off the Baja coast. According to statistics from Mexico's government, the entire state had 56 kill- ings in 2013, its highest to- tal in 16 years. The state is on pace to exceed that total this year. Just in October, 13 people were slain, the high- est single month total since December 1997. INTERNATIONAL KillingssurgeinMexico state at tip of Baja By Michelle Faul Associated Press CONAKRY, GUINEA The health workers rode on ca- noes and rickety boats to deliver cholera vaccines to remote islands in Guinea. Months later, the country has recorded only one con- firmed cholera case this year, down from thou- sands. The rare success, over- shadowed by the Ebola outbreak that has ravaged Guinea and two other West African countries, is be- ing cautiously attributed to the vaccinations and to hand-washing in the cam- paign against Ebola. Helen Matzger of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said Guinea's experience is encourag- ing other countries to ac- cept the cholera vaccine and has led the GAVI Al- liance — which works to deliver vaccines to the world's poor — to invest in a global stockpile and the U.N. World Health Orga- nization to increase that stockpile to about 2 mil- lion doses. Matzger, the founda- tion's senior program of- ficer for vaccine delivery, said she was amazed at the ease and efficiency with which the vaccine was de- livered to very remote is- lands. She said she was on a wobbly boat that made the first delivery, along with Dr. Sakoba Keita, a Cu- ban-trained Guinean phy- sician who was responsible for Guinea's epidemics sur- veillance before being ap- pointed the West African nation's Ebola czar. "In many instances in global health, you see one brave individual who is willing to do something that's different because they think it will have an impact, and Dr. Sakoba was that person," Matzger said in a telephone inter- view from her Seattle of- fice. In March, the World Health Organization, with support from UNI- CEF and Doctors Without Borders, vaccinated some 200,000 fishermen on is- lands north of Conakry, the capital, where they gather from Guinea and neighboring Sierra Le- one and Liberia during the fishing season, said Julien Labas, in charge of UNICEF's campaign for clean water, sanita- tion and hygiene. The area had been identified as a major transmission source for cholera since the fishermen set up tem- porary shelters and have no toilets or clean water. In 2012, amid a cholera outbreak that sickened 7,350 people and killed 133 of them in Guinea, the World Health Organi- zation carried out a study using the Indian-made vaccine Shanchol on 40 patients. The vaccine is delivered by drops into the mouth and requires two doses two weeks apart. One dose costs $1.85, ac- cording to Matzger. A report published in The New England Jour- nal of Medicine earlier this year said that study found the vaccination provided "significant pro- tection against cholera." Matzger said some studies show that if vaccination is provided for 70 percent of a target population, that effectively protects about 98 percent of the people. The vaccine is effective for about three years. Advocates say the vac- cine should be used in tan- dem with campaigns for clean water and sanitation. In Guinea, UNICEF works with a local organi- zation to produce chlorine, has a project to manually drill boreholes at half or a third the cost of commer- cial drilling, and has devel- oped a smartphone app to map the state of all water points. WHO estimates there are 3 million to 5 mil- lion cholera cases a year worldwide, and 100,000 to 120,000 deaths. Experts in Guinea are cautious in explaining why Guinea has had only one confirmed case. "It could be related to the vaccination campaign, and I also think the Ebola outbreak might have an in- direct impact," Labas said. He also noted that cholera epidemics come and go. Guineans have taken to stringently washing their hands in chlorinated wa- ter to help halt the trans- mission of Ebola, which has killed more than 1,100 people in the country where the latest outbreak started nearly a year ago. Ebola is contracted by di- rect contact with an in- fected person's bodily flu- ids. Hotels, shops and res- taurants oblige patrons to wash their hands in chlo- rinated water before they can enter. VACCINES Guinea, hit by Ebola, reports only 1 cholera case EDUARDOVERDUG—APFILEPHOTO Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican navy marines in Mexico City, Mexico. The normally bucolic, vacationer-laden Mexican state at the tip of Baja peninsula is now the scene of dozens of killings in what authorities call a power struggle resulting from the February arrest of Guzman. By Ahmed Al-Haj And Robert Burns Associated Press SANAA, YEMEN U.S. spe- cial operations forces took part in a rescue mission that freed eight hostages held by al-Qaida militants in Yemen, a senior defense official said Wednesday, deepening the mystery surrounding a rare raid by American comman- dos in the country. In confirming the U.S. troops' involvement, the of- ficial said no American was rescued, without elaborat- ing. Yemeni officials said that the operation took place in a vast deserted area dot- ted with dunes called Hagr al-Saiaar, an al-Qaida safe haven where local tribes of- fer them protection near the Saudi border. The operations, carried out joint with Yemeni se- curity forces, come as U.S. drone strikes still target sus- pected militants amid a Shi- ite rebel power grab in the impoverished nation and fierce battles between al-Qa- ida and Shiite rebels. The New York Times first reported Wednesday on the U.S. role in the operation, saying some two dozen American commandos took part. The U.S. official who discussed it with The Asso- ciated Press spoke on condi- tion of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the secret mission. Confusionsurroundingthe raid began Tuesday after Ye- men'sSupremeSecurityCom- mitteeannouncedithadbeen carried out early that morn- ing, without elaborating. AsecurityofficialinYemen first said the raid targeted an al-Qaida militant hideout near the al-Annad military air base in Yemen's south- ern Lahj province. Al-Annad base is where American and European military advisers help Yemen battle the coun- try's local al-Qaida branch through drone strikes and logistical support. The security official said an expatriate freed in the raid worked as a military adviser at the base, and that militants with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the local branch of the group, launched previous failed at- tacks on the facility. He said seven Yemeni soldiers also were freed. Late Tuesday, the Su- preme Security Committee issued a second statement saying the raid instead took place in the country's east- ern Hadramawt province and those freed included six Yemenis, one Saudi and one Ethiopian national. 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